Thursday, April 30, 2009

In the name of Sacrifice

"Seek and ye shall find"

This saying has never meant anything to me in my lifetime.  What am I seeking, and what do I do if I find it?  My upbringing was one of Nintendo, disposal cameras and corner-store candy - the only things I sought were labelled on afternoon cartoon episodes of Bugs Bunny and Batman.  I'm somewhat thankful my parents left out popular teachings of xtianity out of my eardrums.  But this passage, in my absent knowledge of it's saying, seems to have taken on a new meaning in the context of modern society - the Seekers have become finders, with the finders being keepers and ultimately destroyers - we have turned these words of religion and enlightenment into a profitable purpose of "seek and destroy".  

In the effort to "seek and destroy", an army assembles itself with rank and file, executives at the top, mailroom, labourers and janitors at the bottom.  The generals, or executives, choose who to sacrifice and who to save - all in the blind faith and servitude to the almighty power - profitability.  Sacrificial lambs are reared in by the shepherd, all with the cloak conceiling the inner wolf that hides within... 

Those that survive the turmoil of "seek and destroy" profitability are also included in providing pennance to the almighty - they can prove their faith and servitude through martyrdom, or their god-given right to sacrifice their incomes and pensions for the sake of the almighty - the sheep can choose to have their coats cut for the shepherd's slice of the pie.  

In the name of Sacrifice, these choices are never easy.  The generals and commanders sacrifice the summer beachfront properties or 36' Bayline cruiser, while the sheep sacrifice their warmth, shelter, food and general means of living.  It is all in the name of servitude and blind faith.  However this sacrifice is far from serving a greater good - I would rather see mouthes fed than fat cats in speedos...  These sacrifices are in the name of Aztec human sacrifice, where the sacrificial lamb may be either aware or unaware, but most definitely in disapproval.  The sacrificial names of Chronothusia are no longer valid - the purpose of a greater good is clouded with dollar figured smoke and mirrors.

The sacrifices we make on a day to day basis are never self-serving, otherwise a rose by any other name could not be sold on Valentines day - but sacrifices are instead, imposed upon us.  It is difficult to battle against the shepherds that incessantly knock on our steeples, and the battle against an oppressive shepherd only results in hoof stomps and finger bitting.  Flocking to greener pastures may provide safe haven, however finders have become keepers and/or destroyers, and the greener pasture is grayer and cloudier these days... But try as they might to shave your coat, the cloak of Chronos may turn the ticks of time in your head until the moment comes where you decide to never sacrifice for the words of others - sacrifice would be a name long forgotten, where the finders will never keep, and the seekers will never destroy.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Supernatural BC


I've spent the last week and a half driving through the mountainous regions of Supernatural British Columbia.  The trees danced from the waves of the winds and moisture driven particles of sand while the asphalt of the roads bent willfully to the rocks of craters and seismic settling.  I often drifted into zones of silence, only looking ahead at the vortex of time I bent through the windshield.  Great glaciers first carved their way through the plunders, guiding the paths to river valleys and crashing inlets and islets.  It finally settled into the vast openness of the great depths and mysteries below the sea.  A welcoming home to the gravitational forces of Earth.


In amongst the vast regions of mountains and rivers are hidden fantasy wonderlands of Sasquatch, Ogopogo and Woodland Hunters -- all alive with the ever lasting answer to the paradoxical questioning of trees chirping echoes of sounds as they fall...  The creases of valleys bends boulders into dust providing safe haven and walking trails to the wolves and cougars who prey on the weak and mindless... As howls and growls go unheard, the desertification of a Plateau's Peaks is commencing, fueled by the particular appetite of a juice from a Pine - Bettlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice made this bug appear and suck from the teet of a precious resource.   But as deserts go, the rain will always fall, bringing shrubs and grubs to a landscape full of rivers and hatching grounds - spawning the answer to another puzzling question - the intelligence of fish - the Salmon of the mighty Fraser swim against the grain in an effort to raise their hands... 

Having sculpted boundaries across a Cascadia of mountain ranges, the region swept the dreams of Thomas Jefferson into visions of ecotopia - an independent republic of the Pacific.  Movements and interest still burst forth (see the aforementioned Cascadia movement) as if Andorrans wrote scripts of Independence and set them to Sea through the Ariege and Garonne.   But the latest political plight of freedom and independence involves the use of river and valleys for renewable power - pushing the brinks of the watersheds to its capacities with its dams.   Cascadia will never rule the lands as long as the spirits of the Natives still haunts their pasts...

Smadderings of settlements stamped their grounds in the wilderness as the chase for gold swept across the valleys faster than Donovan Bailey won the 100m dash... Churches run silent on days of the busy, while ramblings of teachings still preach in the farmhouse as Sunday dresses are pleated and pressed.  The life of Supernatural BC was taught well to many who settled in the forays of forests - all in the upper compressed regions of the higher altitudes to keep the mind tightly wrapped in a knot.  

Settling into the coast and diving into the depths of sea level, the Artisans honed their crafts of culture in the attempt to tax and tour tourists through the washing coves and caves of dark sunlight hidden in corners of every nook and cranny carved out in the ocean.   Whales and seagulls are free to see, but the trip may cost you a little... Yet the carved society built on the Left Coast was one that preached renewability, ecological balance with economic prosperity - a carving so delicate and balanced the Nuu-Chah-Nulth spirits seem to have provided its Supernatural blessing...  The Rainforests stood tall in defiance to the Gods of Poseidon and brought life on their own terms - an evolutionary masterpiece of diversity and divergence... and nonetheless devoid of touristic intentions to pave and produce profit - the 500 cm of rain throughout the year keeps the Snow Angels and Sun Bunnies out for a good proportion... 

The time spent out there was a nice disconnection from the constant traffic I hear day in and day out... It was as if the plug that I had tied into the wall of modern society was pulled and the noises in my head seized to chatter - the neurons relaxed into a state of mindless obliviance of annoyances and stresses - only ocean breezes and crashing waves... a supernatural experience...

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Here a Stool, there a Stool, everywhere a Stool's stool

Cysticercosis
Time ticks by as the days pass that not one employer requires an employee with my background and education.  I sit here now and document this note from our politicians: "now is the time for action and stimulus".  With these words, action and stimulus, why hasn't anything been done?  It has been two months since Canada's budget passed, hailed as the cowboys relinquishing 'conservative-rule'.  These stools drummed up mixture of stimulated bullshit, a deficit of spending masked under the moniker of action and stimulus... In this spending, we've dedicated $12 billion for roads and walkways and $8 billion for housing - in hopes of generating or, as they so eloquently snuck into the mime, "protecting", 190,000 jobs.   In amongst the budgetary balance, are bailouts - to the automotive sector - giving $12 billion bucks to help consumers buy more cars and spend more money - what better way to survive the recession than to go out and buy a new car!  Thanks stool... But now as I sit stroking my educated degree gently in my lap almost reducing the sheepskin it's printed on to stardust, I think to myself, the bust is about to burst to the basement in this bubble... and I'm stuck in it without an umbrella...

Giardia Stools
New home starts are fine and dandy, but Canada has been crippled by a resource no longer valuable to the world - it's tar sands, oil sands, in-situ heavy oil, bitumen, bidumen, black bouillon, black billed ducks - what ever you want to call is just fine - just listen... the hub of Canadian biscuit development took on 156,000 new dwellers to it's boundaries from 2003 to 2008 - in that time, average value of a home went from $210,000 to $450,000.  All told, 157,000 home (average) transactions took place in this time [20K in 2003 - 26K in 2005, 22K in 2004, 34K in 2006 (record), 33K in 2007, 22K in 2008].   If we average things out, let's say (450,000-210,000/6 years) = $40K 'average increase' in homes and say 22.6K average home sales per year.  This equates to $5.4 billion extra dollars of money being used by the buyer to pay for a home - this is the money that is being collected and owed to the banks - and this is the money that one city hopes is still out there... 

So as far as billions of dollars owed goes, the 'average' home buyer, or 157,000 people - populated the boundaries of a hub, destined to pump, produce and profit, far removed from a lesser known moniker, reduce, reuse and recycle.  From the period of August 10th 2008 to April 8th 2009, joblessness in the hub of 1.1 million people increased from 3.3% to 4.8% - many of these unemployed with educated well paying degrees...  With the math translating the words to 16,500 people finding the unemployment line, or proverbial pavement - this translates to over $740 million dollars of lost salary and wages, and up to $500 million dollars of debt owed... all from one hub...

Cucking Stools
With this debt owed, no doubtingly bailouts will burst forth - banks receiving support for their profiting off the boom.  The aforementioned $5.4 billion owed from the increase in home prices is just the start - if we averaged the total amounts owed to the banks from the entire purchase of a home (not just the increase), this number could reach $11.8 billion.  At the current rate of unemployment in the one bubbled hub, this could translate to $1 billion in bad debt so far, all in one hub...  If we transpose the numbers from this hub to others across the country, hundreds of billions of dollars could be lost in the bank and mess of the housing industry, translating to a debt assumed to a population of 33,610,474 people in the thousands of dollars.   And in a food, clothing, plastic and consumable market already pushed to the maximum with high oil prices, pollution restrictions and governmental legislation - the debt could be devastating - and there the stools are, pumping in $8 billion into an industry that could be on the verge of collapse...

Poppy Stools
As stools stand tall on podium pronouncing their verbal eloquence in the context of leadership - they mimic the cues and calls for support.  As stools appoint each other Ministers, a title only befitting to imaginary statuses, nurses and ambulance chasers become Finance Ministers, property lawyers become Environment Ministers, and the corrupted become Health Ministers...  As each stool passes through the bowels, they drag and pull on intestinal walls, scraping the innards of the lined cavities until they're flushed through the sphincter.  As the Stools pass budgets and our moneys through the legislative processes, they dump and lend our money away, scraping the bottoms of our piggy banks until we're flushed out into the streets, homeless and hungry...  

The practice of sustainability requires patience, analysis and ultimately pragmatic thought process.  The stools who organized the CMHC to hand out impragmatic mortgages that allowed a 30% spike in bankruptcies from 2007-2008 in one hub (400% spike in December) deserve to be courtesy flushed down the drain... As the days tick and tock and the numbers continue to roll in... the bumpy ride we were on is about to get a whole lot bumpier - sea sick patches are optional.  But in the advent of the aftermath, our past mistakes may lead us towards rebuilding proper sustainable economic practices...  Generations have evolved since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and in that time, we've identified what makes us sick, what can kill us, and what is useful to us.  As we pass through figuring out economies, eventually at some point in time, we should be able to figure things out.   As far as I can tell, we have a known population, a known supply and amount of food that can be produced and managed with water and seeds, and a known number of dwellings, residences and lodgings.   If we plug these numbers into equations of supply and demand - I'm sure some monkey out there can figure out how to balance an algebraic equation...  

It is however, cautioned that the consumerism that feeds the GDP is an effect of transforming the algebraic balance into a differentiated equation - all in an attempt to predict delta Profit over delta time - it is in the hopes of the aftermath, that we can remove the cancerous growth that is the GDP, and find a suitable candidate to integrate the differential equation back into a common, integral algebraic balance...   if there were only such a stool's tool...

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Eurakyotic Development

Opisthokonts
I grew up in this forested backyard - grasses grew in tension with the air, flowers flocked in their beds tightly tucked.  I was lucky enough to be able to dig through dirt, hands deep in mud - I was always digging up earth worms to watch how they wiggle.  I remember having this maniacal sense of magistracy when I'd cut them in half as they wiggled, only to see them sprout the other end out and continue on aerating and billowing.  

Worms are fantastic creatures - and although I've outgrown the cruel sensation to play god, I still find worms fascinating - as if by studying their innate regeneration ability, we could one day mimic their processes for medical studies.  But the evolutionary stepping stone that worms followed were pale, drawl, and down right boring in comparison to some of our closer brethren - as the bonobos would bellow.  

Bonobos seem to follow a code of monkey mischief lost in this primitive monkey brain - they tend to be altruists - an art so lost in splattered layers that the sense of the definition is never known to some...   Tucked away in a corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the pygmy chimp, or aforementioned bonobo, has a DNA that matches our homo sapien variety, between 98 - 99.4%.  They eat, they shit, they sleep.  They've evolved their brains to understand that equality is a virtue - indicatively so, it is often interpreted that the female bonobo are the dominant sex - but so inconspicuously so as not to be arrogant or obnoxious - the bonobos seems to have mastered the concept of equality.   What they've also discovered is the cure-all for any dispute - sex... Bonobos often mutually masturbate each other, enjoy French kissing and petting and are known to be big enthusiasts of PDA, or public displays of affection.  They often enjoy sex prior to eating meals, and are known to be relieved of tension, hostility and overall aggression after sex - which in turn leads to more sharing of food and general care for one another.  In doing so, males tolerate this lifestyle of constant sex, and the females form hierarchies of respect and trust in the form of a matriarch.  For the most part, a male can be more popular under the wing of a popular bonobetty.  In this lifestyle of sharing and sex, the bonobos are arguably the most compassion, empathetic, kind, patient chimps on the planet.  No wars and plenty of sex, when they see a fellow bonobo in need or hurt or handicapped, they help.  The ultimate altruistic hippy chimp.

Amoboezoa
But the bonobos' compassion, empathy, kindness and patience are characteristics that makes me think chimps can't be the only ones programmed for this behaviour - it can't be all that bleak to the humans family tree.  As bleak as the outlook can be, wolves still bring food back to the pack, walruses and dogs adopt, and dolphins support the injured with a finned crutch in the depths of the oceans...  and the bonobos are still monkeys.  

It's strange to think of admiring a 'so-called' sub-species of life for their altruistic behaviour - this behaviour just doesn't happen that often in my neck of the woods these days.  I still push trapped cars out of snow drifts or ditches, hold a door open for an incomer or outgoer, and spare a dime for anyone who asks - but the altruistic sense of 'doing for without' seems to be wrapped in circular logic by the Darwinists themselves - Natural Selection only increases the individuals chance of reproduction... altruism doesn't have a home in the theory of evolution...

Chromalveolates
As theories evolve, Darwin must be able to respect the path of society chosen by the benevolent bonobo... Survival of the fittest takes on new meanings to these monkeys.  The bonobos carved a territory in this planet, have called it home and live a life only hiding from poachers and hunters.  Food aplenty and casual sex only a hand tap away... the bonobos defined it all by listening and respecting their women - feminism at it's pure archaic form.  It makes me wonder if feminism would thrive the world to the ways of the bonobo - pragmatic sex for all, mouths fed, injured healed, the cold warmed... Survival and existence in the simplest form - survival defined by the way of the bonobo - they've evolved their way to their garden of Eden in the congo - their own monkey utopia.   It's too bad we weren't all monkeys... we were only missing 0.6-2% of our DNA to do it... as the great Charlton Heston once proclaimed: "Some apes, it seems, are more equal than others"