The Rich Get Richer

My grandfather in his wisdom, had a saying. "The richer get richer, and the poor get poorer". He experienced first hand the Great Depression and knew the meaning of this old adage. This saying has born itself out and continues to do so because it's the truth.

Naomi Klein is a wise woman, a brilliant journalist, author and activist, who also speaks the truth.
Listening to her today on The Current made me sit up, take notice and I listened intently to what she was saying. What really resonated with me was what she said about crisis and how we choose to respond to it in ours lives. Crisis either makes us stronger or we become overwhelmed and succumb to it. Naomi Klein relates this what she calls "the new shock politics".

I was one of those individuals that wasn't shocked that Donald Trump was elected, nor was I ever a die hard fan of Obama. I've never put my faith in American politicians nor Canadian politicians for that matter.

But as Naomi Klein points out Trump is not like any other politician that's ever been elected. He's a reality TV star, pushing his brand, with his goal being to make the rich get richer and is a culmination of the Western preoccupation with capitalism, accummulation of wealth, power and control. It's what she refers to as being a "corporate coup".

Her message is not one of fear mongering, but reality. It is also not hopeless, but a  hopefuI message, based on higher ideals and solid values that are actualized into activism.
 I look forward to reading her book No Is Not Enough.

Are We All Off Our Nut?

A protester holds a sign during a demonstration against unemployment benefit cuts on July 11, 2012 in Oakland, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

You know the kind of day you have, when your mind feels like it's on tilt, your half off your nut and the world's off it's axis? This is the day I had today.

I was feeling gray in spirit and the out of doors matched my insides, that is until I made myself get outside and dig in my garden for an hour and a half.
It's been said that the antidote to worry and/or despair is action. It's true.That's what I did today and I felt better.

Right now the world does feel like it's gone wonky and it's difficult to shake of the those feelings of worry and dispair.
I listened to a great interview today with the writer George Saunders who talked about war, love and the presidency and he said something funny, but it was a simple, succinct and a truthful message, that really struck me, because I understood what he meant and I was glad he said it. He said that America was violent and stupid. He quantified this by saying that he wasn't meaning everyone in America was violent and stupid, but there's been a history of a general fraction of US society that has long been this way.

A few days back I heard another interview with Robert Reich on the CBC program Ideas, about the rise of the anti-establishment. It was also a simple, succinct and truthful message. Hands down the best synopsis I've heard about the US and what is happening there with the Trump administration in the mists of post truth, fake news and alternative facts, and thinking that's anything but critical.

"It is a deep tragedy, bordering on calamity, that we have come to this point," says Robert Reich of the Trump presidency. In a lecture at the University of British Columbia, followed by an interview with Paul Kennedy, the former U.S. Secretary of Labor and Professor of Public Policy at University of California at Berkeley details how understanding the circumstances that led to the election of Donald Trump can help shape a new democratic political sensibility."

It's not all doom and gloom. This too shall pass. There is hope, if we can put that antidote to worry and despair into action.

Barry Avrich - Blurred Lines

 Barry Avrich - Photograph - (Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail)

 I'm not surprized at all to hear this story today about the so called  'art world' that Canadian multi-talented film maker Barry Avrich calls "Pump and Dump", but this situation always makes me want to scream, giving me a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach.

 A few years back, I'd heard another similar description of the existing corruption, present in the so called art world. I prefer to call it the art market, which the art world has become, because it's all about the money not the art.

 Jerry Saltz wrote a great article, and he calls it art flipping, and the biggest art flipper of all he says, is Stefan Simchowitz, who he's deemed the Sith Lord. New York Times writer, Christopher Glazck has called him the patron Satan of the art world, and Sarah Thorton compared Simchowitz by describing him as the Donald Trump of the art world.

 All this name calling might sound funny, but the reality is it's all sadly true, and I so wish it weren't. I wish people purchased art, truly for the love of art, not for the edification of money. But as long as we have art capitalists, I'll call them art pimps, who are such good experts at knowing how to inflate the price of art for their own greedy gain, not for the sake and love of art or artist's, but for capital gain alone, it's only going to get worse, before it ever gets better.

Donald Trump and His Cabinet

Eric Fischl-Trump Clown

Speaking from personal experience, I'm hopeful in my belief that all people can change, even at the hour of death. We all have the opportunity for reconciliation and maybe even redemption, in spite of it seeming like some folks are never going to change. We just never know. I do know there are those individuals who in this life will choose not to change, perhaps not in this life, but I'm sure there will be a positive change in the next world, whatever that is. The old adage of how change is as good as a rest, I see as being very true.

If we can't accept the fact that people won't change, then it's best to choose to change out attitude toward them and take action to make ourselves feel better or to possibly effect change in some way or another.

When artists see others especially those in political power hell bent on behaviour that appears to be misanthropic in nature diminishing and demeaning humanity and when this has happened throughout history, artists often take to their art, out of frustration, outrage, fear and social conscience. It gives a sense of being able to perhaps empower ourselves or others without voice and enable some kind of positive change. As the writer the late Ojibwa writer Richard Wagamese stated,"Our humanity is lifted up by our art."

 I've always admired art the lifts up humanity, and Eric Fischl is just this kind of artist, although it's certainly not "pretty art", but it is truthful. Truthful change is usually difficult and risky and takes courage. What I admire about Eric Fischl is that he's had the courage to change his art and change himself over the years.

I'm sure he'd only hope that the kind of satirical work he's producing now, causes some kind of positive change, if not a change in Donald Trump and his cabinet. And we, can only hope.

The Dark History - Shame and Predjudice - Kent Monkman

Cree artist Kent Monkman poses for a photograph at his new exhibition Shame and Prejudice. A Story of Resilience Nathan Denette/Canadian Press

Considering what's been going on globally with populism, banning refugees, the rise of the alt-right, hate and divisiveness, and in light of the recent election of Donald Trump, 'his majesty the baby', the hate speech, detaining people, building a big wall and the pompous pontificate the great I AM, it feels like the world is stuck in a freakishly weird episode of the Twilight Zone, and we're in a 'back to the future ' very scary movie.

It causes me to reflect on what it means to be a Canadian, in terms of our history. We're not the spitting image, mirrored reflection of the U.S., but we certainly live in it's shadow it's seems much of the time, in spite of how we often declare, 'we aren't like them' and are grateful for it. But one of the things we do share is our history of colonialism, cultural genocide, shame and prejudice, the kind that Kent Monkman speaks of in his art.

"Any Canadian, whether you're a new Canadian or your family has lived here for generations, has to come to terms with the real history of this nation," said Monkman.
"Canadians are learning more about the darker history of this country that has been glossed over, that was never in our school curriculums." 
                                                                   - Kent Monkman


With the upcoming celebratory 150 years of our country Canada, I found that I can't help be rather jaded and cynical about all the whole hoopla surrounding our history, knowing how, especially in relation to the treatment of Indigenous people, that also includes many others, it has been a very dark history.
I feel strongly about this and it often enters my mind, perhaps because my late husband's mother was Cree.

Kent Monkman won't be celebrating on Canada's 150 years, neither will I.

Trump or Terminal

Yesterday I had intended to write a post but got engrossed with paper work. Thinking about what I was going to write about, God help me, Donald Trump came to mind. Sparing myself of that loathsome idea  I took a u-turn mid-air and my thoughts happily traveled to the time I recently spent sitting in the arrival area of the airport terminal at the Stanfield Airport in Halifax.

The decision to write about this was quickly made after reflecting on the good feelings I was left with after going to the airport to pickup my friends who were coming in to Halifax from Seattle on Tuesday. This experience was in stark contrast to the feelings I was left with watching the first Presidential debate that I'm extremely weary of hearing about. I thought, why write about the negative feelings surrounding such a waste of time and energy.

So today I'm going to write about airports and what they tell me about myself.
On Tuesday afternoon I arrived at the Stanfield Airport two hours early before my friends flight landed from Seattle.

Once I navigated the parking situation, oriented myself to my new surroundings, I settled in to a comfortable chair in the arrivals area terminal. I certainly didn't mind being so early. It gave me more time to indulge in one of my favourite past times, people watching.

The security guard I asked for help was very kind and friendly. The two pleasant older gentlemen manning the information kiosk, dressed in their Nova Scotia tartans were so approachable and were very happy to answer my questions about flights and parking.

I watched a young mother fasten her baby daughter's fairy wings, as she spoke German to her and studied for medical flash cards, as she must have been studying to be in the medical field. Another young man who was no doubt waiting with his sweet dark eyed little ones for their mother to arrive. An intellectual looking young woman read a book while she sat at the coffee shop reminded me of another young friend I have and I wondered who she was waiting for. The handsome young airline pilots and beautifully primped flight attendants left me feeling envious of their jet setting life style. and I wondered where they were going next.

I've always loved people watching. At an airport it doesn't get any better. The best part of traveling might seem to be when we arrive at our destination, and traveling in and of itself can be rich with human experience. But all the feelings a person can have are all rolled up into one when we are in an airport. Joy, sadness, excitement, fear, love and affection, happiness and dread. It's a common ground equalizer that we all share in our humanity and simply being ourselves.
  
"The soul arrives at the speed of a camel" - Arab Proverb

Perhaps the best part of traveling is the anticipation before we even start our journey. Too many of us are in a hurry to get to our destination and we are caught up in the whole stressful preoccupation of what it is we have to do to get there. Instead of living in the present we project into the future, with little time for mindfulness.


However when we are simply sitting, waiting in an airport, we have the opportunity to observe the innocence of children and shear delight of those who are reunited, grandparents hugging grand babies, lovers, friends, parents and children all saying hello or goodbye.

We can see are all types  of people, different life scenarios and snapshots of travelers lives and souls full of wonder providing a feast for the eyes of the observer of people and life.

Airports are like a microcosm of the world in one big mash up, in a particular space and time, a kind of no where land, or non-place. We are striped of our egos and are no different than anyone else in our shared humanity.

Sitting on the edge of observation, not having to arrive or leave for any flight destination caused me to reflect on the beauty of human beings and their inner journeys.
Airports are impermanent portholes, in between places that enable us to stand outside our normal experience and remind us of the people we could be, and that we can always start over. We are only limited by the confines of our own imaginations.

Prior to writing this post I found out Alain de Botton has written about his own experience with being in an airport as an artist in residence. In his book Week at the Airport he writes that airports are "imaginative centres of the modern world."

My airport adventure story left me reflecting on how we are all really traveling pilgrims just passing through, above and beyond our physical human journey, but we are all on an inner journey hopefully making a particular positive change in ourselves. Enjoy your flight, your journey, and your adventure story.

Old Man Trump - Like Father, Like Son

“Stare. It is a way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.” - Walker Evans

I heard this song this morning. I was familiar with the story, and that is was written by Woody Guthrie.
Lucinda Williams had recently done her own version while on tour. It's gone viral. It's a timeless song, and to me is akin to the classic book of Walker Evans photography and writing of James Agee, that they created during the depression in 1936, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

These folk in the book were far from famous. But this documentation of reality and truth, portrayed the dignity of those down but not defeated. This book was seen as a threat to the status-qou and was stopped from being published for many years.

Those folks who oppress, have a desire not only to oppress, but also to defeat. Woody Guthrie's song and Walker Evans photos and James Agee's portrayal are just as relevant now as in the past. They both point to a kind of back to the future, where  many aspects of the present are historically a repetition of the past. There are numerous parallels and comparisons that can be found between those landowners in places like Alabama, such as Watson Tidmore, and modern day landowners like Donald Trump.

I Ain't Got No Home - Words and Music by Woody Guthrie

I ain't got no home, I'm just a-roamin' 'round,
Just a wandrin' worker, I go from town to town.
And the police make it hard wherever I may go
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.

My brothers and my sisters are stranded on this road,
A hot and dusty road that a million feet have trod;
Rich man took my home and drove me from my door
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.

Was a-farmin' on the shares, and always I was poor;
My crops I lay into the banker's store.
My wife took down and died upon the cabin floor,
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.

I mined in your mines and I gathered in your corn
I been working, mister, since the day I was born
Now I worry all the time like I never did before
'Cause I ain't got no home in this world anymore

Now as I look around, it's mighty plain to see
This world is such a great and a funny place to be;
Oh, the gamblin' man is rich an' the workin' man is poor,
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.

---

© Copyright 1961 (renewed) and 1963 (renewed) by Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc. & TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc. (BMI)

David Whitford's article entitled The Most Famous Story We Never Told from Fortune Magazine written in 2005 tells the follow up story 69 years later of Frank Tingle, Bud Fields, and Floyd Burroughs families, that Walker Evans and Jame Agee's book in based upon..