My artistic practice is generative. My intention is to communicate reflective ideas developed in conjunction with research within the context of contemporary art, visual culture, films, and other cultural productions. My artistic practice and activism emerge from a deep curiosity and fascination with the human spirit, the limitlessness of the human imagination, as well as a real concern for humanity's sustainable relationship to Gaia, Mother Earth. The objective of this body of work is to fluidly energize contemporary culture and socio-political discourse, while engaging in cross-cultural dialogues, as well as establishing methods for active resistance to elite oligarchs. This interdisciplinary body of work aims to communicate creatively the spiritual power at the heart of yogic practices, meditation, and entheogens, as these ritual practices relate to the evolution of human consciousness, earth stewardship, and ecological justice (evolution, revolution, solution). My intention is to uncover the seductive illusions permeating the collective psyche, thereby stimulating self-awareness, healing, transformation, and the necessary development of ecological consciousness, spiritual evolution and planetary transmutation. Through the exploration of matters of the human heart binding humanity as a whole, my intention for this series of poetic and academic writings, visual art, photographs, experimental videos, and films, is to contribute to a wider cultural and spiritual diversity of ontological knowledge.

If your looking for something super chill to listen too...I am listening to Adam Johnson's Chigliak Electronic music, 2003.

“We now better understand that the evolution of life on Earth has created interdependent ecosystems. The science of ecology tells us that everything is connected to everything else and that humanity has an integral place within this network of connections. We are confronted with mounting evidence that Earth's biosphere is in serious decline as a direct consequence of human actions. In 2005, the United Nations' Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report put this evidence in stark terms. It established that the cumulative impacts of human activity on the planet's ecological systems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted”.[1]

The planet is experiencing severe environmental degradation,[2] with international trade law and the GATT/WTO embodying core neoliberal values. This essay surveys international trade in relationship to the human ecological crisis (Rees, 2002).[3] In this report, I will be analyzing the 31-year lock-in Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) that was ratified by the Harper government on October 1st, 2014, as it relates to Canada’s fresh water.  The FIPA agreement will remain active until 2045.[4]  Extreme poverty[5], depletion of natural resources, water scarcity, desertification, deforestation, pollution, melting glaciers, lake eutrophication, climate change, biodiversity lost, the growing population of the world and unsustainable material consumption of wealthy nations are all serious aspects of this ecological human crisis. Canada-China FIPA encourages the continuation of timber, mining and oil extraction, as well as the neoliberal trade of water as a commodity. China’s imports of Canadian lumber are a significant growing market.[6] Commercial deforestation disrupts the eco-systemic storing capacity of water in the earth, affecting hydrological cycles and the availability of fresh water supply. “Our privatized, commodified, and consumerised water-use practices are ecologically unsustainable because the disaggregation of water into discrete legal rights to control, sell, and use facilitates and encourages the extraction of water from rivers, creeks, streams, lakes, springs, groundwater aquifers,  and other sources without regard to in-stream 'flows' or water levels needed to sustain the ecosystems, biological life, water quality levels, and hydro-logic structures and processes that depend on them”.[7]  FIPA has opened Canada's water market to China's Foreign Direct Investments (FDI).  “Unfortunately, there is no longer anything any Canadian government or court can do to stop the Canada-China FIPA.”[8] “Still insofar as policy analysis constitutes a profession with an ethos of its own, the aspiration to “speak truth to power” - even, or especially, unwelcome truths - must be its prime directive, its equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath (ASPA).”[9]
 
Environment Canada's website informs that Canada has 7% of the world's fresh water, and that “Canada is one of the highest water users per capita in the world”.    According to Worldwatch by 2025, “1.8 billion people will live in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, with almost half of the world living in conditions of water stress”.[10] In the article, China's environment in a globalizing world, How China and the rest of the world affect each other, Liu Diamond discusses the severity of China's  water pollution crisis as a direct result of unsustainable economic growth[11] , industrial toxic waste, and  untreated residential sewage water. This water pollution crisis has led to severe shortages of water in more than 100 cities.[12]  Water shortages threatens public health in China and has become a major challenge for sustainable economic development.[13]  Eco-logic water management strategies, both local and global, are key to climate change adaptation procedures and precautionary principles.  So far, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the inter-governmental organization surveying climate change mitigation. Canada withdrawal from the United Nations Kyoto Protocol on December 15, 2011, was of course a clear indication that the government of Canada prioritizes neoliberal trade over committing to greenhouse gas emissions reduction.[14] This comes at a time when there is overwhelming scientific evidence that climate change is anthropogenic. “The ultimate objective of the Convention is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations “at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (human induced) interference with the climate system.” It states that "such a level should be achieved within a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened, and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.”[15]

                                        TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE GO TO:
- TOPOLOGY OF THE SACRED - ECO-ACTIVISM - SCHOLARLY ARTICLES - FIPA Canada-China:  International Trade Law and Water

[1] Property Rights and Sustainability, The Evolution of Property Rights to Meet Ecological Challenges, Grinlinton, Taylor, ed., 2011, p.9.  Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board, Living Beyond Our Means (Washington D.C.: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board, 2005), http:www.millenniumassessment.org/en/BoardStatement.aspx (assed July 25, 2010)

[2]“An increasing number of worrisome phenomena are global in nature, such as scarcity of energy resources, the deterioration of the environment and intensification of natural disasters, as well as the risks of climate change.  These phenomena are also the products of the rapid economic growth generated by globalization.”  The WTO: Governance, Dispute Settlement & Developing Countries, Merit E. Janow, Victoria Donaldson, Alan Yanovich, ed., p.6

[3]Professor Emeritus William E. Rees and former director of the School of Community and Regional Planning at UBC, refers to the global environmental crisis as a “human ecological crisis”.  His intention is to point to the problem: the ecological crisis is anthropogenic.

[4] https://canadians.org/canada-china

[5]“Hunger is on the rise with 18,000 children dying each day from hunger and related illness.” Plan B, Mobilization to Save Civilization, Lester R. Brown, p.50).

[6]http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/07/17/bc-china-lumber.html

[7]Property Rights and Sustainability The Evolution of Property Rights to Meet Ecological Challenges edited by David Grinlinton and Prue Taylor, 2011, p.185

[8] https://canadians.org/canada-china

[9]The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy, Robert E. Goodin, Michael Moran, and Martin Rein, 2008, p.6.

[10]http://www.worldwatch.org/looming-threat-water-scarcity-0

[11]“China's environmental problems are also spilling over into other countries, while other countries affect China's environment through globalization, pollution and resource exploitation.  China is already the largest contributor of sulphur oxides and chlorofluorocarbons to the atmosphere, its dust and aerial pollutants are transported eastwards to neighbouring countries and even North America; and it is one of the two leading importers of tropical rainforest timber, making it a driving force behind tropical deforestation.”

[12] China's environment in a globalizing world, How China and the rest of the world affect each other, Liu Diamond

[13]Rethinking China’s Urban Water Privatization, Ge Yun, waterjustice.org

[14]http://unfccc.int/files/kyoto_protocol/background/application/pdf/canada.pdf.pdf

[15]http://unfccc.int/key_steps/the_convention/items/6036.php

"Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 2," Joseph Needham, Cambridge University Press, PLATE CDXLIV.  This image is used under the fair use license, U.S. Const. Art. I, § 8, cl. 8., Section 107 of the Copyright Act

One of the earliest depictions of the dragon was found on a plate in Taoist southern Shanxi, carbon dated to 2500-1900 BCE, during China’s earliest dynasty, the Xia dynasty (Lindqvist, 2008). In Taoist Chinese ecological lore, the dragon is a shamanic symbol associated with the Great Water Goddess and sacred life-giving element of water. The dragon is also symbol of fertility, midst, dew, rivers and rain. Water cults’ primeval matriarchs performed ancient ceremonies (Schafer 1951, p. 132) celebrating river water deities (Schafer 1973, p. 60). From c. 1750 to 500 BCE, shamanism was the dominant spiritual force in China (Palmer, 1996). Additionally, in ancient Chinese mythological lore, the dragon motif embodies transformation, yin, as well as a spell invoking water deities. The dragon is also associated with imperial power; China’s first emperors were believed to be decedents of the celestial dragon-spirit.

“The dragon was not just another mythical animal. It was regarded as the most sacred of all creatures and symbolized China and the power of the emperor. The Yellow Emperor, who, according to legend, ruled the land along the Yellow River, the cradle of China around 2700 B.C., and is considered to be the father of all China, was said to have been the incarnation of the dragon.” (Lindqvist 2008, 115).

In the chapter Women, Nymphs and Dragons from "The Divine Woman, Dragon Ladies and Rains Maidens," a book written in the early 1970s by Dr. Edward H. Schafer, professor at the University of Berkeley, and Harvard graduate, we learn about the magical legend surrounding China’s first emperor.

“This lucky-unlucky woman had been embraced by the same kind of being that had embraced many Chinese queens to make them mother of kings. Such dragon lovers were themselves kings, by virtue of their power over rain and fertility, like the ancient rulers of the Middle Kingdom.” (Schafer 1973, 23).

The Classic of Mountains and Seas is considered one of the most important classic Chinese literary works, and it is referred to as “the locus classicus for many myths” (Anonymous (trans. Birrell) 1999, xix). In Book One, “the deities of these mountains all have the appearance of a bird’s body and a dragon’s head” (Anonymous (trans. Birrell) 1999, 5). The dragon permeates the cosmology of ancient China and is still deeply rooted in the spiritual imagination of the Chinese social fabric today.

In Tang poetry, “some ‘dragon kings’ daughters visualized in this genre resemble the court belles of Europe imagined in polished literature as Greek nymphs and naiads” (Schafer 1973, 90). The dragon is associated with the female shaman, called shamanka, or the Wu Shan goddess (Schafer 1973). Although she was mostly ignored by Tang poets, Nü Kua was the most important dragon in ancient China and referred to as the “old rain dragon goddess” (Schafer 1973, 61; 92).

“Nü Kua’s gauzy skirt, a hundred feet long, Suspended over the Hsiang and Kiang, gives its color to the hills.”

The universe is composed of opposing forces. Yin and Yang in Chinese spiritual cosmology symbolize the universe. “Yin and Yang represent linked opposites, or antagonistic factors. Such dualities as male/female, water/fire, and night/day are antagonistic pairs, but the parts of the pairs cannot exist without their opposites” (Ede 2006, 21). The symbolic union of the dragon and phoenix, symbolize the elemental opposite forces of water and fire, as well as a mythic-cultural representation of the marriage of the emperor and empress (Ede, 2006). Mythology is a tool for social cohesion (Rees, 2002) and shapes the spiritual patterns for cultural identity and daily life.

Asia Pacific Dispute Resolution Project Working Paper No. 18-3
"Policy-oriented Macro-analysis: China ́s Freshwater & Health Crisis an Essay on the Techno-industrial Puppetry of Oligarchic Dictatorship" has been successfully published on the APDR website, UBC's Institutional Repository (cIRcle), and the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN).
Electronic copy available at:
APDR website: http://apdr.iar.ubc.ca/dissemination/publications/workingpapers-series/volume-3-trade- policy-implications-and-the-right-to-health/number-1-public-health-policy-in-asia/ 
cIRcle permanent address: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/64568
SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3118538 

Fair use license, U.S. Const. Art. I, § 8, cl. 8., Section 107 of the Copyright Act

Psilocybe pelliculosa mushrooms.jpg Wikimedia Commons

Yesterday I took 3 1/2 grams of mushrooms. It was a gentle, beautiful, and a strange experience that allowed me to access parts of my subconscious.  This psychedelic journey allowed me to make a major breakthrough in regard to unraveling the trauma that I experience as a result of the sexual aggression I survived. As I have described in previous posts, I experience debilitating emotional trauma from having been sexually abused over a period of 6 months by my French teacher A.T. at NAME OF THE SCHOOL in 1994. Yesterday, cradled by the gentle nature of the psilocybin spirit, I was able to understand why I have an obsessive behavior, which gets triggered by emotional attachment and prevents me from experiencing intimacy and love.  This teacher A. T. was obsessed with me...that's why he kidnapped me after my mom/I went to the police and made a police report. 
 
The first time he touched me, I remember clearly meeting him in a dark cave-like bar somewhere on the plateau Mont-Royal.  Where the fuck was that? He bought me a gin and tonic, and I am pretty sure he drugged me that night to raped me.  I woke up traumatized in his bed. I can't remember consciously what happened that night. I need to find out what happened that night. I have a somatic hypnotherapy session this weekend to begin letting go of the debilitating trauma and obsession that I have been holding on and carrying inside of me.  I just want to make a quick note on why I do not choose to do psychotherapy. Recently, I spoke with a woman who is specialized in sexual trauma.  When speaking on the phone with this psychotherapist, she mentioned coldly: “You will never truly heal from sexual trauma.”  I disagree. So, why am I going to pay $200 hours to speak with a woman who doesn’t think I can heal? It seems counterproductive. This is why I choose to work with a somatic hypnotherapist.  This man said I would feel better after the first session, and if I don’t feel better, I don’t have to pay. He also said that he usually sees his patients no more than three times. His fee is reasonable, and he told me he could help me heal from this debilitating trauma. I will also be exploring other forms of alternative healing therapies until I feel whole and healed.  I am so excited to heal.  I want a loving boyfriend.  I deserve love.  

It is painful and isolating to not be able to let yourself be vulnerable enough to engage in a healthy relationship. I have come to know my debilitating emotional patterns intimately.  I can no longer live like this because I need intimacy and love to thrive.  It is no longer enough for me to survive. I want my life back. I want to be happy!  I want to live my life with fierce courage and trust in the present moment! What I had when I was 16 was so beautiful and so precious…A.T. had to take it from me.  I took all the responsibility when I lied in court to protect him from going to prison...and it almost killed me.   He raped my body-heart-soul, and in this way he stole my innocence and my JOY.
 
I actually cannot believe it took me 25 years to understand this. It seems so obvious now... Yesterday I finally understood that it is because A.T. was obsessed with me that I have been carrying this obsession inside me. This obsession has been living inside me, but it is not me, and it is not mine. It is his soullessness, his sickness, his obsession.  I don’t want it anymore. He can have it back. This obsession I have been carrying inside of me…he gave it to me when he raped me, and sexually abuse of me over and over again...Sick bastard. I forgive you.  I feel compassion and LOVE for you.  Do you believe me? I almost feel sorry for you, but I don't because it is the sacred drama we have both chosen to engage in this lifetime. You are my true soulmate. This was a soul contract. That's for sure.  An archetypal drama our infinite souls agreed to play…I am grateful for it all. I have grown into a wise, loving and generous mature woman.
 
I believe this happened because of an oath I have made somewhere in a lifetime other than this one. This oath was to protect all children everywhere always. This is it!  This is what I am doing. For the protection of all children everywhere always.  Refining my understanding and deepening my sense of wisdom, as well as protecting children.  This all makes me happy, and so does sharing my thoughts with you dear reader.  If it is true that I have this ragging pain inside me screaming for healing, it is also true that I am going to heal.  And when I do. Boy! oh! Boy! Baby! Baby! Baby! Oh ya! I will be so fierce, unstoppable, and so fucking beautiful. It's going to be scary. 

                                                                  Just wait and see.

“Hong Kong Orchid tree flower” by tree-species is licensed under CC BY 2.0