Sunday, December 21, 2008
Canada is great?
Someone told me today that Canada was the best country to live in on earth. I agree. But I reject the concept of the state/country. Indeed Canada is a great place to live; but, we are second in the world for the amount of waste we produce per person, which is not sustainable. Furthermore, Canada relies in part on the large scale exploitation and export of natural resources in order to provide enough jobs and GDP to fund our high standard of living. In addition, we accept a large number of immigrants – which is fine- in part to maintain population growth/economic growth and to maintain some semblance of a tax base in order to fund our generous welfare state. However, when I walk down the street the majority of conversions are not in French of English: our two official languages. Granted, it's not illegal to speak in a language of your choosing, but I personally don't feel comfortable in my own country/city when I can't understand what most people are saying to each other. It's not that I don't trust people; it's that I feel alienated or excluded when it happens and it happens on a regular basis. Next, Canada's idea of 'multiculturalism' is a freedom that many enjoy; however the problem could be a gradual or rapid dilution of what it means to be a citizen. I argue that we are losing social cohesion as a result of growing pains – both demographic and economic; too much rapid economic development and rapid population growth scarcely allows time for 'society' to adjust. Furthermore, in the state's efforts to maintain legitimacy in the eyes of the people, we allow many freedoms: freedom of speech, religious belief, mobility, to name a few, and the right to life, liberty and security of the person. My main issue is with the last right - security of the person. If we are raping the land at the current rate and the emissions and exhaust travel through the air, and the chemical byproducts travel through the waterways and water tables, is it any wonder there is an increase in cancer, asthma and numerous birth defects? These ailment's directly and indirectly affect people's health, a phenomena that is clearly related to the security of the person. The government is supposed to guarantee this right and yet the pass the policies that allow development to degrade our health with little accountability because the effects of development are spread thin and hard to track and locate. This is unacceptable. But – in closing – it is difficult to mobilize in this country because the system of federalism, whereby power is divided between each province and territory and the federal government in Ottawa, makes it very difficult for geographically dispersed and affected populations, to be successful in seeking and gaining positive change. Federalism is designed to further the interests of developers and business to the detriment of the environment and people's health. Thus, although Canada is currently the best country to live in, we are destroying the country at a fast and unsustainable rate and people's health and general wellbeing is currently being compromised on a daily and increasing basis.
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4 comments:
I really like how you show the governments neglect of enviromental issues is infringing on Canadians rights and freedoms. Through this method, citizens could sue the government over enviromental neglect and the harm it causes to their health. This idea still falls within the realm of citizens being considered subjects of the state, because we must apply to canadian courts in order to have our way.
what if we changed the charter to reinforce the fact that we are subjects of mother earth? what if we changed the first line of the constitution so it says "the supremacy of mother earth over canada". then we could sue politicians when they don't recognize the supremacy of earth. Currently Canadians believe that they are more peaceful than other nations. With my suggested change, Canadians would consider themselves much more humane than other nations. We would look to earth for our identity rather than our political institutions.
When you talked about language rights, it seemed like you wanted one language. The charter allows multiculturalism and lots of languages. We could do like quebec and force all immigrants to learn french. But i think its to foreigners own economical disadvantage not to learn english. Most come to canada to exploit the enormous economic potential for ipods, cars and homes that canada has to offer. by not learning to speak english their opportunity cost is lesser wages because less people will want to hire them.
You think that its bad now, just wait until the North American Union comes into action. It'll probably happen just after WW3 is officially declared. The Amero may happen before hand, since the economy is crashing. The borders will be opened and followed by a rapid movement of immigrants and resources. Our raping of the motherland will grow exponentially since her milk will be shared amongst two over-populated countries leaving us the runt of the litter dying in its own filth. IF you think that this is crazy conspiracy talk, read about it. Google SPP,North American Union, or the Amero. Its already been talked about on CNN and other various news corps. This will lead to a revolution, but people will run to those who have guns, money and, well, belief in god since most people are god freak and a NWO will be established. Then will come the micro=chips....
I think the only way a north american union will ever happen is if we DO declare WW3, but the only upcoming cause of that is oil located in the arctic circle. With the UN and countries like USA it's hard to get a dictatorship with no transparency started.
I'm doubtful there will ever be another "global" conflict. Also at this point it would be to the detriment of the united states to have an amero, and whats more: referendum.
They won't be able to pass this unilateraly. Mexico probably could, but the "american dollar" will always exist. I'm willing to bet anything.
Well, America is an expansionist and imperialistic country. Look how easily both the US and Canada had been duped into the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. If a nuclear jihad occurs, which is quite possible, especially if the powers that be want it to happen, it will. In the name of security and prosperity, would not the continent of North America unite to become stronger through partnership (the SPP) in resource, including the oil reserves in the Arctic, and Alberta, which are already owned by the Americans anyways, and is the second largest reserve in the world, and we can't forget the abundance of human resource that would be available. People thought the EU was a crazy notion and would never happen and yet it managed to manifest itself into a reality. We are on the verge of a huge global change, and economically, are we not in a global conflict? Don't get me wrong, it would never happen without a fight, but a new order would arise out of the ashes, and perhaps that is the ultimate goal, again through the Hegelian dialectic leading to a unified synthesis of ideologies in the name of peace. The idea of a shadow government creating wars while playing both sides to project an agenda may seem far fetched, but perhaps that is what they want us to think. We need not to look too far back in history to see this psychopathic psychology at work. A CIA operative claims jihad on America, America claims war on a faceless enemy, Americans are engaged in an imperialistic war and have fundamental rights taken away from them. Scary thing is that it worked. Is there more to this agenda, if so, what could they want next. On the American dollar bill under the Masonic pyramid it says in latin, I believe, New Order of the Ages. Has this philosophy ever gone away, probably not since a great number of presidents, and important members of congress, the White-house staff, and the economic leaders of the country, and the world, are members of the same secret society that built the foundations of America and the confederacy of Canada. It only takes a quick google to find thousands upon thousands of references and links to this kind of information.
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