- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Summary
Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to 1.5 million Americans in Minnesota, New York, and Michigan, effective Monday, in response to Trump’s trade war.
The measure will generate CA$300,000-400,000 daily to support Ontario workers and businesses, adding about CA$100 monthly to affected American bills.
Ford threatened further increases or complete shutoff if the US escalates, despite Trump’s one-month tariff reprieve.
This action supplements Canada’s CA$30 billion in federal retaliatory tariffs on various American products.
This isn’t directed at you specifically but at anyone who comes across these comments, and I’m including this information here because it directly influenced my initial comment above:
I’ve been doing a lot of listening to indigenous worldview and learning of indigenous values. It has really helped me identify where western civilization and culture has been lacking for millennia, but especially over the last few centuries.
I’ve come to understand that the damage starts when we are young when we learn that nature is an “it” without needs and that we cannot rely on or trust other people. We learn to either dominate or make ourselves small in our daily relationships in order to feel safe when we should be seeing the world and one another as gifts to be explored and shared.
It takes some listening and reflecting to figure out that what you’ve been taught is dangerous. I’m currently trying to figure out how I can learn more of these perspectives and also build a stable and trusting community around me.
I think that’s where we need to do the work to try and undo what’s happening both at the national level and in those who are supporting authoritarianism.
I’ll get off my soapbox now, but I wanted to share in case it resonated with anyone else.
Just a guess at previous reading material: “Ishmael” and “Story of B” by Daniel Quinn?
I haven’t heard of those! Do you recommend?
Glad to hear that. Any resources you’d recommend? It sounds like a very level headed way to see things.
I guess Bookchin would be a good start. And then some western-compatible Zen, like Peter Ralston. Be sure to trace that stuff back also through your own culture because none has really forgotten it, it’s just been suppressed, before you go all “grass is greener on the other side” and try, often in vain, to adopt foreign forms while you could just as well realise what you already have and put fuel on that ember.
Couple more titles I would also suggest:
I’m so glad you asked! It feels good to find kinship and community in this way!
Honestly—this is going to sound really woo-woo, but I’m not trying to—I encourage you to take the journey to find the resources yourself. Trust that your own curiosity will lead you to the right entry point and the right format for your mindset and life experiences, whether it’s book, movie, YouTube short, poem, or audiobook. The right teacher will appear when you ask the right questions. I can recommend the book that started me on this journey, but it may not resonate with you and you could lose interest.
But if you really don’t know where to start, I started with the audiobook version of Braiding Sweetgrass, and paid attention to her lessons on reciprocity and living life directed by the lessons of plants. I then moved on to Restoring the Kinship Worldview, and now I’m listening to Sand Talk. I’m also looking for documentaries.
Good luck on your journey! Let’s see how many others we can invite along with us!