You heard about the most recent slap at Canada from Quebec, didn't you? It's about their language again. In which the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the so called language law that blocked children from attending English language schools. All immigrant parents had to do was enroll a child first in an English private school, after that they could send children to English language public schools.
In a 7-0 decision, the court struck down a law known as Bill 104 that, since 2002, has blocked some 8,000 children in Montreal alone from attending English-language schools. Anyone who has traveled already knows that after English, German and Spanish are the dominant languages worldwide outside of China. And English is the second language there! French is but a deviation.
Of course now that we have the misnomer title in Quebec of the "National Assembly" Quebeckers see themselves as independent from Canada, and the latest slap in the face to Canadians is the accusation that Canada is interfering in another nation's business. That "nation" being Quebec.
Are you tired of this too? Isn`t it time Quebec went their own way? Do they really still think as they did before that last referendum?
That even if they separate from their hated oppressors, the Canadians, they will still receive all the benefits of Canadians across Canada. That all those cushy Ottawa jobs will still be theirs? That they will still get huge lucrative contracts from Canada over Albertans or Nova Scotians? That they will still receive equalization payments from Ottawa? That the people way out there in BC will still have bilingual signs? That they will sell those products labelled in French only writing across the US and Canada? That they will still VOTE in Canadian elections and send representatives to Canada's Parliament? That they will still have Canadian passports!
Yes, that is exactly what they believed. And probably still do.
It is such a naive POV that it makes a Westerner or Easterner laugh and feel embarrassed for misinformed and ignorant Quebeckers. I for one would expect a 100 year backlash and a new Canadian government to support Canadians first and consider Quebeckers applying for jobs or entry as immigrants. Look at the politics. Each party wants to woo those 75 seats so they cowtow to Quebec. If they were gone then we could have a fair and democratic Canada and be rid of the whining once and for all. Not to mention the drain of the constant dole to the French crybabies.
And the rest of Canada would have something to be proud of instead of being embarrassed about.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Journalism 2.0
People are talking about Journalism 2.0 lately. It is partly a theory that journalism as we knew it is now dead. It has to do with the modern media, TV news, newspapers, radio news. These sources for your information seem to be unreliable and untrusted. The news you get from newspapers is now almost 3 days old when it is printed. And they often quote news from TV or even weblogs! TV news hours fill up with anything but real news. Looking for 'stories' to tell within a time frame.
A recent study of news information showed that most of the younger generation get their hard news from, of all people, Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. Walter Cronkite died and news trust died with him. Journalism 1.0 is no longer supported like that old Commodore 64 in a land fill somewhere.
Most hard news outlets are conglomerates owned by a very few powerful people. A little research will often tell you exactly who owns them, and a little more reading will get you the slant of that owner. A little scrutiny will even tell you HOW the affiliated stations will report news. So why do we need to pay attention then? Of course that research is done on the World Wide Web.
Aha. That's it isn't it? The reason people are discussing Journalism 2.0. News now comes from people posting items on the web; in forums, blogs, Youtube, social networking sites like Facebook. Yes, opinionized it may be and there is a lot of chaff and misinformation, but a keen mind can separate that from DISinformation as practiced by certain organized media. Do we believe the antics of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck masquerading as news commentary? Jon Stewart is on the Comedy Network, he goes for the laugh, and yet through the humor we discern truth. Salon.com regularly scoops the major news organizations. Wolf Blitzer fumbles through a program trying for seriousness yet seems to be a victim of news technology! CNN ratings have plummeted. Newspapers can no longer take the time to verify their stories in the competition with a Youtube video of what just happened.
Journalism is freer now that we, the people, can post stories and items and video about what WE saw. Anywhere and anytime in the world! We no longer need the trained reporter who can perhaps write better, or a videographer who gets the better angle and the dropping tear, all edited for the morning edition or the Six O'clock news hour.
The face of journalism has changed and the real eloquence is in the spontaneity of the report, whether it be from a shaky unfocused cell-phone camera or a ungrammatical posting on a blog.
Journalism 2.0 is here and we all have a tremendous new power. And we are reporting to each other.
We need only to tell the truth.
A recent study of news information showed that most of the younger generation get their hard news from, of all people, Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. Walter Cronkite died and news trust died with him. Journalism 1.0 is no longer supported like that old Commodore 64 in a land fill somewhere.
Most hard news outlets are conglomerates owned by a very few powerful people. A little research will often tell you exactly who owns them, and a little more reading will get you the slant of that owner. A little scrutiny will even tell you HOW the affiliated stations will report news. So why do we need to pay attention then? Of course that research is done on the World Wide Web.
Aha. That's it isn't it? The reason people are discussing Journalism 2.0. News now comes from people posting items on the web; in forums, blogs, Youtube, social networking sites like Facebook. Yes, opinionized it may be and there is a lot of chaff and misinformation, but a keen mind can separate that from DISinformation as practiced by certain organized media. Do we believe the antics of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck masquerading as news commentary? Jon Stewart is on the Comedy Network, he goes for the laugh, and yet through the humor we discern truth. Salon.com regularly scoops the major news organizations. Wolf Blitzer fumbles through a program trying for seriousness yet seems to be a victim of news technology! CNN ratings have plummeted. Newspapers can no longer take the time to verify their stories in the competition with a Youtube video of what just happened.
Journalism is freer now that we, the people, can post stories and items and video about what WE saw. Anywhere and anytime in the world! We no longer need the trained reporter who can perhaps write better, or a videographer who gets the better angle and the dropping tear, all edited for the morning edition or the Six O'clock news hour.
The face of journalism has changed and the real eloquence is in the spontaneity of the report, whether it be from a shaky unfocused cell-phone camera or a ungrammatical posting on a blog.
Journalism 2.0 is here and we all have a tremendous new power. And we are reporting to each other.
We need only to tell the truth.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Welfare Bums?
Welfare bums? Lots of vitriol lately about whoever they are. People post on social forums, get a job! Scream about quit drinking and drugs! Why should I pay for them to loaf and get handouts? Etc etc ad nauseum. But who exactly are these welfare bums? What do they look like? Those raggy people climbing into dumpsters looking for cans and bottles?
Are they sports figures? What about athletes full of fitness and fire? Ken Read, once of the famous 'Crazy Canucks' ski team, who got Canadian taxpayer money to send him and others to Argentina to glacier ski for 'training', said, "When your amateur career is over, there's something wrong if you are not a millionaire." And all those other sporties who are supported by Canadian tax money and proudly tell us after placing 35th of 35 that they reached a 'personal best'! Aren't these welfare bums?
And those teflon CEOs of huge companies who were so busy arrogantly managing their own graft and corruption that they mismanaged the companies they were charged with running, and then got bailouts in the millions from taxpayers! They are welfare bums even in a $500. suit!
And what about hundreds of local 'Arts Councils' all across Canada who continually put on Shakespeare plays that no one attends that don't pay for themselves yet who receive huge 'grants' year after year! That is welfare bummery at it's best!
And singer-songwriters like Bruce Cockburn who never laid down a music track without Canadian taxpayer money allowing him to add the mandated 'Canadian content'.
And aren't we tired of CBC harpsichord music yet? Billions in welfare pouring into that snobbery management.
One could go on and on adding people and groups with hands out. THOSE are welfare bums.
But they are NOT that guy who worked most of his life paying taxes and trying to support his family who got laid off after 25 years and was 'overqualified' for any positions and companies wouldn't trust his experience to do a lesser job, so he finally, in chagrin, had to get some welfare relief to hold something of his life together. He is no less a victim that the Tourettes guy swearing on the corner.
Canada is so full of welfare bums and they are not the ones in ragged clothes wandering the streets all night pushing a rattling Safeway Cadillac for bottles, they are the ones with ragged minds driving in the REAL Cadillacs.
Quit screaming.
Are they sports figures? What about athletes full of fitness and fire? Ken Read, once of the famous 'Crazy Canucks' ski team, who got Canadian taxpayer money to send him and others to Argentina to glacier ski for 'training', said, "When your amateur career is over, there's something wrong if you are not a millionaire." And all those other sporties who are supported by Canadian tax money and proudly tell us after placing 35th of 35 that they reached a 'personal best'! Aren't these welfare bums?
And those teflon CEOs of huge companies who were so busy arrogantly managing their own graft and corruption that they mismanaged the companies they were charged with running, and then got bailouts in the millions from taxpayers! They are welfare bums even in a $500. suit!
And what about hundreds of local 'Arts Councils' all across Canada who continually put on Shakespeare plays that no one attends that don't pay for themselves yet who receive huge 'grants' year after year! That is welfare bummery at it's best!
And singer-songwriters like Bruce Cockburn who never laid down a music track without Canadian taxpayer money allowing him to add the mandated 'Canadian content'.
And aren't we tired of CBC harpsichord music yet? Billions in welfare pouring into that snobbery management.
One could go on and on adding people and groups with hands out. THOSE are welfare bums.
But they are NOT that guy who worked most of his life paying taxes and trying to support his family who got laid off after 25 years and was 'overqualified' for any positions and companies wouldn't trust his experience to do a lesser job, so he finally, in chagrin, had to get some welfare relief to hold something of his life together. He is no less a victim that the Tourettes guy swearing on the corner.
Canada is so full of welfare bums and they are not the ones in ragged clothes wandering the streets all night pushing a rattling Safeway Cadillac for bottles, they are the ones with ragged minds driving in the REAL Cadillacs.
Quit screaming.
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