Beautiful but tragic. There is no other contrast to explain it. The people are unfathomably friendly but they are also unfathomably poor. The beaches are beautiful beyond belief but the political and economic situation is horrid. I really don’t know where to start.

Cuba the Beautiful

Perhaps, I should begin with the beauty. We stayed in Playa del Este, “The East Beach”. It was magnificent, my first time in the ocean brought with it burning eyes and that peculiar but also entirely unexpected sensation of salt water in one’s mouth; and I loved every second of it. I felt almost childlike in my desire to be in the ocean. Even the consistency of the sand is different. In Canada, the sand surrounding our fresh water lakes has the consistency of muck. When, rather if, a wave hits it barely moves. In Cuba, when a wave hits and you are standing on the sand, as the water begins to fall back into the ocean, it takes the sand and your foothold with it. The waves alone left me awestruck. I lost my bathing suit at least twice to a combination of strong current and strong waves.

The resort that we stayed at, Villa Los Pinos, is approximately twenty minutes from Havana, the capitol of Cuba. Driving from the resort to the capitol, you see water towers, numerous hawks, hitchhikers making hand gestures to describe where they are going to oncoming motorists, security checkpoints, and 20-60 year old vehicles. The only advertising I saw in my travels through the city and the countryside were for the socialist (read, communist) movement in the country, which is the equivalent of propaganda.

Havana is a city built around tourism and this is apparent through a few examples. The only houses that are in good condition are the ones that are up kept for tourists such as: cultural centers, churches, villas belonging to important historical figures, hotels, and some restaurants. Imagine an agelessly beautiful exterior, but when you enter, it is black from dirt, suit, or perhaps just pollution. From the outside the houses display amazing architecture, yet, almost all of the houses in the city are decrepit. The houses in Havana in general can date back as far as the 16th century. The city itself was founded in 1515 and from the looks of it, things have not changed that much. Apparently, people leave a house when things inside start to break and move to a new one.

The moment your feet hit the ground out of the taxi a Cuban will try to sell you something. However, I did not meet a Cuban person that was not favorably aligned to our being there. For lack of a better word I would refer to their general demeanor as appreciative. Almost all of the Cubans that we interacted with asked where we are from with sincere interest, and when we told them Canada, they immediately requested to know which city, proclaiming “Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver?” their eyes lighting up with something I would almost label as wonderment. From a safety perspective, I always felt comfortable. There was only one moment in which I felt unsafe and that was an entirely situational and protective overreaction on my part.

The purpose of our trip to Cuba was to attend the wedding of a Serbian man and a Croatian woman, star-crossed lovers for certain¹. During the time between the wedding ceremony and the reception I was having a comparative conversation about democracy and communism with one of the 1st generation Yugoslavian parents. She told me something that really made a lasting impression in my mind.

Under communism, the people around you are your best friends but the state is your enemy. Under democracy, the state is your best friend and everyone else is your enemy.

In Cuba, you couldn’t walk down the street without seeing two or more people congregate and greet each other whole-heartedly. In Canada, the countenance of those who are closest to me in greetings barely compares.

I would like to proclaim, with absolution, how beautiful Cuba and its people are. I would also like to recommend Cuba as a vacation spot. From an economic perspective, these people need you to visit and spend your money in Cuba. If you do plan on visiting Cuba, here are a couple of suggestions on what you should bring with you to give to the people while you’re there. Remember it is a communism; most of the things that are listed below are available to the people, but only at rationed intervals that far surpass their actual needs or wants.

• Clothing: shoes (even used shoes), shirts, pants, shorts, clean socks, clean underwear.
• Toiletries: shampoo, conditioner, soap, grooming tools, anything that you would think so marginally of in your bathroom, you must remember that it is not available to them in the same way that it is to you.
• Leisure items: chocolate, cigarettes, alcohol, non-perishable treats, electronics, and batteries.

In Cuba, black market trade is very popular. If people can not use your goods they will distribute them. Do not feel uncomfortable giving women’s clothes to a man or children’s clothes to an adult or vice versa. It will be used through their family and friends or sold on the black market and converted into other goods. The black markets in Cuba provide at least some form of economic freedom to the people.

Cuba the Tragic

Under communism, everything that you need is supplied to you. Healthcare, education, food, clothes, the list goes on. The problem lies in; when and what is supplied to you. There truly is little economic freedom under communism. One cannot change what they receive at the end of every month or week; one cannot start their own business (except in very particular cases). In fact, there is really little reason to work hard at all, considering that you are not really working for your own self-interest. Communism goes against the foundation of many economic theories that I have come to understand.

To give you an understanding of the situation in Cuba, allow me to extrapolate on the personalities of the people living there. On the second night of our stay at the resort we had a rather large party at our house. Many people gathered and drank heavily, leaving behind a large quantity of unfinished drinks in the outside common area of our lodging. In Canada, you would throw out half finished or even just open drinks from the previous night. In Cuba, the cleaning staff brought it in as though it still had intrinsic value. Another similar example would be from our own room. We had a small canister of replica Pringles that had spilled on the table. The remnants of one potato chip lay on the table but the cleaning staff left it. They mopped the floors, made the bed, and changed the sheets, but they didn’t throw out the food – one measly potato chip.

To further the situation you have rampant prostitution. When the plane first landed, I was walking through the airport, alone, looking for a money exchange. Two different women approached me and attempted to converse. It was like the moment they caught my eye, they began to speak. Never mind in the airport, try walking alone in the streets of Havana. I walked outside of a restaurant to smoke – before I had made 5 single steps a man came up to me and told me, “I have a pretty lady for you man”.

The people do not seem to have much, yet, they seem to have each other. I’m not sure what is better or worse but it affected me. If this is communism, where people are purported to get everything they need from the government how bad is it in impoverished democratic countries that do not provide education or health care to their people.

About a month ago, someone emailed me regarding a problem in my writing that I appreciated at the time but now have a completely different feeling about. It was regarding the use of “extreme poverty” and “extreme starvation” and how it is useless to add that adjective because poverty and starvation are extreme. However, in witnessing poverty, I now understand that the use of an adjective to describe any extreme in society is a function of one’s personal reaction to it.

¹ This article is dedicated to my experience in Cuba. For a more detailed and personal description of the joyous occasion that is the commencement of Marijana and Branko’s marriage please visit the Diana & I page.

“That track could only be from the abominable snowman”

Says that three times fast, in the middle of an equatorial jungle. Yet another, big budget film with gigantic plot holes. The major movie producers must think the general population has about the same I.Q. as King Kong, they just keep pumping out the crap; and we keep eating it up.

I’m going to save the synopsis of the movie and just go into what bothered me about it. So here we go.

Why have so much background on the woman and the producer if they barely have any dialogue in the movie? Certainly, if they would have tried to explain where the producer got the idea to film on some secluded island (aptly named “Skull Island”, oh the irony) there might have been a purpose for the first hour of the movie.

This film displayed something to me about violence in movies that truly irks me. In a movie, someone is shot twice and they still somehow manage to be the hero. In real life, if you get shot, you will most likely die, if not immediately, then at least shortly thereafter. In a movie, you can be punched, kicked, beaten, and spit on and you still get up and kick the other guy or girl’s ass. In real life, if you get punched in the face, once, you will most likely be on the floor trying to hold your face intact if you’re still conscious.

In this movie, King Kong, is shot at least one-thousand times before the second hour is complete. Let’s talk realism here. A bullet can go through someone. In one side, out the other and still leave a nasty mark or hole in the wall. I’m 6’ tall; my skin is maximum 1/4” thick. Let’s use that as a ratio. 72” high: 0.25” thick. From the movie’s claims, King Kong is about 25ft tall. After some basic math we come up with 300” high: 1” thick. So, a bullet has to go through 1” of skin to harm our big buddy. Not exactly a feat if you consider the power in a gun. Which, if your only experience was the movies, you’d never know. After 1k, direct hits before the 2.5 hour marker, it’s a wonder he didn’t die from loss of blood.

Let’s add in some of the island realism. Mr. Kong doesn’t fight off one Tyrannosaurus Rex, but three! Wow, three gigantic meat eating predators all in a matter of yards from each other they must get hungry from eating each other’s food supply all the time. You know, an island that size can really support all that. Get this; they would rather eat the girl than chomp on yummy and potentially much more nourishing Mr. Kong.

I’m not going to talk about what some might call a dialogue between the girl and Mr. Kong or how many times the planes circled before his hairy ass fell off the building. I liked the movie for the special effects, but I was disappointed by the realism in the storyline.

I’ve always liked this sculpture but I never really appreciated the meaning and thought behind it. Fugit Amor, or Fugitive Love, is a part of August Rodin’s La Porte de l’Enfer or The Gates of Hell. Fugit Amor represents the battle of love being lost. It depicts a fleeting love that slips through the fingers as if it was nothing but air, a tormenting lack of fulfillment as this website put it so eloquently.

At present, it’s representative of how I’m feeling right now. But I have to tell myself that there’s no point in wanting to be with someone that doesn’t want to be with me. I have to let her go and that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do.

Thankfully, all of my friends have come to help me and guide me through my troubled times and I’m learning that while I was with her there were a lot of other things that I couldn’t cultivate in myself, and in my network of friends.

It becomes easier as time passes, but it will never be easy.

The Conservative candidate didn’t show up, the Liberal candidate would have been better off not showing up, the NDP candidate was on the ball but the Green Party candidate was best of show. What is Canadian politics coming to?

“Never wait for Tories” Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for AIDS/HIV

Last night’s debate at the Royal Ontario Museum, scheduled to be broadcast today on CPAC was well organized. Political opportunism was at a minimum and the candidates, save those who didn’t show(CPC) and those who were unprepared for the hot seat(LPC), answered the questions that they were asked.

The first question was poignant. Stephen Lewis was blunt in asking the Liberal incumbent for the Scarborough riding “How do you justify not reaching 0.7% of GDP?” to which the liberal candidate stumbled blankly around the need for fiscal balance, and horrifyingly told the crowd “It’s not our job. That’s your job”. His face flushed red as he realized his error and Paul Summerville, the NDP candidate for St.Paul’s, could be seen taken aback in disgust.

The best response to the first question came from the Green Party representative for Ottawa Center. He suggested removing subsidies that are in place for the oil & gas and nuclear power industries and using that money towards foreign aid. The validity of his answer is at question, but it still received a great response from the crowd.

Personally, I don’t agree with the entire platform put forward by Make Poverty History. They have a tendency to over-simplify what is needed from Canada. 0.7% of GDP or $40 billion would be almost 12% of federal budget revenues. That’s a big chunk of a federal tax dollar that’s leaving the country. Also, removing multi-lateral debt is considerably more complicated as the money was loaned to third parties and then redistributed to the nations that received it.

The panelists used Scandinavian countries as models for their questions. Of the 4 Scandinavian countries mentioned; Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden – each one is considered to be a rich nation with incredibly minimal debt and a large percentage of GDP coming from export. Unlike these countries, Canada spends nearly 17.3% of all tax revenue on interest payments alone. Not exactly a fair comparison.

“Fair trade trumps free trade” – David Chernushenko

The question period, brought with it some political opportunism, which was disturbing, considering the nature of the event. The second question was a would be intelligent question. A young woman got up, and asked what each of the political parties was doing to engage women in politics, what their plans are and how they are going to get more women in politics. The young women posed the question in a rather rude and pointed manner. The crowd, majority female, cheered. But did they really understand what the question implied? A woman that I was with pointed out the implication by countering with a question: “Why is it the responsibility of political parties to engage women in politics?”. In Canada, where any citizen, regardless of creed, color, or gender can make their own opportunities in the political spectrum.

“It’s over” – Paul Summerville

Although, looking back on the question mentioned above, it could have been relevant had it been changed slightly. “What can Canadian politicians due to reduce or negate the plight of women who suffer disproportionately from poverty in comparison to their male counterparts on an international level?”

Now that would have been an excellent question. In any case, hopefully, Canada will continue to have budget surpluses and we will, in 2015, be able to help make poverty history and meet our agreement of 0.7% of GDP. Fair trade really does trump free trade. Let’s make it happen.

1. Green Party candidate for Ottawa Centre, in response to a question about how to meet the demand for making fair trade a reality.
2. NDP candidate for St.Paul’s, in reference to the Liberal MP, John McKay, being put on the hot seat. The crowd jeered, taking it as a reference to Liberal governments chances in the upcoming election.

The Conservatives have offered to reduce GST by 2% from 7%. Many believe that this will create a benefit for low income families – I disagree, continue reading for why.

“Jack Layton has derided the Conservatives promise to cut the GST by a single percentage, but the fact remains that this tax cut benefits the working poor more than it benefits the rich., and you may have noticed that Jack hasn’t been deriding the Conservatives GST cut promise all that loudly.” From – James Bow

First, GST is a regressive tax¹. Meaning, it does not increase or decrease with the amount of income that one earns. You pay more GST as you purchase or procure more goods and services that have GST applied to them. However, one must realize that it is not applied to items or services that are considered to be a necessity. Realistically, the bulk of low-income families purchases are GST free items like mortgage payments, rent, and groceries.

Second, GST makes up approximately 15% of budgetary revenues. Last year, the government raked in $29.7 Billion in GST. cutting GST by 2% seems like nothing to a specific individual but 2% is 30% of total GST tax revenue. The reality of that $100-$400 of savings to low income families will be meaningless when government expenditures are cut and services are reduced. Reduce the $29.7 by 30% and compare with our current budget surplus and tell me again if you think it’s a great idea.

Third, there are two groups that stand to receive a substantial benefit from GST. Business, and rich individuals that purchase the bulk of items that are taxed with GST.

Fourth, reducing taxes when we are in a growth stage is generally a bad idea. Expect some negative feedback from the Bank of Canada as they attempt to control inflation, they raised the interest rate by 25 basis points already. Do you think that increasing inflation (due to lower taxes), increased interest(due to rising inflation) rates will help low income families get loans or prosper. I don’t.

So please, think deeper before you proliferate the thought “the fact remains that this tax cut benefits the working poor more than it benefits the rich.”

In recent events Tookie Williams had his sentence carried out. It caused me to reflect on why society and individuals feel they have the right or the authority to sentence a man or woman to death. Upon deeper thought, I began to compare capital punishment with abortion.

What is the difference, I ask myself? Between: judges sentencing someone to death or a woman deciding to have an abortion. Both the criminal and the child are obviously being punished by negative circumstances. The criminal sentenced for committing a crime, a definitively negative circumstance. The unborn child is sentenced for the negative circumstance itself, be it: a child conceived of violence, a child conceived accidentally, or a child conceived into a situation of despair.

Does the question of sentience make it easier for me to accept taking a life? A criminal sentenced to death more than likely is being punished for an act that they committed consciously. Whereas, an unborn child can’t possibly understand the complexity of the situation in which it was condemned. In fact, every effort is made to ensure that the life of the child is taken before the point of sentience, how are we to define, for certain, at what point and at what level of sentience a being can experience before it is no longer ethical to destroy it? In the case of a criminal it seems to be easier. They do something horrible; hence, we reciprocate by doing something horrible to them. This sounds more like vigilante or vengeful action than social justice. Although, I would interject with the strong belief that no person should be allowed to decide if another must die. Therein lies the calamity of my contradiction.

I believe that a woman should have the choice because I somehow ignore the idea that what’s inside her should / would / will become a person. In thinking that a woman should have a choice I don’t separate her from the thought of the child, which, somehow implies ownership. It almost makes it easier to dismiss the rights of something that is human but not yet in its full form. Perhaps, it is a racist thought pattern – to believe that a human that does not match your shape or form has less of an entitlement to life than you do. But then I think of the woman who has to carry a child conceived of violence. How could I expect that woman to carry such a conception to term? Would you be able to tell your daughter to suck it up and carry the child of her predator because you don’t believe in abortion? Even better would you be able to accept the continued existence of the person who caused such hardship on your daughter?

I don’t claim to know the correct answers, but these are the questions and situations that come into my mind when I compare the two ideas. Am I contradicting myself? Yes, I am. No one should have the right to decide if someone else should die. Yet, I still believe a woman should have the choice, even in the realization of this contradiction.

The Polls

The various polls are showing the Liberals with a 1% – 15% lead over the Conservatives with the NDP sitting around 17% of the popular vote and the Bloc hovering 12%. What do all the polls tell you? Nothing.

Here’s Why

The real campaigning hasn’t even begun. Why waste media dollars now, during the most expensive time of the year, when you can get cheaper rates in the time just before the election. Obviously, all of the parties will still be keeping themselves in the public eye, but as we get closer to the holidays it is my belief that the political advertising and headlines will diminish considerably until after Christmas and Boxing “Week”. After that, it’s going to be “on like Donkey Kong” in terms of wasting advertising budgets on political cock-fighting.

Thoughts on the Polls

• Half of the polls use undecided voters. In other words, they are counting votes in terms of most likely, but not neccessarily certain votes. Some polls also redistribute the undecided votes on a weighted scale.
• There is a large variance in most of the recent polls, showing anywhere from a 1% to a 15% difference between the Liberals and the Conservatives after distribution. Which leads me to beleive that they are a) entirely inaccurate or b) the population is changing their vote on a daily basis.
• The methods used for stratification of the sample taken is not always representative of the situation in that geographical location. For example, 30% of the nation votes for one Political Party but that 30% could only represent “one side of the street” in that neighbourhood. It’s a random sample, remember?

Why it’s Going to Be a Conservative Minority:

Let’s be realistic about advertising in general. If it didn’t work, businesses wouldn’t spend millions of their profits to continue advertising. It works, face it.

Who Has the Biggest Ad-Budget?

To answer this question, we can look to the contributions made to the party. This information is available from the Elections Canada Website

Are you noticing a slight difference there? Liberals $1.2 Million, Conservatives $3.2 Million. That’s a lot of money to be able to be spending on ads. The conservatives can create an onslaught of advertising that the Liberals will not be able to compete with.

When your competitor comes out with an advertisement, you had better come out with one too. Otherwise, you’ll be left in the dust. The Liberals will be forced to rely on free types of media to deliver their message whereas the Conservatives will be spoon-feeding their message to the public as they flick channels.

From a strategic perspective, the Liberals should hold on to what little money they have. It makes more sense for them to concentrate on getting the media spotlight right now, so they can fight back with advertising in the new year. The liberals have a history of making last minute comebacks with clever advertising. If they want to survive they’ll have to do it again.

Voter Sentiment

No Vote

The more people I speak with the more people I realize are not going to vote. Simply because they don’t like or understand the options in front of them.

• Stephen Harper creeps them out
• The Liberal Adscam fiasco has pushed them away
• They don’t understand the NDP
• A winter election means people are going to be trying to stay nice and warm in their houses watching election results when they should be voting themselves

To Vote

From a personality perspective, conservative constituents are more likely to vote:

• They are angry with the liberals and want change
• They are big business
• They are staunch conservatives

A good way to put this in perspective is to compare the number of contributors.

The directions below apply only for Textpattern 4.01/4.02 However, it wouldn’t be difficult to apply the changes to previous versions and hopefully newer ones */me prays*

• After global $txpcfg,$extensions,$img_dir; around line 33 add the following:


// From Manfre's Mod File
$sort = gps('sort');
$dir = gps('dir');
$sort = ($sort) ? $sort : 'id';
$dir = ($dir) ? $dir : 'asc';

if ($dir == "asc") { $dir = "desc"; } else { $dir = "asc"; }
// End


• Find, around line 58, the following code, and either delete it or comment it out:


hCell(ucfirst(gTxt('name'))) .
hCell(gTxt('image_category')) .
hCell(gTxt('tags')) .
hCell(gTxt('author')) .
hCell(gTxt('thumbnail')) .
hCell()


• In the place of the aforementioned code, place the following:


column_head('Id','id','image',1,$dir).
column_head('Name','name','image',1,$dir).

column_head('image_category','category','image',1,$dir).
td(gTxt('tags')).
column_head('Author','author','image',1,$dir).
hCell(gTxt('thumbnail')).
hCell()


• Find, around line 83

$rs = safe_rows_start("*", "txp_image", "1 order by category,name limit $offset,$limit");

• Replace the aforementioned code with:

$rs = safe_rows_start("*", "txp_image", "1 order by $sort $dir limit $offset,$limit");

• Find, around line 105, the following code:

td($elink).td($category).td($txtilelink.' / '.$txplink.' / '.$xhtmlink).

• In front of td($elink) add the following:

td($id). Please notice the ’.’

Alternatively, depending on your textpattern installation you could download the following files, renaming the one that corresponds to your install as txp_image.php and uploading to yourtxpinstall/include/

• Textpattern 4.0 : txp_image-4.0

• Textpattern 4.1 : txp_image-4.1

• Textpattern 4.02 : txp_image-4.0.2

• Textpattern 4.03 : txp_image-4.0.3
  Thanks for this patch goes to Matthias

Introduction: The Stuff You Probably Already Know

OSAP is a wonderful idea that hopes to allow everyone in Ontario to attend higher education. It’s an amazing system in that it allows for those less fortunate, including myself, to reach their academic goals and “pay later”.

With OSAP, you get 60% of the total allotment at the beginning of the academic session and another 40% in the middle. It doesn’t give you the option of receiving a lump sum of money to waste which is a solid idea. This is described in more detail on OSAP’s official website:

Generally you will receive a portion of your current entitlement at the beginning of your study period and the remainder halfway through your study period – link

The Problem

OSAP is great, but how it’s been streamlined to work with Colleges and Universities is not. Let’s say that the initial 60% of your “current entitlement” is not enough to cover the entire cost of your tuition for the academic year. What happens with the outstanding balance, you ask? In the case of Ryerson University, they charge you interest on it. It’s plain, simple, price gouging. As a recipient of OSAP there’s nothing that you can do to stop the charges from accumulating, other than to pay them, which means there’s nothing you can do.

A person on OSAP is a person that is in need of financial support. How can any institution, in good conscience, charge interest to a student that is already struggling just to go to school.

Every educational institution that offers a program whose students are considered eligible for OSAP funding, has it’s own personnel on premises to deal with the administration of OSAP and related questions. So I absolutely do believe that the educational institutions are aware that you are on OSAP.

I would really love to hear a good argument for why students receiving OSAP should be charged interest on money that the educational institution is going to be paid in due process. Even if your OSAP entitlement is not enough to cover the entire balance of your tuition is it right for you to be charged interest on the balance, right away? I don’t think it is.

Solution:

• In the case that the first installment of their OSAP entitlement is not enough to cover the cost of tuition. Mark those students who are on OSAP as interest free until the end of the current academic year. OR;

• In the case that their entire OSAP entitlement is not enough to cover the balance in total. Mark students who are on OSAP as interest free until the beginning of the next academic school year. At least they have the summer to pay the balance.

How difficult could this be?

I just recently got off the bus and watched as people placed their heads in a downwards direction as the rain fell. Instead of mimicking this almost instinctual action. I held my head up high. Looked into the rain and enjoyed it.

While I don’t think I’m the first person to coin this phrase it was a natural thought to me and I think it has greater implications when you think about other possible meanings.

Keep your head up in the rain.