Things I Can't Quite Get -- May 3, 2010

I find it ridiculous that the so-called most powerful country in the world can't fight an oil spill. I also find it ridiculous that the so-called most powerful country in the world can't stop a few terrorists.

I find it sort of funny that the people of the so-called most powerful country in the world hate their president, when with him they rose from Rank 40 to Rank 20 of the most Freedom of Press countries. Canada was 13 but we've dropped to 19, which makes me upset.

A lot of Americans don't understand why Canadians are so critical of them, but that was one of the reasons. The American people are more enslaved to the government than we are, and won't listen to us when we try to point out that they need to fight for themselves. I met an American who told me that Canadians do have a right to be critical of America, which surprised me. I sometimes think we are too critical of them. Sometimes I think we are becoming just like them.

I think Denmark sounds cool, it seems like the most cosmopolitan, happy place in the whole world to live, by statistics. Maybe too much perfection would drive me crazy. They have the longest standing tolerance towards homosexuals in the world. They are very much into gender equality. But an American would find it hard to live in such an amazing country because of the different manners. In a Scandinavian country, one finds that one is expected not to make too much noise or draw too much attention to oneself. Scandinavian people generally consider everyone and everything equal. Americans view this as communism, which it isn't.

Soldiers: April 26, 2010

I am a Canadian citizen.

There has only been one war on Canadian soil (not counting the wars between the French and English), and that was when we were attacked by Americans in 1812.

Other than that, no Canadian soldier has ever died for my rights. We got our independence from Britain through words. Our soldiers have died and are dying to protect the rights of other people, not mine. But soldiers are soldiers. They kill innocent civilians. 98% of all those killed in modern warfare are innocent civilians, not excluding women and children and including men who are not fighters. They rape innocent civilians. There are videos produced by news crews that are not allowed to broadcast in the United States about soldiers laughing as they mercilessly shot a father and his kids and then blew up a van that tried to rescue the wounded.

People want me to support the troops. I will not support the troops until I have proof that 100% of them are WORTH supporting. Until then, they can either come home and go to jail, because that's where most of them would end up if they were normal citizens, or they can continue to get themselves killed by an enemy that the media has demon-ized, but are really just normal human beings fighting for what they see as the right way.

I personally want soldiers to all come home now, and let the NGO's do the real work in the current war zones. An NGO doesn't kill people.

Now you might start asking me, well, what about 2001, 9/11? Well, more American soldiers have died since the outbreak of the war than American people did in the attack. 100,000s of innocent people have died at the hands of American soldiers. There's your revenge. Americans have to stop thinking about revenge and start maturing.

Revenge is so middle schooler.

Blessed be us

Death Penalty April 25, 2010

My host grandmother came back from Osaka (or Tokyo) the other day, so today I ended up with a golden bear cell phone strap, what seems to be tiny, cute note paper, a prayer plaque from some 八坂神社(I don't know the romaji for that, but it means Eight Hills Shrine in English), a pretty little handkerchief and some more paper cranes. The last trip she went on, she brought me back cat note paper.

I just finished watching some news from Aljazeera and I found myself reminded that the death penalty is still legal in my lovely neighbour to the south. Why is there such thing as a death penalty in the modern world? If you kill a murderer, you yourself are a murderer, that murderer's family do not find themselves at ease once their family member is killed and the victim's family members do not rejoice either. It seems like a waste of life.

Sure, prisons fill up quickly, but for life without parole individuals, you could make them work at jobs that educated people don't want to do, and it would help the country out. There is also rehabilitation. If you can make sure that the individual is safe to go back into society, release them. There are so many tests and things you could do and that many of the advanced countries in the Scandinavian region do to make sure that criminals are fit for society. There is a much lower crime rate in those countries. Even jail for a short time can ruin an individuals life, and they find themselves repeating past actions because they have no other way to survive, say, having missed out on an education while in jail.

There are so many ways to just not use the death penalty. We as a people have moved beyond that--a medieval practice. Where is the compassion that the United States, a country filled most with Christian-faith followers, teaches? Why is there still government ok-ed torture and murder happening?

My fellow North Americans, where is your freedom?

A murderer, most often than not, is a person who has a mental handicap. What sort of person can take another person's life other than someone who has a lot of problems? Think for yourself, imagine going up to someone and killing them, for any numerous reasons that you may or may not have thought of. We all hate someone. Could you put your hands around their throat and watch as the light drains from their eyes? If you are a normally functioning person, then you should answer no to this question. I could never take the life of someone, no matter how much I hate them or say I would love to kill them. In reality, this is morbid, not the topic of a movie or a drama. Could you then, out of compassion, fix what is wrong with a murderer, so that they never take life again? There is therapy for mentally handicapped people, why is there no therapy for murderers, who are also a type of handicapped persons?

You say, "I hope that person gets the death penalty," but could you pull the trigger, is death penalties reversed from a needle back to a gun? Could you look that person in the eye if they killed your loved one and shoot them? Maybe you could. I would not be able to. The person I am pointing the gun at, the person who killed my loved one, is human too.

I am human. They are human. Why would I take their life and make myself like them? We're taught these lessons in kindergarten, and through the Bible or any other multiple cultures that have the "do unto other as you would do unto yourself".

That's all for now.

May we be blessed.

April 18, 2010 Quebec Hijab Law

AlJazeeraEnglish on Youtube has recently reported on, what to me, is a devastating blow to what Canada and its people are supposed to stand for. Freedom.

Apparently 80% of all Canadians accept the new hijab law that is pending in courts. 95% of Quebec, where the law will be passed, are also in support. Women who choose to wear the hijab will be blocked from using government offered programs, such as schools, and government jobs.

Support of this new law goes something like "male relatives are pressuring these women into wearing what we see as a symbol of oppression". I think people are simply more afraid of the Muslim culture right now than they are of women being oppressed.

Hopefully I can find more information to comment on, but for now it seems to be a law of racism and fear. I am ashamed of my country.

March 25, 2010 Socialism

I will do the often done thing here and first quote from www.dictionary.com to find out what exactly what socialism is.

Dictionary.com says: "–noun

1.

a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

2.

procedure or practice in accordance with this theory.

3.

(in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles."

Now let's define a few of those terms as well for those of us not up-to-date on political science and sociology terms.

Vesting - "the granting to an eligible employee of the right to specified pension benefits, regardless of discontinued employment status, usually after a fixed period of employment. "

Collectivist - "–noun

the political principle of centralized social and economic control, esp. of all means of production. "

(If you need other terms explained, the dictionary.com link is available ^^ )

When a society becomes socialist, many things are instead done by the government than they are by the people. It is a long way away from communism, but it seems Americans can not escape their cold war prejudice.

Of course, if you tell an American that going to school for free is the same as getting free health care, and thus putting them in so-called socialism, when really they are just moving a little left from center, they would deny it. If President Obama decided to do away with America's dangerous Free-Trade agreement (which is currently endangering my home town and is trying to destroy our clean drinking water), this would be another step in the left direction, but President Obama is not a socialist and would not do this.

A civilized country is a country where people are taken care of when they get to stage in their life when they can no longer give the government money. This includes when they are sick. A civilized country is socialist enough to realize the benefits of giving their students free education. Not many Americans are willing to hand out thousands of dollars a year so that their child can go to some fancy private school, so why are Americans so willing to pay the insurance companies thousands of dollars for crap health care? The only way that private health care is better than public health care is because rich people are chosen over poor people when it comes to deciding who will get the organ transplant, but that in and of itself is wrong. Why should a rich person get a better treatment than a poor one?

Why are Americans insisting in staying a third-world developed country? (honestly, that should not even be possible!)

President Obama's Victory Speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh2yPfD5F-4