Time to get thinner

From Shaman’s Rock

By Jim Poling Sr.

The Farmers’ Almanac is forecasting heavier than usual snowfalls for the Great Lakes region this coming winter.

That’s good news, in a perverse way. More snow means more shovelling and more shovelling means more calories burned.

Canadians definitely need to burn more calories. The World Obesity Federation says that almost one-third of Canadians are obese. It ranks Canada as the world’s 20th most obese country.

Obesity has increased significantly throughout the world, almost tripling since 1975.  In Canada, obesity rose from 22.2 per cent of the population in 2005 to 27.2 per cent in 2018. Now it is 30.47 per cent of Canadians.

Even more startling, the federation predicts that 51 per cent of the world – roughly four billion people – will be overweight or obese within the next 12 years.

Too many people assume that obesity is the result of people eating too much and exercising too little. Scientific studies show however that genetics play a part in obesity. People born with certain genes are more likely to become obese than others.

Other research has shown that healthy weight can be maintained no matter what a person’s genetic background. Roughly 20 to 30 per cent of a person’s weight is determined by environmental factors, so closely watching what we eat and drink and getting enough exercise is important.

Many health experts consider obesity an epidemic that is expected to overtake smoking as the main cause of preventable deaths in Canada. Obesity now is a leading cause of Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, arthritis and other health problems.

Obesity Canada, a charity working to reduce obesity, estimates that one in 10 premature deaths among Canadian adults ages 20 to 64 are directly attributable to obesity.

The fundamental cause of obesity is an energy imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended. We eat too many foods high in fats and sugars and spend not enough time exercising.

Surveys show that 22 per cent of our diets, and 25 per cent of teenager diets, consist of fast foods, condiments and sugary beverages.

We don’t eat the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables. The federal government says we need to eat more of those, more protein and whole grain foods and make water the drink of choice.

Also, many jobs these days require less physical activity and most people get to work by car or public transport. 

Even at home we are consuming less energy. We spend more time watching television and more equipment like vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers, which used to be physically pushed, now are remote controlled.

Almost 53 per cent of Canadians believe they are physically active when in fact research shows that only 15 per cent meet national guidelines for activity.

Obesity in young people is a serious problem. Only seven per cent of them are believed to be getting even moderate levels of physical activity. And, of course, young people are fast food consumers who spend much time watching a screen of some sort.

The costs of obesity are huge. The World Obesity Federation says the economic impact of overweight and obesity on the world is set to reach $4.32 trillion annually by 2035. That equals three per cent of global gross domestic product, comparable with the impact of COVID-19 in 2020.

The direct cost of obesity in Canada has been estimated at between $5 and $7 billion a year. That includes physician, medication and hospitalization costs. But these are older figures and the current direct costs are likely in the double-digit billions.

Whatever the exact cost, it is huge and direct strain on the Canadian economy. It’s an issue that has caught the attention of some of us individually. We talk a lot about the need to lose weight, eat less and exercise more. 

But it is not an important issue with the general Canadian public. 

Oddly enough we lament news clips and advertisements about underweight adults and children around world the suffering from not enough to eat. 

The world’s poorly fed, underweight children have been a serious concern for decades. They remain a problem, however, experts say that obesity now is a larger cause of preventable deaths than underweight.

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Time to say goodbye

From Shaman’s Rock

By Jim Poling Sr.

The turning leaves tell us about change; the need for it and the importance of making change at the right time. 

Autumn leaves turn colour then drop to make room for a new generation that will continue the work of the trees they serve. They’ve done their best and accept that their work will be carried on by new growth.

Political leaders need to accept the same reasoning. They don’t and very few resign when they should. 

They don’t for a variety of reasons, fearing loss of power, loss of money, and loss of relevance. Also, they don’t resign when they should because they fear their leaving will be seen as an admission of having done wrong, or at least not doing everything they had promised to do.

Two that should resign now are Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario premier Doug Ford. 

Trudeau has had his time - eight years leading the federal government – and a majority of Canadians no longer want him around. A poll by Nano Research shows that only 20 per cent of respondents believe he should lead his governing Liberal party into the next general election.

Another poll reports that just 27 per cent of Canadians think the country is headed in the right direction. 

Trudeau became prime minister as a celebrity candidate and probably the least qualified person in the country’s history to take on the role. He no doubt did the things he thought best, making some good decisions and some bad for the country and its citizens.

He now has family problems that need his attention more than the country does. An easy and honourable way out is to step up to a microphone and say supporting family is more important than politics.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s approval rating has seen its largest dip since he took office five years ago. He currently ranks last in popularity among Canadian premiers. Recent polling shows his approval rating at 28 per cent, a drastic drop from 69 per cent in March 2020.

He now finds himself mired in a scandal that refuses to go away. His government’s decision to remove 7,400 acres from the environmentally-protected Greenbelt zone surrounding the Greater Toronto area has resulted in heavy criticism. It forced the resignation of his housing minister who Ontario’s ethics commission said broke ethics  rules.

Ford has sloughed off criticism saying the land is needed for affordable housing. However, he has said repeatedly in the past that his government would not develop the protected lands.

There are alternatives to building housing on farmland, which the 2021 Census on Agriculture suggests Ontario is losing at a rate of 319 acres a day. It is difficult understand what Ford hopes to achieve by breaking his word on such a sensitive topic.

All this follows criticism of Ontario’s handling of the Coronavirus pandemic, health care in general, care of seniors and reducing funds for education.

Trudeau and Ford need to be replaced by new types of leaders. Leaders who are committed to something bigger than themselves and gaining votes for their political parties.

Our political party system has become one of opposition instead of co-operation. We need new leaders who are less beholding to their parties and more tuned into the voices of the people and their needs.

The world is changing dramatically and facing the difficult issues of climate change, pandemics, growing authoritarianism and inequality. Today’s leaders must have new approaches to the rapidly changing world and the ability to inspire diverse groups of people to work with them.

The world in which Trudeau and Ford were elected five to eight years ago now is a different place. There is a trend toward weakening democracies and access to information that have left general populations with less say.

There is no shame in stepping aside now and being replaced by people with new approaches and new visions. Leaders who seek solutions by listening to the common people who are the ones most affected by the changes we see now, and more change that is likely in the future.

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And so we enter the time of plenty.

Crops ripen in fields. Apple trees hang heavy with fruit. 

Autumn is the time of plenty of food. The time of harvest and satisfaction knowing we have the food we need for lean months ahead.

Yet as we enter the time of plenty the number of children returning to school with hungry stomachs continues to increase. 

Statistics Canada reports that in 2022 almost 1.8 million Canadian children lived in households that could not afford the food needed for healthy living. Almost 11 per cent of households in the Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Pine Ridge region were food insecure in 2022, the region’s district health board reported earlier this year.

Food banks say that visits to their facilities have increased by as much as 20 to 30 per cent in the last year. Feed Ontario, a collective of hunger relief organizations, says that roughly one-third of all visitors to Ontario food banks are under 18 years of age.

Feed Ontario also says that Ontario food banks were visited more than 4.3 million times during the 2021-22 year, an increase of 42 per cent over the previous three years. The number of visits in the first nine months of last year increased 24 per cent.

Also, the number of first-time visitors increased 64 per cent since 2019. 

Child hunger is not just about a kid not having enough to eat now and then. It is a problem that affects our entire society for years into the future.

Hungry children can’t focus properly on classroom lessons or on learning life skills. When they don’t absorb lessons they have trouble later getting a job needed to support themselves and any family they might have in the future.  

The result often is even more families with not enough food for healthy living. It is a cycle of more hungry children unable to escape the cycle of poverty and resulting food insecurity.

Hungry families and hungry children lead to numerous social problems, including crime.

Research shows a correlation between food insecurity and violent crime.  One U.S. university study concluded that for every one per cent rise in food insecurity, violent crime rates increased by 12 per cent.

In the words of Pearl Buck, author of the internationally acclaimed novel The Good Earth: 

“A hungry man can’t see right or wrong. He just sees food.”

Hungry people are not only perpetrators of crime, they sometimes are victims. Statistics Canada has reported that more than one in seven Canadian adults who were victims of crime from 2016 to 2018 lacked consistent access to enough food to live an active, healthy life. 

There is no shortage of individuals or organizations trying to alleviate hunger among children and their families. Food Banks Canada says it supports a network of 4,750 hunger relief organizations across Canada. 

There are many other hunger relief groups such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society collecting a distributing food for those in need. 

All the good work being done to feed the hungry is not enough. It fills some bellies temporarily but does little to eliminate the causes of food insecurity.

Many experts say that the way to attack poverty and hunger is to work at limiting the inequalities we have in income, wealth, gender and race. Unimaginable fortunes are being made by the world’s super rich while common working people face deteriorating benefits.

Simply put, the gap between the rich and the rest of us continues to widen, assisted by poor governance and corruption.  

Oxfam International, a global movement fighting poverty, says common people must work together to challenge the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few.

“We can demand an end to patriarchy, white supremacy and neoliberalism,” it says. “We can change the rules on tax to make sure the richest pay their fair share. We can demand more spending on public health and education. We can demand fair wages for everyone.” 

Whatever. 

All I know is that it is a total outrage that we still have children going to school hungry and relying on school breakfasts and lunches to provide their basic nutrition needs.

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 I now know why sunflowers droop. It’s not because they lack water, or because their seed heads have become heavy.

When you see sunflowers drooping, instead of standing proud and happy, they are hanging their heads in embarrassment. That’s because they have become victims of a witless fad.

It’s a fad that appears occasionally but usually fades quickly with little attention. But it fell into the international media spotlight recently in Britain and there is concern it will become a major craze.

A British sunflower farm reported it has posted No Public Nudity signs at its sunflower fields because people were stripping to take photos of themselves nude among the big, sunny blooms. Some nude photos are posted on social media sites for the enjoyment of followers.

“We are a family area and please keep your clothes on in the sunflowers,” visitors to the farm are being told. 

The farm began allowing visitors to view the spectacular blooming flowers in late July, then discovered at least six instances of people dropping their clothes for nude photographs. 

One visitor reported going through the sunflower patches looking for a spectacular bloom but was shocked to find something even more spectacular – a naked woman posing for a camera.

Another person, apparently visiting the sunflowers with children, reported stumbling onto a woman wearing only a skimpy thong.

"Our son got a right eyeful last night. Should have seen his face!!"

Now some Canadian sunflower farm owners are complaining about visitors wreaking havoc in their fields. People are trampling the sunflower crops as they seek good spots to pose for selfies, clothed or not, among the flowers.

Sunflowers have inspired the urge to go naked ever since Helen Mirren starred in the British film Calendar Girls. It was based on the true story of a group of middle-aged women who pose nude for a calendar to raise money for blood cancer research. Sunflowers featured prominently in the photos.

Their nude calendar plan was an instant success and eventually raised millions of dollars for blood cancer research. That happy outcome no doubt boosted the flower’s reputation as a symbol of warmth, love and happiness.

Throughout history the flowers have been associated with sun and harvest, creating symbolism of warmth, abundance and prosperity.

Some societies view the sunflower as a symbol of hope and joy, associating it with optimism and perseverance and a representation of life itself. Others see it as a symbol of long life and lasting happiness because most varieties bloom throughout the summer.

The current fad of taking nude selfies in the sunflowers seems to be part of a growing trend toward nudism. Studies of social media data showed a significant increase in nude photo posts during the Coronavirus pandemic.

British Naturism, an organization that supports nudism, reported a more than 100- per-cent increase in new members during the first year of the pandemic.

This year’s fashion show walkways have shown the “sheer look” more prominently with bare breasts and skimpy panties visible through see-through clothing. Fashion gurus say risqué sheer looks will gain more prominence in future.

Posing for nude pictures in the sunflowers does involve some risk. 

Worms, weevils, spiders, beetles and bees are there to build homes, lay eggs and snack on the sunflowers’ tasty treats. Larger critters such as raccoons, mice, rats and bats also are found there.

So if you prefer to be among the sunflowers nude, you are offering a lot more skin to curious critters.

Sunflower pollen and oils also create allergies for some people. These are seldom severe but can cause itchy mouth, watery eyes, eczema and hives, as well as breathing difficulties. 

Knowing all that it’s probably best to keep your clothes on when visiting sunflower fields. Besides are your followers on Instagram and Facebook really interested in seeing your sagging body parts among sagging sunflower heads?

Some nude posers say their photos make great cards to send out and celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and even Christmas.

Maybe I’m too old-fashioned but I still prefer Christmas cards with smiling Santas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or still and quiet manger scenes.

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My laptop computer is driving me crazy.

It’s like it has been invaded by those evil clowns you see in television commercials. You know, the ones with white faces, fiery red lips, wicked red smiles and tufts of curly red or blue hair framing a bald head.

They sneak about in the shadows, concocting new ways to make life difficult. They work quietly and efficiently, grinning mischievously while driving you whacko.

They are not just in my laptop. They’ve also invaded my cell phone and my iPad.

Most people call clowns Bozos. I call the ones in my computer equipment Spam.

Spam, in the form of dishonest text messages, emails and telephone calls, is increasing. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says that last year it received fraud and cybercrime reports totalling $530 million in victim losses. That was almost a 40-per-cent increase from the previous year.

Those figures don’t actually reflect the full extent of spam fraud because the centre says most people don’t report spamming that is minor or just annoying.

There really is no defence against email and text spam, or the spam phone calls that come at any time of day or night. You can’t stop them. If you do find ways, the spammers come up with ways around them.

I now have roughly 500 blocked spam addresses on my cell phone. However, once a spammer discovers the block he changes the address slightly and starts again.

Some of spam is not just annoying, it’s downright dangerous. It can contain malicious links or attachments that infect your system with malware or viruses.

The purpose of most scams is to get at your information and use it to get money from you.

We put our email and text addresses up for sale or trade when we accept the privacy policies of services or websites that we visit. Those policies are long, painful reads that often include your agreement to your information being passed on to others. Who reads them when you simply are trying to find something simple on a company website?   

Email addresses are worth money to scammers. They buy them in bulk to add to their mailing lists. A simple push of a button sends spam out to tens of thousands of innocent people and just one sucker falling for the scam makes it all worthwhile.  

Phishing – pretending to be a legitimate major retailer or service – has become a favourite way for scammers to trick consumers. 

Scammers copy a company logo and use it in a phony email. The message might say you have a $45 credit from a recent purchase. Click a link, fill in your credit card or bank info and the $45 will be deposited for you.

Retail giant Walmart has become the most imitated company.  Its brand name was used in 16 percent of all phishing schemes globally during the first quarter of this year, says a study by Check Point Research, a California-based cyber threat intelligence company. That’s an increase from 13 percent in the last quarter of 2022. 

Other top companies imitated by scammers are the delivery company DHL, Linkedin and Netflix. I’ve also blocked phishing schemes from Lowes building supplies, Costco Best Buy and a variety of pharmaceutical companies.

Scammers also hack the accounts of people you know then send you fake messages that appear to be from someone you trust.

Basically we are alone when it comes to fighting these cyber crimes. If you report a phishing attack or other email fraud to police you’ll likely be told to call the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre  by telephone at 1-888-495-8501.

When you call that outfit someone will take down your information and say thank you. The centre simply collects information on fraud and identity theft and compiles details of past and current scams to pass on to the general public. 

There’s little direct action any government agency can take. We are all on our own on this one. The best any of us can do is be very watchful and cautious, don’t open anything that looks the least bit suspicious and if a company wants something from you, give them a call or go into one of their stores.

Scenes of utter devastation from Maui, Hawaii, the Yellowknife, N.W.T. and B.C. wildfire evacuations, plus the Halifax flash flooding bring to mind a single word: Apocalypse.

We are living a real life apocalypse as fires, floods and drought bring destruction and death. Record wildfires in North America, killing heatwaves in India, Pakistan and Australia, typhoons in Asia and record-breaking rainfall in the U.K. and parts of Europe confirm today’s apocalypse as a global event.

Elon Musk, the business magnate baptised Anglican but now claiming no religious affiliation, issued an apocalypse warming last year, predicting the end of mankind.

Apocalypses are common in Biblical texts and usually refer to an intense confrontation with God in which destruction of evil and the end of time bring divine justice and the visibility of God’s rule.

I prefer to understand apocalypse as a revelation, which is the true meaning of the Greek word apokálypsis from which the English word is derived.

Apocalypses are devastating events but they reveal how our lives can be better by changing the lifestyles that brought about the apocalypse in the first place.

Surely no intelligent person doubts that global warming is causing the damaging weather events we are witnessing. And, there can be no doubt that human lifestyles are major contributors to climate change.

We are beginning to accept that our ways of living must be changed if we are to avoid what Musk calls the end of mankind.

Many governments are committed to reducing climate changing emissions to zero by 2050. They are investing in renewable energy alternatives to fossil fuels, reducing environment damaging items such as plastics and promoting more ways of green living.

But governments are cumbersome and slow. They are incapable of reducing global warming on their own. They need a committed partnership with business to effectively change policies and practices. Businesses exist to make money, however, and changes will hit corporation bottom lines.

Collective action is needed and will be achieved only when individuals become deeply committed. That requires individuals to make better choices about where they get their energy, what foods they eat, what items they buy and how they travel.

More than that, individuals need to pressure governments and businesses to change policies and practices. Governments need individuals to vote for them and businesses cannot survive without customers so individuals can be a powerful force in making change happen.

Will individuals take today’s climate apocalypse as a revelation that we must make major changes to the way we live? That’s questionable.

Think about how filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola warned us back in 1979 about the futility and absurdity of war. His brilliant Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now portrays war’s damaging psychological effects on humans and how it indulges the darkest, ugliest parts of human nature.

Yet here we are more than half a century later with Encyclopedia Britannica posting an article on the eight deadliest wars in the still young 21st century: The Second Congo War. Syrian Civil War, Darfur Conflict, Iraq War, Afghanistan War, The War Against Boko Haram, Yemeni Civil War, Russia-Ukraine War.

Those are just the eight deadliest of the 32 conflicts now ranging in various parts of the world.

Whether we learn enough and make the changes needed to stop the current fire-flood-drought apocalypse from destroying the plant remains to be seen.

There is hope, however.

A 2021 study of 10,000 young people 16 to 25 in 10 countries found 59 per cent said they are extremely or very worried about climate change. Most of those also said their feelings about climate change negatively affect their daily lives.

Youth organizations such as Zero Hour, Earth Uprising and Climate Cardinals have been growing in recent years and are working to find solutions to global warming and climate change.

The United Nations has expressed confidence that youth will find a way to make changes that will prevent the planet’s final apocalypse.

Says a UN web page on climate actions:

“Young people are not only victims of climate change. They are also valuable contributors to climate action. They are agents of change, entrepreneurs and innovators. Whether through education, science or technology, young people are scaling up their efforts and using their skills to accelerate climate action.”

Here’s hoping!

Some good news: Despite weather disasters and war the world apparently has become a happier place.

The annual Gallup Global Emotions Report shows people around the world generally more positive in 2022 than they were a year before. More people felt well-rested, experienced enjoyment, and smiled or laughed than in 2021.

That finding is supported by the market research company Ipsos which says global happiness is six points higher than one year ago. It says 73 per cent of adults across 32 world markets describe themselves as happy.

I'm taking all that with a grain of salt, or more likely a shot of whiskey.

The happiness polls show pockets of unhappiness that are deeper and wider than the pollsters realize.

Gallup, an analytics and advisory company, has reported steadily rising negative feelings since 2006 when it reported a negative experience of index of 23. The index rose steadily to a record 33 in 2021 and remains there.

  Gallup also found that 41 per cent of people last year experienced worry while 32 per cent said they experienced daily pain.But this year’s increase in global happiness is driven by a few unlikely areas. Latin America, notably Brazil, Peru, Argentina and Columbia, has seen a remarkable year-over-year happiness increase. Western counties are showing decreases with the number of Canadians feeling happy down six per cent in the last year.

In 2012 Canada was listed as the world’s fourth happiest country. Last year we were rated 15th happiest.

The reasons why Canadian happiness has fallen so far should be fairly obvious. Ask anyone close by you and you’ll likely hear complaints about high food prices, absurdly high housing costs, increasing crime and violence and a feeling that governments have made little progress in solving those issues.

Unhappy feelings will continue until political leaders start tracking the wellbeing of their citizens. The standard political game now is to smile into the cameras, and talk about statistics on inflation, Gross Domestic Product, unemployment and other statistical trends. 

They should spend less time tracking statistical dumps and more time face to face with the people they are elected to serve. Listening to people and tracking their wellbeing will get governments a lot more insight into solutions than will bare statistics.

Jon Clifton, the CEO of Gallup, has said that the job of leaders is not to make people feel happy.

“The role of leaders should be to reduce misery,” he says. “And the problem in the world today is that misery is rising.

“Measuring how people feel must be a priority of world leaders if we are going to reverse this global rise of misery.”

Good thoughts but governments alone cannot improve our lives or our sense of well-being. 

Canadians have assumed that governments can effectively provide everything people need, from protection of rights to preventing violence to maintaining a strong economy.

We should no longer assume that. Few of us are even aware of what the issues are or how our governments are approaching them.  We’re information lightweights.

People today view important issues in video-clip form. We are too busy to gather and absorb details that make a complete story. We form opinions with little information.

Perhaps we just get tired of hearing problems. Global warming is killing us. The health care system is failing us. The grocery company czars are fleecing us. 

The news often is so depressing that we turn to the lighter stuff. 

A stunning example of how we look away from important happenings and give more attention to lightweight matters was shown recently by London, England’s Guardian newspaper.

The Guardian reported that a Google news search found that the news media ran more than 10,000 stories this year about Phillip Schofield, the British television celebrity who resigned over an affair with a young colleague. Another Google search recorded a global total of only five news stories about a scientific study showing the likelihood of major world crop losses caused by climate change are being dangerously underestimated.

Giving less importance to the real world in favour of celebrity gossip won’t help to find solutions to the serious problems facing the world.

We all have to get better informed.