What began as a policeman killing a black man arrested as a suspect of a supposedly minor crime in Minneapolis last Monday (May 25) turned into days and nights of mass riots and store lootings all around the United States and even into Canada, and when state Governors were slow to call out the National Guard then President Donald Trump threatened to call out the military instead, which is a stretch of his constitutional powers.
Naturally there was a lot of sympathy for demonstrator George Floyd, who asphyxiated when a Minneapolis policeman put his knee on Floyd's neck for about eight minutes, which had all the look of police brutality, but only later it came out that Floyd, a very large former athlete, had been arrested on suspicion of passing a forged $20 bill and yesterday it came out that he had been using both crystal meth and Fentanyl, so he was no innocent angel.
Things worsened yesterday when President Trump made a show of openly walking out of the White House, which had been under siege the night before as it was surrounded by protesters, and went across the street into a church, where he waved a Bible and supposedly made the point that law and order and churchianity are still in force
You can easily find photos and videos of blatant looting in dozens of cities now but what disturbed me most was one showing the pre-placement of pallets of bricks for use as weapons by protestors which with many other outrageous words and deeds all attest that what's going down now in USA cities is orchestrated evil and extreme perversion of democratic politics. Cui bono?
Where will all this lead? Who knows, but things could get even worse tomorrow, next week and even into next month - all with the United States Presidential election looming in the Fall for a nation that is now more divided than ever, at least since the civil war.
What a mess.
Meanwhile world news isn't much better and arguably is even worse as China pursues its machinations to become the dominant power in world affairs, as Europe restructures into a newly-militarized power increasingly dominated by a re-armed Germany which alas fits like a glove onto Bible prophecy that a powerful "King of the North" will emerge and begin wreaking havoc on world affairs - and the apparent decline of the United States' power also is part of that picture.
Here in Canada the situation isn't much better. The provinces struggle to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, which could well have been worsened by the close-packed crowds of demonstrators in major cities including in Vancouver. This has distressed B.C. Public Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, who is warning anyone and everyone who was at such demonstrations to watch their health carefully and if symptoms of COVID become present then the people with them must self-isolate.
In other words, the near-pointless efforts to protest against Donald Trump in Vancouver could undo weeks of work in B.C. to limit the spread of a virus that has proven to be deadly to senior citizens in care homes and which now could spread into the public schools which just yesterday resumed in-school classes with limited attendance and new social-distancing rules.
It's madness, and it's spreading.
The economic conditions in B.C. and Canada already were fragile, and now this too?
What could be next? An election?? With more crowds and door-knocking and no doubt lots of nonsensical claims on the hustings.
Though NDP Premier John Horgan is showing no signs of wanting to call a snap election, the reality is that his majority in the B.C. Legislature is razor-thin and dependent on the support of the two MLAs for the B.C. Green Party and Independent MLA Andrew Weaver, the former leader of the Green Party who apparently left the caucus over a policy dispute but also is coping with a family health emergency.
Meanwhile B.C.'s economy is being hammered by the COVID crisis, with many sectors such as restaurants and bars and other small businesses being shut down or severely curtailed and the province trying to help them by bringing in new rules discouraging landlords from evicting tenants - both residential and commercial.
Could things get worse? Unfortunately, yes.
Just listen to the news and read the papers and go online and you'll find ample evidence that many things are now going from bad to worse - like B.C. farmers having trouble recruiting workers.
Maybe things will improve when warm weather arrives but even that is dubious because B.C. had a long cool Spring and may have a relatively short and wet summer which will be little help to the already-harmed tourist season (e.g. no cruise ships all summer in Victoria or Vancouver).
So here we are watching the breakdown of civil society in North America on live TV as professional agitators foment riots apparently to attempt to destroy the social order.
This all has Biblical connotations too, which I'll leave for another day. But there also are some reasons to hope; such as B.C.-based futurist Guy Dauncey publishing a new list of good things B.C. could do to strengthen its environment and economy. Other commentators in the online Tyee and in the weekend Victoria Times-Colonist and even David Suzuki offering some constructive suggestions - to which I add that British Columbia should revive its own currency (in parallel with the Canadian dollar) and take other steps (such as reviving a provincial police force) in order to give B.C. better social and economic stability in what is sure to be an increasingly unstable world.
I'll have a more detailed version of this column in a forthcoming issue of The Twigg Report coming as soon as possible. Meanwhile keep well, not only health-wise but also financially, because we're heading into rocky times.
John Twigg ... is a veteran independent journalist now based in Campbell River. He can be contacted at john@johntwigg.com.
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