Homelessness in North America

Adam Smith advocates two important notions. One, the self-interest of human nature, will make sure the market remains stables. Last, the state never should interfere in the affair of the market. The state merely ensures the well-being of the private property.

Since the Cold War came to an end, the threat of communism to permeate to the rest of the world came to an end. Thus, the Western nations did not have to invest in social justice programs to prevent communism to shape their nations.

Now, the capitalist or liberal economic doctrine and social values are geared toward self-glory. It creates a space for a handful of individuals to dominate the economic pie and leaves others in a state of destitution. Plus, there is an issue of self-interest which comes with greed, and the handful of individuals begin to use their resources to push others out of the economic system and transform a monopoly market that only survival of the fittest is able to survive.

In conclusion, in this liberal economic doctrine, it is designed only a few individuals to make a profit at expense of those individuals that they only have labor power to give-up for wages. The well to do individuals will make sure to dominate the economic pie and always the working class remains at their mercy. Therefore, the number of working class and middle class will vanish gradually to a point of nothing class. The role of state is at point of nothing. Only to make sure the well to do class to have access to public resources and ensure private property for the powerful class.

Price Tag of Not Caring

Dr. George Grant was a Canadian Political Philosopher. He cherished Conservative political values, and accepted some of the critic of Karl Marx on the key principle of capitalist or liberal economic system as an absolute truth. Dr. Grant books like “Technology and Justice” and “Technology and Empire” are explaining that how the capitalist or liberal economy is only interested about profit and not people.  Thus, it is time to put aside political competition among different political ideologies since this new area is not about the Cold War, but to look at the political economic issues in light of what is best for Canada.

Karl Marx criticized the capitalist economic system in terms of class conflict, it is divided in two classes, a class that has and a class does not have. Since the class has, it is defining the mode of production. The class does not have; it must obey what the class has says. The class has, it is interested to increase productivity to enhance its profit. To increase profit, it needs to have machines that they are working relentlessly and faster than human labor. Therefore, those individuals that they are unable to wear the capitalist or liberal economic, they are doomed to failure.  

Currently, scholars like Daron Acemoglu, James Robinson in their book “The Origin of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty Why Nations Fail”, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs’s book “The End of Poverty”, and Canadian social activist Naomi Klein asserted that globalization as a major factor to contribute to poverty in the nations because the multinational corporation are moving their manufactures to the developing nations for the cheap labors and the developed nations are unable to develop workforce to contribute to sustainable economic growth. This trend has been going on for a long time, and the negative impact of globalization on the developed nations are appearing since 1980s.

In 1980s, Canadian public policy in the area of social programs began to have seismic shift from social investment on social programs to reduce poverty of Canadians to the point that caused massive homelessness in Canada which was unprecedented in the Canadian history.[1] It is important to understand that the issue of homelessness is effecting anyone, several attempts made to deal with the issue of homelessness with no concrete result.[2]It is important to understand that there are three types of welfare state.[3] Like “provision of minimum income, provision for the reduction of economic insecurity resulting from such "contingencies" as sickness, old age and unemployment, and provision to all members of society of a range of social services. Under this definition, Canada became a welfare state after the passage of the social welfare reforms of the 1960s”[4] The system did not develop a meaningful strategy to deal with the issue of homelessness.[5] Hence, the issue of homelessness is not dissipating from Canada’s hot button issues. There are some facts that they are worthy to know to understand the future of Canada is bleak in this light:

1)      235,000: Estimated number of people who are homeless in Canada annually.[6]

2)      35,000: Estimated number of people who are homeless in Canada on a given night.[7]

3)      150,000: Approximate number of people who access emergency shelters in Canada annually.[8]

4)      50,000: Estimated number of people who are "hidden homeless" -- defined as those without homes of their own who lean on friends or family for shelter -- on any given night.[9]

5)      4 million: Number of bed nights, defined as nights during which a shelter bed is occupied, each year across Canada.[10]

6)      $105.3 million: Amount the federal government spends annually on the Homeless Partnering Strategy, which is designed to prevent and reduce homelessness.[11]

7)      82,380: People who found more stable housing as a result of the Homeless Partnering Strategy.[12]

The current strategy to deal with colossal issue of homelessness is to work toward strategy of “the Housing First model across Canada, significant reductions in homelessness in Medicine Hat and Hamilton, federal interest and investment in housing and homelessness, and importantly, the return to a National Housing Strategy – a long overdue conversation in Canada.”[13]

In conclusion, the issue of homelessness is here to stay with us since the world is moving toward globalization. Plus, the United Nations has been expressing concern to Canada the way it has been dealing with the issue of homelessness.[14] “The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has criticized Canada for its "persistent housing crisis" in a report that points to the lack of a national housing strategy.”[15] The United Nations looked at the issue of homelessness in several areas “

1)      “Discrimination faced by First Nations people and people of colour.

2)      High unemployment among disadvantaged and marginalized groups and individuals.

3)      Minimum wage that falls short of living costs.

4)      A stagnation of social spending as a share of GDP.

5)      Lack of adequate housing for people with disabilities.”[16]

The issue of homelessness will require attention of three level of governments, private sectors, and non-profit sectors.[17] It is an issue which needs to be dealt with so everyone can benefit from economic prosperity of Canada.

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[1] “The State of Homelessness in Canada 2016.” The State of Homelessness in Canada 2016 | The Homeless Hub, homelesshub.ca/SOHC2016.

[2] “The State of Homelessness in Canada 2016.” The State of Homelessness in Canada 2016 | The Homeless Hub, homelesshub.ca/SOHC2016.

[3] Moscovitch, Allan. “Welfare State.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/welfare-state/.

[4] provision of minimum income, provision for the reduction of economic insecurity resulting from such "contingencies" as sickness, old age and unemployment, and provision to all members of society of a range of social services. Under this definition, Canada became a welfare state after the passage of the social welfare reforms of the 1960s

[5] “The State of Homelessness in Canada 2016.” The State of Homelessness in Canada 2016 | The Homeless Hub, homelesshub.ca/SOHC2016.

[6] “Homelessness in Canada: Key statistics.” CTVNews, 16 Mar. 2016, www.ctvnews.ca/canada/homelessness-in-canada-key-statistics-1.2819986.

[7] “Homelessness in Canada: Key statistics.” CTVNews, 16 Mar. 2016, www.ctvnews.ca/canada/homelessness-in-canada-key-statistics-1.2819986.

[8] “Homelessness in Canada: Key statistics.” CTVNews, 16 Mar. 2016, www.ctvnews.ca/canada/homelessness-in-canada-key-statistics-1.2819986.

[9] “Homelessness in Canada: Key statistics.” CTVNews, 16 Mar. 2016, www.ctvnews.ca/canada/homelessness-in-canada-key-statistics-1.2819986.

[10] “Homelessness in Canada: Key statistics.” CTVNews, 16 Mar. 2016, www.ctvnews.ca/canada/homelessness-in-canada-key-statistics-1.2819986.

[11] “Homelessness in Canada: Key statistics.” CTVNews, 16 Mar. 2016, www.ctvnews.ca/canada/homelessness-in-canada-key-statistics-1.2819986.

[12] “Homelessness in Canada: Key statistics.” CTVNews, 16 Mar. 2016, www.ctvnews.ca/canada/homelessness-in-canada-key-statistics-1.2819986.

[13] “The State of Homelessness in Canada 2016.” The State of Homelessness in Canada 2016 | The Homeless Hub, homelesshub.ca/SOHC2016.

[14] News, CBC. “UN committee chastises Canada over 'persistent housing crisis'.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 8 Mar. 2016, www.cbc.ca/news/business/un-housing-crisis-1.3480979.

[15] The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has criticized Canada for its "persistent housing crisis" in a report that points to the lack of a national housing strategy.

[16] The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has criticized Canada for its "persistent housing crisis" in a report that points to the lack of a national housing strategy.

[17] “The State of Homelessness in Canada 2016.” The State of Homelessness in Canada 2016 | The Homeless Hub, homelesshub.ca/SOHC2016.

Praying for People of Las Vegas

Life is fragile, please handle it with prayer as is the case for the people of Las Vegas, do not forget them. Also, pray for the family of Stephen Paddock that now they have to deal with aftermath of this incident.

Unstable People are Coming in any Shape and Color

1. http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/las-vegas-shooting-1.4316121 2. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/abdulahi-hasan-sharif-somali edmonton-1.4316074

On Saturday, October 30th, 2017 one man who adopted Canada as his home, he did not like polytheism. He believed that other faith groups were worshiping a false god and must be killed. He decided to kill others.

On Sunday, October 01st, 2017 a news broke out that a man with several assault rifles in Las Vegas began to open fire on people randomly and killing them.

Therefore, people who are unstable, they come in many shape and form. Simply they need an idea to justify their brutality.

Hillary Clinton Fear Mongering

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hillary-clinton-toronto-1.4310117

On September 28th, 2017 Ms. Hillary Clinton held an event in Toronto, ON, Canada and discussed the result of the post-election. She accused Russia, WikiLeaks, and Julian Assange to interfere in domestic politics of the US. Later on, she developed the doom and gloom day theory that democracy was under attack in US and Canada.

What she said, it was not a new idea to anyone. In fact, she repeated what the US president Mr. George Bush told us that democracy was under attack and the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. The US democracy is not under attack, the US foreign policy is always to interfering in domestic affairs of other nations and causes unrest in their countries. It is the US which is causing havoc around the world. It is the US that needs to stop its propaganda that wants to export democracy to other nations.

Let’s look at the notion of democracy that what people have endured in the US. The US politicians are on the payroll of the lobby groups. The US politicians are legislating laws that those laws are beneficial for the 1% of the population. Therefore, the US democracy is not under attack and no one wants their democracy or envies their democracy. Plus, the US legislative body passed laws that turned the US into a police state. Now, a person cannot think outside of the box. Everyone must submit to the will of the secret service of the US.

Therefore, no one is really interested in the US politics, or democracy. It is time for the US politicians to take care of their own people and that is a democracy when people are having peace of mind. They are not worried about their bills to pay. The young minds are attending higher education without worrying how to pay back their student loans. And not bankers are becoming rich at expense of students or hardworking people. This is now a democracy and maybe other nations like Canada have it and do not need the US democracy. Canada is not under attack by other nations because it is not waging war against other nations. Thus, Canada is a safe country to be.

Cyrus the Great and Justin Trudeau

Cyrus the Great received revelation from God to emancipate Jews from the tyranny of Nabonidus, who was the king of Babylon. Cyrus the Great also provided financial resources to the Jews to move from Babylon to their promise land Jerusalem to build their temple and worship their God. And Cyrus the Great drafted the first Human Rights Declaration which is now on display in the British Museum.

Now, there is Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, whose act have resemblance to Cyrus the Great. PM Trudeau is appearing at different religious ceremonies, and worshiping God with them. It is truly amazing to see that one man is showing high respect to other faith groups. He is reducing religious friction in Canada and helping Canadians to respect one another and put their differences aside and think about future of Canada.

End Time

The Holy Bible is a good book to read and learning knowledge from it. There is one aspect of the Bible that has caught the attention of people since the dawn of the history; it is called Revelation. It is predicting the end time will come with signs and symbols. The signs and symbols to look for are, planet earth will be going through a transformation, widespread of corruption on the earth, feminine, pestilence, drought, rumors of wars, ongoing of natural disasters. In the midst of chaos, a man will appear who will astray people by his knowledge. The Bible does not say exactly what date the earth will come to an end. Thus, the room opens for people to guess a day for the end of the time.

Isaac Newton was a mathematician and an astrologist. He took upon himself to predict the end time by reading the Bible and said that it would be 2060. It is far away date for us since we are living in 2017. The Jehovah Witnesses, a Christian denomination predicted that the end time would be 1914, 1915, 1918, 1925 and 1975. The end time did not come.

It was back in 1999 when I became familiar with the Western culture that liked to predict its demise. Let's drop off everything now because the end was coming as the computer systems were going to crash during the celebration of the new year 2000. This historical moment was known as Y2K. The world was going to move to the state of total anarchy. People were thinking to buy foods and stored them in their homes. The idea of surviving Y2K was a big deal. Also, there was Nostradamus prediction that the year 1999 would be that last year of humankind. Well, the year 2000 came, and nothing happened. However, people did not stop predicting their end. The scholars of the end time did not stop their agenda; they predicted that on December 21, 2012, based on the Mayan calendar, the end time was upon us. It turned out to be a false alarm. Now, the scholars of the end time theory transformed into a cult. They were recruiting individuals in their belief systems that the end closed. They use movie clips as a measure to support their claims that Hollywood knew something about the end time.

Coming to the focal point, the Holy Bible is clear as a clean water that anyone can see the bottom of it. No one knows the end time. God will not be coming to share His secret with others. Live life peacefully, and enjoy it. Those individuals are predicting the end time; they may predict the next lottery draw, and if they win, they should give the money to their chosen charity organization.

Canada is Becoming a Beacon of Freedom

When I was growing up in Iran back in the 1980s, the US was a land of freedom that you could express yourself and say what you wanted. You did not have to worry about the big brother was watching over your shoulders what you were saying. University students were reading the “Communist Manifesto” of the Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in a capitalist system. Post 9/11, the US lost its touch of being a great land that it stands for freedom. Now, the police surveillance is rising in the US. The scope of this paper is not the US domestic policy of police surveillance. I became surprised when Prime Minister of Canada Justine Trudeau appeared at the United Nations; he discussed Canada's shortcoming during past several decades that how Canada violated aboriginal people's human rights. To me, it was fascinating to see how Prime Minister of Canada was telling to the world that we need to treat others fair and equal. I also saw pictures of him praying with other Muslims in a mosque. I have seen my fair share of other Prime Minister of Canada, they never worn Muslim clothes and pray with Muslims. Justine Trudeau's father was a prime minister of Canada, and he too acted outside of the realm of the conventional wisdom of acceptable politics. Thus, son learned from his father to be innovative and accept others for who they are.

Now, I see Canada as a beacon of hope, a nation which is striving to be different than other countries. It is trying to be an example to other countries how to govern. It will be an exciting year ahead of us how Canada will influence other nations in the area of freedom.

Embracing Muslims in Canada

The Muslim communities are here in Canada to stay; they are not going to leave Canada. It is also important to make the Muslim communities feel welcome in Canada and not marginalizing them. It is important for other ethnic groups to embrace Muslim communities to prevent Muslims to create their ethnic enclaves. For example, when Europeans came to Canada, they created their ethnic enclaves and the second generation moved out of the ethnic enclaves because the mainstream society welcomed them and counted them as one of them. Today, the mainstream society needs to recognize Muslims as Canadian. Otherwise, Canada will be walking in a dark alley and has to deal with bizarre events.

Canada is Responsible for Its Sovereignty

John Ivison: ‘U.S. policy is not to defend Canada’ in the event of a missile attack, general says

North Korea has been testing nuclear bombs, and the intention is to destroy Japan and South Korea. Therefore, the nations are the world are concern about their security, too. Today, it is North Korea, and tomorrow it is another country waging war against another country.Canada is also concern about its security and does not want another nation drops a nuclear bomb in Canada.

Canada relies on the US to defend its sovereignty. There is this understanding that if a country attacks Canada, the US will deploy its arm to push back the invading army. Such a mentality is a problem for Canada. If a country invades Canada and the US push the aggressor out of Canada, the US would not withdraw its army from Canada. Particularly, the US forces land in the oil-rich of Alberta.

The bottom line, Canada is responsible for its security and cannot rely on other nations to defend it. The other countries have their problems. Especially, the US is spending over $700 billion annually on its military; it has caused the financial burden on the US economy. It is possible that the US may reduce its military budget and allocate those funds toward other programs.

Islamophobia in Canada

In the 1970s, the eastern people began to immigrate to the western nations, and the eastern people brought their cultural values to the western nations. One aspect of the cultural value is the religion, and since the western countries were predominately Christian, the Islamic values did not go so well. The Muslim communities began to face discrimination in the western nations, and the notion of Islamophobia emerged as a neologism to define the current state of fear among the western individuals that they deemed Islam as a threat to their existence.

Runnymede Trust published a report with the title of ‘Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All‘ that the Muslim communities were facing bigotry in their communities. There is also a claim that since the incident of 9/11 the intensity of prejudice against the Muslim communities has increased.

The Canadian government decided to legislate Motion of 103 to allow Muslim communities to live in Canada as a free person. It seems like a good idea, but there is a problem with this policy because the government is trying to police people’s thought and no one can police people’s thought. Therefore, the notion of Islamophobia remains at heart and mind of people and will clandestinely practice the Islamophobia. The Motion 103 does not help anyone but perpetuate anger and animosity among people.

The solution for Islamophobia is to allow everyone to speak their minds, and engage one another in making the air clear that where people want to meet with Islam. It is not up to a lobby group or a political party that how they want to govern their society. It is up to people to govern their society. Let people decide for themselves and not the hidden hand of lobby groups.

My Dream

Every person in this world has a dream; I too have a dream that we no longer hurt one another but to love one another. We do not punch one another but exchange flowers with one another. We do not use foul language but exchange beautiful words with one another. We do not get angry at each other, but we understand each other. We do not ignore each other, but we care for each other.

This is what makes us human when we care about each other. We understand each other; we go beyond our limitation to give hands to each other, we do not look down at people we grab hands and pull up one another, we build a relationship, we do not create anger and seek vengeance at each other. Perhaps a day will come that 9/11 will become a symbol of unity among nations.