Here's What I Think...

What I hate about...

I was listening to CBC the other morning, and they were playing sound bites from the opening of the fall session of the B.C government.There has been a scandal in health-care recently, where incidents of neglect in an old folks home in Victoria have come to light ~ one woman even died when she was left alone for so long that no one noticed she had slid down in her wheelchair, and she was strangled by the seatbelt. Horrible stuff. The opposition party, the NDP, was attacking the party in power, the Liberal party, for the massive cutbacks they have made to budgets for long-term care facilities such as the one involved in the scandal, and blaming the cuts for the problems. The Liberals, of course, were stating that that simply wasn't true, its not their fault, they have actually increased funding to many of these facilities. (Let me just point out that one of the favorite tricks of this government is to make huge cutbacks in budgets for various government run programs, and then later toss back 1/4 of the amount they cut so they can say "Look, we increased funding". Not sure who they think they are fooling with this technique, but I am on to them!) So here is what I hate about politicians ~ no one will step up to the plate and say "oops, we made a mistake, our bad, let's set this right. Now, as far as blaming the budget cuts for the problems, I agree that they are probably a factor. However, the union representing the long-term care workers is taking it too far in saying that the suts are completely to blame.  Yes, these facilities are understaffed, and yes, many can only afford to pay minimum wage so they are not getting properly qualified people applying for the jobs.  But i don't care if you are only making $9 an hour, you don't let people go without baths for 2 weeks (one of the alleged incidents) and you don't leave people unattended for so long that they strangle in their wheelchairs. Again, passing the buck. And as far as I have heard, no employee of this facility is under investigation.  So what we have here is a huge problem that absolutely NO ONE is apparently responsible for. Helpful.

I'll tell you another reason this bothers me. I think it is a symptom of a larger problem in our society. It's the culture of "It's not my fault." I see this as a substitute teacher working with young people. Many kids these days are simply not willing to take responsibility for their behaviour. In fact, if you call them on their misbehaviour, they get super pissed off at you for daring to give them heck when they so clearly deserve it. I know this is naturally a characteristic of youth, but it is extreme, people. Some kids think they can do whatever they want, and if they get caught, it is the person who catches them that's at fault.  A big part of the problem I think is parenting. There seems to have been a real move towards trying to be your kid's buddy and letting them get away with anything. Plus it is a lot more work to make your kids take responsibility for their actions ~ you have to come up with a valid consequence and then deal with them being mad at you etc, etc. Way easier to just say "Oh, you broke Mrs. Finch's window with your baseball? Thats ok, we'll just pretend it wasn't you."

So please, people, make your kids be responsible. It's more work, but it's worth it. And you probably don't want them ending up being a politician!

I am a big proponent of Canada's public health-care system. I know that it has some flaws, but it seems infinitely better to the alternative to have everyone in the country able to afford health-care coverage. One of those flaws, unfortunately, is long waiting lists for many procedures. Apparently not if you are the former Prime Minister. This study showed that in 2005, 50% of cardiac patients waited 2 1/2 weeks or less for bypass surgery, while for 10%, the wait was 6 times as long, and the rest, I presume, were in the middle somewhere. However, Mr. Chretien was golfing with a heart specialist buddy on a Monday and mentioned his reoccurring chest pain. His buddy suggested he get looked at, which he apparently did the next day. His surgery occurred on Wednesday. Now, in Canada, many people are very concerned about the erosion of our social health-care system and the move to privatize some services, and to introduce a so-called "2-tiered" system, whereby the wealthy can bypass wait-lists by paying private clinics for procedures while the rest of us schmucks wait in line. What amazes me is that I have hardly heard a peep about Mr. Chretien's fast treatment, except for one half-hearted comment I heard on the radio by some official at the hospital where he was treated saying that anyone with his condition would have been treated in the same manner and with the same expedience. I'm sorry, but I call bulls**t on that one. I just can't believe no one else is!

Will we ever learn?

Today on CBC Radio  I heard a really interesting talk by a man called Rory Stewart. According to the CBC website, Rory is unique among westerners in his knowledge of the situation in Afghanistan. Here's why:

In January of 2002 the former British diplomat decided to undertake a perilous journey. After walking across Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal - his wanderlust turned to Afghanistan where he'd been barred from walking earlier. Literally step by step, he completed the journey from Herat to Kabul in just over a month.

Mr. Stewart has written a book about his experience, called  The Places In Between, which I  have not read but would really like to, and was prompted to start an NGO called Turquoise Mountain . Check out the mission statement on the beautiful website ~ it sounds like a wonderful idea.

It was the interview with Mr. Stewart that really got me thinking. He was obviously very knowledgeable about the situation in Afghanistan, and he has some very clear, simple ideas as to how Canada, which currently has a large military presence in Afghanistan, could make a real difference to the everyday Afghani people (as opposed to the insurgents, a tiny percent of the population that is drawing all of Canada's resources, and killing many Canadian soldiers), which is supposedly why were are there in the first place.  I don't know how much, if any, influence he has on the Canadian government, so I don't know if his ideas have any hope of being implemented. Pessimistically, I couldn't help but think probably not much on either count. That seems to me to be the way things go, however. People have great ideas for solving a problem, or there seems to be an obvious solution to a bad situation, and for whatever reason, the good ideas and solutions never seem to get implemented. Why is that? What is it about humans that sometimes blocks us from seeing or taking the right action in a situation? This doesn't just go for nations and governments, either. On a personal level, I do the exact same thing myself ~ sometimes when I have a problem, I know what needs to be done,  but somehow I just can't make it come about. Usually it is a reoccurring issue, and I keep not doing the right thing about it! My dad's definition of stupidity is repeating the same erroneous action over and over  while expecting a different outcome. But the thing is, I'm not stupid, and neither are the people running the show (with a few glaring exceptions, of course). So why then, do we do things the hard way, make the wrong decisions, leap before we look, and make things worse, when often there is obviously a better way to do things??? Todays million dollar question ~ what do you think? 

Fashionably green.

Have you noticed how all of a sudden, it is "in" to be environmentally friendly? It seems like a great thing that the rich and famous hipsters are driving hybrids and fashion designers are using organic cotton, and therefore those that want to emulate celebrities are following suit. I have to wonder though. Will it make a difference? The problem I see is that trends come and go. Next year maybe the beautiful people will be embracing some new cause, and the Priuses and organic cotton shirts will be passed on to the gardener. I think what we need is some sort of evidence that environmentally friendly products do make a difference, if indeed they do, in order that the green movement goes beyond the trend phase and becomes a part of our everyday life.  Has anyone considered how to measure the difference? And I wonder about trendy so-called "green" products: who says they are environmentally friendly? What science are these products based on that claim they can save the world? After all, the companies that are producing them are, for the most part, really in it for the money, not the Earth.  And no one can seem to agree on what products or human activities are causing the problems in the first place. I guess much of it is common sense- growing with less pesticides and chemical fertilizers, using less fuel in your morning commute, and reusing your grocery bags can't be bad. And I suppose having celebs embrace the cause raises awareness and prompts some people to take action. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be a passing trend, or worse, turn out to be doing more harm than good. What do you think?

Today is the first day...

...of this blog!

I have been meaning to start posting on this blog for some time now. It's just one of those things, busy, bust, got no time, yada yada. But I need somewhere to vent about the stupid shit I hear going on all the time all around me. I'm not saying that the things I will be saying here will be 100% right all of the time. It will just be a place for ideas, opinions, conjecture, vents, rants, raves, and so on! I hope that other people will get involved too. Anyone is free to agree, disagree, provide evidence to the contrary to anything I say here (as long as you're polite, that is!- I'm a substitute teacher, I get enough rudeness on the job, thanks). My other blog, Yummy Mommy just doesn't seem like the right place for politics. So... the next time I hear something I just have to off about, Here's What I Think will be ready!

Hello!

Hi, and welcome to "Here's What I Think..."