Lament for my country
It's a commen trait in humans to remember things as they were rather than what they are. We like to think of ourselves as young and active, rather than older and slower. As time passes, our memory seems to lose the rough edges of the past, and most things become romanticized as we progress through life.
Such as it is with my country, Canada. A country that has, in her short history, served as a beacon and example for the world, but no longer does so. In asking around, I ask Canadians "What do we have to be proud of in 2005 that we couldn't be proud of in 1975?" The short answer, thus far, is "not much".
Any true Canadian would be offended by this statement, especially in light of recent Canada-bashing in the US (which shows that US journalists are, if nothing else, lazy and unwilling to do independent research if Gordon Lightfoot is considered a deadly menace). Yet the fact remains that Canada is adrift and fading into mediocrity. Worse, I fear that we will end up a developing country by the end of the century.
As offensive as this may sound, it's true if you can look objectively at the situation. A source of great Canadian pride is our health care system, so vaunted and revered, especially compared to that horrible American system. While it is true that the American system is expensive and potentially ruinous (no health care system should force its patients to choose between "rich and sick" and "poor and healthy"), the fact is, you can actually see a doctor. In Ontario, good luck trying to find a doctor who accepts new patients. Need knee surgery? How is 2007 in your calendar? Your father is unable to take care of himself but not, technically, sick (despite his loss of bladder control and delirium) so the hospital kicks him out unless you are willing to pay big dollars for a semi-private room.
And despite this, we pay more for less. Ontario has a new health-care premium because the existing taxes do not cover the cost of the health-care system. Services are cut, hospitals are closed, and you pay more for the priviledge. This is a system that works?
Ironically, we have a doctor shortage. Well, a shortage of doctors who are allowed to practice in Canada. The immigration system is another part of Canadiana that looks better in the past than it does today. With over 250,000 new arrivals in Canada each year, our system is barely able to deal with a fraction of that amount.
This is bad for Canada because we have no idea who we are letting into the country. Are they terrorists from Morocco? War criminals from Rwanda? Drug traffickers from Burma? Convicted felons from China? People can lie all they want on their forms, there simply aren't enough resources in the system to check all these people out.
This is also bad for the immigrants because they can't get into the country and start their lives. Refugees end up becoming wards of the state instead of being given their work and residency permits as quickly as possible to start building their new life. Educated and talented immigrants end up frustrated and leaving for other countries that will give them an interview within three years and recognize their experience and credentials in this lifetime, rather than their children's lifetime.
All of this hurts Canada because we need immigrants to build the next century of Canadian history. We compete with other countries for the best and the brightest, yet our system is so completely disfunctional that those with brains end up leaving for somewhere else. New immigrants wonder why they came here in the first place when other countries recognize their value immediately.
Have you seen our roads lately? Crumbling from one end of the country to the other, with promises for highways that never come true. Public transportation that uses equipment from the 1970's or older. Seaports that still rely on chain link fences to keep goods and people safe. An electricity grid that could collapse any day.
Look at the cost of education these days. Today, a student doing a basic undergrad can expect to have a debtload approching a full year's salary. BEFORE TAXES. And an undergraduate just keeps you in the game, as it no longer confers the advantage it once did. Our military is a long-running joke to the point that if the Sudanese want to eliminate every last inhabitant of Darfur, not only will we take three years to accept the refugees, we'll take three years just to get a few jeeps into the region to watch the genocide first-hand.
The simple fact is, Canada and her citizens have become lazy and complacent. Instead of working hard towards building a greater society and leaving our children with a better future, we've become content to take from the system rather than contribute to it. Everyone wants more services from government and less taxes with the end result that we have less services and more taxes. No Canadian belives they should have to make any sacrifices because, dammit, we're a first-world country and we are entitled to all the goodies.
In fact, we haven't been a first-world country for a while. Our opinion matters less and less in international fora, and we have completely and utterly incapable of helping those who are being oppressed or slaughtered around the world. We ask citizens not to get sick as that would overburden a healthcare system that consumes a progressively larger share of our national budgets. We ask immigrants and refugees to patiently wait three or more years before they can start their life while discrediting the very skills we wanted them to bring to Canada. Which doesn't help the fact that our homegrown students can't afford to go to school anyway.
Bit by bit, Canadians are letting their country drift into irrelevance and second-world status. But we're too fat and content to even realize how bleak our future is.
Such as it is with my country, Canada. A country that has, in her short history, served as a beacon and example for the world, but no longer does so. In asking around, I ask Canadians "What do we have to be proud of in 2005 that we couldn't be proud of in 1975?" The short answer, thus far, is "not much".
Any true Canadian would be offended by this statement, especially in light of recent Canada-bashing in the US (which shows that US journalists are, if nothing else, lazy and unwilling to do independent research if Gordon Lightfoot is considered a deadly menace). Yet the fact remains that Canada is adrift and fading into mediocrity. Worse, I fear that we will end up a developing country by the end of the century.
As offensive as this may sound, it's true if you can look objectively at the situation. A source of great Canadian pride is our health care system, so vaunted and revered, especially compared to that horrible American system. While it is true that the American system is expensive and potentially ruinous (no health care system should force its patients to choose between "rich and sick" and "poor and healthy"), the fact is, you can actually see a doctor. In Ontario, good luck trying to find a doctor who accepts new patients. Need knee surgery? How is 2007 in your calendar? Your father is unable to take care of himself but not, technically, sick (despite his loss of bladder control and delirium) so the hospital kicks him out unless you are willing to pay big dollars for a semi-private room.
And despite this, we pay more for less. Ontario has a new health-care premium because the existing taxes do not cover the cost of the health-care system. Services are cut, hospitals are closed, and you pay more for the priviledge. This is a system that works?
Ironically, we have a doctor shortage. Well, a shortage of doctors who are allowed to practice in Canada. The immigration system is another part of Canadiana that looks better in the past than it does today. With over 250,000 new arrivals in Canada each year, our system is barely able to deal with a fraction of that amount.
This is bad for Canada because we have no idea who we are letting into the country. Are they terrorists from Morocco? War criminals from Rwanda? Drug traffickers from Burma? Convicted felons from China? People can lie all they want on their forms, there simply aren't enough resources in the system to check all these people out.
This is also bad for the immigrants because they can't get into the country and start their lives. Refugees end up becoming wards of the state instead of being given their work and residency permits as quickly as possible to start building their new life. Educated and talented immigrants end up frustrated and leaving for other countries that will give them an interview within three years and recognize their experience and credentials in this lifetime, rather than their children's lifetime.
All of this hurts Canada because we need immigrants to build the next century of Canadian history. We compete with other countries for the best and the brightest, yet our system is so completely disfunctional that those with brains end up leaving for somewhere else. New immigrants wonder why they came here in the first place when other countries recognize their value immediately.
Have you seen our roads lately? Crumbling from one end of the country to the other, with promises for highways that never come true. Public transportation that uses equipment from the 1970's or older. Seaports that still rely on chain link fences to keep goods and people safe. An electricity grid that could collapse any day.
Look at the cost of education these days. Today, a student doing a basic undergrad can expect to have a debtload approching a full year's salary. BEFORE TAXES. And an undergraduate just keeps you in the game, as it no longer confers the advantage it once did. Our military is a long-running joke to the point that if the Sudanese want to eliminate every last inhabitant of Darfur, not only will we take three years to accept the refugees, we'll take three years just to get a few jeeps into the region to watch the genocide first-hand.
The simple fact is, Canada and her citizens have become lazy and complacent. Instead of working hard towards building a greater society and leaving our children with a better future, we've become content to take from the system rather than contribute to it. Everyone wants more services from government and less taxes with the end result that we have less services and more taxes. No Canadian belives they should have to make any sacrifices because, dammit, we're a first-world country and we are entitled to all the goodies.
In fact, we haven't been a first-world country for a while. Our opinion matters less and less in international fora, and we have completely and utterly incapable of helping those who are being oppressed or slaughtered around the world. We ask citizens not to get sick as that would overburden a healthcare system that consumes a progressively larger share of our national budgets. We ask immigrants and refugees to patiently wait three or more years before they can start their life while discrediting the very skills we wanted them to bring to Canada. Which doesn't help the fact that our homegrown students can't afford to go to school anyway.
Bit by bit, Canadians are letting their country drift into irrelevance and second-world status. But we're too fat and content to even realize how bleak our future is.
