Government

Who is cheering the sudden burst of nationalism?

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Barbados and Australia have recently severed ties with the British crown but they have the same system of government as the colonial power that stole, sold, and oppressed Black and Aboriginal peoples for over four hundred years. Now Belize and Jamaica are pressing demands about the role of the British crown in the slave trade and colonization of the Caribbean islands. Who will apologize to all the generations of freed slaves for idolizing the broken and corrupt model of the people’s house? There is hardly a visionary dimension to be found in the governments of the greater and lesser antilles. Who beside the usual armchair freedom fighters and quasi-revolutionary Pan-African intellectuals are cheering?

Embarrassment’s epitome

It was not the British crown that made 99% of the nations in the Caribbean pull out all the stops to maintain a system of useless votes, dubious debates, bogus budget statements, apathetic amendments to law, and the facade of national unity. We did that ourselves because we have had too few leaders willing to think outside of the box. You guessed it if you are beginning to think that we have been robbed of outbox action. The people who were silent over the centuries and in the more recent decades when governments were imitating the United States and Great Britain with the oppression of poor people, the suppression of the legitimate Rastafarian religion, the idolization of law, and the frittering away of homeborn culture. Who should be embarrassed is quite clear.

Useless votes

Since the ballot box serves to establish the public sentiment it is an abject shame that the result of a plebiscite can be a tool in the construction of a national suicide. We should not allow our votes to be used to facilitate opposition and division. We know what happens to divided domains. Making our votes count is not rocket science but it takes a vision and courage.

Dubious debates

Parliaments that thrive on facts and reason are rare. All that matters is mathematics: how many votes in the house can be mustered in defence of the leading party’s initiatives. Speakers have a hard enough time keeping simple speaking order – speak then listen – so it is a Herculean task to hold members of parliament to logic and common sense. Let us not be deceived by what we hear on the hustings. People running for political office are unwilling champions of truth and civic society. What we hear at political rallies and in the pre-election advertisements is a mix of pollyanna rhetoric and juvenile wishes. Real debates are hard to find.

Bogus budget statements

In my experience a family goes shopping with cash or credit and both can run out when the spending is completely transparent. The millions and billions mentioned budgets statements need to be seen in their relevance to improving the lives of ordinary citizens. When the average citizen cannot see how the numbers add up in a Finance Minister’s statement to the nation, greed, discrimination and corruption are in the works.

Apathetic amendments to law

Following what is assumed to be a Biblical basis for legislation most nations in the Caribbean have allowed punishment and the violation of human rights to appear as the solution to the problems of civic society. When laws, amendments or originals, do not pass the smell test – justice, mercy and reliability – those innovations should be abandoned. We all know people who are so loyal to law that they no longer recognize human need. Remember the “too holy to help” kinds of people, like the people in the Good Samaritan story.

The facade of national unity

It must be obvious by why we have examined thus far that the substantive notions of independence and good government have been left on the dusty shelves of our high school textbooks, treated as utopian fantasy, in full defiance of the combined weight of our sacred books, so no-one is raising his or her right hand as experienced offspring and root of what is precious and invaluable. Maybe it is best we say nothing about national unity, even when we have incontrovertible rocks to stand on, such as the men and women who took the first steps in shepherding our people, through the early years of our emancipation. Let it suffice to say that we can always trash our national heroes for moral failings, political missteps, and even for losing their way entirely, but we have no rationale for denying that figures of national importance are immovable rocks. How we build on what they have started will be the measure of our strength as a people and nation. The people of Australia, Belize, Barbados and Jamaica are being duped again by people who choose to forget our recent history and are willing to deny that our choice to imitate the oppressor and not the liberator is suicidal. There are no great dead peoples.

One peek at Parliament Hill

eejoseph,

There is no question that grade one business happens in Canada’s parliament, but the seated members need to stop the childish loser mentality and the pollyanna slogans about children and the future to bring it to a maturer footing. The speaker has the noble task of bridging the gap between the government and the “members opposite” and I can hardly wait to hear him but a boot on the neck of opposition heckling and posturing with lengthy preambles to ten-second questions.

The 44th Parliament is just concluding its first session and the charges are flying: misleading the house, there is no realistic tackling of Canada’s crises by the government. It is hard not to notice that the media covering Parliament Hill is swarming all over Quebec’s religious garb law hoping to feed on the opinions of politicians, without asking directly “Are provincial laws and their application above question and comment?” Boy, oh boy! It is going to be hard to take our eyes off the parade of the cowardly, the reckless, and the wise in January 2022.

Why it is not funny

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The greatest powers on earth might seem to have no mention in God’s road map, the Bible, but let’s face it, Syria, Iraq, Iran,  Lebanon, Russia and Egypt are all living witnesses to the movement of God’s agenda from antiquity. So where are China, Australia and the Caribbean?  The nations of Europe are in the record, but where are the United States and Canada?  Is it funny that Israel and the undisputed powerhouse of the modern era are often in the same room, eating the same dinner and no-one seems to be unravelling the outrageous homicidal behavior of the powers competing for dominance on the world stage? No. 

The powers that have helped Israel with God’s stamp of approval are few. Though the Israelites kept running to Egypt for help it is Ethiopia, Syria and Persia that have been the helpers of Israel. Today’s Arabs will betray and attack Israel even as both parties invoke the name of Abraham. It is not funny. It is a deadly game of profit over the prophetic. God is not impressed by monuments, cowardly generals, and magnates. Poverty, misogyny, miscarriage of justice, and the crushing the visions of young people with deadly traditions is not funny.

Calling for peace with a knee on the neck of a helpless and vulnerable people is immoral in any country. God gets the last and decisive laugh and the blind now sees they all do it.

2) The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, 3) “Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!” 4) He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them.

(Psalms 2:2-4)

Not the worst country

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Canada is not competing to be the bad boy, the sheriff, the virgin, or the Zion of the modern era. It seems that the democracies of our times have been trying desperately, with the help of cowardly religious groups and movements, to imitate the adventures of ancient nations, conquering, exploiting and oppressing peoples both near and far. I personally wish my head were a fountain to weep with the First Nations on Turtle Island. I do have a pair of feet, a pair of hands and one mouth. The depth of shame and disgrace that Christians have brought to this nation defies description. Standing with Canada’s First Nations is a long overdue measure this nation needs if can ever have an approach to healing. Make no mistake, everybody needs healing: the brave and the cowards, and the political parties need to consider packing up their rhetoric and get ready for a makeover. We are counting the unmarked graves of children who went to school and did not return home. Canada needs a vaccination with a strong dose humanity and it does not matter whether anyone evaluates us as the worst country on the planet. Justice calls for a strong rebuke of the responsible agencies: the churches, the licensing and governing authorities to do more than apologize and compensate our First Nations families. As far as I am concerned the Vatican, the police. and the political parties must pay. Then the rest of us must search our hearts for that evil streak that has allowed thousands of First Nations people to be missing and unaccounted for. We must demand the records of brutality against Canadians in police custody; a phenomenon that speaks of Canada being a very naughty country. There is no comfort in not being the worst country.

Justice is not a game for clever lawyers or political operatives. It is not the use of majorities in the legislatures to mount damaging campaigns in favour of big or small business. Justice is missing in action as long as we still have police officers who still think that their animus against young people, non-White persons is allowed. They and the rest of the administrative branches of government have not tasted the long arm of the law. This remains a stain on the record of governments we thought were humane and accountable. Apparently, most Canadians do not know what equity and service mean. We need the videos and records of police interactions with Black and Brown people. We also need a forensic analysis of what religious groups are teaching. If you think that is scary think about the fact that the disappearance of school children went unreported and unaddressed by church and government (of both political parties). Neither freedom of religion nor state religion prevent a country from being bad, worse or the worst.

Giggly Canadian justice

We have been saying that justice has a long arm and that the RCMP always gets its man (the violater of our laws), but justice in Canada makes some people happy, others laiugh out loud, and others giggle at how stupid we are. If we could defy gravity at will we could also evade the exposure of our despicable secrets. Time always tells, and hidden things will come to light, even the nasty plots in the highest councils of both the godly and the ungodly. We need to get ready for a huge dose of reality if the nation is going to deal with our genocidal history. Clergy and their allies will be expected to vomit all over themselves in their pride and zeal to defend their treasures. We are neither laughing nor giggling. Our tears are just too much. Not even the golden rule seemed to be in play!

I dare to say that church leaders (Protestant and Catholic) have been delusional in their view that justice is ultimately served by imprisonment, fines, and inhumane and merciless treatment of offenders and even of innocent people they do not like or deem as outsiders.

Let their treasures be our trash so we can move on. Let their zeal be a sick comedy. Let the Vatican and the cardinals show what they are really made of. Canadians will be interested in seeing whether they human or machines of blind loyalty and covetousness?

Schools that do no keep records?

It is abundantly clear that people posing as teachers of children had so little regard for our First Nations that they had nothing to say – NOTHING AT ALL – to the parents of the children whose corpses we are now discovering. A child murder atrocity must be punished. We are sure that apologies are insufficient. Maximum penalties must be applied impartially. When the whole nation – every province – commits itself to the remedies for this national tragedy we will have a reason to say something meaningful, graceful, and right about not being the worst country. Get ready for more revelations of evil, but that, to me, is an unprecedented opportunity to freshen up Canada. Freshen up, Canada.

Ontario’s furious Ford

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Mr. Ford, failing to take a hard line to protect Ontarians, and ordering unadvised extreme actions he has had to walk back, keeps blaming the Federal government for problems at the Canada-US border. Truth be told, our Premier has not kept the vulnerable safe, has not convinced Ontarians to follow the science or even to follow stay-home guidance within municipal boundaries. “What gives?”, indeed. We are not that blind. We see the fear of irresponsible and vocal commercial actors. We feel the outbreaks at factories and the numewrous attempts by partygoers to ignore the pandemic. We hear the ongoing threats of antivax protests, and the imaginary dust-up between provincial and federal governments about vaccine supply and the international border is a fury that may continue until someone catches the Premier voicing his other views.

Premier Ford, losing the grip on the hearts of Ontario’s residents, needs to keep his political swipes out of the government info update packages. This is one Ontarian who can see in black and white as well as vivid colour. Should we blame our Premier for Ontario’s troubles?

There is a dangerous line between thriving businesses and a healthy population. Its name is death-by-covid19.

I remember Ford’s “Ontario: open for business”

Who on earth can believe that (1) the government (any government!) is following all the expert advice and (2) Ontario’s residents are doing a great job at fighting the pandemic? The two cannot be true as the infections and death continue to rise and fall. “Open for business” seems to be a conservative priority in Asia, Europe and North America. I will remember the value placed on human lives, and for now reception of conservative idea, even the revolutionary ones, is off.

A HISTORIC TEAM FOR A HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY

eejoseph, , , ,

Eyes are on the White House again with respect percolating for the institution! An election to compare with the upcoming contest is hard to find and the Democratic ticket is a far cry from the frenemic duo of the last 3 years.  Former Vice-president Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris are individuals shaped by the common struggles and by their distinct embrace of public service.

The wild fantasy of a land free of the influence of non-Caucasian peoples just took a hit as the man who witnessed firsthand the evil heart of the Republican Party and the poverty of the newly invented Christian alliance as they insulted and opposed potus44 Barrack Obama for eight years.

The first woman of colour and the first person of South Asian descent to be on a presidential ticket gives a boost to the pride of people who have always looked to the United States. The American dream was part of my cosmos for a very brief period but I have so many strings attached to family and friends that my interest in America’s progress never falters. As a Canadian I can only watch with glee as the very fine racists and crooked businessmen hear their wakeup call.

The chances of another adulterous adventure with a half-dead businessman or some other unlikely hero stands at zero.

The prostituting of politics and protestantism

eejoseph, , , ,

Few of us foresaw the pandemic of 2019 and there are no reliable predictions of its end. Western civilization is not some intelligent creature carved out of Moses doctrine or Jesus glory. It is irrational, xenophobic, rapist, papist, and just like all the outbreaks of populism and regional religion, bends towards imperialism and colonialism instead of being committed to real commonwealth.

Protest and you lose your credibility

The politics of the western democracies makes outlandish and sometimes visionary claims.

The features of politics remain:

[ ] Irrational, because it repeats the “never again” lie in response to crises
[ ] Xenophobic, due to persistent us/them societal constructs
[ ] Rapist, because of thd priority of colonial aspirations
[ ] Papist, because dominance through threats of death is the modus operandi of the devil and religious bodies

A poor diet

Those Christians, especially the leaders, who seek the advantage of an alliance with government may be mistaken for a variety of scavenger, like shrimp or vultures, gobbling up everything in their imaginary moral galaxy. Their activity spectrum includes everything that forms the platform of the very beast that the follower of Yeshua of Nazareth is warned against in the direst warning from a Messiamic authority. The correct designation of the phenomenon – of political power allied with religion – is prostitution (sometimes also accurately as adultery).

First Beast: war and enforced worship of the devil.


they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?”

Revelation of John 13:4

Second Beast. Carboncopy of the first beast


Revelation of John 13:12

He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.


And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. (Rev. 13:15)

Severest warning ever


9. Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10. he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

Revelation of John 14:9-10

The church needs no civic power to succeed. There is more than enough evidence of administrative and interpretation corruption. Christians openly drinking mystery Babylon’s wine is not going to be debated or spun for anyone’s benefit.

Morality without the cross

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Knowing what we have discovered about secular religious power in religious hands we ought to be far more cautious about reinventing the wheel.  The trial of Jesus by a religious court provides convincing evidence that injustice can acquire the label and reputation of justice.  We can add nothing to the doctrines of Moses or Jesus and mixing the two is bound to result in wasting the two.

You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you. Deut. 4:2,

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, (Rev. 22:18)  and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. (Rev. 22:19)

Rev. 22:18-19

Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Matthew 9:17

The persecution of the church

In John 5:16 we see the Jews persecuting Jesus, because He was doing good things on the Sabbath.  In Acts we see the persecution of Jesus’s disciples continues the church for calling on and preaching Jesus’s name.   Perhaps it is James and the Pharisees who are the persecutors of the church.  Judaism has never sustained a sense of morality.  It only knew how to engage in power plays: prosecuting violators of the law, keeping aliens as second class citizens, and discriminating against women.  Perfection and maturity are not the outcomes of law; law lets people know what sin they have committed, it condemns everyone without exception and predicts it’s own demise.

The way and the life

Since Christ personally takes the reins of God’s kingdom from the levitical system complete with a change of law, how can life of the redeemed (the converted) ever be shaped by dead works?   Death and condemnation are not affirmed by the ritual law…  Death sentences appear all over the law: for incest, sorcery, gluttony, rebellious children and many prohibitions (“you shall not…”) regarding festivals, and food and drink.   We could believe that the law has nothing to do with moral behaviour or lifesaving obligations, but how can the cross not be elevated above the hills because of the freedom from death it brings?  How can the cross not be the spice that flavors the life it brings if we believe that it does something the law could never do? Where is “what he’s done for others he’ll do for you” when you need one?

The evangelical world rejects the idea that the Law is perfect by rejecting the Sabbath and the rituals for sacrifice and festivals.   If the law needs an improvement for the protection of women’s inheritance rights it is neither whole nor perfect.  A Jew will rightly not accept the unraveling of the law into moral and ritual.  Christians know that defining sin is not what Christ came to do.  He came to abolish death and bring life and immortality to light through the gospel. If you think that the gospel is inadequate as a moral standard you will remain excited about pig’s mud, dog’s vomit, and give the nod to oppression of the poor and needy.