blogONEAnd now begins an entirely new series of posts…mainly because every time I have a large list of items I wish to discuss, I either forget about it, or lose all the will to write about it when I have time in my hectic schedule.
I think one of the first things I will start with the Ontario minimum wage increase, since every here loves money. I will somehow tie that in with materialism, capitalism and a personal reflection of how it fights Christian beliefs…as well as my hypocritical comments.
After that, I will probably start gibing my own little blurb on the electric car/alternative fuel industry…and more specifically, North American car manufacturers and Canada’s incentives.
Music reviews will be in late April…probably.
As we all know, we will be seeing minimum wage increases! Everyone who is no making enough to get by is definitely rejoicing…and especially the new kids entering the Golden Timmy Arches environment. OK…so this is a step towards fighting poverty in Ontario. Hey, that is cool. What isn’t cool is how a lot of people are complaining about their jobs and wages. WAKE UP CALL, FOLKS – there are kids in China making Wal Mart’s Kathie Lee clothes line for only 3 cents an hour. There is increasing global poverty and decreasing living standards. And here we are…complaining about how $7.50 isn’t enough. Even those who panhandle…despite how awful and heartbreaking it is, make more than those in “slave labor”; one Canadian quarter is worth HOW MUCH compared with 3 cents??? But hey, I guess you need to take care of your own country (let alone, PROVINCE) before you can take care of the world, right?
This brings me to one of my recurring discussions: slavery and poverty. We abolished slavery. Why? Maybe it was because we started to actually think of equality…or maybe because it was actually cheaper for the slave owners to set the slaves free. Let’s see here…if the slaves were no longer owned by the slave-masters, the ‘masters’ no longer have to pay ‘maintenance fees’ on the slaves! So what happened? those were were once slaves to another person…became slaves to poverty. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: poverty is the new slavery. Why do children have to work in sweatshops? Why do children even have to be SOLD to work at the sweatshops? Let’s not just focus on children then…how about entire villages? Slaves to poverty…and the government isn’t capable of doing anything…
This brings another topic into focus: the materialistic and capitalist cultures/lifestyles of developed countries. In our societies we are constantly bombarded with advertisements to buy this or buy that. We go crazy over the newest iVeiling. We spend thousands of dollars on plastic, silicon, transistors and things that don’t last. Me? I constantly ponder over what things I could purchase in a few months…another bike, a higher-end sound card, another musical instrument or a laptop. And yet, what are we told by the scriptures? We are told that all of these things WILL NOT LAST. These things have no souls, no human attributes, no redeeming features and nothing worthy to be redeemed. Yet, we devote our lives, salaries, dreams, thoughts and time to attaining these things. We have Christians constantly going abuzz over spending over $3000 for another product which has a bite taken out of it. We have Christians going i! i! i! We have Christians saying “OMG, that Beamer is soooooo nice, but my friend has her own Lexus! I wish I did too!” Is this just human nature, to always have a sense of wanting more and more material things to just comfort us? Are any of us immune to this feeling? I wouldn’t bet on it…or rather, I wouldn’t preach on it on Sunday, and then continue to obsess over my car.
And now, on a slightly deviated topic: the green revolution, Canada and North American auto-makers. So…we’re going to get a tax discount by buying an alternative fuel car eh? That’s great! But why do the car manufacturers of North America cry ever so hard! Why must they complain that the market is being closed on them! For Pete’s sake, you guys were amongst the first to build cars, and you were not able to spur up the ingenuity and innovation to research electric cars or alternative fuel? You CANNOT blame the government for the Japanese car industry’s strives for innovation in alternative fuels when you are primarily focusing on building cars that burn and emit more. While Honda’s Insight and Toyota’s Prius were still in their infant ages, where were the North American hybrids? Oh, that’s right…you were busy making heavier-duty pick-ups, 4x4s and SUVs. What am I looking forward to from the North American industry? The Chevy Volt. To add to the list, the roadsters offered by Tesla. That’s right…you read RIGHT…ROADSTERS. These are ELECTRIC VEHICLES CAPABLE OF SMOKING A SOUPED UP CIVIC. So, Ford…Chevy…GM…man up. Stop crying, and get moving.
Since we’ve been reading a book by Pool in Impact…I think its appropriate to touch on it: I think its time for the industries to jump onto the “bandwagon” for the green revolution. The world has [belatedly] confirmed global warming…so what are you going to do? Will we really just keep on dumping a giant ice-cube into the oceans, as pictured in Futurama?
