The Ashmolean museum is considered “the first truly public library in Europe,” and it was begun on the collection bequeathed by the relatively celebrated scholar Elias Ashmole (23 May 1617—18 May 1692). This is a great historical era, of revolutions and uprisings, of Charles I, the King who lost his head, Oliver Cromwell, who took his head (and who himself was later exhumed by angry people), and Charles II and so on.

It turns out Elias Ashmole is my ancestry on my mother’s side. My mother’s grandmother was Constance Ashmole. This line goes back to the brother of Elias Ashmole—Elias never had children. Anyway, Elias was both a scientist and into the mystical arts, or what some would call the occult: astrology, alchemy and so on. There are all these obscure books or papers, written by him.

Ashmole was also a Freemason, evidently, and a book was written about him: The Magus of Freemasonry: The Mysterious Life of Elias Ashmole—Scientist, Alchemist and Founder of the Royal Society. All kind of intriguing. But where am I leading? Yes, I looked up the book at the Vancouver Public Library (on line) and found this book by William Lilly, with the strange title: Mr. William Lilly’s history of his life and times from the year 1602 to 1681 / Written by Himself, in the sixty-sixth year of his Age, to His Worthy Friend, Elias Ashmole, Esq. Obviously, Elias funded the enterprise. He was also the editor. The book can actually be found here.

Here’s a painting of Elias. My wife thinks he looks like Kevin Spacey with a wig on, but I can’t quite see it.

But perhaps it is a little creepy, therefore, that Kevin Spacey actually narrated a documentary I directed (Uganda Rising). Although we did it on a Vancouver-London feed, in a studio, I don’t believe any wig was being worn.

Anyway, I looked up William Lilly, who was a well-known astrology of the same era. It turns out Lilly (allegedly) predicted the Great Fire of London of 1666, fourteen years earlier. So when the fire actually happened, burning down the city, Lilly was accused of having started it (from Maurice McCann’s William Lilly’s Prediction of the Fire of London):

On Friday, October 25, 1666, the famous English astrologer William Lilly was ordered to appear in the Speaker’s Chamber of the House of Commons to give testimony before the special Committee set up to examine the cause of the great fire which had devastated the city of London in September. Lilly, it was claimed, had successfully predicted the outbreak of the fire fourteen years before when he had published Monarchy or No Monarchy in England a book containing nineteen hieroglyphic drawings giving carefully disguised predictions. As a consequence of one of these, featuring a large fire (see figure below), Lilly was seriously suspected of causing the fire. It was also thought that he wished to obtain credit for forecasting the event. Being fearful of what might happen to him, Lilly persuaded the committee that his prediction had not been precise and he was allowed to go.

For over three hundred years Lilly’s hieroglyphic prediction of the Fire of London has been dismissed, even by astrologers unable to work out his code, and no one has attempted to interpret it. Now, however, the code has been deciphered and the hieroglyphics shown to be a disguised horoscope for the moment of the outbreak of the great fire on Sunday, September 2, 1666.

I haven’t looked farther, but here is more about Lilly, and the deciphering of his coded hieroglyphics, for what it’s worth. His relationship with Ashmole was described this way, by the same writer:

Though a staunch parliamentarian, [Lilly] was consulted by people of various political views and could rightly claim to have one or two friends on the Royalist side, the most famous being Elias Ashmole, a fellow astrologer and founder of the Ashmolian Museum in Oxford. Lilly later studied medicine and Ashmole used his influence with the Archbishop of Canterbury to obtain a licence for him to practice. The two men remained firm friends until Lilly’s death in 1681.

That’s it. Just a little quirky history. What a world of dreams and genes and memes and schemes. And whatever else rhymes, slightly.

Lots of love,

Pete

One from Volataire, quoted justly and liberally by Libertarians:

“…the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other.”

And the one they quote more conservatively:

“…the art of [Big Business also] consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other.”
– Voltaire’s Variations

Yet through both of these systems lies human nature, or human nature lies, and also does good, and the perfect tension then is what needs to be found. The perfect tension, of course, is always shifting slightly, with thousands of different places and scenarios and cultures requiring different means to maximize quality of life for themselves. And then there’s the miracle of the individual…

Ah, life.

People sometimes ask how the policies of the War on Drugs—criminalizing illicit drug users—are fuelling the HIV epidemic, as peer-reviewed scientific studies have shown. Consider these daunting Canadian statistics, which of course I haven’t verified. The following paragraph is from a National Post article about the RCMP officers in Kamloops BC supposedly watching two female inmates having sex, and not intervening. If the two are in prison for, say, drug use, should they even be incarcerated? The world is certainly a weird one. Anyway, these statistics are stunningly unfortunate and dangerous, and a health disaster:

The same [CSC study released in March] found that the rate of HIV infection in federal prisons is 4.6%, about 15 times greater than that in the general population. In addition, the rate of infection of hepatitis C in federal prisons was found to be 31%, a rate 39 times greater than that in society as a whole.

And as counter-intuitive as it sounds, drugs evidently can not even be kept out of prison, let alone a country, so how the enforcement policies of the War on Drugs are going to stop “drugs at their source” is absolutely beyond me.

In some parts of the mainstream press, the shift is definitely happening towards support for evidence-based drug policy. For sure changes in policies won’t save or fix everything—far from it, and this fact will cause great backlash if policies do change—but according to the studies and some other countries, evidence shows decriminalization tendencies or legalization with regulation or other harm reduction practices almost certainly reduce violence and (definitely) incarceration, and possibly drug use. If we can’t yet see the importance of this in Canada, consider common folk living in certain parts of Mexico. Supposedly, 28,000 people have been killed in War On Drugs-related violence since President Calderon took power some four years ago, and pushed the American War on Drugs policies/agenda (most Mexican drugs, of course, go to America. Conversely, 90% of the arms used in Mexico come from America. Compare the homicide numbers to, say, the 4,416 American soldiers killed in Iraq since the invasion there in 2003 and one begins to see the insane extent to which the War on Drug fuels greater violence, without stopping supply. Both rates of death are brutal, of course, but the latter puts the former in some sort of context, maybe.

Supposedly Mexico has 50,000 active troops involved in fighting the War on Drugs. Again, that is a civil war, in terms of numbers, and a wide definition of terrorism (from both parties) with regards to the general populace who must live in relatively constant uncertainty and distress.

But who knows what forces are pushing where, both visible and invisible? Hold onto your heart, your joy, your soul, your discernment…

Pete

Restorative justice is often described as an indigenous model for justice—more in the mode of communication, showing remorse, forgiveness between the victim and the victimizer. So what were the laws of some indigenous groups when it came to substance abuse? I have no idea. But as the war against the War on Drugs thankfully starts to see change in the mainstream press—at least we’re thinking now—this article in McLean’s magazine about dealing with alcoholism in Ahousaht an community of the west coast of Vancouver Island, near the resort town of Tofino. An excerpt:

This spring, community leaders—concerned by the poisonous impact of addictions, bootlegging and drug dealing—turned their back on modern legal remedies, and drew on the authority of their ancient laws. Hereditary chiefs and traditional law keepers went door-to-door on the Flores Island reserve in a lightning quick sweep of chronic offenders. They issued an edict: get clean or get out.

In all, 32 men and women ranging from 17 to 58 were transported 45 minutes by boat to a disused logging camp on the mainland at Sydney Inlet for eight intense weeks of cleansing, therapy and traditional teaching. Six refused treatment and were ordered to leave the community. Some threatened court action, but they have since backed down.

The results, or successes, would be interesting. The full article is here. Is this right? Is it right given the size of a given community? is it right given the damage alcohol (and other drugs) have fuelled with respect to the indigenous peoples and communities all over the world?

I read it super quickly in a short break, so I’ll have to reread it. ‘Get out,’ it may be enoted, is not incarceration—and, of course, utterly blasted, life-disrupting and even ruining alcoholism isn’t illegal. One statistic that isn’t mentioned is that a person of First Nation descent in Canada is almost nine times more likely to be incarcerated in the system than a non-First Nation person, or so I have read.

So before a Canadian wears himself out insulting the American system, it is worth knowing that although Aboriginal people make up only 2.7 percent of the Canadian population, they account for 18.5 percent of the federal prison population (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2006).

From an essay I wrote called Noam Chomsky on Drugs (with tons of fun footnotes!):

According to Statistics Canada data, while the overall incarceration rate for non-Aboriginal people is 117 per 100,000 adults, the overall incarceration rate for Aboriginal people in Canada is estimated to be 1,024 per 100,000—or almost 9 times higher for Aboriginal persons.

It gets worse. According to the Government of Canada and The Office of the Correctional Investigator (Oct 16, 2006), Report Finds Evidence of Systemic Discrimination Against Aboriginal Inmates in Canada’s Prisons:

“…the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) routinely classifies First Nations, Métis and Inuit inmates as higher security risks than non-native inmates; Aboriginal offenders are released later in their sentences than other inmates; and they are more likely to have their conditional release revoked for technical reasons than other offenders.

According to the Report, Aboriginal inmates often do not receive timely access to rehabilitative programming and services that would help them return to their communities.”

It sounds like the community, in one way or another, needs to step in. So what is the best way? If you have thoughts, drop a line (so to speak),

Pete

I have heard a lot about domestic workers in Canada—often Filipino. They come here for the money, for their family, but are therefore unable to raise their own children, who often remain in the Philippines. Later, if the children ever make it to Canada, they are not bonded with their parent, and the situation proves difficult. Here is an interview on the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) with Marissa Begonia, a Filipino domestic worker in England.

An excerpt:

I am a domestic worker and have been for 16 years now. Through this job, I have been raising, educating and giving my three children the decent living they deserve. I first worked as a domestic worker in Singapore, but the salary was very low, and so I decided to work in Hong Kong. My last employer in Hong Kong brought me to London. I didn’t know my rights at that time, but when I started to have my days off, my fellow domestic workers told me that I have the right to change employer. I changed because my salary was very low. I now have a very good and supportive employer. I have been with this loving family for six years now. They understand the work I do in J4DW [Justice For Domestic Workers]. My first daughter joined me here in 2008, but I am still having a problem bringing in my two other children. As a mother, this is all I dream of in my life: to have all my children by my side. I can still feel the pain up to this day from when I was forced to leave them. I preferred to go away rather than see them slowly die of starvation. I don’t wish them to go through the life I’ve been through. My children are my whole life, the very reason why I have sacrificed the most I can, and they are the future.

The full interview is here.

Another article called Modern Day Slavery, put out by (or at least related to) J4DW.

The inequities are too deep to grasp, but we must at least bear witness, I think. I don’t know.

Love more,

Pete

And what about Laika, the space dog? They put her in a Sputnik, and sent her into space. They attached wires to her heart and her brain to see how she felt. I don’t think she felt so good. She spun around there for five months until her doggy bag was empty. She starved to death….It bothers me to think of that poor dog Laika. Terrible sending a dog in a spaceship without enough food. She had to do it for human progress, she didn’t ask to go.
—Ingemar, in My Life as a Dog

Long before the disastrous industrial farming conditions that today make half-billion egg recalls inevitable (even if recalls are shockingly only on a voluntary basis by Corporations), a Russian mongrel dog by the name of Laika became, in Sputnik II (the Russian satellite), the first animal to orbit earth. And the first orbital death. Laika supposedly paved the way towards manned flights in outer space. What I didn’t know was the training that took place:

To adapt the dogs [several dogs were trained for the trip, Laika eventually chosen] to the confines of the tiny cabin of Sputnik 2, they were kept in progressively smaller cages for periods up to 20 days. The extensive close confinement caused them to stop urinating or defecating, made them restless, and caused their general condition to deteriorate. Laxatives did not improve their condition, and the researchers found that only long periods of training proved effective.

I don’t know why I found that interesting, but I did. Here she is, and she looks sad to me, or resigned—although I am undoubtedly projecting my human sensibilities, or insensibilities.

And from the BBC:

The animal, launched on a one-way trip on board Sputnik 2 in November 1957, was said to have died painlessly in orbit about a week after blast-off.

Now, it has been revealed she died from overheating and panic just a few hours after the mission started.

And now we have thousands of satellites in orbit (and thousands now non-functioning, orbiting space debris), and they are the key to our remarkable communication systems, from GPS to iphones to all the rest. And thousands of years ago, yogis said we are constantly receiving signals from elsewhere, if only we could learn to listen and get on the wavelength…

We were born before the wind…and here’s to Laika the space dog, and before that, a wild mongrel wandering the streets of Moscow….

Pete

I keep meaning to do an audio version of my second novel, Understanding Ken, but that plan keeps getting pushed down lower on my to-do list. And trying to do it myself is a little intimidating. The thought of reading out loud on my own in the voice of a ten-year-old for eight hours, and recording said reading, and not making any mistakes or stumbles (or even fixing the mistakes), is slightly daunting.

In the meantime, someone was talking about the book today, and this is a recording of a very small segment of the book (6 minutes) that I did enjoy doing—with a crowd on hand (much easier). It describes, from a ten-year-old’s point of view, the difference between America and Canada in 1973. Undoubtedly, statistically, that difference has decreased over the last 37 years, as fast food rapidly colonized Canada, too. Anyway, here it is, preferably (but not necessarily) to be heard with headphones on if you’re on your own.

Would it make a good audio book? And do people actually buy audio books? There is a third reason for me to do this recording, but I’ll talk about that another time.

Here’s the piece.

Lots of love and joy and humour,

Pete

When I was at the HIV/AIDS Conference in Vienna in late July, I got to interview several passionate people, both from inside and outside Russia, with firsthand knowledge of the draconian drug laws in that country. These policies include the illegality of methadone, a staple in EVERY western country that doesn’t have soaring HIV rated among injection drug users. Russia’s HIV rates among drug users are catastrophic. This is a short and thought provoking piece, once again, is from the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union:

Whatever you do unto the littlest of mine, you do unto me, Christ once said. Plus the Golden Rule and countless other obvious kindnesses.

Here’s to compassion, kindness, pragmatism and intelligence,

Pete

I can’t say for sure why I think the War on Drugs is so important, compelling, distressing, and difficult. It just brings together so many questions of civil liberties, human rights, ideology, hypocrisy, and finally, asking the question: why do we say X is alright and Y is not? X being, say, alcohol, which kills a lot of people, and Y, being, say, marijuana. This is so bizarre—though anything but surprising in the material world.

And here’s Sweden (another very informative film from the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union), with bright people seeing the topics, the debate, as always, in such contrasting ways.

The question is: is a vice a crime? The question is: how much should the state impose what an individual imbibes or ingests? The question is: given the profits of the drug trade (to paraphrase Milton Friedman), can it ever be stopped by criminalization and enforcement? (No, to paraphrase Milton Friedman). The question is: given the brutal effects of tobacco and alcohol, and their simultaneous legality within a given state, will said state and enforcement therein ever have credibility given the illegalities of so many other drugs, some indeed more dangerous, but some much less dangerous?

“The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this.”
—Albert Einstein, “My First Impression of the U.S.A.”, 1921

And the beat goes on, in our hearts and on the street.

Love a lot,

Pete

I am responsible for nothing if not my own mood. When all else fails, or succeeds, my mood is my choice. And in our mood, everything is discovered, or ignored. Own your mood.

That’s it. And now…a smile…

Pete xo