Archive for the ‘disaster’ Category
Please note; This post applies specifically to potential financial consequences of divorce in B.C. Canada.
That said; imho divorce is undesirable no matter when or where. The following experience and information is intended for education purposes, If it discourages divorce, it has served its purpose.
One of the most damaging consequences of divorce, beyond family relations, are financial issues. In B.C. as in other jurisdictions, there is a legislated organization to enforce court ordered support payments. This agency is the FMEP (family maintenance enforcement program), it is under the Attorney General’s Ministry. Personnel are government authorized ‘collection agents‘* which I believe contribute to a breakdown of family relations and hence society itself!
True, support enforcement is usually a ‘result’ of divorce, not the ’cause’ of such. However the authority mandated and exercised by employees of this agency, called *’Enforcement Officers‘ goes way beyond what licensed collection agency actions are permitted. This government agency operates in secrecy from an undisclosed location for good reason. Even telephone calls are carefully monitored and restricted, callers being required to use a code before talking to *EO’s.
FMEP collection officers are authorized to literally wreak havoc on payors, meaning their actions can and do contribute to substantially altering lives of payors, and bear in mind payors are usually innocent B.C. citizens!
FMEP legislated authority comes within the ‘Family Maintenance Enforcement Act’ (FMEA), established for the expressed purpose of enforcing support payments ordered by the Courts. If you aren’t sure of the extent of enforcement you should read this act, its online here: http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96127_01
Court Ordered support decisions are supposedly made for the benefit of disadvantaged parties to a divorce, usually wives and/or children. Sounds high-minded doesn’t it? But court decisions often have a major detrimental impact on the lives of divorced mates and parents, usually husbands and fathers. Regardless of that fact, ‘payors’ are simply ‘collateral damage’ to Enforcement Officers!
Whenever a government assumes the role of enforcer of its citizens, red flags should be flying. There are inherent and significant dangers for society in this kind of legislation. At the very least, healthy public oversight should prevail from beginning to end.
Punitive FMEP enforcement powers include everything from serious invasions of privacy, to cleaning out personal bank accounts, imposing liens on homes, cars, and any other material assets, cancellation of passports and even drivers’ license renewals, and crippling credit ratings, to name some of the highly destructive tools available to them! Even CPP, Old Age Pensions, and UI, can be garnisheed by FMEP agents. To say these actions are life-changing is an understatement!
How did this arbitrary and abusive enforcement authority get started? Think about it; “Do governments ever prioritize the public interest over ‘their own’ best interests?! For example, if divorcees weren’t forced to pay support to unemployed former spouses, it would fall to the government to eventually provide some form of safety-net. That may explain an underlying motive for law-makers passing this legislation in the first place. They have a big stake in forcing non-criminal citizens to pay support since that relieves the government from taking social responsibility.
Ironically, in recent years moral judgments have been disregarded in favor of a secular approach under the Canada Divorce Act.
Divorced spouses are not judged on the basis of morality, under that act they are simply instructed to realistically ‘become self-supporting as soon as possible following divorce’.
So from a Federal point of view, the marriage is viewed much as any other ‘contract’. Here’s a link to Federal Spousal Support Rules: http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/fl-df/spousal-epoux/ss-pae.html
Yet, in spite of this Divorce Act’s secular approach, Provincial court decisions continue to impose financial burdens on payors’ as if they, the courts, are the ‘moral judge’ of the parties, the very opposite of how they must deal with contract disputes.
The effect of such ‘moral’ decisions go far beyond mere secular obligations. They deeply affect the lives of divorced parties, mostly payors. I believe this is also clearly detrimental for society as a whole.
There is no argument that its necessary to fairly divide a family’s material things at the time of divorce, especially taking into consideration any underage children involved. However, imposing the burden of long-term financial support for the sole benefit of a former spouse with no handicaps or children to care for, is simply unwarranted!
Support for divorced wives may have been necessary a century ago, but those historic conditions are out of date. Women have equal employment opportunities (sometimes more and sometimes less), and the Federally legislated obligation to become self-supporting!
Forcing a former spouse to pay long-lasting support inevitably fosters animosity, no doubt providing an actual incentive for self-seeking wives to initiate divorce in the first place! If that sounds bitter, so be it.
In summary; Provincial Court support orders fly in the face of the Federal Divorce Act which treats the failed marriage as a broken contract, which it arguably is. Imposing an ongoing burden of debt and unconscionable sanctions on former husbands contributes to divorce actions and has a debilitating effect on society as a whole. Its divisive, contentious, and in many cases, grossly unfair as countless men will testify.
This is an ugly truth, made more so by the excessive collection powers granted to a handful of government bureaucrats.
Adding insult to injury once those support orders are made it becomes a debilitating drain on payors to mount a court challenge attempting to alter their support order. Courts are very reluctant to make changes to orders issued by their peers, regardless of any difficulties and changes in the lives of the men burdened by them.
Courts regard most changes as merely the ‘choice’ of the payor, irrelevant to the ordered support payments. In other words genuine free choice is no longer possible for payors. Is that not an abuse of human rights and freedoms?! Is it even remotely possible for imperfect Judges to stipulate a completely fair and balanced support order? A true ongoing ball and chain effect that will not have a major impact on payors for five, ten, or even twenty years in the future..? Hardly!
So stressed by court imposed support orders, distraught payors have sometimes even committed suicide. (And that’s not even mentioning the trauma of child custody issues.)
No, I certainly don’t have all the answers to these difficult divorce issues, but the present methods of placing the burden of support on one divorcee is clearly not the answer and should not be left up to the courts.
Unfortunately, most people are unaware of the quasi-police powers which have been given to the FMEP bureaucracy by the government. Why doesn’t this agency have open public oversight?
They can, and do, abuse innocent citizens with little disregard for the charter of rights and freedoms.In fact its very questionable if the Family Maintenance Act would be able to withstand a Supreme Court of Canada legal challenge.
The FMEP agents are not even accountable to a provincial ombudsmen! They can and do blithely enforce flawed court decisions with impunity. The have been given powers well beyond those allowed for mere debt-collectors. This is blind-folded justice and frankly; it stinks! There are few benefits to society from granting such authority to mere public employees. This system is not working well, and never will work well; I rest my case.
Reality check; never mind ‘Covid-19 fatigue’, how about ‘TV fatigue’!?
Their is no denying TV is a big part of normal 21st century life for a vast majority of mankind. My question is; how many times are we willing to be exposed to the portrayal of gun violence; gross dead bodies; and devious police interviews, to name a few; add nauzeum!
Ok ok, I admit it, some of these well-acted, well-used, format are entertaining, there’s no denying it, assuming you have the desire and patience to watch them that is.
However doesn’t it seem to you that such often repeated programs have become the predominant format producers are ready and willing to embrace for TV production?
Is it because like most current movie productions; some level of ’emotional shock value‘, is the primary goal? How disappointing is it that a majority of TV feature murder and gross violence, repeated over and over again!?
With few exceptions, such as mindless sitcom comedies, uplifting plots are nearly non-existent. Old movies also contain violence, but not to the exclusion of all else! For example…
….whether you’re old enough to remember; ‘Gone with the Wind’; ‘Black beauty’; ‘The Ten Commandments’; ‘The Wizard of Oz’; ‘Driving Miss Daisy’, Look Who’s Coming to Dinner’; and other quality movies, movies that actually encourage some degree of morality, perhaps even a positive outlook on life! It’s my contention such movies and particularly TV shows are real exceptions today. Of course these are merely arbitrary choices, I apologize for that.
Today, positive TV entertainment is most often ‘missing in action’, replaced by degrading immorality, or in many cases fake spirituality. Are such low-brow movies having a debilitating effect on society?
Indeed the result of such so-called ‘entertainment’ may well be contributing to mental issues, suicides, and youth violence, not to mention a general decline in morality!
If parents take their responsibility seriously, they must first set an example for their children. They have their work cut out for them to oversee children’s access to degrading TV programs, including those from internet sources. A serious effort is required to protect them from the wicked influences spewing out of those portrayals.
Many will agree a much needed change to societies ‘norms’ is critical. According to a careful analysis of scripture that complete change and reversal is, in fact, coming very soon! It was and is clearly outlined in the inspired word of God…for example….
‘Do not be upset because of evil men, or be envious of wrongdoers’; ‘The righteous will possess the earth, and they will live forever on it.’ (Psalms 37:1,29)
For much more such real, positive information including video’s, please visit: JW.org
CLIMATE CHANGE
Ok so I’m no so-called environmental scientist, just a guy who doesn’t have his head in the sand. Actually the majority of environmental scientists are evidently in agreement that extreme weather events are in fact increasing, so I have no quarrel with them whatsoever.
So why are governments and officials of all stripes, with very few exceptions, ignoring this issue?! Surely the threat to human lives should be a priority for all leaders today. But no, what we see is a consistent, unrelenting, focus on financial matters the world over! How blind is that?? A scripture comes to mind, namely; “…Blind guides is what they are. If, then, a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14). Of course Jesus was referring to the false religious leaders of the 1st Century, but surely the same principle applies to today’s leaders, religious or otherwise, that refuse to act.
Talk about ‘Nero fiddling while Rome burns’ syndrome, but indeed that is the attitude that prevails throughout the history of mankind. Leaders the world over are ‘in denial’, primarily pushing financial agenda’s, be they good or bad.
The pro’s and con’s of so-called global warming isn’t really the issue. The issue is what can be done to mitigate and protect mankind from extreme weather conditions that are steadily increasing and impacting virtually every nation on earth. Surely there is enough evidence of this to make it a real priority?
Isn’t it time for good people everywhere to wake up and take seriously environmental disasters that are increasingly occurring planet-wide? If you are looking for a better world I invite you to visit another posting on this blog, namely:
Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained! (https://new2view.ca/2021/03/23/paradise-lost-to-paradise-regained/)
I’ve written about many subjects on this blog but there is none that equals the significance of this one considering the uncounted millions of human lives lost in the 20th and now the 21st Century!
Very often we hear the expression ‘they made the supreme sacrifice’, usually meaning humans have sacrificed their life for some political objective as determined by government’s led by a dictator, monarch, president, prime minister, elected or not.
I suggest this scenario is little changed throughout thousands of years of human history, i.e. the projection of a nations power, or defense, via the sacrifice of their human population!
Therefore the question that I believe may fairly be asked then is this; Are such human sacrifices not in reality ‘religious perversion’?!
For example; historian’s well discern that in the Mayan culture human sacrifices were often made to ensure the success of crops or other untold various interests. Interestingly, in our day, those ancient human sacrifices, be they men, women, or children, are often regarded as atrocities, perverted abuses of the populace by their rulers, supported by their religious representatives, in other words the ruling elements of their society.
…’politics and nationalism…“exalted the state as divine . . . or identified it with the march of God in history.” For some, the “worship of the state as the personification of the spirit of the nation was essential for realization of the national destiny.” (Ideas in Conflict, Edward Burns)*
My question is; what has changed today? Modern day governments may regard themselves as well informed and progressive, but doesn’t the sacrifice of human lives for one national purpose or another simply reflect all those ancient sacrifices made in the Mayan culture, or in hundreds of other cultures throughout thousands of years of human history?
When young men and women are encouraged, even trained, to make the ‘ultimate sacrifice’ of their lives for some national, or dare I say ‘cultural’ cause, what difference is there to all those ancient societies? Societies that interestingly no longer exist in spite of those sacrifices.
How can it be said that ‘modern’ man is any more advanced in his thinking than historically significant societies like the Mayan’s and countless others?
The reality is that mankind is in darkness spiritually speaking. No amount of technological advances can overcome this fact. No matter how it may be couched in glowing terms, human sacrifice is still a common practice after thousands of years. In other words there has been no progress spiritually for the nations of mankind, in fact the scale of abuse perpetrated by national leaders has increased unabated, and religious elements have aided and abetted that abuse. “Kill one man and you’re a murderer, kill a million and you’re a conqueror.” (Jean Rostand quote)
Why can’t it be understood that ‘God wants mercy and not sacrifice’? (Matt. 9:13) Make no mistake about it; sacrificing human lives for a nations political purposes is in no way the ‘will of God’! They have not and never will receive his blessing for doing so, and on the contrary, they are condemned by him for doing so.
As the BeeGee’s song of decades ago said it… ‘the answer my friends is blowing on the wind’, the ‘scriptural wind’ imho.
* “Nationalism is an infantile disease, it is the measles of the nations.” (Albert Einstein)
Its more than 60 years since the Air Canada flight 831 crash after taking off from Montreal… all 118 passengers and crew were killed.
I was booked to be on that flight weeks ahead, following an honorable discharge from the RCN. At that time there was no direct flights from Halifax to Vancouver, so a connecting flight at Montreal was a necessary intermediate flight.
The day I was scheduled to leave, I had an unexpectedly met a girl on a Halifax street I had once dated. She was in a graduating group of Victorian Order of Nurses in beautiful blue capes, perhaps waiting to get pictures done.
Recognizing one another, even though my flight itinerary was scheduled for later that same evening I impulsively asked her to meet me for a farewell drink at a recently opened mixed gender * bar, to my surprise she agreed.
While waiting at the bar for her to arrive, I realized it was going to be a close call to make it to the Air Canada desk in time. So I phoned to ask if I could take a later flight and was told I could do so if I wanted to come there for transportation to the airport at 5 a.m. So I made a last minute decision to delay my flight and corresponding connecting flight #831!
After a brief social evening at the bar, I took the nursing graduate home in a cab to the outskirts of Halifax. Snow was falling quite heavily, and I returned to a motel room for a short rest.
After a quick shower and brisk morning walk in light snow in semi-darkness, I arrived at the Air Canada desk. Staff had just opened up their Nova Scotian hotel lobby desk. I was puzzled why they appeared to be nervously whispering to each other while glancing at me as I waited for ground transportation to the airport.
Apparently they had already learned of the connecting flight DC-8 Trans Canada Airlines disaster between Quebec and Ontario, no doubt realizing I had been booked to be on it many days in advance! More than 100 passengers and crew were killed, likely due to a pilot pre-flight error.
Indeed, as Solomon so well said it “…time and unforeseen events overtake them all.” (Eccl. 9:11) Our lives are so limited by circumstances we have little or no control over, I most truly sympathize with those who lost family members on flight #831. Thankfully we all have hope to see loved ones again in the future provided we exercise faith in the loving ransom of Christ Jesus… while that opportunity still exits. (please visit JW.org for more information on our resurrection hope!
*mixed gender bars were a ‘first’ for Nova Scotia at that time!
