Canadian Racisim?

Here’s the side of our heritage

That we would rather hide.

Canadian’s pride often resides

In playing “nice”.   Everybody loves us

Because we are “tolerant” not “racist” like

Our neighbours to the south.

But does that bear a closer look?

In a word – “No”.

This blog says it all,

If it makes your feel small

Or makes your anger tall,

Then there is resonance for you.

Be truthful.  Especially with yourself.

Don’t distance and deny an attitude

That can’t be hidden.


Let’s really look at what happened.
  The truth is simple:

1.  There were millions of people living here when the explorers came from Europe.
These people had a wonderful relationship with the Earth,
They had excellent social structures and a culture that was honourable.  Far more honourable than the European one, which supplanted it.  They valued tradition, family, the heart, the spirit, and especially the Earth.

2.  Our ancestors came looking for a way to make money. They valued money, status, religion, and mental intelligence.  They were not well connected with the Earth and they believed that they had to fight and kill to survive.  They were not interested in co-operating or co-existing.
They took the gifts the people offered them in friendship.  But they weren’t interested in having new friends, so they didn’t stop there.  They took their land, a little here and a little there.  Still the people had pity on them and helped cure them when they were ill.  But possessed by the greediness that drove them, our ancestors formed companies and urged the people to kill more animals than they needed to, and lured them unsuspecting, into the poisons of capitalism and alcohol.  Like a horrid infestation, our ancestors stamped their way of life onto the land, not interested in working with Nature.  They used germ warfare and killed many of the people with smallpox.

3.  When they had them down to a safe number.  They decided they needed to break their way of life and not just  disrupt it.  They forced the people onto reservations, which no longer allowed the men to hunt as they always had.  This demoralized the men.  Yet the women were the backbone of the Aboriginal society and they were still strong.  So our ancestors did something so dastardly, I rage as I repeat it here.

They passed a law requiring the children to be removed from the people for ten months of the year.  They gave the children to the Catholic Church and fed them poorly.  Some children died.  Others were abused.  But all suffered terribly from the loss of their families.  This demoralized the women and disrupted the families and the natural passage of the culture.

At the schools the children were forbidden to speak their language.  They were given non-nutritious food and bribed with candy.  They were beaten into submission.  They were not allowed their heritage.

Our ancestors did it to assimilate (destroy) the Aboriginal culture.

But in this world, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  

So now, the media and video games have taken our children from us.  We feel powerless to stop this.  Our original culture is being usurped by Hollywood and television.  Our families are disrupted.  School takes our children for ten months of the year and few of us can homeschool because of financial pressures.  Many of us are on drugs for depression.  Many of us are ill.  Many others feel the need to drown the sorrows of their lives in alcohol.  Our food supply has become ever more questionable.  We are often more isolated than ever despite technology that should bring us together.  Religion is failing us in many regards, due to all the scandals we know about. 

In light of what happened to the Aboriginals, it does seem like poetic justice, doesn’t it?  What was that verse?  Oh yeah, the sins of the father are visited on the sons unto the third generation.  Some might say – what goes around comes around.

But it does seem like – what we dished out to them is coming back to us now.  How to stop it? 

Be honest.  Are you racist?  We all learned the history from the conqueror’s point of view in school.  Take another look – find out the truth.  And then take a good hard look at your reactions to the media reports on anything about Aboriginals or more importantly to the Aboriginals in your daily life. 

Look into what the Residential Schools were and ask yourself – what if that were my family, my child?  How would that affect me?  What would my family life be like after that?  Would I be angry?  Would I want some redress?  What would it take to make something like that right? 

Then read this article: 

a halfbreed`s reasoning



Not All Classrooms Are Created EqualPosted on January 21, 2014 by SAMANTHANOCK

Through the years I’ve developed a thick skin; I have gotten used to snide remarks by teachers about my “special Aboriginal status”, and rude remarks from my peers about my free school and “special yearly Native cheques” the government apparently gives me because I’m Native.

The government is about 22 years behind in payments. 

There are few things I hear that surprise me or ever really hurt me, like they used to.  I’ve spent too many of my few years on this earth angry, hurt, and sad because of the words of racists… but every now and then, there will be something that is like a slap in the face: something will happen that usurps my outward shell.  Today was one of those days.

It was not so much bigoted words uttered, but instead a simple knee jerk reaction from a classmate.  I was giving a presentation in a class and had brought up Indigenous protest to the topic at hand… and there it was: this kid rolled his eyes.  It wasn’t a subtle, maybe-there’s-an-eyelash-in-there roll, it was a straight up dramatic, get-this-kid-an-Oscar-because his acting is on point, eye roll.  

My first reaction to my peers eye roll was to launch across the table and show him just what 500 years of colonization feels like … but instead I just let it go in that moment and left the class personally flustered, frustrated, and kind of empty: this is the reality of being an Indigenous student in academia.  I am privileged in many spaces because of how pale my father’s genetics made me, but it doesn’t negate the experiences I have had and the experiences my fellow Indigenous peers have in the classroom everyday. 

For the most part, due to my degree in First Nations Studies, most of my classes are safe spaces: they are spaces where we as Aboriginal students can freely learn and be without the pressures of bigoted peers or hostile professors.  But when we leave these spaces and enter our elective courses, minor requirements, or if we are not graced with being in Native Studies, we enter classrooms that sometimes feel like battlefields.  I know when I enter a classroom that doesn’t hold my usual cohort of FNSP peers or members of the UBC Aboriginal community as a whole, the space is unsafe.  I know, that at any point, something can be said or done that will make my heart hurt.  I have left classes feeling sick to my stomach because of the things that have left my peer’s or my professor’s mouths.

This isn’t a experience that is dedicated strictly to university, these feelings have existed since elementary school.  I have a plethora, as I am sure many of my Indigenous peers do as well, of anecdotes of racism from kindergarten to bachelors degree and beyond. This is not about pointing fingers at specific individuals or UBC, but there’s some cliché about snowflakes and avalanches that cements this feeling.  When you are Aboriginal and you enter a classroom, and the topic of Indigenous peoples arises, there’s a surge of adrenaline because you’re bracing yourself for the worst: you’re bracing yourself to hear the same colonial stories that have been playing out since Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

Frankly, I’m sick of being poised and patient: I want action by my professors and non-Native peers to call out our fellow comrades in the classroom when oppressive situations begin to arise, because I’m exhausted.  I’m exhausted of leaving the classroom feeling like the only voice shouting, I’m exhausted from coming home feeling anger in the pit of my stomach, and I’m exhausted from having to shoulder the responsibility to try and teach every person who doesn’t take the time to educate themselves.  

This is my reply:

 So sorry to read about the bigotry that I am aware exists. Thanks for your bravery!   There is much denial in academia,  who would say that Canada is a non-racist environment.  This is not true.  Yet most Canadians would pat themselves on the back for being "tolerant" and sneer at Americans as being "racist".  Yet when it comes to the Aboriginals, we are blind to our own racist attitudes.  Ironic?
Some of that no doubt comes from the fact that our ancestors did dispossess your ancestors.  Maybe at some level we are afraid that there is no real way to acknowledge that, without wondering if that means that we need to leave in order to redress it. I think we can't as a nation or as individuals, deal with that.  Far easier to try to discredit or minimize your pain.  Not okay but likely it is the psychological undercurrent. But the truth is that no one wins when one segment of the society is treated badly.  In Canada, as in the rest of the planet, we need to begin to create win:win situations, not perpetuate a system that is bringing us to the brink of disaster as a species and despair as individuals.
History needs to be taught truthfully, not from the standpoint of how wonderful the Caucasian race is and how primitive everyone else is.  We seriously need the help of those who are closer to the Earth to save us from the mess we have created.  We need to get the truth out there and people need to wake up and realize what they are really doing with their reactions and how hateful their attitudes are.
Everyone deserves love, acceptance (not just tolerance), and freedom to  be who they are.  We need the talents of all to help us find our way back to a sustainable future and a compassionate world.

Just watched an amazing interview on on Gaiam TV with Bill Stierle.  He was talking about his work as a mediator and presenter using this "Whole Brain" system.  It is definitely worth looking into and although the interview was quite informative and he definitely knows his stuff, he is not the only one out there presenting this information.  
Basically it is about preferred modes of expression and understanding and it is quite useful in understanding both self and others.  The meta-cognition (thinking about one's thinking) around how you present and process in the world and how others do, is helpful in relationships - personal and business.
There are four basic quadrants and they are colour coded.  Of course you can be a combination but you will always have a dominant or preferred default.  And you will have one that you do not do well at all.  When you have to deal with that quadrant be it a person who presents it or a circumstance, you will exhibit some form of avoidance or aggression - passive or active as a reaction.  
Blue  - realist/analyst                                                 Yellow - strategist/imaginer
Green - preserver/organizer                                       Red - socialiser/empathizer
I found some real "AHA" moments during the interview - especially with my own pattern of avoidance with certain details.  I mean I am an intelligent person - and usually can handle detail with ease in most areas but in one particular area - it was like I couldn't even read the details.
He explained the reaction really well and I feel much better knowing that it is a totally understandable reaction and that other people react in their own manner when confronted with their own particular brand of "kryptonite".  All supermen and women, after all have their own weaknesses.  The pdf that I found online was awesome and detailed how to shore up those areas that you are weak in.  You can find it at http://www.Herrmansolutions.com  
Enjoy!

Well there you have the famous (infamous?) quote on education - that much maligned institution.  I think that it is not wrong, at least it is more right, than just learning facts - any computer has us beat at that.  But true education, what is that?  A truly educated person must, in my estimation, be a person of the heart AND the mind, a person of solid values, which may well transcend those of the particular culture they find themselves in. 
 
Society changes and with it its values. Culture exerts pressure on us to be "normal" yet no one truly is.  We are all unique.  Society at its best is beneficial for all members.  One might venture that ours is not that society at present.  But society is quite capricious in its value system at the best of times.  For example, one day killing is the most heinous thing and those that kill will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law if it is proved they did it.  The next day, the government, having declared war or joined a country that has, is seeking out those who will be not only willing to kill for them but good at it.  A complete turnabout, don't you think?  Or do you think?  But more importantly what does your heart tell you about it?  Is it all right to kill because someone somewhere has decided it is?  

We face dilemmas of this nature as humans and when we do, we may not have much time to reflect on what our values tell us.  We may have to decide in a split second.  So we need to know what we stand for - what we will and will not do.  All of the "greats" of history knew this and to the extent that they did, they were great.  I think of the recently deceased Nelson Mandela on this point, or Mahatma Gandhi.  Their nation and ultimately the whole of humanity benefitted from their staying true to their values despite great pressure to do what others would do. 

So as 2014 begins, do a values review, here are five possible questions to have on your review list:
1.  Is it all right to kill another person?   In anger?  In self-defense?  Never?
2.  Is it all right to take something that belongs to someone else without returning it?  If it is small?  If they have more than one?  If they have more finances than you?  If you are angry with them?
3.  Is it all right to talk badly about something?  If they won't find out?  If they have hurt you?
4.  Is it all right to undercut someone?  To help someone else?  To help yourself?
5.  Is it all right to take your emotions out on others?  If they are not important to you?  If they can't hurt you?  If you are having a bad day?

Knowing how you stand on these five is a good beginning to having a solid value system that will help you instinctively make choices you will be able to live with.
Love and Light!

The North American Market Economy based on the dollar has always been about competition.  The belief (rightly or wrongly) is that competition makes us better.  Yet many recent tests contradict this belief. Children (and presumably adults) learn better in a spirit of co-operation NOT in a competitive environment!  The Swiss in one of their three Cantons (districts) have a REAL democracy, where everyone over a certain age gets a vote.  Not surprising then that they would be able to pull this off.  True equity and personal responsibility need to walk hand in hand so that humanity can have the heart to rise up working together to assure us all a bright future.  It is possible - people are doing it!  Are you in?  "If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far,

"Love is all you need!" , the old Beatles song echoes from some nostalgic radios station.
Really?  If you are one of those swayed by the news media, the foolish idleness, and dangerous fear-mongering of television or radio or the myth-making and directive archetypal leadings of movies, you would likely see that as impossible.  I  beg to differ.
But let us define our terms here. Love and peace have been left largely to the purview of religion. The kind of love that smiles at you and then judges you after, is not love at all.  It is ego.  I am not talking about love from duty or role responsibility, as in the love of a parent, or sibling, or even a spouse.  I am not talking about patriotism, the love of country, which can allow you to profess love for the notion of a collective group, while you may dislike, or even hate, some of those within it.
I am not talking about the traditional flimsy type of "love" that comes in after a disaster, throws some gruel and fresh water at the situation (or drills a well, or builds a North American type house) in a third world country amid media (or other) applause and then quickly evaporates, leaving the suffering, well, still suffering after having been fed for a few days.  This "love", let's call it the Superman sort, has often been associated with church activity. No doubt the intention is good.  The results however, can leave much resentment in their wake on the receiver's side, while those who helped feel like they are indeed Superman.
Although I have no quarrel whatsoever with Christ and what he wrote, I grow weary of meeting people, who call themselves Christians yet know virtually nothing about, nor act anything like him.  I am not trashing all members of the religion, just the ones who are living an unexamined life and feeling good about themselves for it.  Christ did not want you to follow.  He wanted you to perfect yourselves and get out there and lead by example. And love was the prime commandment - "Love one another ...."  or " I desire mercy not sacrifice."  So, how's your love life?  And I'm not talking about a significant other in it.  I'm talking about the quality of your heart.
From all accounts he was a Jew (not a Christian obviously since he inspired the movement of followers) and had studied with the Essenes and possibly also in India. Many of the texts which would have made his teachings clearer were struck from the current Bible during the Council of Nicea in the third Century of this era. Reading those I think gives a much clearer picture of his understanding of the absolute equality and indisputable worth of each being and his compassion for them. Sitting in a Christian, or other church, does not make you a true follower of Christ anymore than sitting in a garage will make you a car.  Christianity does not have an exclusive claim to love or peace or charitable acts.  I think sometimes others have been content through the centuries to let the churches do this and feel that donating money made it all right and dispensed with their own responsibility to help others.  This is no longer the case.  But I think that discussions centering around religion are always going to be inflammatory and on this point are likely unnecessary. 
Love is a much used and little understood word in the English language. Therefore the question "Is love enough?" is almost too vague to be discussed. We need a working definition of love first.  I guess I am somewhat uncomfortable with the word, since it has come to be so devalued and I am further dissatisfied with the idea of defining something by what it is not. So why do we struggle with this "issue of the heart"?
I am a realist also however, if we allow the "facts" of our present circumstances to limit our imaginations or determine our future, we are indeed a doomed species. I believe that our area of growth is not in the mind but in the heart. We have ignored the heart for a long time and allowed ourselves to be duped into believing that only the mind ( the brain) and of that only the left brain is essential to humans - I believe we have a huge learning (or relearning perhaps) curve coming to reunite with our feelings, our heart. In truth, I do believe that love is one of the few tools we have to master ourselves and our circumstances while there is yet time. But in order to have compassion, we must first understand and love ourselves truly and completely. That means sorting through your limitations of culture, role, etc. and dealing with your emotional baggage. As Christ said (and I paraphrase) First take the beam out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's".
As a linguist, I tend to research foundational words to see what is going on. I offer the following poem, since it expresses what I mean exactly, or at least I hope that the limitations of this medium will not interfere with the transmission and it will be received and understood as it was intended. 

Impoverished

Sanskrit has more than ninety words for it,
Ancient Persian eighty, the Greeks only three.
How poor is our understanding of love that we
Have reduced it to only one word?
So general, so overarching and yet so meaningless,
How can we begin to open our hearts and show
That emotion, which we do not truly know
Well enough to have the words to express
The facets and dimensions of compassion and tenderness
We may feel,
If with the feeling no descriptor is available?
How do we ever truly communicate our heartfelt and unique connection?

The Inuit’s essential relationship with snow gave them thirty words
To reflect their thorough understanding and appreciation of it.
One simple word shows how impoverished we are in our hearts.
We need more to show what we have stored,
Locked away in our long-hardened hearts,
Which as they thaw out will need to speak,
To shout the volumes and nuances of
Our experience of love in all its permutations 
And help us create
That joyful world and life for which we are meant.

Resonating at the heart’s frequency necessitates new expression.
Our new frontier: A re-discovery of the heart.
A renaissance of connection; love for everything
For all is one. 
Not one is any greater or less than another, 
Neither in form nor role.
Our perseverance on difference stops our being whole.
The perception of our separateness imprisoning us, 
has stolen from us our heart’s sensitivities.
Yet we are not separate, 
We are each an expression of the life force – unique and precious, still and always connected.
Without the ability to know that connection, we lose our heart’s feeling, and are reduced to a shadow of what we truly are.
Love is our purpose, estranged as we are from it,
Our lives become sad, tragic.
Unconditional love is the truth of us.
Let us learn to speak that truth: 
Love is one of many words.
Let us learn them all and grow rich. 

Sorry couldn't resist the Monty Python clip!  They were among my heroes once!  Eclectic hero list - Gandhi, Churchill, Joni Mitchell, Monty Python, Einstein, Frankl, Bergson - yeah!  Doers as opposed to not doers!  And what is the difference anyway ?  Do you ever wonder?  Why do some people do and other people, well, don't?  
Maybe the distinction is more a matter of degree because we all do to some extent.  I believe that you get what you are, while you are aspiring to be more - or less.  Your thoughts indicate your direction, your words and actions take you there.  If you are thinking thoughts of worry and lack, expect more of what you are thinking.  But it really is the words you speak which release or limit your experience.  
For example, Ever notice that some people talk incessantly about being sick (because they are thinking about it)?  How often are they actually sick?  Probably quite often.  At least that has been my experience.

So try this:  For the next week - 7 whole days - watch what you say!  Especially, when you use the words "I am" with something following, because you are making a direct order for the experience you want.  If you are observant, you will very quickly find the negatives that are poisoning your life.  Just like a gardener - weed them out and replace them with life-giving words - positive words.

I have done this experiment - in our culture the rampant negativity makes it an on-going work but it gets easier and the results just get better!
Doreen Virtue did a study of the frequency of words and found that there is a major difference between negative an positive words and their frequency.  Dr. Emoto also has investigated the effect that words and intentions have on water molecules.  You can find both on the web but here are some links. 

Angel Words
Visual Evidence of How Words Can Be Angels in Your Life by Doreen Virtue, Grant Virtue. http://www.hayhouse.com/angel-words
Dr. Emoto How Frequency/Words can change matter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu9P167HLsw

I don't have much time to waste in nostalgia - but Monty Python is awesome.  These guys got us to look at ourselves in all our insanity and had us laughing at ourselves.  Great way to change society - parody is amazing and they were the masters!
Disclaimer:  Swearing/Some Nudity!
Please judge your watching accordingly !

I am not big in keeping with tradition but I do like the New Year's Resolution idea.  I have 15 on my list.  Some are a continuing resolution from last year.  (If I don't think I made it, I don't let myself off the hook.  Five are new enough to be labelled that - not that I haven't tried, just I haven't officially tried them.  So here they are:1. Exercise daily - this is the most difficult! I did qi gong and shoveled yesterday but haven't done anything yet today. But I will!
2. Listen and hear without judging - I can do this more often but this is still hard!
3. Affirm others with words and actions - Sometimes this is not as easy as I would like it to be but it is getting easier.
4. Be open to receiving help. - yeah still struggling with this, more of a giver and a fixer.
5. Expect the miraculous! - of the new ones, this is the easiest.
As I said, the other ten are on-going.  And I will admit 15 does seem ambitious but as the poet said "A man's ( or woman's) grasp must exceed their reach, or what's a heaven for?" 
But I won't just write them down and hope for the best.  I have done two important things.
1.  Turned each one into a positive affirmation and printed a copy for my bedside table and one for my wallet.  I say them three or more times a day.
2.  I have asked close friends to keep me honest and hold me accountable for my work on them.
So those are mine and my action plan.  I expect to see a major shift with a month to a month and a half - that is what it takes to make a change in subconscious patterns and all habits are subconscious patterns.  If I am very fortunate I will see a shift in 21 days or less.  
I wish you all well with yours!  May 2014 see your resolutions all completed!

Being a resident in the Great White North, I expect winter to be cold.  But watching the weather extremes in Winnipeg, I was if not alarmed, then, well, checking in on it, hoping it wouldn't come here.  I live north and west of Winnipeg, considerably.
Today the temperature here is 0 celsius.  That's right!  Yesterday it was -20 C.  And look at the temperature at the North Pole!  Now I know that the magnetic North moves but, really?  Is the whole planet on a wobble?  Or is something else going on?  
And please don't come at me with Global Warming - I think if you said that to people in Winnipeg, one or more of them might go after you with a snow shovel - if they weren't already too frostbitten to react!
Climate change, possibly is the explanation.  We have experienced this before and we are foolish to think that climate, or anything else connected with the planet will stay the way we would like it simply for that reason.  I'm not really enamored of the pendulum-swing of the temperature but I guess it falls under the rubric of - not something I can personally change.  Any ideas?

So I got rid of my cable TV in 2013.  I had been thinking about it for a long time and without really even knowing what I was doing, had been weaning myself off of it.  It took a long time and some distance to realize that I felt worse after watching TV.  It was hard to tell at first.  
I started cutting out the news.  I slept better.  At first I worried that I might become "uninformed" but then I realized that with the internet, that wasn't going to happen.  On the other hand, with the internet, I was in control of what I watched or not.  Although theoretically, I was with television too, it wasn't as easy to manage with the point and click.  I felt more peaceful not watching all the sensationalism and doom and gloom of the news.
Then I cut out commercials.  I remembered being in Germany and having no commercials at all.  True they had them running on a regular basis all together and some of them were pretty hilarious - the Evian Water roller skating babies, remember?  That was European. - but you could easily avoid them.  
After that I took a hard look at all the so-called "reality" shows based on drama and bad relationship skills.  Who needs to watch other people being mean to each other? So that went next.  Besides, the whole thing is totally contrived.  If it is a real "reality" show - who is filming the thing?  Don't think it's just some guy with a phone!
So what was left - a few nature documentaries, some old or new movies?  Not really anything I couldn't get some other way.  And I hate nostalgia!  I believe in living in the now and besides the "good old days" had the same problems we have (or at least a good portion of them) except no one dared talk about them!
So finally I took the plunge1  I called up my cable company and said I wanted to get rid of my television.  She didn't believe me and figured I just wanted to have a different bundle.  I wrangled with her and she finally said that she would get someone to call me back.  Think they did?  Nope!
So after the third time of trying politely to end my love affair with TV.  I called up and said, "I have your modem and if you want it back alive, you need to tell me where to drop it off!"  After a moment of stunned silence, some poor young fellow, gave me an address in my locality where I could do just that.  I think the shock factor helped.
Since then I have had numerous calls from the company, asking me to take back television.  I said no thanks I can tell myself my own vision and that is far better for me and I don't need to be programmed by anyone.
But Gaiam TV?  Wow!  Gregg Braden, Doreen Virtue, Nassim Harramein, Deepakc Choprah to name just a few!  All kinds of people I read and watch on Youtube.  Topics like spirituality, Science, Ancient history - quality stuff! Informative interviews!  What tell - a vision should be uplifiting, inspiring, educational!  Where has this been?  Why did no one tell me it was here?  This is what mainstream T.V. had the promise of being, a promise that was never achieved.  And it is only $9 ish a month - as opposed to like $100!  That 's a no-brainer!
What a great find at Christmas!  Like finding an extra present under the tree!  
I'm passing it on to any of the rest of you inquiring minds - who are tired of having to eat information dredged out of someone's back pocket or paid for by the powers that be.  Check it out and feed your need for expansion!  Let me know what you think!