A God-Given Earth

I recently posted on VDare's (via Steve Sailer) cut-and-paste post on the rebel protests in Ethiopia.

There is something ugly about race-antagonism, even when it comes from the "victims," which is how Americans see themselves in this world of spiraling protests.

Of course, I don't think Americans, and American whites, are necessarily victims, rather victims of their own doing. They are (partially) to blame.

Regardless of politics, Americans allowed entry into their country people from distant shores and continents, for many decades now.

The question is why.

I believe this is a question best answered with a religious lens.

Americans, and especially American leaders, abandoned their faith in God, their commitment to God's words, and decided that they can make a land of their own making, imagination, and desires.

Since the biggest crime for American thought is "racism," they couldn't use the logical and true argument of race to close off their borders to all these aliens.

Why not (to continue with the "why" question)?

To become a racist is to be evil, to deny the humanity of another human being. So believe contemporary Americans, of all faith, political, social and cultural nuances.

But, God's Bible is replete with stories of race, of families of races, the most important and significant being the Jewish race of the Old Testament, those chosen people.

Through these Jewish ancestors, came Jesus Christ, a Jew himself, who opened up the Bible, and the people of the world, to be equally deserving of the Grace of God, through their acceptance of the Grace of God.

But nations were never annihilated. Families were never cast aside.

We learn our lessons through both the Old and the New.

If Jews, as generations of families, lived such a long and God-blessed existence, then so can we, with our own families, in our own corners of the world.

If America's leaders cannot openly and proudly submit to bowing their heads to the grace and power of God, then they are hurtling their country, and their people, to doom.

I believe this is where VDare, with its erudite, intelligent and clever leaders, have failed. They have decided to make America, perhaps some without realizing so, "a land of their own making, imagination, and desires."

That is why their immigrant stories resonate as horror stories. Ugly and fighting words, without the Grace of God, the humility before God, simply become horror stories.

Those immigrant rabble-rouser leaders will hook on to these words, and convince their communities that American whites are racist and evil. And so continue the headlines with news of bombs of words and steel, with no end in sight.

But through humility and grace, America's leaders, by leaning on the word of God, could convince that Mexican family (with its ostracized bomb-throwing unemployed son), which is making as honest a living as possible with a paycheck that barely covers rent and food, that its members (including those born "American," and that son) have another place, a God-given place, created by their own ancestors. And that they are better off there, even as their lives might change dramatically at first. That they can start to plan for generations into the future, rather than for the end of the month, each month.

How enlightened they could be. And how thankful they would be to realize their Catholic God has forgiven them, with their trail, and trial, of an infinity of burnt candles.

Mexicans, especially those in the rural areas, and more the seniors than the youth, have a beautiful way of describing their place. "Mi tierra" they would tell me: "My land, my earth." This visceral expression is more real and more tangible than "my country," "mi pais."

VDare's sin came in increments. Their immigration influencing capabilities are now basically nil. No-one listens to them. Even President Trump has put on hold his "close the borders" mantra on which he got elected.

As I explain in this post discussing a recent VDare article Is It Time For Americans To Start Talking About The Devil?, the Devil lurks around finding devious, clever ways to derail good works.

...there is no article [on VDare] that is exclusive to the praises of God's excellent hand in this American Nation.

Rather, we now have a full expose on the Devil himself.

And those who refuse and abandon the protection and wisdom of God are easy prey. And their missions will never be accomplished.

Ethiopia's Independence and Strength

Excellent summary by "Merema" who takes on the usual VDare hastily constucted posts on Ethiopia. "Merema" is responding to the VDare cut-and-paste post "Minnesota Is Turning Into A Front In The Ethiopian Civil War."

Here is an excerpt from the comment by "Merema," who intelligently links Ethiopia's dam construction (the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam - GERD) with the Minnesota protests:

...there are not too many Amharas in Minnesota. Minnesota is an Oromo stronghold because that’s where Oromo refugees were settled. The Amhara stronghold is Washington DC.

The good folks in Minnesota are being inconvenienced because of a conflict that is thousands of years old over the control of the Nile waters. Remember in the Bible when Pharaoh sent an army led by Moses to Nubia because Black people (Nubians) threatened to cut off the Nile’s water supply?

Jawar Mohammed, an Oromo living in Minnesota single-handedly founded the Oromo Media Network with money provided by EGYPT. Egypt is a a key player in all this because they are trying to destabilize Ethiopia. Egypt is panicking because they are loosing control of the Nile- their ONLY source of water. Most of the Nile water originates in the Amhara highlands and Ethiopia is building a HUGE dam. No Nile, no Egypt.

VDare links to a site called: The Unz Review, an Alternative Media Selection for comments, which is where Merema posted hers. The Unz Review seems to be the online home of regular VDare contributor Steve Sailer, who also penned the Ethiopia article. All comments are posted at the Unz Review.

Perhaps VDare should just stop their antagonism towards Ethiopia.

It makes me wonder if VDare's big funders are from the US Jewish community. There is no indication who recently "donated" the hundreds of dollars to VDare. Anonymity must be wonderful! Often, donors are happy to display their name, and their generosity, especially for such noble causes as "patriotism."

What is happening in Ethiopia is not an "emerging civil war" but a repeated cycle of unrest instigated by southern Oromo activists who want to destabilize Ethiopia. It was more of riots by discontent youth goaded by Oromo leaders, such as Jawar Mohamed, who are using them as fighting fronts. Such leaders are willing to have their young men killed in the name of political grievances.

This has been thwarted in part by the jailing of said leaders, the shutdown of the rebel-inciting Oromo Media Network (OMN) broadcast from Minnesota, and other short term measures taken by the Ethiopian government.

Life is basically back to normal in Addis Ababa, and the rest of the country.

One of which is to continue with the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (link is to a recent article on the politics behind the GERD), which "Memera" also discusses (see above).

My theory about the GERD project is that the Egyptians are being aided (even funded) by the Israeli to start conflict and confrontation in the Middle East. Although Ethiopia doesn't qualify as a Middle Eastern country, and is geographically aligned to the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia is pretty much an independent region. Hence its dangers to the region. And the Oromo leaders, with their Egyptian counterparts, are trying to destabilize this region, Ethiopia.

The GERD that Ethiopia is constructing is not only a natural, water, resource, but will make Ethiopia a strong regional and political force.

It is not just water that is the question, it is Ethiopia's independence and strength.

#Green Footprint From Ethiopia

የሪፐብሊካን ጋርድ አባላት ሀገራቸውን በጽናት ስለማገልገላቸው አመሰግናቸዋለሁ። #አረንጓዴ ዐሻራ

Thank you Republican guard members for serving their country with strength. #Green footprint

Thank you to all members of the country's state of the country for serving them. #Ashaaraamagariisa


#greenlegacy

China-Covid and Ethiopia

I think Abiy, the new Ethiopian PM, is doing his best othat he could since I think Europe and America abandoned Ethiopia for decades. He looked (or at least his Communist predecessors, ten years now) looked towards China, which Abiy is simply working with. He cannot destroy ten years of social politics. And Abiy's politics is cleverly undecipherable. He works independently. His goal is to help, build, Ethiopia. He is smart, and is extending his influences into Europe and North America, as more Ethiopians in the West are realizing what this all means. I think China-COVID is a Godsend for Ethiopia.

Here is PM Abiy's latest post on his Facebook page:

Through cluster farming of wheat we have great potential to begin import substitution. The experience of cluster farming 2800 hectares of land through irrigation in Jidda Woreda of the Oromia Region is quite encouraging. This shows us that we have the capacity to stop our dependence on wheat imports at a national level if we intensify our productivity in this manner.

Similarly, cattle fattening endeavours by youth in Jidda Woreda is also promising. I encourage our small-holder farmers throughout the country to continue building on these capacities with the needed support.

Earth Day: The COVID-Coincidence?

Spring Landscape Study, Ontario, Canada, April 2020
Edward Burtynsky

(Photograph on Globe and Mail article by Burtynsky, April 22, 2020: "On Earth Day, we must reflect on our duty as stewards of nature."

This photograph is from a new body of work Edward Burtynsky is creating while in isolation, focused on natural landscapes, with proceeds going to support the arts in Canada)

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The global call to action against COVID-19 is a test run for our inevitable fight with climate change – and that time is looming.
Edward Burtynsky

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This is a slightly edited version, for privacy and grammar, of an email I sent a friend after I attended a program organized by the Ryerson Image Centre in April 2019:

That's when I saw the other Ryerson affiliate Ed Burtynsky, sitting quietly in the back row, who takes disaster photographs "aesthetically," now more recently in African countries in order to, I'm sure, destabilize leaders with "Climate Change" and "The Environment" from doing reasonable large scale programs.

Burtynksy is must be very wealthy, and has projects/books/tv documentaries/lectureships all over the place, all the time. (I've attached a photo from his facebook/instagram page on his visit to a school: "So fun engaging with aspiring artists and sharing stories...What a special opportunity letting them play with some of the things they're working on an avara media [Burtynsky is part of this also] and hearing their unique, intelligent perspectives..." Comment: valeriedurantvancouver: Shaping young minds for the future. So important...)

Catch them while they're young.

I continue

He [Burtynsky] is very impressive. But my admiration was short-lived. He is part of the elite global leftist artists whose mandate is to show how terrible the world is: Global Warming/Climate Change/Environmental Destruction. Of course they are not incorrect, where our civilizational responsibility is to use the world in a Godly manner, but we USE the world and its resources, not let them stew useless in their quarries.

And

[T]hese elitist Western photographers and professional artists dictate the course of "global" culture through their disaster imagery.

COVID must be a godsend for the likes of Burtynsky, especially since it coincides with Earth Day (which was April 22, by the way).

It feels a little surreal to be commemorating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in the middle of this unprecedented global crisis...

writes Burtynsky, in an April 22 article for the Globe and Mail, which is also available here, and which I've posted below.

He continues:

My first trip to China in 2002 took me to Wuhan en route to photograph along the Yangtze River, where entire cities and landscapes were being commandeered and flattened to make way for the building of the Three Gorges Dam. So, when the pictures first emerged of the coronavirus lockdown in Wuhan months ago, never did I imagine seeing cities being shut down in this new and devastating way – or that we would soon experience this contagion all over the world.

Finally, his China disaster photographs and world apocalypse have conjoined, and given him a re-invigorated mission, where

...isolated at home, with a new pathogen determined to wreak global havoc...[m]y hope is that during this time in isolation I am able to create a suite of images looking at nature, with proceeds going directly to support the arts sector in Canada.

The government is tanking because of a fake emergency, people are set to lose everything, home, job, savings, and his contribution is to print a few prints and sell them for the proceeds for those "starving" artists.

One has to conclude that even these elites realize that the COVID is a big scam. A couple of prints from Ed, and all will be well! What's wrong with that picture?

The future of life on this planet rests in our hands...

doom talks Burtynsky. What a lofty ordeal!

Below is the article, which Burtynsky wrote for the Globe and Mail (available here, and a version of it here), on COVID-19, and for Earth Day. He writes, and prints his charity photographs, from the comfort of his "cottage," his rural home by a lake and in the woods, somewhere in northern Ontario, far away from the urban apocalypse that ordinary folk are experiencing.

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On Earth Day, we must reflect on our duty as stewards of nature

It feels a little surreal to be commemorating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in the middle of this unprecedented global crisis. Admittedly, I had envisioned this day much differently, yet with COVID-19 forcing us all into isolation, the message of Earth Day seems more urgent than ever.

My 40-year career as an artist has taken me on a journey around our planet in search of the largest examples of human systems expressed upon the land and sea. I have been to many places that very few of us have any reason to go – the places where we wrest out the things we need from nature to propel our human destiny. My first trip to China in 2002 took me to Wuhan en route to photograph along the Yangtze River, where entire cities and landscapes were being commandeered and flattened to make way for the building of the Three Gorges Dam. So, when the pictures first emerged of the coronavirus lockdown in Wuhan months ago, never did I imagine seeing cities being shut down in this new and devastating way – or that we would soon experience this contagion all over the world.

There’s no doubt that the ravenous human appetite to conquer nature has compelled us to encroach on natural habitats and biodiversity in an ever-expanding way, and that this has led us to where we are today – isolated at home, with a new pathogen determined to wreak global havoc. It seems the paradigm has shifted: Where humans once had our collective boot on nature’s neck, we now find ourselves with nature’s boot firmly pressed against ours.

On this 50th anniversary of Earth Day, I find myself in northern Ontario. This familiar landscape has become hugely important to my career. It’s the place where I recalibrate and consider nature, and where I first came to understand that we do not own this land – we merely serve as its steward, taking care of it and passing it on to the next generation. It has become an inflection point for me, a stark reference for when I’m able to go out into the world and see humanity shaping nature at scale through industry, urban sprawl and the sheer impact of the nearly eight-billion-large human population dominating our planet.



Rural Canada has taught me many things, and as I reflect on humanity’s impact on the planet, the most profound lesson now is that our reach into nature has gone too far. The global call to action against this virus is a test run for our inevitable fight against climate change. And that time is looming.

Over the past few weeks, I have been inspired to go back to my origins of photographing in these natural landscapes – viewing nature as a kind of painting. Looking at abstract expressionism and trying to find that place through photography. Going back to the shrubs and bushes of the forest. Going back to my home, nature.

My hope is that during this time in isolation I am able to create a suite of images looking at nature, with proceeds going directly to support the arts sector in Canada. The arts have taken an oversized hit during these times and will continue to suffer enormously because of this crisis. And yet, it is the artists, musicians, filmmakers and performers to whom we are all turning for catharsis, relaxation, distraction, entertainment and, perhaps most importantly, hope. As the great artist Gerhard Richter once said, “Art is the highest form of hope.” Artists now need our support as much as we need theirs.

There will be a lot of pain felt out there over the next months, as we regroup, as we try to gather in spaces and share them together again. I don’t know what those next few months will bring, but in this time of isolation and contemplation, I can be assured of one very important thing: The future of life on this planet rests in our hands. There might one day soon be a vaccine for this virus, but there’s no vaccine for climate change.


Landscape Study #4, Ontario, Canada, 1981
Edward Burtynsky
(Photograph on Globe and Mail article by Burtynsky, April 22, 2020: On Earth Day, we must reflect on our duty as stewards of nature)

Invocation of the Spirits

Firstly, a correction.

I wrote earlier that textile artists Chung-Im Kim is married to potter Steven Heinemann. It appears not so. A recent profile states him acknowledging: "...my remarkable partner and fellow artist Chung-Im Kim, my profound gratitude." [Source: Steven Heinemann Culture and Nature catalog for his exhibition at the Gardiner Museum, in Toronto]. Married folk don't call each other "partners."

In the same reference as above, during an interview for his retrospective exhibition at the Gardiner Museum, Heinemann discuses his pottery:

In 1979, the start of my last year at Sheridan College, we were all asked to make work for a fundraising mug and bowl sale...it was like I sat down at the wheel to work, and never looked up. This humble and almost inconsequential form became utterly absorbing, and I literally spent the rest of that year making bowls. And uncannily, the more I narrowed down the more it would open up in possibility. Inadvertently and unconsciously, I had found my life’s work.

[...]

Out of that early obsession came an abiding interest in volume and contained space, which has informed everything
I’ve done.

[...]

It’s also connected to my interest in “the meditative image,” which you find in things like Tantric art [Link by KPA]. And like those paintings, they have a function: to gather and transform the attention of the viewer...

Transform the attention of the viewer to what? Clearly to the invocation of spirits and gods.

Heinemann works from a rural region in central/northern Ontario, near Cookstown, where he has converted a barn into his studio.



This gives him ample space and time to meditate the image, to transform the attention of the viewer.



And assist in ancestral bowing with his Korean "partner" Kim.


Chung-Im Kim
Bow
2005
8" x 9.5"
Ramie, Hemp, Natural Dyes, Silkscreen Printing, Machine & Hand Stitching
[Source]

On a related note: Where do such artists acquire enough funds to live in such places, and practice "meditative imaging," i.e. looking out into space, by selling their works at $8-10,000 apiece? A converted barn?! How much did that cost? And how much does it cost to heat, ventilate, etc, especially during those cold, frozen, Ontario winters?

The only conclusion I could come up with is the art's welfare, otherwise known as The Canada Council for the Arts, and The Ontario Arts Council. This information is not readily available (I found two resources under the Canada Council for the Arts from 2006-2007 and 2002-2003, for $500 and $2500 for Heinemann), but more searching showed nothing more. But those are early days. 2020 must be much more lucrative, with numerous shows, including a recent, 2018, retrospective under his belt. Heinemann doesn't teach, at least according to his CV, but his partner, Kim, is associate professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design. That should add to the couple's finances.


From: Watching the Invocation


Lot with house and barn for sale:

$689,000
Listed Since: March 20th 2020
Great Opportunity. Many Uses Allowed For Present Zoning On This 2 Acre Lot Located Minutes To Cookstown. The Area Is Experiencing Rapid Development Which Will Provide Many Amenities For The Future Residents. Present Amenities Include Close Proximity To Hwy, Shopping Centre, Grocers, Schools, Parks And More As The Area Continues To Grow. Property Boasts Clear Views, Level Terrain. The Property Has A Two Storey Bank Barn And An Oversized Drive Shed.**** EXTRAS **** Newer Septic System (Large Capacity), Newer Drilled Well (Exceptional Flow Rate). Natural Gas At The Roadside. Topographical Map And Architectural Drawings Available. Build A Custom Home, Start Your Business, Hold For Future Investment. (id:23309)

Address: 4630 HWY 89
Location: INNISFIL
Ownership: FREEHOLD
MLS: N4727745
This land is located in Cookstown Ontario.