Is Utopia preferable to religion?

If you’ve read my blog from yesterday, you might think I have far-fetched ideas and that I’m a Utopian, but what’s wrong with that, I wonder? 

Of course there are many levels in Utopia, the soft and the hard-core practitioners. Utopia, is perhaps the paradigm of a perfect community in which reality and imagination merge. 

There is a Utopian inside Elon Musk, but that has given us Tesla, SpaceX and tomorrow, the Hyperloop. 

In fact the whole concept isn’t that much different than the relation between society and religion. One could say that Utopia is the equivalent of Paradise, while Dystopia is Hell, so let’s focus on the bright side of the argument!

Utopia uses everyday raw materials and realities to build its story; Is has also a huge component of feasibility, at least on paper, while religion, from all of its history, has constantly been a real “stretch” and totally unproven, save a handful of Lourdes’ miracles. 

This said, tell me why we always laugh at Utopians but generally treat religious folks with the utmost respect? Sometimes, new ideas need a lift and only Utopia can provide a pathway into their realization. 

At any rate, I’m convinced that Utopia beats religion by a very, very long shot, because of its reservoir of possibilities on this earth and not into some imaginary, improbable and questionable space or dimension. So for today, I’ll stick with a Utopian outlook!

A disturbing PowerPoint message

French folks love to send messages in the form of PowerPoint presentations. 

I just got one recently that was explaining how a low birthrate in the western world in general, and in France in particular, was endangering the future of its native population and creating a vacuum for immigration and particularly of Muslim persuasion or specific ethnic groups like Latinx into the United States, for example. 

This massive immigration would subsequently destroy local cultures as we know them. Let me make to points about this message. First, our planet is overpopulated, instead of 7,8 billion people, most scientists agree that we should only be at 2 billion, top, in order to live in a sustainable manner. 

Far too many people are causing global warming, a huge danger for food or water shortages, and are an assault of the planet’s biodiversity and overall proper functionality. Trying to increase the birth rate in developed nation is doomed in advance, as no educated young person living in a developed country and in their right mind, want a big family. 

Couples generally settle on one, perhaps two or none at all. Raising kids is awfully expensive and takes lots of time, no less than a quarter of a century per child. We just need to get used to it and white folks won’t replace themselves. Overpopulation will continue elsewhere, fueled in part by a need for capitalistic growth and religious forces that are fighting for influence. 

This means that immigration is the next point that need to be addressed. Viewed from space, earth shows no border, just land and water. Borders were invented by men to protect their respective territories. Now, to enter a developed enclave, migrants should ideally be needed (with specific education, skills and talents) and be productive. 

Since they’re given the privilege to enjoy safety, good infrastructure and a more prosperous life, they participate in paying for it when they enter or in a manner spread over their foreseeable lifetime. Just like a motorist pays a toll to use a nice, fast and safe highway. 

Short of that, there should be no immigration. Migrating for family reasons could be the exception, not the rule, and at a cost that would be much higher than for self-sustaining migrants. 

Finally, each community should be entitled to maintain and protect its native customs and might choose stringent rules that make it impractical for migrants with a need to keep and maintain their own customs to join that country. 

Pretty simple. If this approach interests you and wish to know more about it, I’ll be delighted to give more details.

Would Jesus support Trump?

...Certainly not. Jesus was not a fan of lying, of insults, sectarianism, racism, egoism and hypocrisy. 

I also think that the Catholic Church was essentially based on the teaching of Jesus, yet in this election year, as Donald Trump is losing ground, every vote counts and he is relying a lot on American Catholics to make up for his expected losses.

Catholics for Trump is one organization that has the mission of giving Catholics some seemingly good excuses for re-electing Trump by “sharing the many successes of the Trump administration” including of course anti-abortion issues. 

Yet, by aligning themselves with a president who tears apart immigrant families, denies climate change, stokes racial division and supports economic policies that hurt the poor, Catholic leaders are forgetting what the teachings of Christ are all about. 

There’s hardly nothing “pro-life” out of Trump's agenda. I wonder what my good buddy Pope Francis thinks of these clowns?

The neighbor’s smelly he-goat

I have been raised with a lot of goats in my environment and know a thing or two about that particular breed of animal. 

What I know for sure is that the male, commonly called he-goat or buck, can smell intensely bad and a lot, like let’s say a skunk, so you get the type of fragrance! 

A lady who lives about half-a-mile from us, as the crow flies, has decided to have such a male goat as a pet, and during rut season, that is, the days are getting shorter in July and through early winter, we get a whiff of his scent when we get close to his enclosure. 

His scent glands are located behind the horns and the system is powerful enough for any female goat, luck enough to stroll by, to notice. 

To make the stench worst, and disgustingly so, the buck pees all over his front legs and beard during the rut. When the female pees, the buck sticks his nose in the urine as it comes out. He also rubs his head in the spot on the dirt where he pees. With his head covered with mud and urine, the buck takes great pride in his elaborate odor. 

I wouldn’t want to be a neighbor to that household; if I did, I’d lodge a complaint, but unfortunately even though our city has an ordinance against animals that “cause unreasonable fouling of the air by odors”, I wouldn’t be too sure about the outcome. 

That lady simply is a big jerk, totally oblivious of the plight of her close neighbors. You may say a he-goat is better than a pet tiger or a python, but think of the poor animal that has no space to roam and no social life. 

That’s a situation simply too cruel and selfish on the part of the owner who should deserve the same kind of isolation!

America’s broken moral compass

The United States has always taken great pride in being the world’s moral compass. 

A strong religiosity, a Constitution most American cherish and respect, an ardent patriotism, a rather puritan society, all elements that have always been the hallmark of that great country. 

Comes Trump and the whole myth begins to disintegrate and America’s steadfast, moral compass breaks down. As a result, most of its population gets numbed to that deterioration and accepts it as the “new normal”, even those – and that’s the worst part – who didn’t and still don’t support Donald Trump. 

Lies, misrepresentation, blatant racism and discrimination become the new norm. Trump as poisoned America’s well and in so doing, the only oily matter that now shows up on its dirty surface is that hypocrisy that always was lurking behind the scenes. 

Isn’t high time that we we flushed all of that toxic matter down?

Tourism and xenophobia

A week or so ago, I learned that Bill Malone, former director of the Park City Chamber and Visitors Bureau was retiring at age 66. Bill came to Park City in 1999 after serving in similar functions in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Steamboat Springs, Colorado. He also got lucky, I think, to find himself in the perfect sport at the right time. 

Typically, this job requires good administration and hospitality skills, that is, respect and value the visitor to Park City. This said, while highly visible, this is mostly a caretaker position that doesn’t require much creativity or special talent. 

As I have written many times, Park City developed into what it is now, not so much because of the Chamber Bureau good work, the 2002 Olympics or any other special event, but first and foremost thanks to Delta Air Lines purchasing Western Airlines in 1987 and keeping Salt Lake as a vital hub in the heart of the mountain west region, bringing 25 millions passengers a year, only 35 minutes away from our ski resort. 

I have always respected and be very civil toward Bill Malone and the only “kink” in our relationship happened more than 11 years ago, when he had re-posted on his Facebook account a statement by Orrin Hatch, then Utah’s senator, criticizing the upcoming Obamacare. 

I responded quite politely to it, and was told by Malone that “Only an arrogant Frog would make such a stupid statement”. I responded with a touch of humor, but quite politely though, and I called me soon after that for an apology which he reluctantly produced. 

 As the status of limitation has now passed, I still can’t believe this unbecoming, xenophobic statement coming from someone promoting tourism, and making his living from that industry. I chose not to bring that misstep to the public eyes in those days, as it might have cost him his job and had almost forgotten about Bill until news of his retirement stirred back these memories. 

That’s right, today, Bill is retiring after more than 20 years at the helm of our top tourism institution. Some will miss him dearly, he’s even been inducted into the Utah Tourism Hall of Fame earlier this month which shows how serious the nominated committee was in vetting that laureate and not checking his record on bigotry and discrimination too closely! 

I have forgiven him for his nice words towards me and I feel his departure is a great opportunity for all of us to learn something good from it, and I still wish old Bill the most happy trails!

Turning back the clock

Seventy-five percent of Americans would like to end Daylight Saving Time, but keep the summer time year-round so that the sun sets later in fall and winter. 

 I think it’s the same in the rest of the world where there’s such a seasonal adjustment twice a year. What we’ve done today though is cool. 

Yet, today, we just did something really cool by turning our clocks backward. Not by much, just one hour, but its a start. Why don’t we do it for one year or perhaps on decade worth, just to see what happens? Several decades would in fact be much better. 

We would recover our lost strength, our hair would turn black, blond or red again, and this would give us a new, wonderful outlook on life as we’re ready to start again.

I only hope we’d get to keep all the experience and good judgment we piled up a we were getting old!