Kinan Azmeh on Paradigms April 10, 2016

This week's Paradigms features Kinan Azmeh.  Kinan is a clarinetist and composer.  He's from Damascus, Syria and currently resides in New York City.  I enjoyed our conversation very much.  I found Kinan to be a thoughtful, wise, deep thinking person, whose musical talent is informed by his intelligence and ethics.  His music is not run-of-the-mill and you will probably find yourself exploring some less-traveled territory in your own awareness, while you listen.

Paradigms is now available on 4 venues!  It's very exciting.  I make 4 customized episodes each week. Three get call letters; WBKM, KPOV, and now KWRK-LP, and there's the Podcast. Soon there will be more radio stations broadcasting Paradigms to more people; more inspired inspiring stuff on the airwaves!

Next week's episode will feature guest Sha'an Mouliert who is  long time friend and someone I have done co-work with.  Sha'an will be telling some of her personal story about how she came to live and work in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.  Sha'an is African American and the Northeast Kingdom is 99% Euro-American.  Sha'an has been doing racism awareness and healing from racism work for many years and was recently awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom from Lyndon State College in Lyndonville, Vermont.

If you know people who you think would enjoy Paradigms, please share the link http://Paradigms.Life with them, or this blog post.  The mission is to reach as many people as possible with inspiration!

North America, North Africa, How do you do?

I've been thinking about how people from North Africa, the area many call "The Middle East" were not in my awareness much when I was growing up.  I knew that Israel existed and that there were other countries that didn't like Israel, I didn't understand why.  I was brought up with virtually no religion, so understanding that other people had religious beliefs that led them to go to war was completely bizarre to me.  It still is. I had no idea that gasoline was made from oil that came from that part of the world.

Now in 2016 people from North Africa are much in my awareness, and many more are here in the US than were in the 1960's when I was a child.  There are people from that part of the world who have moved here to this land, who identify as Muslims, Christians, Jews, and other religions too.

Certainly the advent of air travel has contributed to people moving around the world, but I've been thinking about this in the context of balance.

The various oil and drug cartels based in "The United States" (I put that in quotes because I just can't take it very seriously anymore, nations, when we know that corporations are calling the shots) have invaded, killed, pillaged, and exploited the people and the lands in that part of the world relentlessly for over 100 years now.  It seems fair and just that we should thus experience an influx of people and culture from the area "we" have exploited.  It's karmic justice.

The western propaganda machine has so vilified our brothers and sisters in North Africa, the way this universe seems to work, it makes sense we would now be living the scenario of being with those same people so we can learn who they really are, and they can learn who we really are ("they" and "we" being huge generalizations).  It will take time but, as has happened countless times in human his/herstory, eventually the perceived differences will become less important, and will dissipate, people will intermarry and have children, and the differences that people feel so strongly about now will become memories.  This is generally how humans do it, unless one group rises up and kills the other group, that happens too, but hopefully less and less.

So the upshot of this is...my message to people who talk about "Islamification"... this our western culture has created this situation by warring and oppressing.  Just something to think about, especially when vilifying "the other."

Republicans imploding!

We are seeing a number of states governed by republicans getting ready to implode.  

Arizona, with it's oh so blatant disenfranchisement of citizens regarding the right to vote...from the governor on down there is obvious culpability.  In Alabama the governor, a family values republican, now caught in an affair with a co-worker...he is about to tumble as his the entire top of Alabama's state government. Kentucky's new governor is accused of election fraud, though nothing seems to be happening with that at the moment. Rick Snyder, who is responsible for the poisoning of thousands of people in Michigan, will be facing some serious reckoning one way or another in the near future (my personal favorite is street justice for a scumbag like Snyder)...the governor of Indiana just signed a law requiring women to pay for the funerals of their aborted fetuses, and it goes on and on.  

The republican party is about to implode nationally. Christofascist laws and policies are being rolled out willy nilly however most of the actual PEOPLE seem NOT to be in favor of laws that enshrine hate and bigotry. The US is on the cusp of actual progress, or of slipping back into some of the worst human nature has to offer. It's tense! Even though Hillary Clinton is intent upon stealing the presidential election no matter what, it's clear already that, if there were an election right now (a fair one) Sanders would be elected by a huge margin.

I believe that the majority of people living in the US want to move forward with protecting the environment, maintaining a secular state, keep jobs here rather than outsourcing abroad, have schools that actually teach young people, have access to medical care not just medical insurance, have access to wholesome food that is not full of poisons; this list could go on and on.

The only thing standing between humanity and living in a wonderful peaceful world are people who wish to control others, whether it's through religion or economics or indoctrination. We know who those people are, we know they are at the top of the economic and religious pyramid schemes that run so many countries including the US. It seems high time to take back our power from these parasites, don't you think?

We don't have to allow ourselves to be screwed!

Have you ever been overcharged by the bank or credit union you deal with?  Have you ever been overcharged by a doctor? Have you ever been ripped off by what should be an honorable institution like a bank or doctor or utility or any other service that is pretty much a necessity in this society?  I bet you're nodding vigorously!

I am one of those people who just can't stand injustice. I campaign for justice in much of my life, so when I encounter this kind of chicanery it really gets me going.  I am sharing this with the intention of encouraging others to not allow themselves to be screwed.

Recently the credit union I was banking with charged me for overdraft fees that were not legit.  The funds were there, but they charged me anyway.  I made a stink, filed a grievance with the state agency that regulates banking, who forwarded my complaint to the federal agency that regulates credit unions.  It took about 6 weeks but the credit union called me, apologized, and paid me back.  This experience led me to wonder, how many people are charged fees by banks and credit unions...$25 here, $50 there...that are not legitimate? I bet it ends up being millions of dollars a year.  If it happens to you, you have recourse!  Your state has an agency that regulates banking, and you can contact them, file a complaint, and they will have to deal with it.

Currently I am dealing with a situation with a doctor who charged me $500 for a 10 minute consultation that involved looking down my throat with a scope.  The outcome was that I was told to drink more water.  $500 for 10 minutes?  You have got to be kidding.  Whether a person has insurance or not (I do not due to a snafu at Healthcare.gov which is hopefully being resolved) that is wild overcharging.  That is the kind of overcharging that creates hugely inflated medical costs all around.  Why is this tolerated?  I have filed complaints with the Medical Board and the Consumer Protection Agency of the state I am in, Oregon.  The Medical Board replied telling me they did not find any illegal activity, but they keep the complaint and add it to the doctor's file.  I have yet to hear from the Consumer Protection Agency.

If we do not speak up when we are being ripped off, then we are allowing it.  I, for one, am not inclined to just allow this stuff.  These are minuscule issues in the bigger scheme of things, but the ongoing disenfranchisement of regular folks in favor of institutions is not healthy for people and not healthy for society.

I encourage you to notice when you are being ripped off, and to do something about it.  The mechanisms exist for holding institutions accountable, and it's not difficult to access them.  It can be tedious to fill out the forms, so some patience is required.  Outcomes are not fast, so again, patience is required, however when one is vindicated it is a great feeling, and hopefully the offenders learn from the experience and stop ripping people off!

So, if you are being ripped off by any provider of a service, you do not have to just take it.  You have the right to seek and to find justice!