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.

---

[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.