Free trade agreement, we're getting screwed!!!!

This weekend, I decided to go visit my buddies Americans for a bit of gambling and shopping. I couldn't help but to compare a tiny bit. Example: You go to Montreal Casino compare to Akwesasne Mohawk Casino. The beer is 5$ in Mtl when in Akw it's 2$. If you eat in Mtl, you might get away with a 80$ bill for 2 people. Akw, 16$/pers for buffet and it's delicious. Guess where I've been going for the last 2 years... I am not a big gambler and I like to play for the pleasure of playing. For me the casino is pure entertainment, which is why I don't like to spend more money than I have to. Of course, if you go south of the border, a bit of shopping is also convenient. Example: 5l of Mobil1 5w40 oil sales for 45$ in Qc. In NYS a gallon (3.78l) of the same oil is being sold 26$. Let's convert that to a change rate of 85cents for Can $ and you get your oil at 10.60 usd/liter in Mtl when the same oil is 6.88 usd/liter in NYS. Kind of make you wonder where all that money goes. About 4$ a liter more. Another good example is camping goods. A coleman lantern (model Northstar with the carrying case) is beeing sold 55. 99$ in NYS (see coleman.com). The same lantern package is listed on coleman.canada.ca at 99.99$ can. At Canadian Tire, this lamp is beeing sold for 89.99$. Don't forget that you have to had up 15% tax over that price (7% gst and 8% qst) for a total of 103.99$ Let transfer that in USD at the same rate cited above and the cost of the same lantern is 88.39USD which is just 32$ more expensive. I can understand that the retailers have to take a cut but I guess that walmart USA and walmart Canada take about the same cut. Where does the rest of this money goes? I buy stuff off the US all the time and import fees are not that expensive. I can understand maybe 20% more expensive but not 60% more expensive. It gets ridiculous. Of course Canadian people like to go shopping in the USA. We save money. If people wouldn't try to strangle their fellow Canadians, maybe we would be more willing to stay at home and spend more at home but where I come from, I go where my money is going the furthest. I can also understand that Quebec is a bit the mecca of the socialist provinces and I am willingly paying taxes directly off my salary and every time I buy any goods but I don't think that over-inflating the price of goods is necessary to feed the social programs of this province.

Learning responsabilities....

The other day, I received an e-mail about people who lived in the 70's who didn't wear helmet when biking, who drink coke without a straw, who didn't wear seatbelt while riding in a car, who didn't have airbags and who lived to tell about it. Presently, people need to be guided to such a point when it comes to safety that it's becoming ridiculous. Do you really have to write in a manual that the driver of a winnebago mus not leave is seat while driving? Do you really need tire pressure monitoring in your car? Do you really need all kind of things to protect stupid people? Behind that "oversafety" lies a principle which is being lost: for every action there is a consequence!!!! If you are reckless while biking, you will get hurt and learn. If you wear a helmet, kneepads and elbow pads, you will be reckless and not have any consequences, not learning any lesson. All those "safety" items are creating better idiots. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about safety but up to a point! Of course, we must educate people but shouldn't they think a bit by themselves? I have a friend from the 80's generation who's totally irresponsible at 25 years old. I was asking myself why when I received the email message cited above. The poor guy never had to face any consequences of his acts. At 25, he has to raise kids, manage a mortgage, take care of his wife and he's still irresponsible. He never had to face the consequences of his acts!!! Getting hurt is a good way to learn. Of growing and if you don't, you just grow irresponsible . Therefore, safety is good, but common sense is better. If you get hurt a few times, you won't need safety gear, you'll be careful. If you don't learn on your bicycle, you might learn ,older, by getting bigger consequences on your mortgage by example...

Downfall of the American nation and their values.

Sadly, we are presently assisting to the downfall of the American values, people are also less educated ( and by that I don't only think about school but about being inquiring). Our good folks don't think about having families, they're thinking about pornstars , possessions and status. People don't think about respect but about empowerment. The values are going down. Were not going to church for the right reason: we don't understand what we believe in anymore. The worst example is when a military man is talking about God: how can you kill people (surely bad people, the president and tv are saying so) and be a good Christian. If those people would have asked themselves the right question, they would understand that the army is the tool of the government to gain power over other countries and not the tool to enforce peace and justice through force. The nation is not thinking but acting based on programming acquired via different medias. The people who control the medias are using those as a remote control for masses. People are easily predictable. The aveage American is thinking: "If TV says it, it must be true" when the real question is" why, in who's benefit, what is the real goal, what do I gain?" People have lost their critic mind. They don't inquire anymore. The basis of education is to have an inquiring mind. You don't necessary need to go to university to learn, you just need to be curious and try to continuously learn through experiences. So you combine people without principle, without an inquiring mind and feed them with a lot of entertainment. Aren't we becoming like those "cocooned" humans that machines are getting energy from in "The matrix" except that the establishment is replacing the machines? The real questions are much easier: what favor life? What do we need to be healthy as human beings, as a nation. Presently, we're very sick because we stopped thinking by ourselves. Which bring me to think that the lack of values and education will be the down fall of America.

Province of Quebec, Canada: The two solitudes.

In our beautiful province of Quebec exists two major cultures: the Anglos and the French. A lot of French would like the independence of the province from the rest of Canada, creating a French speaking country. Of course, the Anglos want to remain with the rest of Canada at all cost. In the meantime, the major politic parties are exchanging language laws to keep all those people busy. An example is bill 101 which states: " French is the only language allowed on commercial signs in the province. With few exceptions, the use of English is banned. As for education English is restricted mostly to those already in the system, their siblings, those temporarily posted in Quebec, or children whose parents had received an English elementary education in the province. (Eventually that regulation was relaxed to allow children of people educated in English in Canada access to English schools.) Here we go! The ideas war is on between the French and the Anglos. Let's say you're a minister who wants to pass an unpopular bill. How to do it without making too many waves? Nothing is easier. Spread rumors that you will pass a law that will upset both parties and restart the language war, and while everybody's fighting, pass the original bill you wanted to pass. At the base, French and Anglos want the exact same thing: the best education for their children, an efficient health care system, a strong economy and live peacefully with a minimum of luxury. Do we have that? Surely not. The education system is pretty screwed up, the health care system which is public and free is slowly sliding to private, the economy follows the woes of the USA and our infrastructures are crumbling. Why is that if everybody wants the same things? Easy, they don't speak the same language and by making those two groups feel their culture is threatened by the other group, they fight one against the other instead of fighting together towards obtaining better fundamentals services from the government. DIVIDE AND CONQUER! The government understood it. People are overtaxed and get second class service when everybody is greasing their paws from the big public pot. Who cares if the Hospital sign is in French or English if you can't get decent care in a timely manner? Put your priority in the right place!!! Get educated in French or English; who cares? It's a free country! Is it? I guess not if you can't choose! Freedom, health care, education, economy are the base of a society. Culture is also important but doesn't mean much if you're oppressed, sick, dumb and poor. If you think it's more important to speak a certain language over freedom, health and being poor, than I guess you're pretty dumb. If you don't believe me, go to Montreal and look around you. A lot of immigrants were ready to leave their country behind and learn a new language to beneficiate from the freedom we have, the free health care, the free education inside one of the richest country in the world. Maybe we should wake up, put our differences of culture aside and fight to keep these principles that are making Quebec such a great province to live in. Otherwise, in a few decades, we might be the ones emigrating to another country in order to beneficiate from some principles and services we presently take for granted!

Debt + consumerism = slavery!!!

Do you have debts? Most of the people do. Some are more justified than others like a mortgage (who could buy a house cash?). The problem starts when your bank starts taking example on your friendly neighborhood pusher! Your credit company starts sending you promotions like blank checks, no interests for a short period, low interests rates from the central banking systems just get you accustomed to credit. You get sucked in the machine slowly, getting addicted to credit. Add this to the main consumerism philosophy: " I want something therefore I need it!". There is a difference between necessities and desires and that's where slavery starts. Your friends have that nice big screen TV but you don't. You want it but you don't have the money. You go get the mail and find nice blank checks from Mastercard! What do you do? Run to the first "Best buy" and buy the biggest TV you will find. Here it is, plastic happiness! Is it so? The problem is that you will have to repay it someday with some serious interests. The deeper you get, the harder the sharks will bite! The worst your credit gets, the higher the interests. You're screwed! You will have to pay twice this TV if you include the interests over a period of about five years when 2 1/2 years of saving would have brought you the same TV without giving a penny to a banker . Another good example is the subprime crisis in the USA. People who couldn't afford a house still got accepted for mortgage. Whenever you borrow money, you owe it to somebody who's profit hungry and will not stop at anything to recover it's due. At some point the bankers own you and you don't even know it. Your only option is to work yourself to death or go bankrupt. Whatever you choose, they got you. But if enough people get to this point and can't longer pay, all the bankers which were counting their eggs before they were hatched, are going under. That's what we are experiencing right now with the subprime crisis. The credit crisis is starting to affect the whole economy and the interest rate hasn't even gone up yet. Wait and see when the inflation will start to rise! The fed is not helping by keeping the interest rate low. Even more people think they can contract more debts. At this point, at the dawn of a major recession, if you have debts, try to eliminate them now because it will only get harder to do so later. I know what some people are thinking: "There won't be a recession!" I hope so but do you want to take the risk? I think you're better safe than sorry. If you think about contracting some debts, think carefully if what you want to buy is a necessity or a desire. Remember, desires can become nightmares. In the last past years, with a strong economy and low interest rate, people got use to get into debts and get away with minimum damage but times are changing. Don't let the publicities or TV convince you that you need something. You are the only judge of what you need. Before buying a big screen TV, you should think about repaying your mortgage, your car loan, your credit cards, get food and save some money for darker days. If you watch TV, you will see all kind of shows which will encourage you to buy, upgrade, trade, flip habitations. The big question is what's the idea behind the show. Who are the sponsors. Considering that a real estate agent takes a commission of about 6% on the sale of your property, I think they have a great interest in "helping you". Banks also want to "help you" by collecting more (or on a longer period) interests. Let's start with buying, it's great to be a owner if you can afford it. Don't go over you capacity to pay and make sure you can still afford it with 15% interest rate. Never believe the banker's calculations without rechecking them yourself. Usually, their calculations on your capacity to pay are based on your salary before deductions and at the present interest rate. As for upgrading, once again, is it a need or a desire? If it is a desire, maybe it can wait. Instead of paying the real estate agent commission and the bank interests, you might be better paying off your mortgage and your other debts or, even better, start saving money for the future; you will need it. If it's a necessity, make sure you can afford it. As for flipping, think twice before you try it! On TV everything always go so well. In real life, you can end up getting stuck with the house or losing money in the process and getting serious headaches. No matter what you do, you're better off expecting the worst and hoping for the best, but no matter what, if you take risks, be ready to assume the consequences of your decisions because sometimes, bad moves can be very costly. Not only in terms of money but affecting your quality of life. If you have to work 7 days a week to repay your debts, you might feel like your banker got you enslaved and you won't get much time to enjoy that great big TV before it's outdated... The point being that you're better to have less and enjoy it than have more and not have the time to enjoy your life, wasting it to make the bankers richer than they actually are!

Democracy in America

Do you still believe in democracy? I think it used to exist at some point but I presently feel like we are voting for puppets which are controlled by the same hand: whoever controls money. Like the saying goes: money talks, bullshit walks. If we adapt this saying to elections, it would go like this: money talks, democracy walks. Presently in the States, Obama, Clinton, Bush, McCain.... and all the other front puppets, what do you think they will be able to do with a country which is starting a serious recession (depression?) with a deficit of 41 trillion USD ??? Say "yes" to whichever banker is passing by who offers to bail them out. Ooops, I forgot, they don't have to say anything since the banker is already telling them what to say!!! Let's see all this from the point of view of Mr and Ms everybody who works for a living and tries to earn it's daily bread. Those people will vote for whoever has the most visibility and promise them a decent life. Most people want the same thing: good education, good health care, a bit of luxury and enough food to put on the table. It's quite easy to have a puppet elected: make sure you promise the little people a good life and make sure you program them to adopt the candidate through different visibility tricks. Pick some of the characteristics of the candidate and put the emphasis on those through different shows and publicities. Example, if the candidate is Black, show Blacks as leader every time you can. Haven't we seen the first Black Superbowl referee in history? Wasn't the hockey Allstar game in Atlanta with a show featuring Black people. The emphasis right now is on showing that Blacks are leaders everywhere so that people will accept Obama as their next president. What do the big whigs behind the puppets want? To milk the small people in order to have even more money. Do you still think you elect a government that will serve your best interests or does the government that you elect will have you to serve their own interests?
That's the big question! If the government doesn't serve the interests of it's electors, than who's interests does it serves? In Bush's case, it looks quite obvious that a lot of people seems to fill their pocket on the back of the American proletariat. We can only think of the bird flu panic, the war on terror used to strip people of their freedom rights in the name of security, the war overseas that will not end for quite a while but will provide contracts for a lot of "friends of the party", the subprime crisis, ... Are those people serving your interests? If they don't, can we still claim we are living under the umbrella of democracy or tyranny?