One more blog for 2016

One more blog for 2016

When I wrote my blog earlier in the week, I thought that that was going to be my last blog for 2016. 2017 has already begun in much of the world, and in fact a friend was chatting to me from New Zealand a few hours ago, and it was already 8 AM on the new day in the new year! Isn’t it amazing to live in a world where we can have that kind of instant communication with people all around the world.

This week has been a fairly challenging one, probably not just for me but for lots of other people too. End of the year is always a domination of anticipation, resolution, and release and varied emotions. For me, December 31 is the anniversary of my parents wedding. While they are no longer alive, it still feels good and right to honour the day, so I put a post on Facebook and a few friends liked and commented on it, so that was great.

The process of life including death is something that we all get to experience including with people close to us and through our connections in media and celebrity. In my blog, earlier this week I talked about the death of George Michael and how I had felt sad with this news. At that point Carrie Fisher was already in hospital having suffered a severe heart attack on a flight back from London to Los Angeles. Media did not state why she had been in London, but I suspected it might be connected to the release of the latest Star Wars movie. Here in the Dominican Republic, there are cinemas, but finding information out about them is pretty difficult. This time last year the new round of Star Wars new generation movies had been released and was apparently screening near here, but I never went. I could never find out what time it was on or if it was in English. Recently, that film has been screening on HBO which I have with my cable here in Sosua.

For me, I am one of the original Star Wars generation. I turned 15 the year Star Wars was first released in 1977. That film was huge and culturally much more significant than anything today, because during that time cineplexes and multiple movies occurring simultaneously was not the norm. In my town in New Zealand we had two cinemas and they each screened only one film. That film would play for one, two or three weeks usually. Star Wars ran for months! When it was released to begin with in the US, there were queues down streets and around blocks. In that time, films were not released around the world in one go and so in New Zealand we waited six months. It opened in the US in May, while in New Zealand it was December 16, 1977 and I was at the first screening in Nelson at 11 AM! How many times I saw the film, I have lost track of, but it was many, many times! Princess Leia was not my favourite character. My favourite characters were the robots especially R2-D2. He was wonderful! Incidentally Kenny Baker who played R2-D2, also passed away this year. So, the passing of Carrie Fisher, is a significant sense of time catching up with us all. I knew her on-screen as a 20-year-old actress and here she has passed away as a 60-year-old. We are getting older :-)

With the death of Carrie Fisher, many are in a sense of understanding that her mother, Debbie Fisher, would die at this time. Not being a parent myself I do not really understand what it must be like to have your children pass away before yourself. But I have several friends who have experienced this, and I know it is difficult for them. There is a belief and a message that you often hear which says no parent should bury their child.

For me, I am not old enough to have lived in that era when Debbie Fisher was a big star, but anyone in their 60s or 70s or older is likely to remember the drama and gossip when Eddie Fisher left her for Elizabeth Taylor. For me, Debbie Fisher was Grace Adler’s mum on Will and Grace, and she was fantastic. She was fabulous. She was so funny. She played the stereotypical Jewish mother driving her daughter crazy with references that would embarrass her daughter as well. There was one classic scene where she arrives at Will and Graces apartment and talks about how she has no panty line on her thighs, and then adds because no panties. LOL!

With all these major events of famous people passing away, I think it brings us in touch with memories of our past connected to films and music that they produced at different points in our lives. It’s not a bad thing to be reminded of all these memories, but it can stir up feelings.

2016 has been a good year but a challenging one.

For me living in the Dominican Republic, where there is so much poverty, there are challenges no matter what your own situation is. You will find that if you make friends with anyone here, sooner or later you will find people needing help especially financial.

And this week I have been dealing with that situation too. A good friend of mine here who is Dominican has had health problems and once you come across the realities in the developing world, you get to realise your own powerlessness and your lack of ability to fix the problems or help the people, because the problems are so extensive. For me, being away from Australia, I was able to get one years travel insurance with medical assistance if that is ever needed for US$300. Here it’s not impossible to imagine spending that much to keep a friend here alive. Not only do you have the challenges of not speaking the local language, my Spanish is still basic but it is developing, but you have a mixture of desperation and opportunism where people will lie to get more money from you or anyone else they can. When you are in the developing world, you get to see the disgusting reality of capitalism and it truly is disgusting. It is as disgusting as you can imagine where people will be left to die if they cannot afford medicine. Eventually these situations will wear you down, tire you out, depress you, and make you feel hopeless. If you don’t get some emotional release about these situations, it is easy to swing between depression and anger. It is so important to try and keep a clear head and a positive attitude. By yesterday afternoon, things had come to a head. Last night fearing that my friend may not get the help he needs, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Carrie Fisher dead, Debbie Reynolds dead, George Michael dead, Dominican friend having serious health issues, giving him money and hoping it will be enough for his treatment and medicine. The brutality of capitalism is clear. This is a savage system operating in the pursuit of profits, no regard for the sanctity of life, be it our fellow humans or other species on the planet. And it is like a rollercoaster, except nobody is in control of it, or it certainly seems that way. As a group of humans, most people take a position of passivity, feeling helpless, being in a state of not caring, going it alone, looking after their close little circle, but not really having a vision or commitment to the world.

Last night I had a really good cry! I cried for the sadness of losing celebrities who had entertained me and who I loved from a distance. I cried about my Dominican friend hoping he will be ok, I cried for the state of humanity and the state of the environment. Statistics show that extreme poverty around the world is lessening, but when you are somewhere like the Dominican Republic you get to see how extensive it is and I cried about that too. And I cried about the state of so many species on our planet including wolves and bears which are two of my favourites, and the likelihood that they will become extinct. As I mentioned in my last blog, the statistics for climate change and its impact were extremely dramatic this year. I’m not going to gloss over it and make out every things going to be hunky-dory, because I just don’t know. I hope all will be well, I keep operating with that as the desired situation, but the evidence of what I am seeing is alarming. And the disregard that I see from so many people is depressing.

This is not the most positive blog, but I speak it as I see it, and am speaking it as I feel it.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s I did a lot of counselling training and experiencing for myself and for others. So I knew yesterday as I was feeling down with all these sad and worrying things, that what I really needed was to let it all out with a good cry. And today after that and after a really good sleep, I woke up feeling better. I’m not going to pretend I was jumping around with glee, but I was feeling okay. And I reckon feeling okay is a pretty good place to be. From there we can keep moving forward.

There are a lot of projects going on in the world to end poverty and protect the environment. But there is a lot of stupidity too. There is a lot of greed. There is a lot of people in power with no regard for sanctity of life be it human or other species.

There is still much work to do in the world in terms of education, inspiring people, helping people achieve their best, bringing people together in a way that is meaningful and genuine. I’m not talking about a bunch of Westerners sitting around simply enjoying everything while the developing world goes without. There is a need for serious change in our world. So many people in the developing world have never experienced decent standards of living and so they became used to having low standards for themselves and others. They do their best with what they have. People die in the developing world from all kinds of things that do not occur in the developed world. In the developed world we have really good education and people get trained well to do their jobs, there are regulations in the jobs to keep people safe, there are police that keep the roads safe. In most developed countries if people are sick they can go to hospitals and get good treatment and medication for minimal cost. Here in the developing world due to poor education, corruption and a history of exploitation, we see a very different picture.

This needs to change.

Sending you my vision for a planet where we all take care of each other, no matter what our nation, race, religion or anything else is, and where we care for the critters and love them and appreciate their preciousness.

Wherever you are in the world, I hope 2017 is your best year yet, I hope that we will be in contact at some point in the year.