I woke up this morning ready for a fight. It took some time and one coffee to realize my father and I were in discussion during my sleep time. I have come to understand this is why there are such strong thoughts in my mind upon waking on so many occasions. Without dreams to connect such thoughts and emotions, I must conclude it is direct conversation with the greatest influencer of my life, my father. Of course the Grandmothers also influence such strong emotional conversations which upon waking must be written down. Perhaps it was a group session based on the depth of emotion and the strength of need to share it.
The other day these first thoughts came to me, but it was a work day and after a troubled sleep, there was not much time to spend ensuring those particular thoughts were transcribed. So this morning the conversation became more heated, the need to share it more insistent. This morning there is so much more to add, perhaps also shared the other day, just not remembered.
We are controlled by our possessions, our comfort, what we perceive as our safe world and the fear we may lose what we have worked so hard to attain. This is what makes any of us vulnerable – our attachment to possessions.
How can we lose attachment while still remaining comfortable in our daily lives? This is the heart of the problem.
It is our desire to hold onto what we have worked so hard to attain, our desire to have more, which makes us vulnerable – you can‘t be controlled if you don’t have something to lose. This is how our governments take advantage of us as we chase a better life, rather than just enjoying what we already have.
Turn off the tv, the radio, the internet, then go outside and speak to your neighbor, have a coffee downtown, start living in the moment because none of us can fix the damage being played out by all the governments worldwide simply by reading about it. We have to ensure this doesn’t happen here, listening to the endless chatter coming at us from so many directions only enhances the situation. How do we put out a fire? Deprive it of oxygen. We continue to give more life to each situation by participating in the arguments, by choosing sides without proper knowledge of the true nature of its existence. This is neither fair, nor honorable – it is more accurately an addiction which prevents us from living each day.
Rather we spend endless hours mulling over problems and situations we cannot fix. We listen to all the outside voices written or spoken to base our decision or choice on often without knowing the person sharing their thoughts. Have we not learned during the last 2 years, or how about the last century, truth is hidden under many layers of lies and deception? Opinion is not fact! Situations escalate because we fan the flames with each comment, each video, each angry outspoken opinion. In my opinion, although I would miss many good aspects of its presence in my life, would be the shutting down of internet. We would then be forced to get back to living, we would have to talk about something other than what the government insists we should discuss.
Look at what I just said; yes the government guides our daily conversations. They keep these discussions going as they influence our thoughts playing on our sense of justice and fairness with each outlandish comment they make. We get sucked in every time and because we listen to them, we also lose our own intuition, what our inner voice would tell us if we shut the outside conversation off. Turn it off, stop giving the bully more ammunition, unless of course you want war to come to our land, invade our homes as it has done elsewhere.
Gramma Grizzly said don’t leave anyone from our prayers, so this means we should be praying for everyone, not just for Ukraine. How can we have peace if we are praying for the safety of one person over another? How can we have peace if we show hate and disgust for one nation while assuming the other deserves all our protection? Which one of us knows exactly what is happening and the true source of the conflict – no government interference? Have we learned nothing these past 2 years? Seriously?
Excerpt from my blog post entitled “The New Year Approaches” written December 25, 2021.
“…….People waited with baited breath for the vaccine to arrive, eagerly lining up to get that first shot which would save their lives and get things back to normal! They became angry at those of us who refuse to get those nasty little shots, the blame throwers came out. By now some of us are beginning to look for a way to leave this abusive relationship, seeing the trap, but the road is going to be very difficult. We can see the writing on the wall, but carry on as if things will get back to normal if we just get enough people to say no. We become divided, it’s set up in a way to ensure it becomes a black and white fight, no grey area for peaceful negotiations”……..
Is this not what is happening now with Ukraine and Russia? Oh yes it is! Have we not learned in our lives whether it is many or few, conflict is never black and white! We can pretend it is as we try to influence someone to take our side because of how hurt we have been over an argument, but it is never so simple. The more depth there is to the problem, the less black and white it becomes, the more layers removed the more likely the truth will be exposed. The truth usually means both sides must take responsibility for actions which caused the escalation of the argument. Interference without truth, without accurate and verifiable knowledge leads only to more conflict, increasing the number of those involved.
When have sanctions ever changed government decision in another country? Below are the Canada and US sanctions placed on Venezuela which began with Obama in 2015.
I was in Ecuador when millions of people were displaced from Venezuela in an attempt to survive what those sanctions did to the country’s economic situation. Maduro is still in power, still living in the way he is accustomed. Trump tried to overthrow Maduro’s government supplying a US educated Juan Guaido as a replacement.
Excerpt from the article of which the link to the story follows:
“………….Guaido may retain the backing of around 60 countries but in reality, true executive and legislative power rests in the hands of his arch enemy, President Nicolas Maduro, who is supported by the nation’s powerful military.
The parliament said Guaido would assume the responsibility of “defending democracy and directing the protection of state assets abroad,” in a meeting that was as virtual as Guaido’s power.
What Guaido does have, though, thanks to backing from Washington, is control of millions of dollars worth of Venezuelan assets held outside the country, much to Maduro’s chagrin”………….
The sanctions, as you can see did not change anything over the years, with the exception of damage done to the country, it’s ability to provide sustainable work for its people, thereby causing the mass migration. This has a domino affect to the countries which accept so many refugees as we well know. Those willing to work for half the wage in a country like Ecuador, only adds to the already difficult situation of sustainable work for the Ecuadorians. We saw something similar happen here when the Saskatchewan premier a few years back initiated a program supporting the integration of Filipino workers. Our provincial government paid half the salary of any Filipino workers new to the country, so why would a business hire local people when they could get a foreign worker for half their cost? Then of course they justify their decision saying Canadians don’t want these jobs, they don’t work as hard. Well I had one of those jobs and was grateful for it. I worked very hard, more so than some of those foreign workers who often left their post to gather and talk to each other while I cleared their tables, looked after their customers for them. They made little to no effort to speak English, doing so only when they were on their own. Put two or more together in one room, english went out the window. This created division, suspicion and lack of trust with co-workers, the opposite of how it should be. Government decisions such as this do little to create healthy integration between different cultures, more to create tension and animosity which is very unfortunate.
Many of the people who left Venezuela were on foot, their destinations included Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and beyond. Can you even imagine being forced by such circumstances to flee your country on foot to hopefully save yourself and/or your family. Can you imagine yourself walking from Ontario to Mexico? Ya it would indeed be a traumatic and difficult journey carrying only what your back could handle, hoping to find enough food along the way to survive, sleeping wherever you could along the road with no means to get a hotel room.
Blame it on Maduro and possibly Chavez before him, but you must also lay a great deal of blame on those who placed the sanctions on Venezuela, targeting those who, as bad as they may have been, also provided jobs for the people and income for the country. Take that away and what chance is there of survival. The sanctions still in place, the people still displaced and the government still in power. Tell me what good did it do? If we wish to enable positive and long lasting change in another country, first we must understand the culture. We must speak to the people (not the government) in order to understand what they need. If we do not do those simple things, we should stay out of their fight as we will never do what’s right for them. You certainly don’t send someone like Christia Freeland who secludes herself from the people of a third world country, then tells them what they need. Then again, before we even try to help another country, we must first clean up our own back yard. Our government needs to listen to its people, something our excuse for a leader is unwilling to do. But then we know why – he is the puppet for those who want world domination, not free citizens. In my opinion we will not get true leaders for any country until they live as the people do, suffer the consequences of their decisions in the same way as the people they govern do. If we continue to elect those who live so far above us they never feel those consequences, we will remain in this quagmire allowing them to deceive us, steal from us and control our lives.
Further sanctions were applied to Russia and Cuba for aiding Maduro complicating the lives of the people, especially in Cuba who could little afford the increased limitation on their food supply affecting their well being. It is the people who suffer not the government of the country targeted. When will we ever understand this? Perhaps we begin to as we see sanctions applied to our own Canadian citizens because they dared to oppose their government. Is our government, such as it is, not acting in the same fashion as the Venezuelan government they so openly criticized only a few years ago? They attack Maduro’s lack of human rights, yet they do the same here. Then they turn around and accuse Russia of violating human rights as they diminish ours day by day. They are all hypocrites, making promises to get in or remain in power, only to let those words slip away like sand in a closed fist. All that remains is the closed fist which in and of itself is symbolic of their actions.
We do not have the right to interfere with another country’s way of governing if we cannot do better ourselves. We do not have the right to judge a situation we have so little true information for. Most of central and South America has been sledge hammered by North America for many, many years. We continually take advantage of the poorer countries of the world in order to maintain a higher standard of living for ourselves. Without seeing first hand the damage our choices make on those less fortunate, simply so we can have more ourselves at a cheaper cost, we will never understand what is happening to our own people now in Canada.
First we must let go of our attachments, not only to possessions, but the desire to control what and how people think. Acceptance of another’s views, acceptance of needing less, doing more, acceptance of the beauty in doing so, this is how we will ensure lasting change which benefits us all.
Sanctions:
After democratic elections held in December 2015 saw a coalition of opposition parties win a majority in the National Assembly, the Venezuelan government proceeded to systematically strip the powers of the National Assembly. In January 2016, President Nicolas Maduro declared a state of emergency and has since been ruling by decree. During the spring of 2017 Maduro created a National Constituent Assembly (or ANC), which stripped the democratically-elected, opposition-led National Assembly of its powers. Countries from around the globe, including Canada, refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the National Constituent Assembly or any of its decisions.
As a result of the government’s systematic erosion of Venezuela’s democratic institutions and its grave human rights abuses, and in response to the Association between Canada and the United States that was formed on September 5, 2017, which called on its members to take economic measures against Venezuela and persons responsible for the current situation in Venezuela, the Special Economic Measures (Venezuela) Regulations came into force. On September 22, 2017, Canada listed 40 individuals linked to the Maduro regime and its actions against the security, stability and integrity of democratic institutions in Venezuela.
On November 23, 2017, Canada announced targeted sanctions against 19 Venezuelan officials under the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act. These individuals are responsible for, or complicit in, gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, have committed acts of significant corruption, or both.
The presidential elections of May 2018, did not meet international standards to be considered either free or fair. As such, the electoral process and results were rejected by Canada and many likeminded partners as lacking transparency, legitimacy and credibility. On May 30, 2018, in response to further erosion of democratic institutions in Venezuela and the consolidation of President Maduro’s power through the illegitimate elections of May 20, 2018, the Special Economic Measures (Venezuela) Regulations were amended to add fourteen (14) additional individuals, bringing to 70 the total number of Venezuelan officials sanctioned by Canada.
On January 10, 2019, Maduro swore himself in for a second term based on the illegitimate and anti-democratic elections of May 2018. His claim to the presidency was rejected by Canada, the international community, and the democratically-elected National Assembly of Venezuela; on January 15, 2019, the National Assembly declared that Nicolas Maduro had usurped the presidential powers. On January 23, 2019, the President of the National Assembly, based on article 233 of the Venezuelan Constitution, assumed the interim presidency of Venezuela. To date, more than 50 countries, including Canada, have recognized Juan Guaidó as Interim President of Venezuela.
Since then, the Maduro regime has increased the persecution and repression of its political opponents and the Venezuelan people. Their oppressive actions include preventing relief supplies from entering Venezuela; the widespread arrests of hundreds of anti-regime protestors; censorship and suppression of freedom of expression; the use of the co-opted judiciary to pursue political leaders and civilians who exercise their civil and political rights; and the extrajudicial killing of dozens of people during protests against the Maduro regime.
Broader Sectoral Sanctions
On November 1, 2018, President Trump issued E.O. 13850. This E.O. set forth a framework to block the assets of, and prohibit certain transactions with, any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury to operate in sectors of the economy or to engage in corrupt transactions with the Maduro government. Some 26 individuals have been sanctioned pursuant to E.O. 13850, including people and entities involved in a currency manipulation scheme; those who siphonedhundredsofmillions ofdollars froman emergencyfoodaidsystem;andthosewhohavehelped Maduro and PdVSA evadeoilsanctions.
OnJanuary28,2019, pursuanttoE.O.13850, Treasury
d e s i g n a t e d P d VS A a s o p e r a t i n g i n t h e o i l s e c t o r o f t h e Venezuelan economy and the Secretary of the Treasury determinedthecompanywassubjecttoU.S.sanctions.Asa result,allpropertyandinterestsinpropertyofPdVSA subjecttoU.S.jurisdictionareblocked,andU.S.persons (companies or individuals) generally are prohibited from engaging in transactions with the company.
Treasury’s OfficeofForeignAssetsControl(OFAC)has issuedgenerallicensestoallowcertaintransactionsand activities relatedto PdVSA and its U.S.subsidiaries.OFAC firstauthorizedtransactionswithU.S.-basedPdVSA subsidiaries,PDVHolding,Inc.(PDVH) andCITGO Holding, Inc, through July 2019. OFAC extended that authorization through February 2021. OFAC authorized PDVH, CITGO, and other U.S. companies to import petroleumfromPdVSA through April2019, but payments hadtobemadetoablockedU.S.account.OFACinitially authorized U.S. companies working in Venezuela with PdVSA (including Chevron) to operate through July 2019. Anamendedlicenseallows onlytransactionsnecessaryfor the maintenance of “essential operations” or the “wind downofoperations”throughJune3,2021.
In 2019, TreasurysanctionedaMoscow-basedbankfor
h e l p i n g P d VS A f u n n e l r e v e n u e f r o m o i l s a l e s . T r e a s u r y thensanctionedVenezuela’sstate-ownedgoldsector company,Minerven,forusingillicitgoldoperationsto supportMaduro.Italsosanctionedastate-affiliated developmentbankandsubsidiariestheMadurogovernment had used to move money abroad. In April, Treasury sanctionedVenezuela’scentralbank;inJuly,it sanctioned Venezuela’s military counterintelligence agency. In 2019, Treasuryalsosanctionedseveralshippingcompaniesand
vessels thattransported oilto Cuba,as wellas Cuba’s state- runoilimport/exportcompany.
In 2020, Treasurybeganto sanctionindividuals,companies, andshippingcompaniesfortransportingVenezuelanoilin violation ofsanctions.Treasuryimposedsanctions ontwo subsidiariesofRussia’sstate-controlledoilandgas company,Rosneft.InJune,Treasurysanctionedfour foreignshippingcompaniesfortransportingVenezuelan oil. In June 2020 and January2021, Treasurysanctioned individuals,companies,andvesselsinvolvedinsanctions evasion.Treasuryalsohassanctionedindividualsand entitiesforshippingpetroleumproductstoVenezuelain exchangeforgoldundertheIransanctionsframework.
Sanctions on the Maduro Government
InAugust2019,PresidentTrumpissuedE.O.13884, blocking (freezing) the property and interests of the Maduro government in the United States and within the control of U.S. persons.TheorderprohibitedU.S.personsfrom engaging in transactions with the Maduro government unless authorized by OFAC. E.O. 13884 also authorized financialsanctionsandvisarestrictions onnon-U.S. personsthatassistorsupporttheMadurogovernment, including foreign energy companies working with PdVSA. Fiveindividualsandseveralvesselsandaircrafthavebeen sanctioned under E.O. 13884. To allow assistance to the Venezuelanpeople,OFACissuedlicensesauthorizing transactionsinvolving thedeliveryoffood,agricultural commodities,and medicine;remittances; international organizations;andcommunicationsservices.InApril2020, OFACissuedguidanceaskingorganizationsdelivering humanitarianaidtoVenezuelatoreportanysanctions- related barriers theymay face so they canbe resolved.
Policy Considerations
On a bipartisan basis, Congress has supported targeted sanctionsagainstMaduroofficials.InDecember2019, Congress enacted P.L. 116-94, an act that includes provisions fromthe VERDAD Act (S. 1025), which, among other measures, extends sanctions regarding corruption and undemocratic actions through 2023.
OpinionsinCongressonbroadersanctionsimposedbythe Trump Administrationon the Maduro government and entitiesthathavesupportedMadurovary.Somein Congresscontinuetosupporteconomicsanctionsasa means to pressure the Maduro government. Others, concerned about the humanitarian effects of those sanctions,havecalledforasuspensionofsanctionsduring theCoronavirusDisease2019(COVID-19) pandemic.Still othershavecalledforareviewoftheeffectsU.S.sanctions have had on the Venezuelan people and an end to any sanctionsthathaveworsenedhumanitarianconditions.
0 Comments