2019 world changes in a maze of different ways including politics
MY CANADA this week is difficult to write and suggests the subject should be aired. The matter will be the changes in the way we live and act in the 21st century. Possibly or rather likely the changes began before the turn of the century including the dread of future climate change, however the new order is entirely different than the way North Americans live and acted before the year 2000.
Kate Smith’s song God Bless America banned at baseball games is a good starting point. It doesn’t really make sense blaming the ban on two earlier songs in her repertoire referring to African and other black Americans as darkies. Not long ago black skinned U.S. citizens were banned from many actions and activities. As an example pitchers in the major baseball leagues needed to be white though God Bless America could still be heard at the beginning of some, if not all games. That is just the tip of the problem that existed mostly in the US until this century. Blacks were slaves look upon as lower class and mistreated by the general population. American icon singer Al Jolson dressed his white Jewish face with black polish to sing to the masses while being idolized for representing blacks and singing their songs to the population. Although we haven’t researched the situation black people were probably banned from attending Jolson concerts. Not long ago black women depicted in movies and on television programs were designated housemaids or some other type of person serving the white population. Black characters were always subservient to the depicted white person. Black men were similarly caste as not the equivalent of their white counterparts. But that is mostly and American problem whereby Canada has a similar past when it comes to discriminating against non-whites.
In this country we can begin with our treatment of blacks but that is less prominent than the continuing mistreatment of Canada’s Indigenous population. It all began when Canada decided to "give" the natives their own communities, that were encountered everywhere when new settlers arrived. The action was considered giving but those home reserves of land were mostly situated as distant from arriving settlers as possible. Some of those reserves are near well populated town and cities today but were more or less in the hinterland regions of the country when designated "Indian Reserves". Most reservations were parcels of land in distant isolated unoccupied regions accessible only by canoe river travel or long treks to remain isolated, difficult to access communities. There is much more to this terrible chapter in Canadian history that is still problematic but that would be for another article.
All of these issues or problems in reality point to a single cause called politics. The one part of democracy that keeps us from being ruled by a dictator or by a brand of communism is no longer what was expected to keep North America the envy of the world. Whether elected to rule a municipality, province or country governments are far less people oriented than in the past. Re-election and support for party dictates far outweigh the need to accept citizen wants and some needs after in- depth investigating and listening to people. Spending time convincing political peers to address needs of specific groups is no longer a reason to become your representative. Dictates of the party of and eventually voters giving them majority election status is the only way politics happens today. But that isn't entirely true as many, if not the majority of citizens, do not vote in most elections. So are Canadians really represented by people of majority political choice? Not much of a chance it seems until voting practices and the type of individual looking for a career in politics change and deciding serve the electorate t the expense of party discipline. Of course that can't happen until a major party defeat or someone dedicated to political change succeeds in initiating returning to change in world leading America or more probably Chinese influence. Stranger things have happened throughout history so maybe the future will be altogether different than the present. In some countries in the south pacific it is compulsory for citizens to vote on election day or at advanced polls. A law to force voting would probably lead to a better cross-section of politicians unless corruption of the process happened in some manner.
Climate change could create a world crisis that should force cooperation between nations and every person living on this planet. But being realistic admittedly even once the world becomes overheated, the oceans begin flooding coastal cities and breathing become a chore there will be a human segment trying to overpower everyone to gain dictatorship status. We know it will happen since history tells the story about mankind facing similar but probably not as dire circumstances as might happen in the near future at least according to the scientific community. There is a huge unknown to this scenario that being when the crisis will occur if ever.
There are a couple of historical and recent space discoveries indicators that might be indicators with respect to the future of this planet. First, past history we human earth occupants probably are not aware of where changes in atmosphere or anything else unexpected could suddenly changing planet earth making it less or even uninhabitable for our species to survive. The second is the fact we are beginning to believe there are other earth-like planets among the millions out in space that could harbour species far more developed and similar to humans. Really good reason for mankind not having contact with those more advanced species might be the fact we are savage with a tendency to destroy others even our own kind without reason. Aside of curse from uncivilized wants to have more than the people, we have such a tendency to kill for little real and definitely not any sensible reasons. So is mankind really civilized or do we only believe we are as long as we can overpower others of our own kind?
Kate Smith’s song God Bless America banned at baseball games is a good starting point. It doesn’t really make sense blaming the ban on two earlier songs in her repertoire referring to African and other black Americans as darkies. Not long ago black skinned U.S. citizens were banned from many actions and activities. As an example pitchers in the major baseball leagues needed to be white though God Bless America could still be heard at the beginning of some, if not all games. That is just the tip of the problem that existed mostly in the US until this century. Blacks were slaves look upon as lower class and mistreated by the general population. American icon singer Al Jolson dressed his white Jewish face with black polish to sing to the masses while being idolized for representing blacks and singing their songs to the population. Although we haven’t researched the situation black people were probably banned from attending Jolson concerts. Not long ago black women depicted in movies and on television programs were designated housemaids or some other type of person serving the white population. Black characters were always subservient to the depicted white person. Black men were similarly caste as not the equivalent of their white counterparts. But that is mostly and American problem whereby Canada has a similar past when it comes to discriminating against non-whites.
In this country we can begin with our treatment of blacks but that is less prominent than the continuing mistreatment of Canada’s Indigenous population. It all began when Canada decided to "give" the natives their own communities, that were encountered everywhere when new settlers arrived. The action was considered giving but those home reserves of land were mostly situated as distant from arriving settlers as possible. Some of those reserves are near well populated town and cities today but were more or less in the hinterland regions of the country when designated "Indian Reserves". Most reservations were parcels of land in distant isolated unoccupied regions accessible only by canoe river travel or long treks to remain isolated, difficult to access communities. There is much more to this terrible chapter in Canadian history that is still problematic but that would be for another article.
All of these issues or problems in reality point to a single cause called politics. The one part of democracy that keeps us from being ruled by a dictator or by a brand of communism is no longer what was expected to keep North America the envy of the world. Whether elected to rule a municipality, province or country governments are far less people oriented than in the past. Re-election and support for party dictates far outweigh the need to accept citizen wants and some needs after in- depth investigating and listening to people. Spending time convincing political peers to address needs of specific groups is no longer a reason to become your representative. Dictates of the party of and eventually voters giving them majority election status is the only way politics happens today. But that isn't entirely true as many, if not the majority of citizens, do not vote in most elections. So are Canadians really represented by people of majority political choice? Not much of a chance it seems until voting practices and the type of individual looking for a career in politics change and deciding serve the electorate t the expense of party discipline. Of course that can't happen until a major party defeat or someone dedicated to political change succeeds in initiating returning to change in world leading America or more probably Chinese influence. Stranger things have happened throughout history so maybe the future will be altogether different than the present. In some countries in the south pacific it is compulsory for citizens to vote on election day or at advanced polls. A law to force voting would probably lead to a better cross-section of politicians unless corruption of the process happened in some manner.
Climate change could create a world crisis that should force cooperation between nations and every person living on this planet. But being realistic admittedly even once the world becomes overheated, the oceans begin flooding coastal cities and breathing become a chore there will be a human segment trying to overpower everyone to gain dictatorship status. We know it will happen since history tells the story about mankind facing similar but probably not as dire circumstances as might happen in the near future at least according to the scientific community. There is a huge unknown to this scenario that being when the crisis will occur if ever.
There are a couple of historical and recent space discoveries indicators that might be indicators with respect to the future of this planet. First, past history we human earth occupants probably are not aware of where changes in atmosphere or anything else unexpected could suddenly changing planet earth making it less or even uninhabitable for our species to survive. The second is the fact we are beginning to believe there are other earth-like planets among the millions out in space that could harbour species far more developed and similar to humans. Really good reason for mankind not having contact with those more advanced species might be the fact we are savage with a tendency to destroy others even our own kind without reason. Aside of curse from uncivilized wants to have more than the people, we have such a tendency to kill for little real and definitely not any sensible reasons. So is mankind really civilized or do we only believe we are as long as we can overpower others of our own kind?