This is a tad bit unusual, but I am including (as an update to my BLOG) a post from a cousin’s BLOG. The post is his initial posting and my response to his Liberal propaganda. I wanted every one I know to read the debate… Agree or not, I think you will find it amusing. Oh yeah, so many of you have requested direct access to Josh’s BLOG that I included a link to his website. Comments are enabled, so let him know what you think.
Enjoy….
http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=joshnash
The Wasteland of Nations - Josh Nash
America is a land of opportunity. In all my travels I have never seen a place where there is so much cash to be made and the opportunity for practically any individual to make being so high. However, everything else they say about America, like it being a land of equal opportunity, liberty and a haven for the nations of the earth is far from the truth. I guess if you compare it to China, North Korea and some countries of Europe it’d be a little better. I have talked with several individuals of different social status and race to gain a better understanding of life in America and their take on their “great nation.” I have come to realize that everyone has something to say and to complain about.
One of my goals in coming here was to understand Americans and I have certainly almost accomplished this goal. I have begun to have a growing admiration for these people who I did not like for years. Maybe it was just because their nation seemed so big and powerful and being a Canadian I always felt challenged and rivalled by them. But living here you are able to get an insider’s perspective on life here and why Americans are the way are.
My other objective in being here was to see if America was a place where I would like to live one day. It has become clear to me that I would not appreciate the chance to live here like some do and speaking with several individuals on the issue of living here has made my conclusion concrete. I truly believe Europe is the home for me.
It’s incredible that many of the individuals that I have spoken with over the past several months have goals of someday moving to Canada or to Europe. Their major concerns here involve such things as education, health care and safety, things that we Canadians often take very forgranted in Canada. Guns are held by easily over half of the households here. And these families often have over 5 guns in their collection. Why do they have these firearms? They fear others with guns, mainly crazies. It’s only natural to be defensive of your well being right? Being Canadian and having lived in Europe I have learned that people living in these areas clearly take their safety forgranted and so they should. Gun laws render guns virtually nill. But in America, well you better watch out who you piss off because it might just end up biting you in the ass.
Education is major issue here. It’s a growing concern among many parents as their children’s grades plummet and education standards slide and the world’s rises. How can this nation survive in the 21st century without brilliant minds? Well I’d say that the government needs to do something, but people here seem to get pretty riled up if you mention the government doing anything about it. “But look at your bureaucracy?” Is their any other country in the Western World where the government has such a big influence on the lives of the people? The intelligence agencies and the military are all powerful institutions that can greatly affect citizen’s lives to the point that they have no rights or privacy at all.
Another big problem here is the health care. Wow, it’s expensive and the care is usually inadequate in most cases. I talked to a guy the other day who told me he paid $600 for a minor set of stitches on his arm because he didn’t have health insurance. He now pays over $1000 dollars a month for health insurance for his wife and him!!! In Canada ours is nothing to brag about either. Often you have to wait incredibly long periods to get treatment and health care payments are often unaffordable for some. Fortunately once your mild fee for insurance is paid there is little else left to pay for and care is not something you need to worry about. Furthermore, with the implementation of a private/public health care system the long waiting periods should be cut down. Welfare is another problem that seems to cause problems in no matter which country you live in. But here, the way some people live is appalling and they often have no other option than to resort to welfare. Reasons for this include their $5 an hour job, the price of health care and their health.
I truly miss Canada for its wide acceptance of other cultures. I mean over here you are often severely disadvantaged just because you’re black, native, mexican or asian. Racial prejudice is hardly a thing of the past here. Racial slander is used only jokingly in Canada but over here it is used quite seriously. This is truly a troubled land. But don’t get me wrong I’m loving my experience here and the people are truly incredible.
So I finally got a tatoo of the Teutonic Cross. Turned out really well. Got it on my right shoulder. It felt like a bee stinging me every 1/10 of a second for 30 minutes. Good times. Some big black prior Marine cut me. A moment I will not forgot…until I get my next one in Germany next year.
The 4th of July was fun. I didn’t end up going downtown because there was a chance of a thunder storm and a projected 400,000 people were expected to attend which all came into fruition. Ya it was nice though. Just hung out here and shot off some fireworks in our backyard while watching the towns around us shoot off theirs. It was more spectacular than anything I had ever seen in Canada but I guess that’s not too hard to beat.
Now as I watch the world cup final ceremony in Germany and the Italians hold it high I mourn that it was not the English or the Germans. I guess they’re just holding for us until 2010.
Response from Dallas Nash
www.dallasnash.com
Opionated and myopic post dude, with the exception of the tattoo… So, now ALL of you will hear it from someone that has a bit of broader perspective.
Your statements are gross generalizations made out of a strong cultural bias. Stereotypes, the very thing that you criticize, are used prevalently through out your entire rant. Judge not, lest ye be judged yourself.
Canada is equal to the US in regards to racism. You mention that Canadians ONLY use racism while joking. That’s a tad hypocritical don’t you think? Ask the races that are being joked about and see if they find it humorous - Hindu, Pakistanis, Asians etc… I also doubt you surveyed ANY Native Americans, but I can tell you that North Americans have not dealt effectively with the Native Americans challenges either. Take a visit to any of your local reservations; I think there is one in Brentwood. You would not even have to travel “around the world” to see the impact of that. I think it is 15 minutes from your parent’s home in Victoria. These challenges, and your opinions, hardly give credence to US feelings of racism to the local Natives.
I would also add that the Asian population in the USA dominates the majority of post secondary educational institutions. They absolutely dominate every technical industry in Silicon Valley (San Jose CA), I know because I worked for companies in the Valley that are primarily run by SKILLED Asian workers. Asians make up a huge percentage of doctors and dentists, so my question really question is; how exactly are Asians lacking equal opportunity in the USA?
On this same note, I am also wondering exactly why ILLIGAL ALIENS, like the illegal Mexicans, El Salvadorians, Candians and people from Central America all have it so bad here in the USA? They make between $8 and $13/hour TAX FREE, and live off of our school, medical and welfare systems without EVER contributing financially to the tax base. Why is the Government required to “care for them”? Were they not making $3/week in their home country? Moreover, why am I, as a tax payer in the US, required to support ILLEGAL aliens in MY country? Is it our Government’s responsibility to care for the lack of opportunity and poverty in other countries (outside the UN)?
Stereotypes are a really funny thing. The French, Germans, Candadians and any other country can easily criticize a country who is #1 in the world for GDP. The United States has the largest national economy in the world, with a GDP for 2005 of 12.41 trillion dollars. [1] (Wikipedia). Inferiority is also a funny thing. It makes people say stupid things, just ask Joseph Goebbels. He started to actually believe his own propaganda. Just remember, discrimination is a hate of any other race, religion, creed or national origin – ie: Canadians hating Americans (seems like you, and many Canadians hold notions of pre-conceived stereotypical opinions of what Americans are really like), Germans hating Jews, the French hating anything non-French. I won’t even open the door to the easiest example of racism, the Muslim world hating the Jews, Americans, British, Dutch, and let’s just say ANYONE that is an INFIDEL. That about concludes my diatribe on racism and general discrimination. God bless, freedom of speech and the opportunity to disagree.
Let us start the whole discussion on health care, the SICK and ailing (pun intended) Canadian tax system. Agreed, the US medical system is costly. You may also get a two hour wait time. But those are about the only negative things you can say about it. Doctors train world wide to practice here in the USA. Canadians pay 72% to the Government for “FREE” health care. What a LAUGH!!!
Just ask my nephew. 5 hour emergency room wait times, inferior practicing physicians, hospitals closing huge portions of their hospital beds. So tell me how 72% tax burden and a free health system is good for Canada. Why is Alberta, one of the few healthy provinces in Canada, privatizing their health care? That system in Canada is inherently broken.
Canadian tax payers even pay to train Canadian doctors just so they can leave Canada to practice in the USA. This brings up a couple of issues. 1) The reference by Josh to US educational standards sliding and the long term impact to our economy and the over-all quality of life.
I will address this first. Let me reference my earlier point; Canadian doctors, funded and educated by Canadian tax payers, and coming to the US to practice. The question that the USA should be asking is; how can we limit the influx of foreign nationals into the US, performing jobs that Americans should be doing? I would also extend this question to Josh; exactly how does the Canadian government, or maybe adding some accountability to the citizens of Canada (or any other country of the world) look to solve their technical brain drain in losing workers to the USA (again the world’s largest economy)? Also, I would simply cite the ranking of the World’s Top 200 Universities: http://ccer.pku.edu.cn/ss/world-rankingsUnis.pdf
Max score
1 Harvard University US
2 University of California, Berkeley US
3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology US
4 California Institute of Technology US
5 Oxford University UK
6 Cambridge University UK
7 Stanford University US
8 Yale University US
9 Princeton University US
10 ETH Zurich Switzerland
11 London School of Economics
12 Tokyo University Japan 371 3 3 30 60 482.0
13 University of Chicago US 254 31 18 58 71 444.0
14 Imperial College London UK 237 60 51 55 27 443.7
15 University of Texas at Austin US 183 9 8 8 202 421.5
16 Australian National University Australia 212 48 31 9 105 417.7
17 Beijing University China 322 9 11 35 3 391.8
18 National University of Singapore Singapore 266 35 46 10 18 385.9
19 Columbia University US 213 10 18 56 75 384.1
20 University of California, San Francisco US 21 5 0 39 300 376.5
21 McGill University Canada 132 84 42 11 84 364.1
22 Melbourne University Australia 207 49 51 12 23 353.2
23 Cornell University US 202 10 16 19 91 348.8
24 University of California, San Diego US 96 3 6 7 208 331.5
25 Johns Hopkins University US 107 16 13 68 116 330.8
26 University of California, Los Angeles US 180 2 8 12 106 316.4
27 Ecole Polytechnique France 144 25 55 23 59 315.5
28 Pennsylvania University US 142 14 23 31 87 306.9
29 Kyoto University Japan 207 3 3 25 57 303.7
30 Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris France 105 11 22 100 51 298.4
Take a look and see which country has the most TOP rated schools in the world. Obviously the US places 7 out of the top 10, and 43 schools in the top 200. Wow, does the US educational system lack quality. Sorry Josh, your opinion — NOT fact… Not even close. America is a country of opportunity. If you want to work hard, you will succeed. I do not see people moving in droves to Germany or France, but feel free. Europe is certainly a beautiful place. People come to the USA, oh yeah, and use Canada as an initial “jumping off point” to establish themselves so they can eventually move to this country. The US must be a highly repressive country for minorities and immigrants, because my neighbors are: An Iranian dentist, a Korean software mogul, a Korean dentist, a Jewish doctor, and a number of African American business people, and me – a Canadian immigrant.
I could go on and on, but I have to get back to work. Opinions are really like assholes, every ones got one! So as you continue to state opinions, whether on a BLOG or in general conversation, (where they are culturally bias or not) do not forget to keep an open mind. Surely your Liberal professors in the University of Victoria know what that means.
D
) So my wife and I hunkered down under a blanket. What a laugh!!! As you can imagine, it did nothing. We were all soaked. After three hours of torrential down pour, it stopped. And after waiting another hour for the roadies to prep the stage and equipment, we were ready to go… Switchfoot rocked for an hour and a half set that was incredibly dynamic. We all loved it. I love their song – This is Your Life.