Archive for the ‘Human Rights’ Category
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 emperor, dictator, monarch, president, prime minister, etc., etc, 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 human lives lost in national conflicts is ever increasing, aided and abetted by religious elements as always. “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 any national purpose is in no way the ‘will of God’! They have not and will not receive his blessing for doing so. 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 mankind.”
(Albert Einstein)
Many would say 16 year olds are much too immature to be allowed to responsibly control a vehicle on public streets and highways. However it may also be said that many adults are no less emotional infants!
Such persons, young or old, male of female, are often the perpetrators of so-called ‘road rage’ incidents, and many of us have been the victims of such ones.
That being true, I suggest a reasonable psychological test be incorporated for all drivers’ licensing, including renewals. especially for those ticketed for bad driving actions or having caused an accident.
A reasonable level of mental/emotional capacity required for licensing, and renewals, would help reduce ever increasing incidents of road rage. Acts of violence towards other drivers are simply inexcusable.These emotionally immature people are unable to understand ‘all’ drivers are imperfect, including and especially themselves!
The truth is they are predisposed towards self interest! So its time we acknowledge ‘road rage’ as fundamentally a mental illness! It can and should be assessed through testing.
Those who exhibit emotional immaturity in tests, or refuse to be tested, should simply be denied a drivers’ license. Such dangerous individuals do not belong behind any wheel, full stop!
There is no doubt the Taliban, now taken control in Afghanistan, are even more convinced that God is on their side! How very typical this is of humans throughout all of history, no matter how great or small the ruling empire may have been, or how many people they ruled over, Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Romans, British or American, just to name a few, all share this one religious thought; ‘God is on OUR side!’
Well I’ve got news for all forms of national sovereignty* the one and only true God and father of mankind Himself declares he is ‘not on your side‘! Not yesterday, not today, not ever!
The real distinction to be made is ‘claims to have God on YOUR side’, rather than being ‘ON SIDE WITH God’!
How can this be said? Of course the historical failures of virtually all human governments confirms this fact, but please read on;
First; consider the universally admitted fact that ‘we’ (namely all mankind) ‘are imperfect.’ If anyone doubts this basic truth please raise your hand!?
Second; similarly, why would God, our heavenly Father, support continuous changes of imperfect human governments, much less never ending wars and conflicts between them?
Third; as mentioned, if God actually supported a particular human government, why have not one of them successfully brought lasting ‘peace and security’ to its subjects , much less fair and equitable distribution of material benefits to its subjects, no matter how long it lasted!?
No ‘the jury is not out’. The plain fact is God has set an unalterable agenda for establishing ‘His’ rulership (i.e. sovereignty)! One government that will rule the entire earth. The Kingdom Jesus said we should pray for as recorded in the Bible at Matthew 6:10 *. Jesus himself being the King designate of that kingdom (a.k.a. government).
For 3.5 years he demonstrated his exceptional love and miraculous abilities to heal mankind. He left no doubt his rulership will bring true peace and security for all who adopt it. Any who willfully oppose his righteous rulership will simply be no more, that is his true purpose, not support for imperfect unqualified human governments
- * ‘Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10 KJV)
- ‘..the wicked will be no more…..But the meek will possess the earth and find exquisite delight in the abundance of peace…the righteous will possess the earth and they will live forever on it. (Psalm 37:10,11,29 NWT)
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.
In Spring of 2020 I flew from YVR to PHX then drove to Los Algodones Mexico in a rental car for dental work. LA is known as having more dentists per population than anywhere else! There are no restrictions crossing the border from the US into Mexico, not even a check-in just a camera flash as you drive in!
However returning to the US from Mexico was technically against new Covid-19 rules (i.e. Canada US border restrictions for non-essential travel as a Canadian without US residency).
Being permitted to do so I was granted a fortunate exception by U.S. CBS border officers, and advised to “not try it again!”. Therefore I do not recommend taking that chance for any other Canucks!
By taking a one-way flight from YVR (Vancouver) to PHX (Phoenix), returning on a one-way flight PHX to BLI, (Bellingham) then by taxi to the border crossing on foot I broke no rules.
After being duly advised by CBSA of the need to quarantine for 14 days, I took a taxi directly to home. Any means of transportation from the border directly to home for the quarantine period is allowed.
It has been my experience that minorities in the USA have little respect for the law. This opinion is not based on any prejudice whatsoever, but rather on objective personal business experience in OK City years ago.
Perhaps the most obvious proof of it is that the largest minority people, only 13% of the population, make up a much larger percentage of the prison population. This is true even after you take into account systemic prejudice.
There are strong indications a deep underlying resentment and defiance of law has been passed down to today’s minority offspring. Perhaps there is even a genetic reason why they appear to mistakenly believe they have a right to disregard public laws altogether!
Whether genetically passed down or not, a basically non-compliant rebellious minority causes the majority to act unjustly, even abusively. In other words there seems to be a ‘catch twenty-two’ vicious cycle, how sad is that.?
After first installing the newest Itunes program I deleted it and found that to be quite empowering, why; because the almost infinite number of choices was not only confusing but simply unfulfilling, to say the least. Indeed I cranked up my old stereo box and foujnd local radio stations much more satisfying.
