Negative emotions

Sadness -- frustration -- anger.

What makes me feel so badly is the terrible things happening to ordinary people all over the world, every day, more and more.

What makes it worse is knowing it doesn't have to be this way.

We have enough resources on this planet, right now, to feed, clothe, house, educate and give basic medical care to every single person alive today. But, because of the greed and selfishness of a very few -- and they are VERY few indeed -- we fail on a daily basis to do so.

Maybe everyone can't have an Olympic swimming pool, a three-car garage, organ transplants, world travel, and instant gratification of their every whim. I'd say it was a safe bet to say many, if not most people would let some or all of those things go if they knew they would live in a better, more productive, healthier and safer world. Which is what you get when you reduce the gap between the richest and the poorest, and allow the middle to grow.

I'm not talking about "class" here. Just money. And other resources, which money generally buys. Middle incomes can afford all the basics, and a few luxuries too. Plus help those less able to look after themselves.

Canada used to have a society closer to this ideal. We no longer do. I want it back.

My spouse is really good at delivering help one-on-one. Me -- not so much. I'm more of a big picture person.

So, while he builds stoves, gives micro-loans and fund-raises, I'm writing letters to politicians and supporting organizations like Planned Parenthood and the Centre for Information. Because if we don't start soon, that ability to support the planet's population will vanish.

In my opinion, those very few ultra-rich had better start watching themselves, because if the have-nots they've come to rely on for their wealth start to collapse, they'll go with them. And so will we all.

This makes me angry. So I do what I can. Maybe it isn't enough, but I'm trying.

Have these people never heard of martyrs?

The ubiquitous wailing & gnashing of teeth in the international media over the "case" of one J. Assange and his organization, WikiLeaks, continue to astound me.

In particular, his arrest and bail denial on what may or may not turn out to be a proven charge, one that some might say was all too conveniently timed, have garnered publicly flaunted satisfaction in both media and diplomatic quarters, not to mention international security forces and others alarmed by the success of whistle-blowers in publicizing "sensitive documents".

Never mind that the "sensitive documents" are, generally speaking, mere confirmation of what a cynical public has long supposed about the purveyors of power. Never mind that these same power-brokers have many more intact secrets that may well exceed the imagination of public cynicism. After all, none of us wants to imagine that we might be living, not in our cherished (if mythical) democracies, but in incipient totalitarian states. Forsooth, that could never be!

Evidently those in power and their media lapdogs have failed yet again to learn from the history they have mostly used to their good advantage. It's true that the public attention span is short when it comes to public wrongdoing, whether political, religious, or financial. It's also true that the public memory is extremely long when it comes to situations where an individual (worthy or not) is sacrificed in the name of the powerful. One might cite the putative execution of a proselytizing carpenter circa 2000 years ago as a case in point.

This Assange fellow has an organization, and followers. Mirror sites already abound. These folks know how to work the Internet. If I were a betting person, I'd lay heavy odds that those in power themselves find the Internet too useful to take it down all over the world. The time appears ripe for creation of a martyr and a grass-roots mythology that will continue to nibble at the heels of those currently holding the reins and writing the cheques.

I wonder who will be first against the wall?