Tolerance, On All Sides

This meme is currently circulating on the internet. Gleep!

 

        My goodness, the current wave of refugees/immigrants, along with "permission granted" by the antics of the alt-right in the USA, has certainly brought the bigots out of the woodwork! Most Canadians would be inclined to smile when they read this tongue-in-cheek supposedly humorous statement. I'm pretty sure, though, that many Christians, Jews and Hindus would also object to the shops and entertainment establishments mentioned here being next door to their places of worship, and would be hammering at the doors of their city council chambers for allowing such insensitive zoning. 

There have always been "jokes" about other cultures (the Irish, Italians, Native Americans) and jokes about religion (Catholics, Jews, and now predominantly Muslims), and I've belly laughed right along with everyone else when I heard them. This meme is a form of sarcasm, saying one thing while implying another. Sarcasm tends to be a thinly veiled form of insult. It blasts away at perceived political, religious and cultural inequities, stupidities, injustices, oddities. People will either smile in agreement or become insulted or angry at a sarcastic message. Sarcasm's place is to point out beliefs that would otherwise remain in the shadows. It is a mechanism of social change.

Canadians often take pride in our multi-cultural society and smugly claim we are not prejudiced. Now it seems we feel threatened by the influx of middle eastern refugees and tolerance is taking a hit. And, yes, when we see all the terrorist acts committed in the name of Allah, justification is easily found for our rising fears. Though moderate Muslims claim theirs is a religion of peace, radical Muslims keep negating this claim.

In my opinion, all religions, because they set themselves aside as the one true path to salvation, have a tendency to lack tolerance for any beliefs other than their own. They promote intolerance. If you believe you are the chosen people, that God is on your side, that your doctrines are correct, then you are likely to believe that you are superior to a non-believer, that unbelievers are less valuable in the eyes of God.

Those who claim that the laws of God supersede the laws of man believe they have the right to commit all sorts of atrocities in God's name, regardless of the fact that civil law forbids such acts. Those who believe the "holy books" (Bible, Koran, Book of Mormon...) are written by God through man, and who interpret these books literally, have a good chance of behaving counter to Canadian law. This kind of belief, in my opinion, provides one reasonable argument for our current feelings about Muslim immigrants.

Civil laws take into account thousands of years of knowledge gained since these religious books were written. They are created by man for the common good of the people. They are an attempt to apply a practical common sense approach making it possible for people with differing beliefs to live together in a reasonable amount of harmony. As a result civil law may differ from religious teachings. For example, deliberately harming another person is forbidden under civil law. But violence against women or unbelievers is acceptable in some ideologies.

A civil law that has become outdated and does not adhere to current norms can, though it often takes a lengthy process, be changed or thrown out. "God's laws", however, are literally written in stone.

Any person living within a country must respect its laws or be held accountable in its courts. The practice of religious beliefs which run counter to civil law should not be tolerated. But beliefs or outward signs of a  religion that are simply different, that cause no harm to others (such as wearing a hijab, a turban, a yarmulke; attending services on Saturday rather than Sunday; celebrating the New Year on a different day) should be tolerated in a country that claims to be multi-cultural. Specific beliefs of one religion, however, should never be imposed on those who practice another religion or on the non-religious. For example, the belief that pork is unclean and should not be consumed is not a belief shared by all Canadians. Imposing a ban on serving pork in a public venue to satisfy the minorities who adhere to this belief would do harm to pork producers and deprive others of a delicious meat variety and a good source of protein. A multicultural society, in deference to its citizens who have this belief, should provide another meat (or a vegetarian dish) along with pork when pork is the main course at public gatherings or in publicly funded institutions. Without forcing everyone to adopt one religion's dietary restrictions, a person who does not believe in eating pork would simply not eat the pork. At the same time, even though most Canadians would claim to adhere to some form of Christianity, Canada is not a theocracy. In deference to non-Christians and the non-religious, Christian religious symbols should not be displayed in public buildings and Bible readings should not be a part of morning exercises in public schools.

Those who seek asylum are leaving intolerable conditions. They are seeking survival, a better life. Countries that open their borders and hearts to asylum seekers have every right to expect them to assimilate at least to the extent that they learn to communicate in the language spoken in that country, become productive, law abiding, and, even though they may keep many of their own traditions, tolerant of the customs of their adopted country. 

Freaky Friday

Last night I was in the kitchen, my iPad was on the table in sleep mode. Suddenly my computer woke up and started talking - yes talking - to me about, of all things, maple syrup production. Wtf! So my computer was listening to me (though I have no recollection of speaking out loud or wondering at all about maple syrup production, making me wonder who it was listening to if it wasn't me) and responded to what it thought was a question I asked... ???

Today I turned off SIRI. The SIRI app has several functions. It takes dictation so you can text without typing. It (she?) responds to requests for action (eg "SIRI, open FaceBook"), and it answers questions (like "How is maple syrup produced?") - a kinda cool, kinda freaky listening and speaking app. 

I also put a wide elastic band on the side of my screen that covers both forward and facing camera lenses. Works great, one band does all! It doesn't get sticky like tape or in my way either. When I want to use the camera for FaceTime or to take pics or videos I can just slip it off.

I don't allow location services on my computer either.

I will continue to keep my iPad in sleep mode during the day because I use it for communication, but overnight I will shut it right down. I don't even want to think about all the search engines happily surfing the net 24 hours a day to profile me, entice me to buy, gather my opinions, toss in a virus, attempt a scam...

We have given up quite a lot for all the convenience we get from our computers! But something has just been made abundantly clear to me - 1984 is truly here! It took maple syrup production for me to accept this reality. I really didn't want to know. Computers are such a fabulous tool and toy! I admit it, I am addicted. I'm probably kidding myself thinking there's any way at all to maintain privacy on a device that sends information into the clouds.

Back in the Day

When we "went back to the land" in 1972 we moved from Vancouver to the Slocan Valley in British Columbia. We lived in a fairly rustic manner. No running water. No electricity. No refrigeration. Wood heat. We had a hand pump on our sink that brought water from a nearby stream, an outhouse, used kerosene lamps, had a root house where we kept apples and pears, and used a wood cook stove (which we brought with us to Alberta two years later). We essentially lived in a fairly airy two room rented garage where water in a bucket on the floor would produce an ice crust overnight. We had an old uncared for orchard and our very first garden. We ate fresh, preserved or stored foods. 

  One of our staples was sausage. We would return to Vancouver now and then, visit friends, then go to the second hand sausage store. These were sausages that had been pulled from the shelves in grocery stores because they had reached their "best before" date and they were sold for about 25 cents each. We hung them from our kitchen ceiling where they got dryer and dryer, occasionally releasing a wee drop of fat to the floor. These sausages usually made their way into a soup where they would plump out and reconstitute. We insulated our kitchen area with egg cartons which did cut down on the interior breezes somewhat. 

 

   We knew we wanted to make our move to the country a permanent lifestyle. The place we were living was not for sale so we drove to many beautiful but expensive places in BC in search of our dream. When I was 8 months pregnant we decided to check out Alberta, found a quarter section of trees and hills and fell in love with it. 

 

     My son was born in May but I still remember it being pretty cold when I'd get up in the night to nurse him, sitting on a chair wrapped in a quilt. It didn't take me long to tuck him in bed with us - much easier and warmer just rolling into position to accommodate his hunger. But he only lived in the Slocan Valley for two weeks. Dick left for Alberta with our friend Bill; Owen and I caught a plane to Madeira Park, BC. We stayed with my folks there until he was six weeks old, then we took another plane ride and began our Alberta adventure.

At first we didn't even have an outhouse - we'd just walk into the bush with a little shovel. The gents didn't seem to mind this arrangement but I did. A neighbour brought an outhouse over one day - a welcome upgrade in living standard. We still have that outhouse, out behind the shop, but it's usefulness has run its course - leaking roof, tilting precariously.

For 10 years we lived in our original 25' square log home, bit by bit making little improvements. From May through September we bathed in the beaver dam. In colder weather we used an old wash tub, eventually getting one you could actually sit in. I remember one time using the smaller tub to catch the drippings from the front quarter of a moose, a gift from a Newfie friend. We hung it from a purlin to thaw enough to cut it into manageable portions. We used the great outdoors for a freezer all winter; had an old fridge for an insulated box. It was colder in those days; worked pretty good most of the time. We did occasionally have to hustle meat off to a kind neighbor's freezer during a January thaw.

At first we hauled water from the lake in buckets or melted snow, but soon we developed a "water-in" system. We put a stock tank above the bedrooms, filled it from the lake using a pump and fire hoses. Most of the organic debris settled in the tank, the mosquito wigglers would rise to the top and, since the outlet on the tank was a few inches above the bottom, the water coming from the garden hose to my sink was fairly clear. We did strain it for drinking though. Filling the tank was tricky. I would stand in the rafters holding the nozzle and observing the water depth, my son was the runner and my husband ran the pump. When the water was near the top I'd yell, Owen would run to the edge of the lake and shout, and Dick would turn off the pump. In winter he had to auger a hole in the ice first. When finished pumping the fire hose would begin to freeze within seconds of the stopped water flow. So it had to be wound up - quick. We only ran the water over the top of the tank once -  when I failed to see it creep up to the rim in time.

 

 

 

We dug our cellar the summer after we moved in using a line and tackle attached to a purlin, 5 gallon pails, and lots of muscle. It's not very big, has a dirt floor with planks over it, shelves for canned goods and bins for potatoes. It's cribbed like a well using Tamarac poles and rails and it has served us well for over 40 years now. It is on that "list" for refurbishing; we may get to it some day.

When we built the modern second half of our house in 1985, we changed the shape of the 2 downstairs bedrooms, making ours a bit bigger, the other much smaller, and added a dumbwaiter down to the cellar. This is our second fridge now. It keeps things at about +3 to +5 (Celsius) in winter, +12 or so in summer.

We used our parents for our excuse to upgrade into the 20th century. My poor, father-in-law, so modest he'd never pee outside and at the age where peeing becomes an issue with men. When he and Dick's mom would visit, he'd "Oy, yoy yoy!" his way out to the outhouse in the middle of the night, come hell or high water. And Mom - for her it was a fear of bears. So we took the plunge. Getting more logs from Swan Hills we added on, put in a bathroom and septic system, got a gas range, solar electricity, a propane fridge, an in-line hot water heater, a nice big kitchen, an upstairs bedroom for my son, and a storage room in which we installed the components for our solar system including the batteries. 

We decided on the solar electric route for two reasons. First of all we felt it was a good idea. It fit in with our "tread lightly on the environment" philosophy. Secondly our farm was 2 miles from the nearest electric pole which made it very costly to bring grid power in. It was six to one, half dozen to the other. Both installations were nearly identical in price and being off-grid won out. We have since upgraded our solar system multiple times, now it's all pretty automatic. We also upgraded the septic system and the water system. Now, with the exception of being off-grid, we run things pretty much the same way as any other farm. We even put a propane space heater in the living room/bedroom area which will heat the whole house sufficiently if we're away, and we supplement this heat with a wood heater/cook stove we got from Australia (called a Baker's Oven cook stove) which has an oven on the bottom, fire box on the top and removable cooking plates, all fitting into about a 2' square in our kitchen.

We were in the middle of these renovations while we were hosting the Alberta Open International Sheepdog Trials in Fort Assiniboine and a stockdog training clinic here on the farm. The incredible undertakings of youth, so much energy. Sometimes I find it difficult to believe we ever did all these things.