Saturday, 21 February 2015


   Terrorism from the USA?  What nonsense!  Do you not know that about 50% of all philanthropies are based in the US, or that The US Peace Corps has employed 210,000 men and women in 139 countries.  Then there are all those archaeologists, architects, artists, authors, entertainers, musicians, researchers, and scientists who are contributing so much to the world.  Listen to the millions who flee to the US for a safer, freer, and better life style!
     Because of all this most of us refrain from delving into US faults which then mystifies us as to why it is possible that there are so many who mistrust, dislike, or even hate the USA?   Why do we have scores of intelligent US dissidents who author books on US misdeeds?  Is the US really a nation of hard-working sparrows controlled by a few hawks?   One small blog can only begin to answer this conundrum but recklessly I will try.
     A few hundred years ago, unlike the French, Spanish, and Portugese, the British brought their families with them to the ‘New World’, so multiplied to 3 million while New France had a mere 65,000 that so worried Louis XIV that he recruited young women, including two of my ancestors, as brides for those lonesome settlers who had not married natives.  Families of 22 became common but could not match the numbers of British settlers spilling over the Appalachians into lands where Natives and French traded rather than fought.  
     Pressure from the British colonists, who provided 33% of the invasion force, caused the 1759 conquest of Canada that cost Britain heavily and  taxpayers objected to maintaining an army of 75 regiments in order to rotate 17 to protect expanding settlers.  They sought a sixpence per household tax that settlers refused to pay.  London, with problems in Europe, issued the Proclamation of 1763 forbidding settlements west of the Appalachians while planning an independent Native confederacy there.  LtCol George Washington had invested with the Ohio and Mississippi companies and in 10,000 acres near Vandalia so would lose.  Break with Britain for financial gain?
     Now, Sam Adams was a merchant for Dutch Indonesia tea and his business was hurt when London supplied tax-free British tea so he organized his ‘Tea Party’, dumping British tea into the ocean, excusing it as a political protest.
    Then there was the Quebec Act of 1774 that let Canadiens retain their culture and lands to the Ohio and Mississippi valleys which infuriated settler business interests that expected to exploit these lands and people. 
     The vast majority of colonists had no desire to break with Britain.  In fact 60,000 fought the rebels.  But the hawks prevailed and the revolution succeeded.  Millions of Loyalists were persecuted, many tarred and feathered, and had their lands confiscated.   Over 100,000 fled.  Those who went to Canada created a bi-cultural country overnight with residual hatred of the US that persisted for a hundred years - just as the US Civil War did.
     Well,  what do you call these rebels?  With a belief in ‘Manifest Destiny’ they chose to also capture the name 'America' implying the rest of us, like the Natives, were too insignificant to warrant consideration.  In Canada this resentment was still alive when I was a high school student in Ontario in the 1930s.  It is now almost extinct and Canadians are just as bad in limiting ‘Americans’ only to ‘United Statesians’.  Not so in Mexico where better memories exist.  When Joel Robert Poinsett was appointed US ambassador to Mexico in 1825 he ordered the sign ‘American Embassy’ changed to ‘Embassy of the United States’.  This made him popular there.
       US insensitivity remains in the national anthem.  Canadians and Britons will respectively stand to attention with their US friends as it is played, commemorating the resistance to the 1814 burning of Washington which, after all, was a reprisal for the unprovoked burning of Toronto, then called York,  in 1813.
     All those invasions failed because 16 different tribes of Natives, the earlier-defeated French Canadians who appreciated London’s fairness and feared US oppression, plus the United Empire Loyalists resisted a US takeover.
     Undeterred, the US went on to invade, seize land from, and/or control Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, the Philippines, Hawaii, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, former Yugoslavia, and Libya.   It was Truman’s bribing that got the UN votes to re-establish the state of Israel at the painful expense of Palestine.       One could infer the military-industrial complex needs constant war.  If there is no enemy, one must be made.  Coups have been organized to depose unco-operative rulers.  Bring back the Cold War!  We have munitions to sell.  Too often good US intentions have lacked proper insight, tactics, staying power, human rights, and empathy. 
     If we add in the Civil War, the lynching of thousands of Blacks, Mexicans, and even undesirable Whites, the support to oppressive regimes in Israel, Egypt, Bahrain, Iran, Indonesia, and as well a cruel penal system,  armed militias, domestic violence and rape, and persecution of whistle blowers, we have sufficient reason to persuade the US to remedy its own terror before assuming the role of world leader in anti-terrorism.
    For 13 years I taught History, Geography, International Relations, and Algebra in the US public school system.  At the Junior High level numerous errors were built in to make George III, actually a good king very interested in the welfare of the colonies,  appear a tyrant when really he served rather than ruled Parliament.  History was more honest at the Senior High School level, but interest was limited to the world’s major powers. While in university I was surprised to find I was the only one arguing the US was not all that bad.   It was during the Vietnam war and the mood among professors and students was very anti-US aggression.  Yet at all levels there was little mention or knowledge of middle powers like Canada.  Two teachers actually taught Canada had never participated in any world conflict.  It struck me that the US was preparing students to lead in athletics and, perhaps, science, but not politically.
     Pity.  Good, bad, and indifferent people populate every country but the US has the geography, numbers, wealth, and military might to lead, if not save, the world.  Its many people who have the ability to do this are hampered by political gridlock, a democracy lost to Money and Greed, and a feeling of hopelessness.
    We do need to cheer up, appreciate the many forums of co-operation among international groups of humans specializing in various  activities, and encourage the efforts of all those nations who have punched well above their weights.
     But, back to Terrorism.  It is a world problem that cannot be solved by leaving victims to handle their own problems.  Every world religion and philosophy has started with a handful of humans.  We need the same zeal to sweep into homes, communities, schools, villages, but this time to leave the sword sheathed.


     At a time when we are plagued with real problems like Over- Population and Global Warming that creates so much snow due to warmer seas, we are troubled with an amazing growth of “Terror” organizations that now number 166 of which the UN acknowledges 35, and the US 49.
     In this Life has any living thing escaped terror?  Twice, when my younger brother and I played in nearby vacant city lots, older and larger boys, simply to feel superior,  intruded to beat us up, sending us home crying.  This, plus seeing boys tear the wings off flies and killing defenceless wild animals made me a pacifist but, then, I became a terrorist myself and have the documentation to prove it.  My book contains extracts from German publications that knew us as Luftgangsters in their Terrorflugzeuge.  It seems that one person’s terrorist is another’s Freedom Fighter.  Later, I was given medals and some even tried to convince me I was a member of the Greatest Generation. 
     Where did we humans go astray?  There is much evidence that Neanderthals and Humans made love rather than war.  So many of us have Neanderthal genes how can we not believe that Neanderthals went extinct through the pleasures of sex rather than the horrors of war?
       Artifacts and folklore tell us that, even during those more peaceful 20,000 years when female gods ruled us, there were abuses.   In a few female-ruled societies we men were appreciated only for our expertise as studs to be discarded when no longer needed,  so you girls were not all innocent, delightful beings.          Coherent writings that included wars started about 5,600 years ago.  Later, the Bible became a good source,  describing the days when, some 3,500 years ago, Abraham from Ur, Iraq, and his gang infiltrated a wandering Semitic tribe, gradually replacing their female gods with Yahweh whom they claimed was an intolerant, vengeful god but one who had selected the Jews as his own, offering them the ‘Promised Land’ but only if they first exterminated every living thing there that included all those Hittites, Amorites, and Canaanites.  Allegiance was to Yahweh alone.  Somehow, priests, rabbis, and politicians arose to interpret Yahweh’s wishes to the masses, growing wealthy by so doing.       Now, other groups still imitate this Jewish genocidal pursuit but, since 1948, Jews have returned to such acts in Palestine, not learning from genocidal acts against them in the interim.  Greed, too often, outweighed Kinship.  Jesus and his family and friends toiled as extremely poor carpenters building palatial homes for Jews who served Rome.  Are the rest of us any better?
     From at least 12,000 years ago that crossroads of traffic among Africa, Asia, and Europe, known as the Middle East, has endured enormous sufferings with widespread genocide.  Why do groups of humans consider themselves “The People” and all the rest inferior beings to be slaughtered with arms supplied by Merchants of Death who are just as guilty of murder as are the actual killers?  Billions of survivors have been left, with homes, livestock, and crops destroyed, to die lingering and painful deaths.  Yet, in the midst of all this turmoil, impressive buildings, cities,  and empires have been built, only to also suffer decay and death.
     The Middle East is only one of many culprits.  Consider all those Mongol horsemen who, not content with slaughtering their neighbours,  swept into Europe and Africa to slaughter and rape.  Not to be outdone, Christians did the same in the name of God, as did the Muslims in the name of Allah.  Is anyone innocent?  What about the Inuit who have no word for war but over a dozen for different types of snow and ice?
     We should be grateful that, in our part of the world, we are allowed to breed and grow so many dissidents and whistle blowers that are peaceful, well-educated, and eloquent in reminding us of our flaws that our media glosses over to concentrate on finding, or making, enemies that enrich the Merchants of Death.   What a farce that we are content at maintaining our nuclear-arms club of US, Russia, China, France, UK, Israel, India, Pakistan while terrified of allowing Iran to join.  Instead of the essential need of eliminating all, we our now “modernizing” our arsenals.  Yet whom among these can we trust as guardians of world harmony?
     But, when we know wars beget wars, we say: “Our priority today is to find the boots on the ground to eliminate IS.”    It defies understanding why so many thousands, many from modern, enlightened countries have flocked to IS with many still en route.  What fuels their intense hatred of those not of their ilk?  They do include intelligent, and capable people.  Understanding and correcting root causes is an essential but highly difficult task.  Tackling suspected, but innocent, individuals, hurling them face down into the cement, mud, or snow, handcuffing them, and brutalizing them is a shameful method that only stains our trust in an otherwise humane state.
     Too many of us slumber on in islands of peace and prosperity.  Wake up!  There is much each of us must do.
Part II follows:
Ye Olde Scribe, 21 February 2015

Friday, 6 February 2015


     It behooves me, as an Agnostic, to leap to the defence of beleaguered Religion which has been needed, has served a purpose, but has always been misused by those seeking self aggrandizement, cheap workers, and cannon fodder.
     We humans, even the smartest of us, are a bewildered lot.  Our evolution has been truly astounding and we have come a very long way, but it has been dominated by Reproduction and Survival with both Empathy and Greed  by-products.  No human has yet evolved the wherewithal to understand what Life is.  Many still do not understand Nature’s awesome forces.  So myths have been, and are, a solace in explaining a fearsome world..
    Awareness, seized by Buddhist as a leading necessity, has been a common component of human nature, yet none of us has evolved to use its full potential, so until we do let us support Science while recruiting Religion.
     I cherish my years among the Inuit, finding them quite intelligent. Basically Animists they have been plagued  by us occupiers of their land.  Meaning well, we had imposed a totally inadequate educational system with Catholic and Protestant missionaries competing for converts.    Yet Animism and Skepticism lingered among my Inuit friends.  I also worked and sympathized with the missionaries who firmly believed their sacrifices enhanced the work of God.  One, with whom I spent much time, was Father Leon DeHurtevant who loved and longed for his native France with its lush vegetation.  He had been in the beautiful but bleak and daunting Canadian Arctic for 25 years and was allowed only a brief leave home every five years.  At great personal sacrifice he did bring material help such as obtaining snowmobiles, boats and motors from wealthy Catholics down south.   Inuit men and boys amazed me at how quickly they learned to service engines.  But our military and commercial interests continue to employ then discard them, resulting in a high suicide rate.  Abandoned mines and military bases permeate the Arctic.
     Now, temples, churches, mosques, and the likes have provided needed meeting and learning places, but there was none for the Inuit we employed at the Cape Parry DEW Line site, so, in 1962, I scrounged a surplus building from Federal Electric, enticing them to move it to the local village and organized my willing military staff to convert it to a meeting hall.    It was a temporary blessing as the site is now abandoned.
     Today, there are those well dressed and very friendly people, often husband-wife teams, who knock on my door to enlighten me with Mormon or Jehovah Witness literature which I accept while enjoying brief conversations.  When I get to know them better I invite them in for longer talks, asking more about their beliefs and why they hold them.  Too often they answer me by pointing to paragraphs in the bibles they carry.  Hoping for discussion I give them a page of summaries I had prepared of religions from Animism to Zoroastrianism, asking for their assessments.  Sadly they soon find an excuse to leave and never return.  A nearby pastor of a Protestant church in town tells me I waste my time talking to such ignorant people but then I find his views also quite limited.
     Currently the main culprit is Islam whose name is misused by the likes of IS, Boko Haram, and Al Qaida,   Because of this my computer screen is frequently abused with highly-unfair denunciations of anything Islamic.  I have received no condemnations of the dozens of Jewish, Christian, Hindu,, etc, terrorist groups.  The fact that 20% of the world’s top philanthropists are Muslims gets no acceptance.
     Science is making enormous strides in awareness, not only in the very small and the very large but in man-made problems such as over population and climate change.  Nevertheless, Science alone cannot solve our problems.  It has to have the help of those enlightened religious leaders such as Pope Francis, the Aga Khan, and the Dalai Lama.
     Is it not time for us, who think we are in the Science tribe, to reach out to them to help us eliminate the factors that have resulted in more killings and hardships induced upon Muslims by other Muslims and upon Christians by other Christians than by external forces?
     Philanthropy, like Dana in Hinduism, exists in most religions.  How do we co-ordinate it to further world-wide Awareness?
     Science, while essential, must never adopt a “Holier than thou” attitude.  It, too, can fall to the human failures that have crippled religions.
      Will Human Nature ever allow us to overcome our failures?    We must never allow the doubt to discourage us.  We are doomed to Carry ON!  Borrowing from Kipling: “Ye dare not stoop to less, nor call too loud on Freedom to cloak your weariness.”
Ye Olde Scribe

Wednesday, 4 February 2015


    Pressures mounted in the late 1400s to find the back door when Middle East middlemen imposed taxes at the front door to free trade between India and Europe.  Knowledge that lands (India ?) existed beyond the western horizon dwelt among sailors long before Chris sailed on his four voyages.  How so?
     Of course it was the Irish!  Yes, there was that sophisticated Archaic Maritime Tradition that flourished along the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland from 7,200 years ago, but it faded out 4,000 years ago.
     European fishermen who used the bountiful Newfoundland Grand Banks kept secret its existence.  
     The Vikings?  Maybe a little, but long before them, sea-loving Irish monks built monasteries on  rocks off Ireland’s west coast and made long voyages in frail craft.  In the 550s they reached Iceland, and perhaps the Azores and N. America. In 554, when 70, Saint Brendan set out with 18 monks in a large curragh (a boat made of wicker-frame covered with greased hides and having a mast and sail) for a 7-year voyage.   All returned safely.  St. Brendan died at 93, leaving his log, Navigatio, which became a well-known legend, embellished with Irish tales.  In 870, Vikings, raiding Iceland, found 1,000 Irish settlers.  Vikings made Iceland a stronghold, keeping their prettiest captured women, after killing or booting out the rest, some of whom headed for other lands.  Norse sagas (Landnamabok and Eyrbyggia) do tell of Norse meeting Irish near Vinland, Newfoundland, in 1025-1030.  The Navigatio led later-century men  to sail westwards in search of Saint Brendan's islands, and Columbus did hear of recent sightings of them.  In 1580 the voyages of St. Brendan, plus  John Cabot's, were used to justify British claims in America. No proven Irish relics have been found, but, in 1976-7, Tim Severin and 4 other Europeans sailed a replica of Saint Brendan's boat from Ireland to Newfoundland, proving it was possible for Saint Brendan to have made the voyage.      Norse sagas (telling of Helluland, Markland, and Vinland) have prompted searches for Norse settlements in America.   Yet, there is only one authenticated find: L'Anse au Meadows, near St. Anthony, Newfoundland (Vinland). In  1960 George Deckers, led Helge Ingstad, to 3 rock cairns and vague overgrown outlines.  Nothing spectacular, but the area matched the Norse descriptions of Vinland.  In 1961 Helge returned with wife, daughter, and 3 other Norwegians to start 3 years of excavations.  This is now an UNESCO World Heritage site, and Parks Canada has reconstructed a part of the old settlement near the actual site.  There is an excellent visitor centre and the site is manned by people in Norse dress.
Eric the Red fled Norway to escape a murder charge, then got into a feud in Iceland and was evicted. In 984 he sailed westwards, finding a great peninsula which, except for its western fiords, was ice covered.  Out to make a fortune in real estate, he bragged about his find which he called "Greenland" to entice settlers, just as Iceland was so named to deter others from encroaching.  In 985 a dozen boatloads of Norsemen followed him to establish settlements near the present sites of Godthaab and Junianehaab.
In 986 Biarni Heriulfson, en route from Iceland to Greenland, erred southward.  He saw Baffin Island and Labrador.  Back in Greenland he told Leif Ericsson, son of Eric the Red, who, in 1001 landed on Baffin Island. Finding no gold, he went on to broad white beaches leading to level forests (Cape Porcupine, Labrador).  He called this "Markland" (Land of Forests).  He then landed at Belle Isle before going on to L'Anse au Meadows where the salmon were big and the meadows lush.  Two large houses (one 70m x 17m) and several smaller ones were built here. Each had a central hearth, a steam bath, and a cooking pit. A primitive iron works with forge was built to make nails and spikes from bog iron.  Here, in 1009, Gudrid gave birth to Snorri, the first white child born in America.  There was trade with the natives (Beothuk and Inuit) whom the Norsemen called Skraelings.  Trouble started when Norsemen killed some sleeping Beothuk. One escaped to arouse others who began a constant harassment which forced the Norse to leave in 1011.  A new settlement was started in 1014, but It was plagued by internal conflict.  Survivors returned home, and the recorded story of Vinland ends.  Columbus relied more on the Navigatio than Norse sagas.
Greenland had flourishing agricultural communities totalling 3,000 people who exported white falcons and walrus-tusk ivory chessmen.  Homeland supplies ended after the 1349 Black Death that killed 33% of Norwegians and even more in Iceland. About 1408 a Norwegian ship found wild cattle, but no people.  In 1493 Pope Innocent VIII wrote to Icelandic bishops in a vain attempt to get ships to sail to Greenland to look for survivors for whom he promised to waive the accumulated Peter's-pence tax.
     A brave and accomplished navigator, Chris did use torture to convert natives to Christianity and did publicly flog a maiden who scratched his face while refusing his sexual desires.  He was removed  from his governor role.  He did complete much good mapping but he led hordes of Europeans to colonize, steal, murder, devastate, build modern countries, and change the known world.  He remains both loved and hated.
     So, would it be politic to change controversial Columbus Day to loved-by-all Saint Brendan’s Day?