Searching for God # 142

 In case readers might derive the impression that these insistent, persistent and somewhat apocalyptic pleas for the world to awaken to the universal, global, tidal wave of homeless, migrant, refugee populations (really they have to be considered as a single population, stateless, voiceless, cashless, homeless and hopeless) has no Canadian reference point. Of course, the numbers in any Canadian town or city pale in comparison with tent cities in desserts with no facilities; nevertheless, the principles of how these numbers are continuing to rise are common. Here is a segment of a piece written by Rich RJ Rikkonen, creator of The Northern Voice, entitled, ‘Northern Ontario is rich. Its people should not be living like this, from the author’s Facebook page:’ 

Cochrane District now has the highest homelessness rate in Ontario. According to Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office, 1,097 people experienced homelessness for every 100,000 residents in 2024-25. That is nearly twice Toronto’s rate, more than double the provincial average and an increase of almost 109 per cent in only two years. At least 558 people are currently known to be experiencing homelessness across the district, where approximately 130 emergency shelter beds are available. The official count does not include everyone living without a stable home, which means the real situation is likely worse. These numbers would be unacceptable anywhere, but there is something particularly disturbing about seeing them in a region that produces so much wealth. Northern Ontario supplies gold, nickel, copper, forestry products and hydroelectricity while governments and corporations prepare to extract billions more through critical-mineral development and the Ring of Fire.* 

*Ring of Fire in Northern Ontario is a mineral-rich region located in the James Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario, covering about 540 square kilometers northeast of Thunder Bay. (from AI) 

 From ontario.ca: 

 It is located more than 500 kilometers northeast of Thunder Bay and currently has an active claim area about 8,000 square kilometers in size. It contains one of the most promising mineral development opportunities in the world, representing enormous economic potential. Its vast supply of critical minerals includes: chromite, copper, nickel, platinum, itanium. 

There is a clear collision of needs, interests, potential and risks. The ‘big money’ will invest in the mining claims, as well as their processing technologies. Large numbers of workers will be attracted to these projects, undoubtedly creating a considerable number of jobs. At the same time, new roads and infrastructure will be needed and built, some of those with public funds. If, already, the homeless population in Cochrane district eclipses that in a megacity like Toronto, the provincial capital where there is a sizeable media corps of newspapers, television and radio, (there is almost no provincial coverage of Northern Ontario across the province), making it virtually certain for the dynamic to which Mr. Rikkonen refers (blindness, ignorance, denial and avoidance) by ‘big money’ to human desperation will only continue to grow. 

There is always a question for anyone attempting to ‘connect the dots’ to discern which dots are appropriate to be ‘connected’. For daily news outlets, in North America, for example, their editors select and highlight stories of global ‘natural disasters’ like raging rivers in Nepal that were really collapsing ice fields melting, or fires in California where homes, and crops are at risk or destroyed.  

Perhaps a glance at the UNHCR’s recent reporting on the numbers of refugees and forcibly displaced people might offer some perspective. Not incidentally, this perspective is not considered relevant, significant, cogent or purposeful in those giant new outlets, established as they are on a cornerstone of ‘ratings’ which are dependent on ‘viewers’ on whom advertisers disperse their advertising budgets. 

From unhcr.org we read: 

Globally, as of the end of December 2025, the most recent reporting period, there were 41.6 million refugees, 9 million asylum seekers and 68.7 million people displaced due to conflict or violence within their own county (IDPs). There are about 4.5 million stateless people, who have been denied a nationality and lack access to basic rights such as education, health care, employment and freedom of movement.  At a time when more than 1 in every 70 people on earth has been forced to flee, our work at UNHCR is more important than ever....At the end of December, 2025, 117.8 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order.....Low and middle-income countries hosted 68% of the world’s refugees and other people in need of international protection.....Children account for 39 percent of refugees under UNHCR mandate, people in refugee-like situation other people in need of international protection. 

Low and middle-income countries hosted 68% of the world’s refugees and other people in need of international protection. Highlighting this piece of data, while acknowledging that a majority of people needing protection are hosted by neighbouring nations, points to what is not stated: that rich and developed nations host far fewer and from recent trends are advocating for fewer on a consistent basis.  Low-income countries represent about 8% of the global population and account for less than 0.5% of global GDP, yet they host a disproportionate share (16%-18%) of the global refugee population. High-income nations account for nearly two-thirds of global wealth but host a smaller fraction of the total cross-order displaced populations compared to their developing neighbours. (From AI) 

Quoting Barham Salih, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, (on unhcr.org) 

For too many refugees, displacement starts as a lifeline but lasts a lifetime. Humanitarian aid saves lives, but it is not the end point and does not enable refugees to become active agents in control of their own futures. We need a paradigm shift of hope and opportunity for people fleeing war and persecution. 

In 2025, underfunding will stop UNHCR from providing essential services to millions of people. UNHCR’s budget of $10.632 billion reflects the anticipated needs of a record 139.3 million forcibly displaced and stateless people....The consequences of underfunding are far reaching. It hampers UNHCR’s capacity to deliver life-saving protection and solutions such as asylum, registration, return or integration. It stops UNHCR from resettling child refugees and survivors of sexual assault. It endangers essential services such as cash assistance, shelter, water, sanitation, health care and education. (from unhcr.org) 

Here is a list of underfunding gaps, by country: 

Lebanon:............................contributions: 142M........gap...538M 

Syrian Arab Republic:.......          “              84M.......gap...492M 

Ukraine.............................           “            227M.......gap...323M 

Ethiopia............................           “              87M.......gap...384M 

Sudan...............................           “              96M.......gap...321M 

Chad................................           “             111M......gap...298M 

Jordan............................            “               86M.....,,gap...286M 

Uganda.........................             “               85M.......gap...276M 

Yemen.........................             “                37M........gap...268M 

South Sudan................             “                81M........gap...217M 

The New Humanitarian Cheat Sheet, September 11, 2026, underscores a similar, if not identical perspective and global need at a time when increasingly developed nations are withdrawing within and erecting political, economic and cultural metaphoric 'electrified barbed wire’ fences on their national borders. 

Here is their perspective: 

The state we’re in: a humanitarian system in retreat....A dire ‘generational funding collapse’ has forced the system into retreat, ....The indicators are stark. 64 million people are receiving aid (since 2022), there is no safety net for those left behind, and funding has plummeted by at least 30%. The process of picking and choosing who gets help—often called ‘prioritisation’ in the UN-coordinated system—means people have to be increasingly desperate before aid can step in, yet the aid they receive is often not what they want.....Years-old promises to shift power (from rich to needy)...are happening far too slowly. In 2022, it was a warning to improve amid rising costs, soaring needs, and worsening access. In 2026, it’s a missed opportunity for a system at the breaking point. 

Although it may seem disconnected from this general theme, the US government’s determination to link a personal ‘religious’ (moral, ethical, and gender-based-and-biased) issue to any of its shrinking foreign aid contributions is also impacting humanitarian aid programs. One such program originating in Norway, dedicated primarily to the elimination of mine-fields, and also increasing its hiring of female workers and volunteers, has decided it will no longer accept the American conditions on its contributions 

The New Humanitarian thenewhumanitarian.org, (Cheat Sheet, September 11, 2026) in a piece entitled, ‘When do you put your foot down?’ Why this de-mining group is rejecting US funding by Irwin Joy details this development: 

Norwegian People’s Aid# will turn down millions in US government funding due to wide-reaching restrictions on reproductive health and equity, the mine action (removal of land mines) group announced, a rare example of a humanitarian organization publicly rejecting US cash. Few humanitarian groups have spoken publicly about the so-called ‘global gag rules’ since the Trump administration expanded the discriminatory restrictions this year. The regulations, known as the Mexico City policy, handcuff organizations receiving US cash even if potentially banned work is paid for in separate budget by other donors.....Previous versions (of the regulations) have tried to block organizations that receive US funding from providing or promoting abortion care as part of family planning- even if the money came from other sources. This year the Trump administration has expanded the rules to cover almost all foreign aid including humanitarian funding, and to target gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion.....Critics say the global gag rules are an attempt to co-opt international aid along US ideological lines.....But other governments are also cutting back—leaving the US as the top humanitarian donor that can shape how and where the system works by sheer volume. 

#Norwegian People’s Aid (npaid.org) reads: Norwegian People’s Aid is a politically independent membership-based organization working in Norway and in more than 30 countries around the world. Founded in 1939 as the labour movement’s humanitarian solidarity organization, NPA  aims to improve people’s living conditions and to create a democratic, just and safe society. NPA’s international work covers three core areas: Mine Action and disarmament, Development and humanitarian relief aid. 

While these developments are threatening the global humanitarian aid crisis, we might also be reminded of the development in international spending on military, cyber and security weapons. 

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on its website sipri.org, in a report dated April 27, 2026 states: 

(Stockholm, 27 April, 2026) World military expenditures reached $28887 billion in 2025, an increase of 2.9 per cent in real terms over 2024. Military spending declined in the United States but rose by 14 per cent in Europe and by 8.1 per cent in Asia and Oceania. The top three military spenders—the USA. China and Russia---spent a combined total of $1480 billion, or 51 per cent of the global total, according to new data published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)...Global military expenditure increased to $28887 billion in 2025, the 11th year of consecutive rises, bringing the global military burden—military expenditures as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) to 2.5 per cent, its highest level since 2009.....’Global military spending rose again in 2025 as states responded to another year of wars uncertainty and geopolitical upheaval and large-scale armament drives,’ said Xiao Liang, Researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program. ‘Given the range of current crises, as well as may states’ long-term military spending targets, this growth will probably continue through 2026 and beyond....The main contributor to the global increase in military spending in 2025 was a 14 per cent rise in Europe to $864 billion. 

It is certainly not rocket science to note the fall in humanitarian aid adjacent to the rise in military spending. Nor is it rocket science to note that dollars spent on one budget item cannot be allocated to another budget item on a national government’s balance sheet. Bringing these two developing, and increasingly darkening, as well as converging, dynamics into focus, however, sends red flags into the geopolitical ethos, not to mention into the desperate lives of millions who have absolutely no voice in either development. 

Headlines, such as those from the Council of Canadians, reading, “It’s us against the billionaires!” while precise and accurate to the degree of it compass, nevertheless, like all headlines, exudes a reductionism that both elevates the billionaires (who for the most part operate outside state laws, regulations and sanctions) and imitates the David-Goliath archetype with which we are all familiar. Politicians who continue to offer tax breaks to not only billionaires but also to industry, including military production industries, while at the same time siphon humanitarian budgets to meager levels, in that very process are contributing to the very conditions that will, inevitably without fail, generate even more desperate, displaced, refugees, immigrants, stateless persons. And those numbers will only, also inevitably and without fail, generate local, regional and national demands for increased prohibitions on their access to life-giving support. Those tensions, as they also always do, will increase national, political tensions based on something ‘simple and stupid’ like bumper-sticker mentality ‘binaries’ for political candidates: are you for or against more immigrants, refugees, stateless persons? And that divide will only, also inevitably and without fail, garner increasing support for those who oppose opening national borders thereby, inevitably and without fail, lead to an even larger tidal wave of people who have no place to live in dignity, respect, security and sustainability. 

And it is precisely the growing avoidance, denial, repression and ignorance of the global issues of economic plague, environmental disasters, disease, and this tidal wave, with their concomitant personal human anger, depression, desperation, and potential violence that can and will only lead to more hostility.  

It might be termed national pride to invade Ukraine, or it might be termed ‘national protection and security from terror’ or it might be termed, budgetary scarcity, or it might be termed ‘increasing global tensions and the potential for military conflict’ as a plausible, public, self-assuring posture for governments and politicians. The rise in military spending brings with it a conventional, predictable mind-set that justifies even more attention to the military protection of a state. National security, whether in cyber terms, military terms, economic terms or governance superiority (ideological terms) is a compelling argument for any political class to invoke amidst an increasingly nervous, anxious, and frankly frightened population. And the spectre of ‘diseased, criminal and no-good' people who have no place to go, is another of the talking points for those determined to shut down access to these people.  

A fear-factory of propaganda, built on a projected image of ‘national strength and power’ (however those terms are defined in each situation) is the central and sustaining productor of protections and justifications for despots, oligarchs, tyrants, and all those wannabe’s. Power and dominance, for them, is mother’s milk for their desperate, dillusional and narcissistic egos.  

Of course, we need a paradigm shift, specifically in humanitarian aid. And that means a tectonic shift in how we ‘see’ others. So long as we continue to ‘see’ with blind eyes, and to hear with deaf ears, and to consider with anaesthetized (unconscious) brains and psyches (NIMBY) the trends of rising dollars to military and economic and technological power images, like the aphrodisiac they are to many in power, and the falling commitment, consciousness, and conscience to an ethic embedded in ‘we are our brothers’ keeper’ will only continue. 

And if anyone thinks, or imagines, that these two forces are compatible, and not irreconcilable, they might want to give their head a shake...personally, collectively. And in that shake, there can be time to shed the identity factors that we presume, assume and believe give us any kind of superiority, supremacy, enlightenment, or privilege over others. 

Equality is no longer a national or regional culturally dividing issue...given that we all share in both the generation of our most dangerous threats as well as any collaborative concerted, sustained, authentic and global shift to address them for the benefit of each one of us.