The Karma Chronicles: BOOM BOOM

So things have been going pretty well until Thursday night. Well pretty much okay; my Dad went away for an eternity last week  (I am not so good at knowing how long anything takes), apparently it was less than a week) but he left me with a nice guy called Roossel who appeared in our guest room as if by magic one day. He took me to town on walks and fed me on time, and is pretty tranquilo. Compared to the female who he left me with when he went to Mexico (wherever that is) to meet my buddy Kasem. She didn't take me out much and didn't have much of a clue how to speak to me Roosel is a dream by comparison. Daddy says to speak to me like I'm a human 4yrs old which is kind of humiliating given I'm at least 70 in human years, but I get it, dogs don't exactly have the same mental capacity as humans but sheesh, a 4yrs old?

Anyway last Thursday there began 3 nights of partying in town. Apparently it was the celebration of the patron Saint of Vilcabamba, where I live, the Saint of Good Hope. I was only hoping it would end much faster than it did. One of the favourite things here are these boom booms... they begin as a high pitch whistle which stands the hairs on my back on end and are followed by a percussive boom. This really reverberates in my inner ear and shocks my sympathetic nervous system into a state of fright (yes I am well versed in these things because Daddy is an osteopath and talks about this stuff to his clients). Usually they come in pairs or threes and they drive me mad. I hate them, makes me nervous as hell and pathetically scared. I don't know why this is. I was not exposed to these much as a pup growing up in Kathmandu and Yangon but as an adult, holy crap they traumatise me. Daddy is great, he soothes me and I retreat to the corner of his bedroom (usually sleep like Harry Potter under the stairs) so this is a treat to sleep with Daddy who I love so much. He is my person. I don't eat much either when I'm in this state and he keeps my food bowl full, and gives me bone treats too, yum.

And it's not only that but for 3 nights in a row, these booms were accompanied by fireworks and SUPER loud music coming from town. I've been down there to the central square of our town Vilcabamba and sure enough there is a stage set up and ginormous speakers pointing west straight up the hill to where I live. Now, don't get me wrong, I like music and the idea that people are having fun dancing and socializing and whatnot is fine, but the boom booms and the fireworks...it's all a bit much. It goes on for hours, sometimes until 2 in the morning, how is a dog supposed to get his beauty sleep I ask ya?

Here we are on Sunday night, I have hardly eaten all weekend, Daddy is a bit worried about me, and I'm spending my time cowering in his room or Roossel's waiting for that next whistle leading to the next BOOM! 

Update: I'm feeling much better and am eating again, Daddy is happy for me, and things are finding a good balance again. I love to run, but Daddy has his neck in a thing and he seems to be in pain, so I just run behind the truck when he goes to and from town until he can ride his bike again. Not the end of the world for this dog named Karma.

The Karma Chronicles: I chose them

Dec 17, 2023 Vilcabamba, Ecuador

I guess I should introduce myself. I'm called Karma because I have that lucky charm that goes with being a street dog born in Kathmandu in the Kingdom of Nepal. Good Karma! Get it!?? Life is pretty mean on those streets, I mean I left that life pretty early on but lived in Kathmandu for 3 more years so saw my share of the street life that many other dogs less fortunate than I have to endure forever.

Such was not to be my fate. One hot September late monsoon early afternoon I had just been totally mud-soaked by a passing car that sprayed me and a couple of siblings and my Mum so completely that I gasped to the curb unable to breathe, kind of like curb-side water-boarding. I must have blacked out because when I came to I was alone, left to an uncertain fate in the corner of the curb, getting more muddy water sprayed on me with every passing car. 

I shook myself hard and struggled to my feet then surmounted the curb the small puppy doggy height of Hillary's Step up on Everest as I later learned. Gasping over the top I found my legs under me and looked up and caught the eye of a young boy emerging from a gateway (turns out it was an organic market where they sell fruit and veg that hasn't been sprayed with chemicals and what not which is truly bad for you, I have learned a lot from this family over the years!). The boy saw me and tugged on the man's hand he was holding and the man turned and saw me too and so did the other boy who was walking with them, I had been SEEN!

Something told me this was my chance at a brighter future, and not knowing a thing about where or what or how I started following them, it just felt right, were these the chosen ones? There were lots of people on the raised side of the road, going in both directions and several times I thought I would teeter into the abyss back into the gunk-filled gutter. But I didn't, I held on, 50m turned into 100m then 150m and it was all I could to to keep moving forward, my fur was caked with mud and the sun glaring down unkindly on your sodden canine narrator, hardening my fur, I must have looked quite tragically comical; a cross between a sodden baby wookie and a mutant smurf (how do I know these things?). They turned a corner and I scurried as best my little legs could carry me, and as I turned the corner I saw them turning into a driveway 30m ahead. Now in a panic I realised this was the place the cars were kept and that people got in those cars and went away fast, they were getting away!

I started running with the last of my energy and skidded around that turn into the parking area. Things happened fast, as I entered the area these 2 big dogs, unknown to me, I'd only been around on this earth 1 month spotted me and I don't know if it was my unkempt appearance, all covered in brown mud and all, or my less than savoury smell that got to them but bam, they were in full attack mode. I saw the group that I'd been following, the 2 small boys, the man and 2 women, one older and one younger were standing by a car and I scurried past them and bolted under the car. The boys saw me being chased down, pointing and shouting 'Daddy do something'! and the man, the one I would come to know so well as Danyel, lunged forward as did another man from the parking area and grabbed those 2 dogs who were snarling and barking trying to get at me. I was mortified, shaking under the car certain that my choice had led to my untimely doggie demise.

Then I don't know what happened but the next thing I knew the smaller of the two small boys was crawling under the car talking to me in a soft kind voice, saying 'here boy, come to me', my eyes filled with tears his voice was like sweet music to my floppy ears, a tone of kindness that I had never heard before. I crept towards his out-stretched arms. He took me from under the car and cradled me in his arms, and the other boy was stroking me saying 'oh he is so cute' (whatever that means, I mean though I suppose I was kind of pathetically cute despite the mud).

The older of the boys, turns out he was about 7yrs old, I later came to know as Zikeee, the other 6yrs old was Kasehmm, Daddy was Danyel and the younger woman was Siseel. They were a family recently moved to Kathmandu from someplace faraway and while they weren't looking to adopt a dog, I just had the good karma to be in the right place at the right time. The older woman was kindly looking and as the group stood there not sure what to do with this small bundle of mud and fur, she put a hand on the man's shoulder and said 'well Danyel, I already have two dogs at home'. And that was that. They carried me to their car, which was the one I had chosen to scurry under, or it wasn't but it makes a better story if it was!

I chose them! So that is how I went from rags to riches, a poor little street dog from Kathmandu was adopted by this fantastic globally mobile family with food for me, a house, food for me, a car, did I mention food for me, a warm bed, food for me? Well you get the picture. Within an hour I was cleaned up and smelling sweet, within 2 hours I was eating raw beef and rice, within 3 hours I had my own blanket in a warm corner and I was safe. 

Apparently there was a family debate as to whether to keep me or not, I mean seriously? There was even a question? The Zakee one and the Siseel were in favour while the other two had some crazy doubts. Zakee said 'I was a small dog and it wasn't a small dog world'. On that first day at my new home, Danyel said he would call the dog catcher people (actually a rescue service but I wasn't to know that), a fate worse than doggie death, but it was a Sunday and they were closed, more good karma;-). Later we found out he never did call them; he knew I was a keeper. Zakee and Kasehmm have been my buddies for long time now feeding me, taking me for walks (picking up my poop, yuck), feeding me, bike rides, hugging me, (did I mention feeding me?), brushing me, washing me, feeding me, all that good stuff that dogs love and need. Siseel and Danyel must have loved me to provide everything I needed all these years.

And now, 11 years later I have had quite some adventures, been on airplanes, lived in 5 countries on 3 continents been to beaches, been trekking (to 3300m), on car rides, bike rides, boat rides, truck rides so many crazy things have happened. My family has taken such good care of me, and I have showered them with gratitude in every way I can... mostly just by looking cute (or I should say handsome as I am told), but also by trying my doggie best not to misbehave, to be loyal and friendly. I will admit to being a tad bit given to adventurous moments and have escaped on occasion, and it is true there have been some rather unpleasant moments on said occasions. Like that time in Kathmandu when I got involved in a street fight and ended up pretty beaten up, same thing in Yangon which is the closest to death I have ever been. I got separated from Siseel on this occasion and by some miracle got home, it was a terrible experience.

I have never bitten a soul, except for the occasional chicken and, oh there was that kitten in Myanmar that um, err, didn't make it after a bit of rough play, happened only one time I swear! Did I tell you that I'm not cheap, I eat a fair bit and am pretty fussy, I needed to be vaccinated as a pup and then for travel more vaccines, and I had to have a microchip implanted which disappeared somewhere between Myanmar and France and had to be re-implanted, not cheap, more vaccines, and then there's the cost of transporting a dog on airplanes. The last time was super expensive, from Switzerland to Ecuador, wheeeeee! So yeah, born in Nepal, moved to Myanmar, then France, then Switzerland and then Ecuador, not too shabby, a nomad dog, thats me.

I now live in the Ecuadorian Andes mountains in a little pueblo called Vilcabamba in what is apparently a sacred valley, it is probably my last move. I love it here, the place just feels so good, sacred indeed. The weather is neither too hot nor too cold. I live in a great big house with amazing views and a huge backyard along with an area called the Pyramid where they do crazy movement practices, dance, chant, beat on drums, play music, hold ceremonies with these fellas called Shamans. I love it and usually just chill with the people and revel in the vibe. Danyel is my feeder, err I mean carer and I am rarely on a leash, have comfie places to sleep, many friends both doggie and human, squirrels and rabbits to chase and I eat like a king. The only downside is that my 2 boy buddies and Seesil are not here, I don't really know where they are but I sure do miss them all. Sometimes I like to run after the car on the way to or from the nearby town, sometimes we walk, or Danyel rides his bike and often we go for walks up the hills, round the bends and in all of those I get to sniff and pee and poop where ever I want to, what a life!

Anyway, that's a lot of words to say that I have exceptionally good karma, I chose my family, and so there you go, I am Karma the dog and these are my stories.

The Karma Chronicles: Days in the life of a dog named Karma

 

Dec 3, 2023, Vilcabamba, Ecuador

So yesterday was the most boring day ever. Once again I was relegated to watching Daddy slaving away as he is moving from the small 2 room yellow house where we have been living quite comfortably to the next door house where Cora who was my first friend here, and her owner (I think her name is Beca or something) used to live. We live up on a Hill and I have loads of space and get to roam around freely as I want, bark at anyone who comes around, chase anything that looks chase-able, sniff the place completely, poop and pee anyplace I want. It's pretty sweet. 

There have been many strangers around the past couple of weeks, some putting some white stuff on the walls and making the house look very different from before. Humans are a bit mad, they knock down some walls and put up others as if it makes a difference, then show their friends who nod and go oooh and aaah and sometimes ooolalah!

They even took a long time with a machine that made a lot of dust that made the terraces kind of ugly but then they put on this smelly shiny stuff that made it look very nice. One worker who they call Kristoferr is pretty young and I like to bark at him whenever I see him to make him scared, so funny. Daddy thinks it is because I don't like him, but I do, i just like to make him worried, my doggie dark side coming through, pwaahahahah

The sun was still shining but it was low in the sky when Daddy oddly brought my food and water bowl outside and tricked me by attaching the chain to my collar while I was distracted eating. Normally I eat well after dark in a corner inside so this was quite unusual and I knew something was up, I mean honestly does he think I'm stupid? Had he not done this and simply tried to hook me up I would have run away because I know it means he is going to leave me there and go out without me which is quite rude of him.

I mean of course it is true that if he didn't tether me I would run after him as far as I could follow him, maybe even get lost, maybe even eat poison like happened that time, or get into a fight like that time in the big city we lived in far far away in a place called Yangun or something. But hey, I'm a dog and I just follow the person who feeds me, and if I can't find him, I follow my nose. I'm neutered, otherwise I'd probably be following something else like I see other dogs doing.

Anyway, so there I was, tethered to this big stone water tank outside the house where we were living. There is shade, water, food and it is sheltered from when wet drops fall from the sky, and the dog crate that I travelled in from another place far far away (I have travelled a lot) is there with my blanket in it so pretty comfie though I get a little freaked out when I can't chase squirrels or when the vultures perch on the roof of the big house and I can't chase any of them, not that I can catch them when I am free running about but you get my drift right? 

Darkness comes and my Daddy hasn't come home, the other night when he did this that wet stuff from the sky started coming down pretty heavily so I went into my dog cage and stayed there until he came home. Last night the water didn't come from the sky, it got a little cold so I curled up in my crate and had a darn good sleep, it's a dogs life! Apparently I'm supposed to be on guard protecting the property, but I'm still figuring that one out I mean 99.9999% of the time whoever comes is expected and introduced to me, so what? I'm supposed to jump up every time someone comes, feign ferocious with aim to maim instincts? Gimme a break, I may be a street dog from the mean alleys of Kathmandu but I fell into the lap of luxury with these folks at the age of 1month so ya know, what instincts I have a deep in my gene-pool, not even close to the surface.

When Daddy, they call him Danyel did finally come home I pretended to be all worried and excited at the same time whimpering and yowling and running around like a mad banshee released from his captivity. Truth be told I was actually alright, I just acted like that so he might think that I was not happy there and ecstatic to see him. That way maybe he doesn't do it again, I suffer so much!

We went inside the big house where we now live, my bed is there nicely located under the corner of the stairs and I curled up in my bed and went straight back to sleep for 10 hours. Another boring day in this dog's life, more boring than usual because we didn't go for a walk, go to town or anything, like doesn't he know I am in the prime of my life (11yrs is prime right?) and need exercise daily, like ya know... sheesh. 

Travel in the time post-covid

Somebody had to write about it. Air travel is not quite like it used to be. I remember reading years ago in Reader's Digest or some such popular periodical that air travel was one of the most stressful things that you might face in life, particularly if it wasn't your normal as it is for business and internationally oriented people. And now, travel in the time post-covid, well hang on tight cause this is a story with a twisted ending.

As I tell my teens planes don't wait for people, people wait for planes so don't be late! And being late is just one of the stresses, getting there, will my taxi come on time, will there be traffic, an accident, roads closed (for my trip the question was a day before to get to the full day's bus ride in time, would there be landslide blocking the road), will there be a queue at check in, for immigration, for security, do I really not need a visa? Do I have correct documents, is my passport 6 months valid, do I need a return ticket, is my baggage overweight, will they check it through (I am usually travelling multiple airports, multiple stops).

AND NOW, add to the list, do I need a P*R neg test, 24, 48, 72 hrs in advance, even if I have a vaccine card? Do I need a vaccine certificate? Do I need any of these if I am transiting? What if my transit is more than 12hrs, 24hrs... jayzus christmas... do I need to be masked, will there be food on board, will there be ham, will there be spam, Sam I am, green eggs and ham.

It has become a tad ridiculous. I'm not your virgin traveller though I felt a bit like one getting on my first flight in 18 months to travel from Ecuador to Switzerland this past week. Thank goodness most restrictions have been lifted, back in January I was not allowed into the airport in Guayquil to see my son (who is a minor) off back to Switzerlandia because I had no vax cert back then, even as omi*ron was proving to be contagious for everyone vaxxed or not. Masks were everywhere back then as well, and that still persisted through this flight, from Guayaquil to Panama but then to Amsterdam and to Geneva the masks well they just disappeared as if a higher sense of savvy descended as we crossed the great ocean Atlantic.

Who is right about the mask mandates? Ecuador? Switzerland? Who can say? Who was ever right about anything on this crazy ride we have been on. At Schipol airport I ran into a Swedish friend who I'd met in Lebanon in 2010 (the way you do), he had come through from Argentina to Amsterdam multiple stops en route to Spain and nowhere had anyone asked him for anything. He had spent $400 making sure he had all his Co*id duck-uments in a row for nothing. 

And then what happens, I arrive in Geneva, reunite with my kids, and the next day, sitting out in the belting down northern (pre-solstice) sunshine at their school fair WHAM... it hits me. Fatigue, skin hot to touch, chills and headache...sounds like a touch of the sun right?... Ouch. On the second morning I connect with my travel companion who also lives in Vilcabamba and went from Amsterdam to Portugal to see how she is doing and lo and behold she has the same symptoms and these are the same as her husband had the week before! Not heat exhaustion after all. A virus, which after 3 days is completely gone.

Did you ever wonder what happened to all those viruses during this past couple of years, influenza A and the myriad other bugs that people got in different parts of the world. Yeah me too, seems they all got re-branded as Co_id doesn't it? Makes you realise how we have been led down the proverbial garden path, well different paths depending on your country though with the convergence in many cases with stricter laws and fewer freedoms and more power in the hands of the fewer. I'm not really liking that, and not really sure it is a coordinated conspiracy in fact I'd be mighty impressed if anyone could get the likes of Vlady Putin, Xi Ping, Modhi and Biden to party together, but it is mighty curious and more than a bit disconcerting.

The war in the Ukraine, is either a big red herring as the ramp up for the next big virus scare gears up (ever heard of monkeypox? see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil.... ;-)) or it is the gross manipulation of a megalomaniac as the media wants us to think. Has to be said though it too is quite curious in terms of strategy. Did Putin really expect to 'take Ukraine' just like that and that Western Europe would just bend over and take it graciously?? Or has it been an expensive sabre-rattling, a reality check to send a shiver of fear down the spines of Europe as a kind of show during the intermission while we wait for Virus Act II?

Fear seems to be quite the thing these days, the media has figured out that it sells, maybe even better than sex. Certainly they got it, the minute the word 'pan*emic' was uttered back in April 2020 the media seized on the idea of 'panic' Did you ever seen anywhere (except my FB posts) anyone shouting that the pan in pan*emic does not stand for panic!? And Panic they did...Wham bam airports closed, and masking and lock down mandates spread faster than the bad smell that still lingers over the whole thing.  Ironically rather than stay in place expats the world over were ordered to get on that last flight out and come home, so much for flattening the curve and preventing the spread. Bad smell bad smell bad smell.

Anyway, at the risk of losing more friends than I already have, I want to leave you with this. I didn't have covid, never have had, not symptomatically at least through all this time. What I suffered this past few days went through me the same way it went through 3 or 4 people I know in Vilcabamba, and none of them tested +ve.  Ironically in all this time NO ONE can tell you really how many people have had Co*id because so many were asymptomatic, so no one can say if the vac*ine worked or not. NO ONE can say yet if the vac*ine has or isn't going to cause more health problems and lose more lives than it saved NO ONE will say how enormously damaging the impact of lockdowns a strategy designed to protect rich countries has been on impoverished countries. NO ONE will admit to the huge impact these strategies have had on mental health and well-being, domestic violence, suicides, and social stagnation of young people. Will ANYONE agree that the media has done a huge disservice to humanity in selling fear rather than providing balanced news and views about a global phenomenon.

What we can say is that the division amongst friends and families that the discussion has created is highly disconcerting. We can say that until we stand together and look at what happened taking a step back and being real and critical together, only then might we see what has really happened. I am lucky here, my new housemates get it, they are in the minority, they get that I don't have Co*id, and that even if I did, as for millions, it isn't the end of life or the world or anything, it is just a bad flu. Travel in the time post-co*id? Go for it while you still can!

A Year of healing in Ecuador - Part 2, the Recovery

Back on the healing path in April, 2021 we had a series of 'weekend lockdowns' yep, only locked down on weekends (???).  And I had decided to step down off the prednisone which has to happen gradually lest you rebound back into the pain. Where I live is tranquil and our community on this ridge side of the sacred Mandango mountain that dominates the Valley calls itself the Hill Tribe, and 6 households live cooperatively centered around the Pyramid I co-created and built (and have blogged on) in 2012. The Pyramid was built and designed to attract and focus the energies of the Mandango. The Pyramid shaped bamboo frame and thatch covered roof (using scaled down dimensions of the Great Pyramid of Giza) is built over a 9m square earthen platform, the whole structure is in alignment along magnetic ley lines and the 4 directions very important to indigenous tradition. We share shamanic ceremonies there, plant medicine ceremonies, yoga and qi gong, meditation, women's and men's groups, workshops, sound healing offered by Hill Tribe members and people in the community.

Built with all natural materials the Pyramid is perfect for transformational activities; those that support people wishing to delve into their current illusion and evolve a different reality. As a natural structure, standing in a natural setting the Pyramid decays and needs renovation constantly, every-changing as is everything in our world. This representation of impermanence preludes non-attachment and non-judgement which are concepts inherent in nature and which while supported by traditions like Buddhism are so lost in our modern world. I believe this is largely where we have gone wrong as human societies, that we stopped living in and listening to nature. We have a running funding site to help support the ongoing rehabilitation of the Pyramid and I invite you to take a look and please donate if you can.

Lots of pix of the Pyramid here on the FB page @MandangoPyramid

What I wanted to say was that these lockdowns were in fact welcome weekend retreats for us, moments of calm. On each of the 4 successive weekends we the Hill Tribe led sessions in the Pyramid of movement medicine, meditation and breathwork, such a perfect way to be locked down! It is important for me to locate for you why this place has been so essential to my healing and why I travelled across the world and away from my sons to be here and do the necessary healing and be a healthier and better father. I couldn't have picked a better place to ride out the Covid-ness affecting the world.

I joined and left a 'polymayalic arthritis' online forum, a support group for people with this 'affliction', recognizing that most of the people were resigned for life to their medicated condition and coping with that. I was not one of them, I had from the beginning understood that there was a light at the end of the tunnel and that pharmaceutical medications were not the way forward. Life had been insanely busy and stressful and I took it that this condition of mine was the universe telling me to slow down and reflect on who I was and where I was headed. And I am forever grateful for all the lessons I continue to learn.

On my beautiful west facing terrace I started training with a new friend from Colombia, Daniel who embodies positivity, TRX and rubber bands for the isotonic approach. Many months of inactivity had caused my body to consider this weakened conditioning to be it's 'new normal' and certainly on prednisone while I might have been pain free I still wasn't anything like 'back to normal' in terms of strength and activity level. At this point I had been away from my sons' for longer than I had thought and it didn't seem like the end was coming anytime soon. In school in Switzerland and living with their Mum they were doing fine, each adapting differently to a new country and culture and curriculum and to my absence. It has been painful to be away from them, and I know that my resistance to reconciling this has not helped my healing but it has been part of the process and only recently as a result of heart-centered therapy have I learned possibly why this is so, I'll save that for another blog.

The training and nutrition regime was going well until one day I tweaked my left shoulder (another nemesis injury 11x dislocated) while training even though we were going slow and carefully, my body reacted saying it wasn't ready yet. Then over 4 weeks, once I had stopped the prednisone and with the shoulder injury, pain slowly started to return. What I know now is that I hadn't taken long enough to wean off the drug, mistake number 2. Closely followed by mistake number 3 when I did a 5 day water fast in week 4 without the commensurate colon cleanse, and I suspect toxins released during the fast that should have been flushed out, triggered again an inflammatory response and oh boy did I suffer. In late March, rebounding big-time, I fell back into pain and stiffness. There was more inner work to do.

This time I lasted 3 weeks losing mobility, independence, in constant pain, my spirit descended in a spiral again. In the early hopeful days as I was tapering off the prednisone and at the beginning of those 4 weeks I had been considering returning to Europe to be proximate to my boys and to try to set-up a wellness practice there. But that wasn't to be. Instead in late April I reluctantly went back on prednisone and was again, nearly immediately 'cured'. Amazing really the sense of being well again on this drug, and I realise that for many it is truly miraculous and I see why people stay on it. Unfortunately there is a plethora of side-effects of prednisone, some of them to the long-term detriment of the body's integrity.

Skip to the chase. I remained on prednisone through May, June and July, I was on it during my son's visit in July so that I was able to be pain free and mobile with them. The day they left I started to taper off again. This time the taper would take 2 months and by the end of September I was feeling like it was the moment to leave the drug altogether. I decided to stick only with the same diet and not take supplements of any kind so that my body could normalize and not be in anyway dependent on anything else besides what I was eating; food as medicine. I realised also that years of being 'toxified' were a part of my dilemma. I grew up through a time when fertilizers and pesticides were being introduced into the food chain, and when the genetic modification of food began. With respect to the scientific community and their efforts to improve crop yields and support farmers in poor countries, in the interest of ensuring the availability of food for more people, we have known since the '70s that the real problem with food scarcity has always been global distribution, not production and that these methods of chemicalization and modification do not necessarily support population health. Another heady topic.

In addition I have spent much of my adult working life living in countries where there has been a lack of regulation in the use of chemicals in food production. I have lived in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Nepal and Myanmar where poverty, war and corruption have resulted in the poisoning of the earth. In Myanmar for example the entire Irrawaddy basin, a food basket of rich and fertile soil is toxic. Getting an organic grower certification there is impossible because the water source is contaminated with chemicals. Ironically in many cases low quality fertilizers and pesticides illegally transported from China thwart the efforts of countries to regulate such additives because they are cheaper, and farmers are mis-educated to use greater concentrations on crops than is needed. So who knows what I ingested and what has accumulated in my system over these years. Also growing up in Canada at a time when so many things were being experimented with in terms of increasing crop yields. Wheat or beef or chicken or soy, etc are far from the same as what I started off eating as a lad. Nowadays you can't find GMO, glyphosate free wheat products on the shelf unless you go specifically for organics. Beef, chicken, pork and even (especially) salmon, anything 'mono-cropped' are all antibiotic, steroid and hormone 'enhanced'. In Afghanistan, in 2003 I was in the north-west province of Farya, the Iranians were shipping containers full of robust frozen chickens to remote town markets, a welcome change from the scrawny farm-yard chickens you could get in the market. Yet by their size these were chickens highly inoculated, hormone supported, being force-fed chemicalized grains chickens. The bird flu scare halted the importation of these chickens probably to the betterment of the general population and my personal health.

Statistically we have seen a steady increase in cancers over the past 30 years, particularly in those who are over 45 years old today. We should not be at all surprised given the abuse of the food supply by corporate interests. I don't think I am the only canary in the mine, I think we are many, a whole huge flock. I believe it is not in the 'corporate' (food industry), nor in the western medical community's interest to see this because if it was, we would be seeing big changes in how we steward the earth, and how we cared for ourselves.

Add to all this I have unknowingly injured myself with two more insults: one the mercury amalgams in my teeth and whatever ails they might bring to heavy metal toxification of the body. Secondly I should not forget air toxicity; I have lived in some remarkably toxic cities, like Kuala Lumpur, Kathmandu and Yangon and it can't be underscored how urban living in such places can only contribute to the toxification of body systems. Fortunately my lungs have had a break now and again with good lengths of time a year in East Timor, the coastal town of Dong Hoi in Vietnam where I lived for 2 years, and Vilcabamba here in Ecuador. I admit also to have been a more off than on smoker for much of my adult life and with long breaks, but still, that can't have helped.

Here in the Sacred Valley of Ecuador there is a firm growing commitment on the part of farmers to grow chemical free food, the air is clean clean clean and it is the perfect place to detoxify and heal the body and spirit. And so through this time here I have eaten mainly organic foods. We are not educated about the importance of the health of our gut, and the effect of the damage done to a healthy gut biome by antibiotics. In 2003 I had an insidious pneumonia on the upper right lobe of my lungs and this was treated with nearly 3 weeks of rather harsh antibiotics. I believe my gut was destroyed then and as soon as the doctor could give me a clean bill of health, I ended up back in Afghanistan right at the time when those steroid chickens were available. Who knows what harms came to my system then, and with the various stressors of the job and poor availability of nutrient rich food, no probiotics, certainly I did nothing helpful to rebuild my gut.

Another digression, I know but to explore the understanding that our gut is our second brain is huge. In fact many would posit that our gut is our first brain and without a healthy gut we really cannot think straight, do a search on this! I would concur, and healing my gut has taken time. Post-prednisone I took extreme care to ensure a proper balance of pre and probiotics, fiber, plant and animal proteins and nutrients were in my diet; I was finally attending to my gut biome. I became more regular with my meditation practice, and through this crazy 2 years of the Covid pandemic, have made decisions from the heart, not from a place of fear and this has all helped me to see things much more clearly than would have been the case without such practices. I blogged about my perspective on the global Covid response in January.

In December my eldest son came for a visit, that lifted my spirits considerably and it cannot be understated how a positive frame of  mind does wonders for reducing stress which in turn supports the immune system and thereby supports healing. I will be forever grateful that he made this trip (not easy as I describe in the 'Stuck in Paradise blog below). Thank you son!

A key step that I took was to do a liver cleanse in January 2022, using a clever protocol from 'the Medical Medium' that I can tell you about if you ask. I highly recommend anyone over 45 start a regime of a least annual colon and liver and kidney cleanses to mitigate against the possibility of cancers or other diseases resulting from our years of toxification, and of course to reduce the likelihood of a 'perfect storm'.

Here I am writing in March, 2022.  I now understand that healing really has to take time and is not only about the physical state of being. I have been pain free for nearly 6 months, though weak from a year of nearly no physical activity and nervous about over-doing it to rebuild. A year ago I bought a vehicle, because what is only a 10 minute hillside walk from or to town had become too much and I was constantly tired. Recently, though the original knee dilemma has been largely unattended, I have started to walk down to town and started going to the gym to try to bulk up my quads and shoulders.

It has been a long path towards healing, though as my wise friends say, it took a lifetime to arrive at the place I've come from. I am grateful for this time and place, for the people who have challenged me and those who continue to support me. This journey has enhanced my understanding of what others go through, those in 'chronic' pain who come for some kind of respite. And I am more than before an ardent advocate for prevention. Nearly 9 years ago, when I turned 50, I posted on my FB to my friends 'if you haven't evolved a movement practice by now, it's not too late' and I stand by that. Conscious movement is critical, what we eat should be medicine not poison, we need to cleanse and to be healthy of body and we need to be healthy in mind.

To people in need of support on their journey I am available, and for others I would request that you share my website email address: elementalenergy.daniel@gmail.com or message me on WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal: +(593)996545233 or FB/Instagram: @elementalwellnesstherapies with anyone you know who needs support, or just wants to start a meditation of movement practice.

Finally to my sons who I speak to nearly daily and who have come to Vilcabamba twice in these past 15 months, please know that I left when I did because I had to, you know I miss you. I am rebuilding. I will come to Europe soon, who knows for how long, it depends what works and if I can find work. I have to go slow in the process of recovery because I don't want to end up back down the rabbit hole of pain and despair. Despite whatever restrictions and all the challenges the current situation in Europe has thrown into the mix, I'll be there. Meanwhile I'm building my quads like a '......', great advice from my NZ physio friend who I was another man-mum in Kuala Lumpur 18 years ago! 

I know it has been a challenging time for Cécile, single-parenting teens! And it is wonderful that she has been able to maintain the boys in comfort and safety. That I didn't return when expected was not anticipated neither by me (or maybe it was a 'be careful what you ask for' by one or both of us moment?). At least an absence this long probably wasn't ever thought of. The problematic of staying in arguably one of the most expensive constituencies in the world, was anyway untenable due to Covid so even if I was healthy I wouldn't have been able to work. 

The whole Covid overlay has meant that their Mum has spent more time working from home and except for the end of term last year the boys have been going to school since they started in Suisse back in Aug 2020, so that is something positive. As most of this generation of screen-committed teenagers do, they retreat to their rooms after raiding the fridge after school, and emerge from their dens to again forage for food at dinner-time and then retreat again. It means Mum is around the place. I taught them to cook, and they are quite good, skills that are already proving to serve them well! It has meant a lot for my healing to know the boys are thriving, performing well at school, not without health concerns for our youngest, but overall they are doing better than ok. I will blog again about my concerns for this generation through a period of 'de-socialisation' which doesn't fit with our usual concept of a healthy environment for teens. Covid has kept kids at home and 'off the streets', for the most part, though at least on the street you're getting some sunlight. Anyway, this too shall pass and they will be fine. I am sure of that.

A Year of healing in Ecuador - Part 1, the Perfect Storm

I have been living in Ecuador for 15 months! A difficult year on many levels that began a healing journey after falling foul to a 'perfect storm' of circumstances that started with a small knee injury in France and led some painful months later to a diagnosis of polymyalgic arthritis and recovery in Ecuador. I write now early in March enjoying full recovery, pain free, meds free and mobile (yaaah!). This is the story of that journey.

For some of you in Europe where I had just moved with my sons after spending their whole lives and my past 25 years in Asia, or the Middle East or South America (most recently we lived in Yangon, Myanmar), in December 2020 I disappeared off the family map, remaining there only virtually. After 15 years of being the stay at home parent for my boys I was suddenly not where they were any more and this bears some edification because I know many of you have no idea what happened, or why I am still away.

It began in mid-October 2020 when I stepped off my bike on uneven ground in a field in France and injured my long-problematic left knee. We had arrived in mid August, the 6th country the boys have lived in, for them to start school in Switzerland (that journey is documented here!) and where Cécile (their Maman, my partner in co-parenting) had secured a post at the HQ for the UN Refugee Agency in Geneva. As it turned out she had to return to finish up her engagement with UNHCR in Myanmar until late November so it was me and the boys for the summer and much of the fall adjusting to our new reality after most of their lives had been spent in Asia and the Middle East. Anyway that day in October something slipped in my left knee and it became painful and inflamed.

This wasn't the first time; I injured my knee initially in 1983 and had a surgery then to fix my posterior cruciate ligament, these small mishaps had happened a few times over the years, but this time, a week or two of rest and anti-inflam/pain killers, just didn't work to get me mobile and pain-free again... maybe age had something to do with it; I'm 58 yrs on with many hard miles on the knee, from the Canadian Rockies to the Himalayas, the Alps and the Andes! In the ensuing two months as things really got worse I went to three doctors in France each one amping up the pharmaceuticals and none really helping. Between doctors two and three I was given a referral for imaging which showed a knee with little cartilage remaining to cushion the articulation between bones. Then I had lab tests, more imaging and an orthopedic surgeon who wanted me to have total knee replacement surgery (just shave 5mm off here, 7mm there, put in this cushiony stuff and sew you back up) in which ultimately they disconnect your leg at the knee and then reconnect it with some new bits inside and offer a 65% success rate.

I wasn't very keen on TKR surgery nor that there was a long waiting period for the surgery- and that the ski season would soon be upon us and I wouldn't be able make a turn for the whole winter so I'd be immobile, cold and miserable, and without an income.

To make a long story shorter (but not by much), over those 2 months I became like the tin man left out in the rain; stiffening in more joints particularly my hips and knees. This made walking, sitting, standing up, going up and down stairs all so painful, then my shoulders got in the act and then my hands. Not nice and blood tests were not revealing much, except that I didn't have rheumatoid markers which was a relief of sorts. Temporary relief came only from a hot shower in the morning.

I have reflected long-time about what got me into this situation, the perfect storm. Certainly the knee thing was where it started and just today I recall also how body-damaging scooters are (those 2-wheelers now popular in European capitals for 'scooting' around) and I had been a scooting fool around Geneva. It had become my main and preferred mode of transport. So, my lower back was compromised from over-scoot, that one-foot-lower-than-the-other-backward propulsion is not at all good for the lumbar/sacral spine. I had felt this before at some point scooting around London with the boys when they were little (a great tip for parents btw, kids too big to stroller love it and you can whizz around cities with ease) my back was killing me afterwards. The nerves that serve the knee exit the spine in the upper lumbar (L5 to be precise) and to confirm involvement at the spinal level the entire big toe nail on my left foot (the irony doesn't escape me), innervated from the same location in the lumbar spine, turned black as if I had dropped a brick on it. I liken the ensuing inflammation to a slow algae bloom the way it started in one joint and spread to the others supported rather than suppressed by the anti-inflammatory pharmaceuticals.

As winter approached and it got colder with humidity where we were not far from Lake Leman and Geneva, the cold got into my bones making matters worse. Nutrition played a role. It was part of the storm. Cécile had been there when we arrived in August and I continued cooking for two veggies and our two boy meat-eaters so once she returned to Myanmar in September I reverted to meat eating also to bulk up a bit for winter (or so I thought). I surmise that my diet changed too radically without the softer tropical fruits and veg I had been used to for 8 years and this change in my internal flora contributed to my troubles. 

Along with these physical changes (the climate, the nutrition, the inflammation, the meds) there were emotional and mental stressors; a relationship that had ended 3 years earlier far from a 'conscious uncoupling', logistics and lobbying issues around the school where Kasem was in one and Zaki in another (for the first month), problems getting a driver's licence transferred (that in itself is a story) meaning for a while I was driving on a Myanmar driver's license all the while daily crossing the border between Switzerland and France as you do as a 'frontalier' (cross-border dweller). Stress is a killer and I carry it in my lower back, the water element, the seat of emotions, the element of balance, potential and flow... ebb and flow so why be surprised when the nerves and I was not getting the reinforcement of a better perspective from community and so with everything else going on, I fell foul to my own lassitude, we are indeed our own worst enemies.

To add to the problem, Brexit was reaching it's writhing twisting finale for Brits residing in Europe. British people (am a Brit by birth) who could prove they resided in France by the end of 2020 had to apply for residency pronto. Cannot express enough how I loathe the 'rule Britannia' media driven bullsh*t that warped that appalling decision. There is a Catch-22 in many countries, where to get a bank account you needed a fixed address and to rent a place you need a bank account. Fortunately with foresight my name was on the tenancy agreement for where the boys and Cécile were to live in France (they have now moved to Switzerland). In France you can't work out of your house so you need to join or set up a 'cabinet' (clinic), you can't work without liability insurance, you have to register as a business; a minefield of administration and bureaucracy. And really I have a very strong aversion to bureau-crazy. I had registered and then applied to become a French resident just before the final deadline on 30 June, 2021 and still haven't heard back from the French, I'm told it could take years.

Unable to manage well and in such a declining condition in France with my status uncertain and sadly UNHCR and all it's concern for 'family reunification' of refugees doesn't extend that concept with visa facilitation to it's staff in 'blended' families. I was at a loss and dependent on one particularly supportive friend (thanks again Joe) to get me to appointments with labs and doctors. And then I spoke with another friend in Myanmar who suggested I needed to 'go home', and I am forever grateful for this advice (thanks Christina). And to her question 'where was home' I easily answered... Vilcabamba in Ecuador. Don't be too surprised dear reader who may not know me well, it is in Vilcabamba between Afghanistan missions 22 years ago that I established a presence (coming and going, sometimes for weeks, and sometimes months) in this little town of the southern Andes, building community, centered now around two houses and a project called the Pyramid on Mandango. The boys have been multiple times to Vilcabamba, a respite in nature's harmony. It is also Ecuador where friends in Vilcabamba had had success with more heinous knee problems than mine, through stem cell injections, a much preferred approach than hacking the knee apart, so going to Ecuador was not such a long stretch and though I haven't yet, it could still be that I have stem cell injections into my knees.

23 December 2020 I left for 'home'. This was a very difficult moment; my definition of home is where your family lives and my sons are my family, as their 'at-home parent' their entire lives my departure though planned to be only 3 months, was still heart wrenching. Over a year later my return to France or Switzerland where the boys are in school and living with their mother is pending a full recovery. Over this time it has been thwarted by the covid restrictions overlay (at the time of writing these are ebbing) that would require me to get vaccinated (against medical advice having an auto-immune reactive system) and make working as a therapist nigh on impossible in Europe. I am very grateful the boys are with their Mum, they moved from France across the border to Switzerland last year and very close to their school, they are 15 and 17 yrs old, young men. 

I made my first mistake early on stopping cold turkey the anti-inflam meds the minute I set foot in Ecuador. The trip had been alright, I was coked up on pain-killers and for the first time in my life I wished I had checked in as 'needs assistance' because the walk first through Schipol airport and later after a 11 hour plane ride, transiting Quito airport nearly killed me; but I survived. Arriving in the evening I lapped up the hot humid night air of Guayaquil my final airport. In the morning I went immediately to see the stem cell doctor, who straight away told me I was not a candidate for stem cells in my current 'inflamed' condition. He did a round of unexpected and very painful neural therapy injections (injecting procaine under scar tissue to stabilize the autonomic nervous system), well-based in science but doesn't help alleviate the pain at least not immediately. All in all my knee has seen more action than your average knee and is full of scarring. Said doctor sent me off with liver and kidney support homeopathics, and prescriptions for vitamin injections and advice to adjust my nutrition with the aim to reduce the inflammation.

I had arranged for a taxi truck to drive me to Vilcabamba, no flights these days to the nearest airport at Catamayo (LOH), it is a 9 hr drive east, climbing dramatically up into the Andes arriving at Ecuador's third (and most beautiful) city of Cuenca at 2400m and then south along a stunning road, running the spine of the Andes to Vilcabamba at 1600m. I was glad I paid the expense to do this as I am not sure I could have managed the bus. As it was by the time I got to Vilca after 3 days of travel, I was stiffening up big time, and within that first week when I was ensconced in my the guest room of my tenant's house I could hardly get out of bed on my own.

Those early days of pain are a bit of a blur, my memory is befuddled. I was hoping that following the good doctor in Guayaquil's protocol to support liver and kidney function and boost my immune system, this along with enzymes to try to reduce the inflammation and a transition to an organic dis-inflammatory and alkaline diet would reduce the pain. Alas I learned, that isn't how these things work, at least not as quickly as I needed it to. It was a good learning. Diet/nutrition adjustments and the appropriate supportive supplements can be mitigate the symptoms of many ailments, but they take time. I was in so much pain and while I had great care and compassion from my friends here, especially my friend and tenant (for 10 years) Rebecca who (put me up in her spare room, then cared for me until I could move into the small guest house, the Casita right next door). She brought me food and made nutritious smoothies for weeks after I arrived.

By February 2021, my spirit had spiraled so low due to the ongoing pain and loss of mobility and independence and also because I was acutely missing my sons, I had thought I would be away from them for 3 months which would be the longest period in their lives, yet here I was no further ahead and no end to this process in sight. This emotional stress did not support healing at all. I got a prescription for prednisone from a locally based Egyptian doctor. Prednisone is a steroid anti-inflammatory and by all accounts it is miracle drug for many. I could move freely and nearly pain free for the first time in months, within 2 days of starting the steroid... wow it was amazing. I kept on with an anti-inflammatory, alkaline diet hoping it would yield results given the chance to return balance to my system. I visited a reputable homeopath who diagnosed gout but neither did my profile fit nor did the diet changes and supplements give any respite, so it wasn't gout which would have made a fix easy. Then with the supportive counsel of a dear friend on Vancouver Island (thank-you Amanda), I saw a rheumatologist who diagnosed me with 'polymyalgic arthritis' a dubious condition that some say is lifelong and he advised me to take prednisone, a steroid anti-inflammatory that is to be honest quite the miracle drug. 

Among many things I have learned is that despite medical diagnosis and prognosis who will tell you differently, this kind of affliction is not permanent, and the medical diagnosis is self-defeating. The treatment does not serve to support a curative ethos, instead it prolongs the ailment and promotes the mind-set of a life-long illness and drug dependency. If the whole approach quite distasteful.

I had made that initial mistake of stopping the anti-inflammatories, and made several more along the way and in my own defense note also that I was without a 'guide' and advocate. This is a role I play for wellness clients in my occupation as a therapist. I knew I needed someone who had followed my process as close to the get-go as possible and who could give me advice as to 'what next'. Who could that have been? I needed someone aware of the pitfalls when a medical diagnosis for something not really explainable is only a description of the condition. I strongly recommend a health advocate if you are facing an illness that is characterized as 'chronic'. It happens to many folks, and they end up relying on their doctor who may not have the depth or breadth of knowledge to consider different approaches from the western medical model (or they are sold out to pharmaceuticals as the only solution). Diagnostics are tricky, finding a treatment plan that gets to source, explores all options and solves the problem, is even trickier.

'Arthritis' is a modern-time conundrum, more and more people become arthritic and it is thought nowadays to be an inflammatory response to an auto-immune trigger. In my case I discern that my trigger (the source) was a 'wrong' immune response to streptococcus bacteria; one of the first blood tests I had when things got so bad I couldn't get out of a chair without help (and a lot of pain), showed high levels of this streptococcus antigen (ASTO). So if I let a scratchy throat progress, my body thinks I may be getting strep, antigens are produced to fight off the bacteria but they get carried away (an over-response) and lead to an arthritic inflammation. Thinking back as I have over these months it is quite possible that I had a sore throat when I had that knee incident in the french farmer's field or soon thereafter, but these things never happen in isolation and this 'man from Asia' was not used to the chill breezes of autumn in the Jura mountains. The perfect storm set the stage, created the fertile field for illness, how to regain wellness became the question and the challenge.

I mentioned stress earlier and as a causal contributing factor it is pretty clear that at least in my case, going deep into this and finding where it comes from needs to be a big part of the healing. Here in Vilcabamba, there is an incredible menu of traditional and alternative healing modalities available from some very talented therapists. People from all over the world come and live here, holding workshops, seminars, classes and sharing therapies most of which are out of the western medical model, and that work. I benefited from many of these treatments, and from the easy availability of organic food, of amazingly clean air and water, and importantly the acceptance and support of community. 

I made some blunders on the way, suffering set-backs too painful to mention here, but all part of my path. I have seen a holistic chiropractor, had heart-centered therapy, muscle testing, worked on the question 'am I fit for Love', worked with RIFE technology, hypnosis, massage, taken courses, attended seminars, embarked on plant medicine journeys, and I have had a deep dive into my dark side. I realised that likely I was suffering delayed PTSD from a few incidents in Afghanistan, and had deeper scars likely originating even before I was born, and then adopted. With great gratitude I have been able to exchange craniosacral treatments for many of these therapies. I know this inner work has been essential and integral to my healing, and with the intention of preventing future 'calamities' of this sort.

Part 2 of this writing gives you a break, and will reveal some of what worked on this journey and where I am headed next.

Stuck in Paradise: A Covid inspired human rights conundrum

The deep critical thinker has become the misfit of the world, this is not a coincidence. To maintain order and control you must isolate the intellectual, the sage, the philosopher, the savant before their ideas awaken people. This will cause a mental implosion from lack of thought stimulating conversations and interactions with others which will lead to their demise. That is one of the greatest tragedies of our time, the unwelcomed thinker who’s brilliance will never be known.

~Carl Jung

We are all aware by now of how the various dictums of the 'state' have been influential factors in our mobility over this past year. 

In fact until recently it hasn't been that much of an inconvenience (though it has become more expensive with more limits on less routes, etc) depending on your country of origin, and the rules in the country of destination. If you test negative with the PCR generally speaking you have been able to go where you needed to go, sometimes quarantining on arrival or not. That all changed in the late part of 2021. 2020 I was on the move from Myanmar to Canada to France to Ecuador and it was pretty easy, I blogged about it here. In 2021 I didn't move internationally in an entire year for the first time in probably around 30 years...has to be said this was due more to a state of illness (only indirectly linked to Covid) rather than the state of affairs in the world. Many people were travelling through 2021, and today, check out 'flightrader24.com' and take a look at all the birds in the air, there are lots of people travelling.

The requirements have been a bit confusing to follow since they change all the time, PCR or antigen test? 72, 48, or 24 hrs? ahead of boarding or of getting the result? Do you need to abide by restrictions if only transiting? Will they serve food aboard, etc? So uncertain and unclear and inconsistent across countries of arrival, airlines and across short timelines. Airlines saddled with the obligation of ensuring their passengers comply with the rules have managed variably well and not well. KLM is an airline I have had much to do with this past couple of months and based on their screw-ups, their inability to communicate in a timely manner and their onboard gouging, they are not doing very well. 

More than that the complication of not knowing once you arrive whether you will be able to return from whence you came is disconcerting, a definite disincentive to travel for many; we live in a world where having 'certainty' is akin to feeling safe and secure, it's why insurance companies do so well... they underscore the insecurities then cash in on making you feel secure. With the whole Covid ethos we feel more uncertain than ever... and of what exactly is a good question (and the subject of another blog). What do you do if the rules change for example, the Brits living in France who went to the UK for holidays (before Christmas) were then banned from returning to where they lived in France after the holidays...bit of a shocker that one. As a codicil, this is probably a better example of how geopolitics are alive and well and how using something like Covid as a political football is considered fair game. Only we all know it is not fair, and that it is more about manipulative men in political power positions, their egos and mis-placed national pride than anything to do with protecting citizen's health. Did you here the US has banned entries for folks with the Russian SputnikV vaccine? but I digress.

Recently my oldest son (16yrs) made the journey from Switzerland to Ecuador via the Netherlands and Panama some awful number of hours on the inward flight including an unexpected 24hrs in Panama (thanks to KLM) which caused considerable perturbance. He arrived intact, but a concern that shadowed his visit was not knowing if the Swiss rules for re-entry of non-citizens arriving from Ecuador would change while he was away. We didn't dwell on it, you can't worry about that which you can't control right? They didn't change their rules and Ecuador remained on the green list for Suisse entries, so thank goodness for that.

Actually more concerning was his PCR test as he was preparing to leave (get this) which needed to be taken 48 hrs before entering the Netherlands where he transited, but 72 hrs before entering Switzerland... if they were the other way around he would have been screwed. Not to mention the negative or positive options and those few hours of uncertainty and discomfort while waiting for the result. No matter how philosophical and 'go with the flow' you might be... there is stress; the kid has school on Monday, despite a strange 'flu' going around the Valley where I live, he tested negative with the 'gentle' PCR.

Mandated vaccines for entry into Ecuador became a reality on 01 December. Wow. Suddenly basic freedoms of association and movement were trashed without ceremony and other countries (though not many) followed suit. That changed things considerably for anyone unvaccinated including people who have arrived in a bit of an avalanche, US citizens, Canadians leaving their country due to the 'tyranny' (their word) of covid restrictions on civil liberties and others from other places; Vilcabamba has evolved a name for itself as a place of refuge. The Canadian Prime Minister disgraced himself the other day and may be indicted for hate speech, saying "that those who have not been vaccinated are very often “Misogynists and Racists”, he then stated that “They don’t believe in science/progress”. Finally, Mr. Trudeau went on to make the statement “This leads us, as a leader and as a country, to make a choice: Do we tolerate these people? “and “that they take up some space.”

Sounds delusional to me, and definitely not very liberal, progressive or thoughtful. Let's be clear on one thing being unvaccinated doesn't make you anti-vax, it does make you vaccine free. The most disagreeable outcome of the current state of affairs is the divisiveness the creation of 'us and them', wow, and the judgement involved; there are those who believe the vaccine free are a danger to society even criminal for not complying with mandates, despite the fact that the coercive exhortations of a government may not be legal in many cases, and those who believe those vaxxed have had their human rights abused, that by being vaccinated you are buying into the mainstream narrative (drinking the koolaid) to such an extent you would potentially endanger your (and your children's) immune system integrity, reproductive health, heart condition, etc. It's all out there but you may not find it on Google, and for goodness sake don't ask on Twitter or Facebook because they have censored such questioning content. Particularly this idea of vaccinating children has horrible taste to it and is absolutely unnecessary. Please do your own research, do not trust the so-called 'science' that the big pharma presents through governments and their media lackeys, and don't use Google if your want truth. So many unknowns with this vaccine that for something as important as this, something that could permanently damage my health, I fall back on the axiom... 'when in doubt, wait it out'. And I truly believe this too shall pass and no harm will come. Covid at the end is nothing but a bad flu, the way it has been approached, the global response was an over-reaction initially because of how little we knew and we were fearful but then decisions based on fear started being made built on those before it and pretty soon, well things got out of control, confusion reigned and today we are in a very serious mess. 

What we know is that there is only ONE humanity, that we are all ONE. What we know is that this state of pandemic could actually be a scamdemic, or a plan(ed)emic because no one (not you, not me) can say that it isn't because no one can be sure! And we can have this doubt because there are many, many signals that something is not right out there and you need to be paying close attention to see beyond the fear for example: 1) Whatever happened to the Great Barrington Declaration The Declaration was written from a global public health and humanitarian perspective, with special concerns about how the current COVID-19 strategies are forcing our children, the working class and the poor to carry the heaviest burden.  The response to the pandemic in many countries around the world, focused on lockdowns, contact tracing and isolation, imposes enormous unnecessary health costs on people. In the long run, it will lead to higher COVID and non-COVID mortality than the focused protection plan we call for in the Declaration.  2) Why wasn't the GBD adopted as a less livelihood destroying alternative? 3) There is a high level of censorship in social media (heard of Dr. Robert Malone one of the developers of the PCR test? and how he has been muzzled? check that out). 4) Why have medical staff who do not want to be vaccinated or speak out against vaccinating been threatened with job loss? 5) There are serious inconsistencies in the narrative around the origins of Covid and the role of Dr. Fauci. 6) Big questions around the validity/veracity of the PCR test (did you know this month the CDC will no longer be using it),"After December 31, 2021, CDC will withdraw the request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, the assay first introduced in February 2020 for detection of SARS-CoV-2 only.".  7) Why the big differences you see when doing independent research using Google vs an untraceable search engine. 8) The censoring of expression on social media. 9) The very odd 'domino effect' of countries falling into compliance like a flock murmuration making health policy changes not even the WHO recommends. 10) The economy and livelihood destroying (we are talking about millions plunged into devastating poverty) lockdowns that are proving not to have been necessary because they didn't change anything in the disease vector, what they did do is make a select group of corporations very rich. As a footnote here, and having lived in Burma for 4 years, in 2020 (we left end of June), we described lockdowns as a luxury of rich countries that has destroyed irreparably already fragile economies. You think you have problems keeping your business afloat in Canada or France? Be forever grateful for government subsidies, most countries can't afford them and many many many small businesses globally have died, not to mention daily wage earners, factory workers in their 100,000's in poor countries, who benefited from that?

These are some of the strange things that have happened. And you have a vaccine on which $billions have been spent given to pharmaceuticals companies and lobbyists (many with dodgy track records, no liability and burgeoning bank accounts). A 'vaccine' which still requires you to mask even if both parties are double or triple jabbed, does not prevent transmission, still has people isolating working from home, schooling online where they are able, still has lockdowns in effect, might result in less intensity in symptoms, is now on its 3rd booster despite the broad knowledge that the variant of the month omicron is a 'saviour variant'. 

This means that it is a highly infectious form of Covid but one with very mild symptoms (well-documented now) and that confers immunity (not well publicized) so indeed it will spread far and wide very rapidly and confer herd immunity. Kind of begs the question; why does anyone need to be further vaccinated or boosted when the virus is conferring immunity on it's own? Let omicron run it's course and this might be over faster.

We have known from the get-go that Covid would be self-limiting (an epidemiological truth that also applies to viruses like ebola when they are contained, with Covid the container seems to be the planet), is what we are seeing in Omicron the way viruses self-limit and burn out, infectious but weakened strains conferring and thus endowing herd immunity? If so, why the panic reaction ruining everyone's holidays and again fanning the fear complex fire? Rather than vaccinate, and this could be said from the beginning, people should be checked to see if they have antibodies (would it have been so hard to develop a quick-test to see if you had natural immunity) and if so send them on their way, why mess with nature? And if they haven't had covid or weren't vaccinated and get omicron... then wow, good for them, natural immunity which many doctors say (and nature concurs) is healthier than an artificially created immunity. 

By the way, all of this has been researched and fact-checked and not using Google as a search engine for anything. If it weren't for my email addresses that are Google based I would disavow Google for their participation in what appears to be at best an incompetency of governance, a deceptive manipulation at worst. 

Anyway, to say WE the humans (the vaxxed and the vaccine free) need to rise above the divisiveness, we need to join together and question a narrative that has led to such a disruption and destruction. We have to accept that it could be 'they' got it wrong, yes it is a big 'they', the response to a virus that actually, statistically caused yes a difficult number of deaths among the elderly and vulnerable but otherwise was only a bad flu with many affected, more than we will ever know due to the many (millions?) of asymptomatics, and mild responses that millions may have had but never reported. This past 2 years how much has been lost; the grief of dying alone, and of not being able to be with loved ones, loss of freedom of movement, loss of freedom of expression, loss of work, loss of livelihood, loss of friendships, rise in depression, anxiety, domestic abuse, alcoholism (all on the rise) and now active discrimination and division in societies. And the dominance of the fear-complex perpetrated by governments, amplified by media.

Who of us before Covid actually had a trust in government' to do the right thing when it came to economies? Which governments put the people first in the wake of the 2008 housing collapse, which governments bailed out the banks? Who trusts corporations that are blatantly profit before people, who trusts mainstream media that is clearly biased towards it's corporate owners? And yet so many have trusted governments and the media on Covid response and well, lets just say I find that a little weird. 

On Wednesday evening I took eldest son to the airport in Guayaquil, Ecuador where I have been living for the past 1yr and 1 week. He is vaccinated and had tested negative as mentioned. He was set, and is only 16, airport rules say parents need to take their kids to check-in and anyway I wanted to see him checked in, boarding pass in hand and headed for security... Thing is of 21 December the private airport authority following the proposals of the National Emergency Committee (COE) has deemed that a vaccination certificate must be presented to enter the airport. This is discriminatory and against international legal instruments, the Constitution which guarantees you the right not to be discriminated against based on a personal health choice. This is no law, it is not even a guideline to prevent you from entering the airport; still I was not allowed to enter. If I needed to leave Ecuador, as a Canadian citizen, headed to a country that didn't require the vaccine to enter, would I be able to get into the airport? No I would be entrapped by the state of Ecuador for exercising my right to make my own health choices.

And so I am stuck in paradise, at this moment on the beach watching the setting sun over the Pacific Ocean in a country so intensely beautiful from it's long stretching beaches to it's deep green jungles to the high sierra of the Andes and towering volcanoes'. Not a bad place to be stuck, but I'd rather my freedoms as a sovereign human being were respected not trampled on by blind, narrow minded thinkers with an agenda that doesn't appear anymore to include protecting public health. Being stuck gets a bad rap and is an unhelpful state of mind to be in, and rarely does one become free from stuck by navel gazing, certainly not by whining. The opposite of being stuck is being free and we can achieve that by relaxing, observing and when the time is right gliding out of stucked-ness, spreading our wings and exercising our right to be free.

https://swprs.org/professor-ehud-qimron-ministry-of-health-its-time-to-admit-failure/?fbclid=IwAR0lX8mnIuC6Na8K3-fQof3Cv3n7pXssxY8iVP3KurfCYPa_kHD7i_n8v6I

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/we-failed-danish-newspaper-apologizes-publishing-official-covid-19-narratives-without

Specialists now agree the endemic is ending 

(that the video is still up on YouTube after nearly 300000 views in less than a day is telling, video's that are pro-vaccine free or against the mainstream narrative are normally taken down within an hour or so.)

https://youtu.be/U3W84wb5jKo

A rather nice shot of the view from my front terrace here in paradise

Screens, Teens and Covid 19

This is another in a series of essays on device and screen management last year, in 2016 and in 2014, Trying to keep up with both the changes we see in screen content and access modalities, platforms and devices as well as the changing needs and desires of our kids.

And there you have it,

Life happened. Despite all efforts to limit screen time, ensure quality content, negotiate on various screen plans and try to keep up with the shifting sands of what my teenage boys are accessing, two events came at us sideways since March. One is a consequence of our less than normal lives of drifting about the planet perpetually nomadic as expatriates, the second was (and still is) the event known variably as 'the pandemic', Covid, Corona, C19, ergo the Virus. I'll call it Covid, because a corona is a rainbow ring of gaseous plasma around the sun (or a beer), C19 is too science-like and a bit contrite and 'the pandemic' gets one's heart beating faster in a bad way.

We lead international lives and this Covidic summer we left Yangon, Myanmar our home for 4 years at the end of an international posting and hopped across to Korea, skipped over the big pond (Pacific) to western Canada, hunkered down in the province of Alberta for 2 weeks quarantine had a visit with a friend or 13 or 14, then moseyed over to Toronto and skadaddled across the other big pond (Atlantic) to Switzerland where we find ourselves settling in close to Geneva in France. Covid quarantine robbed us of 2 weeks in Canada, and with uncertainty and different stages of 'reopening' travelling about for visits was not in the cards this time, friends being responsibly cautious as to who could walk in the front door... and there we were like aliens in a way, landing from a different planet such as the other side of the world might be. 

As with many of us with teens, hand held screens have been central to our children's lives since the emergence of the iPad, the first and only hand-held web-enabled device accessible then for middle class kids all over the world fast forward to now when kids as young as 9 sport smart phones with more computing power than I had in a computer in my first job. This over the course of 10 years, 2010 - 2020; my kids are now 14 and 15.5yrs old... not hard math.

Our kids, and so we as parents are the pioneers of this new high speed connectivity everywhere modality of entertainment, communication, education, networking, artistic creation, connection it spans so many aspects of modern-day life. For my parents it was television... pshwaah I say, that was kindergarten stuff, now we're in the post-grad school of dealing with media and its content, and supporting our kids to make good choices; back in the day the dinner table debate was whether to mute the adverts during Bewitched or MASH or Hogan's Heros, the Flintstones, Sesame Street, or not... ;-) -- easy street.

March 18, 2020... that was the day it all changed for us. The day my teenage sons stayed home from school and being on screens for obscene amounts of time became legitimized as the online classroom went live. This was in Myanmar, in Yangon an emerging city still with not a lot of opportunities for teens, distant from beach or mountains for weekend trips, and a climate that drives you indoors to air conditioned luxury and your high-speed internet connection. It stayed that way for the months of #stayathome through pre-monsoon which is easily the worst time of year when it has been dry for months and the heat steadily builds, farmers burn off their crop stubble, the air is 45C and brown. Then the rains came in June and with them came the end of school. While it has to be said their British international school did a stellar job with the online classroom, even when 95% of the teachers absconded back to their home countries (or some to tropical islands in Thailand or Cambodia), they barely skipped a beat and launched into online learning full on, full-time.

Any home screen-limiting policies went out the window that day and I think for many parents, while relieved that school continued it was a bit of a two-sided coin; on the one hand their kids were being schooled and on the other their kids were being further inculcated into their various other worlds. Minecraft, Fortnite, Twitch, YouTube, Instagram that's what mine are into...if you can't say what yours are into then probably it would be good to find out. The usual axiom if you want to curb a behaviour is to attend to your own same behaviour first; you can't tell someone to stop smoking if you're a smoker and likewise with screens. What Covid brought was a denial of any strategy to put down our devices, when parents too were at home to work and everyone was on their screens and often at night depending on where your time zone landed you. I am working on an online Doctorate programme and much admin for my Wellness business is online. Am I on a screen too often. Definitely.

We were in our last weeks in Yangon, a 4 year posting coming to an end. While the 'stayathome' ended in mid-May and we left at the end of June, monsoon had arrived and so our departure was a bit soggy and sad. I blogged about our 5,4,3,2,1 trip across Asia and the Pacific  it was quite a trip, there are pictures there too ;-) 

We arrived on continent number 2, North America and found ourselves in a 2 week quarantine, of course with high speed internet. The online fun continued and we had a huge extended back-yard in the adjacent walking paths in Calgary, Alberta. We all took turns going for covid-safe but covert solo masked walks in the brilliant early summer sunshine, Canadian Rockies beckoning, Alberta blue skies stretching out far, full moon shining absolutely beautiful. Wearing masks outdoors still has me baffled. The rest of the time in quarantine... you guessed it, the boys (and me) were on our screens. Crazy stuff, never ends. We didn't travel much in Canada on this trip, normally we go on a visit-orgy to friends across the west but this year, as things were just starting to re-open it wasn't the time to be staying with friends. At ages similar to mine (57) many are caring for aging parents or were planning on visiting them after a long absence due to lock-downs or lock-ins and couldn't risk having us around. Pity though since we hadn't been to Canada for 4 years and have friends scattered hither and yon in western Canada with great lives and are fun to visit... you know who you are. Our last visit with you was when we moved from Kathmandu after 3 years there, who knows when the next one will be. 

A notable exception was stay at my great friend Karin's place in Banff, never felt welcomed as much as I feel there. And on this occasion again her door was open for me and the boys. We had a great few days in Banff, did 5 hikes and had spectacular weather. It may have been a bit of a shock for the boys, from being screen-bound for months suddenly we were free and out in the Rocky Mountain alpine.

I admit that the general lethargy of covid inspired couch time combined with travelling with 2 teens who were reticent anyway to visit yet another friend of Dad's who they didn't remember but of course remembered them, and who I think were tired from their school year meant that inspiration and enthusiasm had to come from one source... moi. And I was tired too. The cumulative busyness required to organize the trip and leave my flat, my business, the few solid friendships, stress around the unknowns we had been facing with the departure paradigm for many months funneled as we got closer to the end, and an awareness that the coming move was going to require considerable energy reserves as well meant that we were okay hunkering down and we just didn't travel. Missing friends but resting and readying for re-establishing in a new place yet again.

Our final leg in mid-August was to Europe, the third continent of our journey. It took us across Canada via Toronto (we didn't stop) and onward to Switzerland though we are settling in France just across the border from Lake Leman and Geneva.

The Swiss had just released their first list of 'banned' countries and mercifully Canada was not on it. Goddess bless Canadians for behaving themselves, masking when asked and being respectful and responsible enough to curb the curve for the most part, at least enough to bring the numbers into a statistically acceptable place. The screen dream continues in travel and the boys transcontinental travel is now about making sure they have internet access and the devices are fully charged! It is on their first trip to Ecuador in 2008, ages 4 and 6 in an effort to keep them awake at Schipol airport until the 11pm KLM 13hr flight to Quito I gave them a game boy each. Indeed I was the one who tipped them into the hand-held screen rabbit hole. All my fault ;-).

Habits have settled in. For example my eldest (15) started watching streams on twitch.com in Edmonton in July where for entertainment 1000's of people watch gamers doing what they do best... game play for hours and hours... My son has seized the day and 'hatllama' was born and now he is a streamer too... (cut to Supertramp 'nothing but a dreamer' right?), check him out, tell your kids, he broadcasts on twitch.com at 7:30pm (Central European Time) nearly nightly. My hope is that he is happy doing this, and he seems to be... and then my hope is that he will start to make some money from this, chalk it up as a success, and move on; it takes up a lot of his evening! His 'following' is growing slowly. But now he HAS to be on screen at 7:30pm so homework and dinner revolves around it (eyes rolling). 

My youngest (at 14) has become obsessed with YouTube though to give him credit he seems to be watching some fairly intellectual content at least of late... he did go through a phase of US-origin brain numbing content which was quite distressing. Rather than go out and play, they go to their rooms and screen despite urgings to the contrary... it's all a bit worrying and my eldest son's PE teacher on his initial assessment says his cardiovascular fitness (and flexibility) need improvement.

So it's not all bad news about devices and screen time. I've been poking around at my basic premise that screens are evil and kids need clear guidance to reduce their screen time... turns out I'm not entirely correct. The recent report from Commonsense media 'Tweens, teens, tech and mental health: Coming of age in an increasingly digital, uncertain and unequal world' suggests that it is more the content and quality of the media kids are accessing than the amount of time they spend on their screens. I think we all have experienced the phenomenon of not knowing what our kids are talking about, and for sure they are absorbing a huge amount of content we know nothing about. Try as I do to keep up, dinner table conversation between my sons escapes me entirely sometimes. Monitoring content for quality is another issue and discriminating between what is quality and what is not can be hugely divergent between the middle-aged father and his 2 adolescent sons. What is interesting is that we all zoned out to junk TV and its advertising and so I wonder is some of what they do the same as that? Should I worry? 

What is of concern of course is the amount of time spent indoors, the amount of time eyes straining to look at small back-lit screens, the bent-neck syndrome that structurally closes the esophagus. In the Wellness work I do this area is where the 'Spirit' element resides (5 Element theory), where self-esteem, self-confidence and self-worth are seated and certainly as many critiques agree these are areas that are affected in young people today likely because of too much time spent online. Not to mention how the forward bending head, means you go around looking downward not upward and outward, not aware of your surroundings and what is going on. And when you meet people your eyes are not meeting theirs, yours are looking down, and maybe theirs are too, kinda sad when you think about it.

Covid then has put the kaybosh on my efforts to get screen-time under control during #stayathome in Myanmar or in quarantine and in a cautious Canada we were kept indoors and online more than I ever wanted during our time there. Now we have done the Atlantic hop to the France/Suisse border region, newcomers and without friendships in their new schools the boys are finding it hard to break into established social circles. They find easier social solace in adjusting their lives to when their friends in Myanmar, Japan, Australia (or closer, in the UK) are online and free to game or message, or talk on discord.com.  Who can blame them right?

Though sort of concomitant there is a certain laziness that has crept in as well, it is easier to go online than go for on a bike ride... and we all know that the less you use a muscle (for example) the harder it is to get that muscle active and pumping again. My sons were long-time in the tropics and too long in cities at a critical age, adapted to the slower pace, and then the heat and rain and less active opportunities in urban Yangon gradually wound down their energy and drive to get into sports. Now here where people are up and at 'em, out biking and hiking and climbing, etc...(and ski season is coming) there is a distinct preference to stay indoors and online even when the sun is shining which is a great pity given we are located on the slopes of the Jura mountains in France and within sight of the French and Swiss Alps.

Anyway, change is the only constant and certainly this change and in all our children this time of their lives is one of incredible change so 'this too shall pass' and we will see what the future holds for them, because it is coming fast. My advice? Know what your kids are doing online, know what content they are browsing, know who they are gaming with, remind them that balance between downtime, screen time, physical exercise, family time needs to be in their thinking, check out their posture and act if you see things going awry. This phase too shall pass and it is only a question of good shepherding them through because after this... they are largely on their own and hopefully will have absorbed some of what you gave them from a place of love.