Yesterday I was reading about cities where citizens are with less stress and happier... There were for German cities in the top 10... I checked carefully why... and the common tread was that they had lots of green space and parks and open space...
Cities are depressing us...
The higher we rise ... the more spectacular skyscrapers we built the more stressful life becomes and the city jungle depresses us... Maybe the hunters and gathers of centuries before were much happier than we are...
We dream of the lively beaches and the tranquility of the high mountains... Maybe cities are an abomination of our way of life... Maybe villages and smaller towns is the way to be...
Ever since my childhood I have dreamed of monasteries and I had a strong desire to live in a monastery... quietly... make wine and bake bread and wrap myself in the spirituality of the chants... and stay away from the phony glitter and worship of the gadgets...
My friends spend hours on their Face Book account... I do not have one... and I do not feel deprived of the benefits of the city and civilization... I do not pick up my phone most of the time... I am weary of the intrusion that people attempt to impose on me... I like the emails... I read them, if I read them..., on my own time and in my own space... The intrusion is minimal and above all with my agreement... I read when I want and what I want...
People admonish me saying, "but I sent you an email..." as if they have a right on my time and my attention...! Most of the time I listen to their rebuke and then go my way...
I want to live a simpler life... I hat complications...
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My brother lives alone... and hates his loneliness... wants people around him... the noise and the bustle arouse him and make him happy... If there is no one around he will visit an bar, a pub... and breath in all the noise and the commotion...
But, I have a glass or two by myself... with Mozart-Beethoven in the background... and I get enchanted in the greenery of my backyard... The huge oak trees and the tall palms calm me down and make me happier...
They report "climate change..."
These past two weeks we had saturated news of the extreme and severe disasters... Hurricane Harvey in Texas... Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean... in Florida... Disastrous earthquake in Mexico... and floods in Italy... Tornadoes in Japan and in the China Sea...
They say the extreme whether conditions are the result of Climate Change... I agree with the scientists...
They say Climate Change is the result of human activity and the unhindered exploitation of resources and carbon-based economic activity... I agree again with the scientists...
But, which disaster in NOT because of HUMAN ACTIVITY...?
Human Activity has created...
- the globalized refugee problem...
- the Rohingya deportations and massacres... in Myanmar...
- the wars in Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan...
- the white supremacy and racist KKK activities in the U.S.
- the terrorist activities in Europe... in the U.S.
People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
... and the list goes on... ALL ARE CAUSED BECAUSE OF HUMAN ACTIVITY...
Human history is rife with all the Human atrocities and wars...
From the Jewish exodus from the Holy Lands and their dispersion throughout the globe... The dispossession of the Arabs in Palestine... The genocidal Holocaust of Armenians by the Turks... The genocide of Rwandans... The turmoils in the Balkans-Kosovo...
The U.S. ambassador to Turkey Morgenthau's caption: "Those who fell by the wayside. Scenes like this were common all over the Armenian provinces in the spring and summer months of 1915. Death in its several forms—massacre, starvation, exhaustion—destroyed the larger part of the refugees. The Turkish policy was that of extermination under the guise of deportation"...
The massacres continued and more than 1.5 million Armenians, about 40% of the Armenian nation were massacred and the rest deported...
40% of the U.S. will be about 129 million people by the 2016 numbers... and the man who invented the word “genocide”— Raphael Lemkin, a lawyer of Polish-Jewish origin — was moved to investigate the attempt to eliminate an entire people by accounts of the massacres of Armenians.
The U.S. ambassador to Turkey Morgenthau's caption: "Those who fell by the wayside. Scenes like this were common all over the Armenian provinces in the spring and summer months of 1915. Death in its several forms—massacre, starvation, exhaustion—destroyed the larger part of the refugees. The Turkish policy was that of extermination under the guise of deportation"...
The massacres continued and more than 1.5 million Armenians, about 40% of the Armenian nation were massacred and the rest deported...
40% of the U.S. will be about 129 million people by the 2016 numbers... and the man who invented the word “genocide”— Raphael Lemkin, a lawyer of Polish-Jewish origin — was moved to investigate the attempt to eliminate an entire people by accounts of the massacres of Armenians.
The Apartheid regime in South Africa... The hunting for slaves in Africa and the slavery in America... The subsequent racism in the World and in America... The rise Hitler and genocidal Holocaust of the Jews in Europe... The rise of Stalin and the Holodomor- the starvation of the Ukrainians in the Soviet Union...
Stalin and human activity in the Soviet Union resulted in forced famine... and the death of millions... in Ukraine and the rest of the Soviet Union...
...And let me mention all the wars and brutalities of Organized Religion... from the ancient times up to now... The Islamic Jihadists are not unique in human history... The Catholic and Protestant rivalry has cause much misery and havoc in Europe... The Crusades and the massacres that accompanied their invasions... The racist Evangelism of the U.S. is just the latest version of the intolerance of Organized Religion... and its rejection of any human decency...
...And let me mention all the wars and brutalities of Organized Religion... from the ancient times up to now... The Islamic Jihadists are not unique in human history... The Catholic and Protestant rivalry has cause much misery and havoc in Europe... The Crusades and the massacres that accompanied their invasions... The racist Evangelism of the U.S. is just the latest version of the intolerance of Organized Religion... and its rejection of any human decency...
Human Activity and the greed for fossil fuels are blamed for the natural disaster and the extreme manifestation of hurricanes and tornadoes and earthquakes... are indeed the result of human exploitation of Nature... I believe the scientists...
But...
Human Activity is not confined only to Nature...
Human Activity has caused/ is causing WARS... massacres... and refugees and genocides...
The root cause is HUMAN GREED and unchecked activity for more profit... One million is not enough... 10 million is not enough... a billion... billions are not enough...
What else...?
Pikas spend their summers stockpiling grass and wildflowers for the winter...
The pika, a tiny, round-eared cousin of the rabbit, cannot handle tthe heat and climate change well...
“So relatively small increases in temperature take away a huge amount of these high-elevation species’ range,” said Joseph Stewart, an ecologist at U.C. Santa Cruz and lead author of the study...
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Because of Human Activity...Climate Change is forcing spices to disappear...
Human Activity... wars and massacres and genocides... are forcing humans to disappear...
Maybe robots will be more humane than human beings...
Maybe... I am not sure, though...!
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