From the editor….
We have a couple of political pieces in this issue that discuss topics important to us all….this surveillance state that has become our world, and, closer to home, the destruction of rural communities.
Both situations, global and provincial, have been aided and abetted by our tacit cooperation and outright apathy.
We’ve been trained to respect and obey authority figures and those with the money.
Al McPhail makes a vivid point in his article “The End of Rural New Brunswick?”….the destruction of rural NB has indeed been the death of a thousand cuts. There has been a continual erosion of services. There has been a campaign to paint rural folks as selfish and entitled for expecting health care and money to maintain their infrastructure.
This push for centralization of people and services to urban zones is a mirror of the greater plot of globalization, which has seen jobs in North America vanish as all of our manufacturing has been outsourced to other countries where slave labour is the available.
It may seem like going backwards but the way to restore our rural sovereignty lies with our becoming whole, productive communities again with local farms and manufacturing.
Our current government is on a mad dash to bring oil tar across the country, and across our beautiful province, and to begin hydro-fracking.
This is one of their solutions to bring in money. If you have taken a look at any of the recent oil and fracking disasters you would never in a million years want these industries in our province.
I’ve had some interesting conversations with people about current events. There is a dark stream of fatalism and pessimism running through our veins.
Some people shrug and say, “well, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” or “what can you do, it’s a dog eat dog world.” And recently, as I discussed civil disobedience with a fellow citizen, he was resigned to the status quo. He said, “oh, well, you try to have a demonstration and the authorities come and tell you not to do it. What can you do?”
He felt that resistance was futile, so why bother to protest against our treatment by the powers that be.
Our governments have slowly but surely been eroding our civil liberties and independence as they pushed towards an ever more Orwellian world, and we’ve accepted it as if they had our best interests in mind.
However, all the recent shocking revelations and scandals have been waking people up to the fact that people in power only care about themselves….they don’t give a damn about average citizens. They consider us ordinary people to be just tools to feed and finance the system.
If we want a good world to leave for our children we need to take a stand for ourselves right now, and to realize that we can enjoy abundant lives, even out here in rural New Brunswick.
I am amazed by how bustling and prosperous our small villages were even just 30 years ago. Villages were self- contained and bustling with commerce. Our villages had local manufacturing and food sources, and supported many small businesses.
As the push for globalization gathered steam, our government began its long, slow campaign of attrition. Their hope and plan is that we’ll finally just get so discouraged we’ll all just give up and give in and go away.
Many people already have. To change our reality we have to come up with new ideas. The forestry industry is dying…but hemp production could revitalize our economy.
Local farmers should be providing most of our produce and meat. To bring jobs and enterprises back to rural NB, we need to take our future into our own hands.
I don`t know how this will play out down the road, but I do believe that we can revitalize our villages by embracing new ideas, strategies and attitudes. As someone smart once said, the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.
Stephanie Kelley
