When I was 15 and fell in love with Canada I didn't really know what great country Canada was.
Over the years (it's been 18 now) I have learned a lot about this land.
F.ex. I learned that every Canadian or permanent resident gets a base pension after filling 65yrs. It's calculated over the number of years of residency. I am not saying you can really live of it, but it pays some bills. For those who just have the base pension (also called "Old Age Pension") Canada pays a "supplemental income" every month. If you have paid into the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) you get another pension from CPP. And nobody will start taking that away or reducing it. It's not an "entitlement" but an insurance you have paid into.
Most recently, I learned another thing. And it was new to all Canadians. Under a National Emergency like we have now with the Covid-19 pandemic, Canada takes care of its citizens like I haven't heard any other country is doing it. Until October the Federal Government is paying $2000/month to every qualifying Canadian citizen and permanent resident. The application is online, and if the applicant has a direct deposit agreement with the government the money is in his bank account within 3 days.
Other helping financial measures include the Agricultural Industry and some other industries.
Another, non-financial, measure is keeping the border to the U.S. closed. And that is mainly due to the irresponsible way (Trump: I take no responsibility) the US government has handled the pandemic. Of course, there is also a good portion of everyday Americans who value what they call "their personal freedom" higher than people's lives and well-being. Those "fine people" are to blame when infection rates are going up in their state.
Consequently, Covid-19 infections are still going up in every continental state of the U.S. and as long as we don't see a sharp decline of both new Covid cases and ditto Covid deaths, the border to Canada stays closed.
We feel sorry that so many Americans will not be able to visit Canada this summer, many of them owning vacation homes in our country, but I am sure those Americans who have obeyed stay-at-home orders and the social distancing rules, understand the necessity of these measures. Meanwhile, Canada will slowly start the economy again, bit by bit and province by province. But it will happen behind a closed border. The only exemptions are essential workers and essential cargo transports.
Here, in our home province, we are the "best students in class" as we still have no Covid deaths and our active infections have zeroed out.
Thanks for being here, stay-at-home and keep your social distance.
May 8th 1945 marks the end of WWII. Europe's population could finally breathe freely again. The persecuted could come out of their hiding places, Nations could start looking into the future again rebuilding their governments.The German military had capitulated. The devastation around people in Germany was unspeakable.
Over the course of just a few years 6 Million Jews had been killed in a system the world had never seen before, Additionally, millions of citizens from countries all over Europe including Russia had died.
World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history. An estimated total of 70–85 million people perished, which was about 3% of the 1940 world population (est. 2.3 billion).
Deaths directly caused by the war (including military and civilians killed) are estimated at 50–56 million people, while there were an additional estimated 19 to 28 million deaths from war-related disease and famine.
Today, on May 8th, we think of the victims of WWII. And we must be resolute and make sure there will be no WWIII. Our democracies must remain strong. We must guard against dictatorship and abuse of power. We must exercise tolerance towards people of all skin colors and foreign cultures. We must learn the best way how to live with each other, not against each other, or else this world will end in chaos and total destruction. We must take care of our elders, the weak and the sick. There is no higher value to gain than life itself.
This is what we have to think of on this day, May 8th. Today, 75 years earlier the world made a restart into what everybody believed would be a better life.
Has the world become a better place? Do we have a better life now than people had in 1945 or before the war? Probably. But the world as a whole is still full of wars and military stand-offs. We still have starvation, we still have dictatorships around the world and exploitation of the working class and we have massive migrations from poor countries. New threats are global warming, floods and frightening storms, some of which are caused by massive deforestation, pushed for by multi-national companies. We even got a pandemic again, like the Spanish Flu 100 years ago, and like then, we have no vaccine against it.
By now we should be smarter, more educated and pursuing happiness instead of conflict. Maybe we humans are haunted by our own selfishness, our greed and never ending desire of power over others. It's hard to find a different explanation.
Take care, stay safe and healthy.
And I know spring has sprung many places weeks ago, but first now it's happening on our home turf.
Forsythia have just started blooming and lilac bushes are showing thick buds, ready to open in another warm day or two. "Warm" doesn't mean 70F or anything close to that. Nope, warm means around the low sixties, and that it during the afternoon only.
This morning the world outside was in thick fog, but being a dog owner, we ventured out into the woods, and it wasn't so bad there, a little high humidity but no wind between the trees. And then later, the fog lifted and the sun broke through, making me breaking out a sweat as I was dressed too warm. But hey, it was wonderful to feel a nice breeze during our sunny afternoon Dixie-walk along the beach. The government had lifted the restrictions for the use of the provincial park, so we met a few other beach walkers. And with social distancing we could enjoy a chitchat over latest developments.
While most people understand and respekt government restrictions on public life, there are always the few which don't have enough capacity in their upper storage to understand what's going on. The fact that "only" 3.5mill people of a world population of 7billion have been infected with Covid 19 makes them think that officials overreact with imposed restrictions, but forgetting that it is because of counteracting the virus spread, that it is "only" 3.5mill people. Same goes for the number of deaths. They also forget that the numbers for NEW infections and NEW deaths are counted DAILY and are accumulating to horrendous figures over the course of a couple of months and that it will continue for several more months before it's slowing down.
But you tell them the facts and yet you fail to make them understand. As mentioned above, it has to do with their overall capacity limit in their thinking department. Too bad for them.
Nobody likes the current situation but we have to get through, even if it hurts.
Forgetting about Covid for a while, I use the time available to continue working on our future greenhouse. The last 2 days I have mixed and filled concrete into the cinder blocks. The first row I have to watch out for getting it as level as possible. 2. row will move along faster.
The realization that we will have tons and tons of time this summer hasn't quite sunk in yet. It will be the summer of projects and by the end of summer we will lean back and wonder what we will do all winter.
If you move your eyes to the cross column above this posting, you will see a new page has appeared there. I named it Holocaust and Genocide. I have to warn you though, it is not pleasant viewing. So why did I put it there?
Reason #1: The massive death of people reminded me a lot of the terrible situation with the thousands of COVID 19 deaths, where f.ex. New York has run out of capacity to dispose of the bodies, not to mention providing a decent burial. Semi trucks are currently used to store bodies until burial or cremation is available. Some of these trucks have no refrigeration! The US tops the world in overall cases and deaths. Reason for that was Trump's delayed action against the pandemic and some state politicians being more interested in preserving the economy than people's lives. Today the number of new cases in the US was a staggering 49,000 bringing the total number up to 1.1mill. In recent days that number would be hovering around 25,000. The world as a whole had 65,000 new cases. Over 65,000 Americans have DIED of COVID 19 since the first recorded deaths in February. But relaxing social distancing rules has its price.
Reason #2: The first film, which has no sound, gives us a picture about the results of what happens if NAZIS and WHITE SUPREMACISTS are taking over government and the country. The 2. film shows us the path to the genocide. The horrible results of which are so gruesome that we want to close our eyes and turn away from reality.
The Allied Forces prosecuted war crminals to the fullest extend in the Nuremberg trials. And even today, the Federal Republic of Germany is still dealing with a few cases from 75yrs. ago.
The parallels to the USA of today are striking. Hitler sure knew how to rile up the hordes and so does Trump. When he calls armed bandits invading a state capitol "very fine people" it sends chills down my spine. I have a distinct feeling that history classes in the US never educated about what happened in Europe between 1933 and 1945.
So many of these "very fine people" will probably say "the holocaust never happened". But wasn't your father or even grandfather part of the troops freeing Germany and its concentration camps?
If they are still alive you should go ask them, otherwise there is an overwhelming amount of authentic film and photo footage available.
Take a look.
