PEA SOUP PLEASE

I figure while everyone is bringing their pots and pans out into the streets I should atleast try and get a free meal. I am pretty sure if they started posting a menu each evening more people would show up. I am convinced they have the ability to cook anything you want as i saw three guys dragging a propane BBQ along the street banging happily away. Hell they could even set up a drive through. Imagine that, a mobile drive through.May i take your order? ''Oui, I would like a double-double, a ham and swiss on regular white and a chocolate doughnut'. We don't serve that here that's food for Capitalists! What do you mean that’s capitalistic food? ''How about a Big mac, fries and a diet coke?'' That’s Capitalistic also? CRAP! Ok then how about you cook me up a bowl of Pea soup? That doesn't seem Capitalistic and even kind of Quebecois. Oh could it have some chunks of ham and bacon in it? Some things never cease to fascinate me. In this whole debacle there are three (3) things in particular. 1. How outlandish people can be. 2. How a minority can seem to speak for the majority. 3. How hypocritical these kids are.

Lets start by number 1. The outlandish part. When you take the expression everything but the Kitchen sink ( I think i might even have seen one of those) into the streets to ''make a point'' you might want to look up ''outlandish'' in the dictionary. When you bring your 5 and 7 year olds to roam the streets at night to clang on metal pots and pans you might want to look up ''good parenting'' in the dictionary. When you start believing that you are actually out in the street making a point about repression and you live in one of the freest Countries in the world you might want to look up ''delusional'' in the dictionary. Quebec is NOT a police State, it is not governed by a repressive dictatorship bent on Right wing policies. It is a government elected by the people for the people. Besides that, you couldn't get much more to the left in this Province if you attended a NASCAR race (you know, driving on an oval making left turns only). While the aspiring street cooks were parading in the street 92 people were massacred in Syria by the Government in power. Hey chef Ramsey wanna-be's. You want to see what repression, dictatorships and lack of freedoms look like? Get on a plane to the one of the 30 plus places on earth where you can disappear simply for saying what's on your mind. In those Countries they don't hit you with pepper spray, tear gas and plastic bullets. They don't warn you 10 or 15 times in an evening NOT to do something. NO SIR! In those Countries they come get you in the middle of the night, day, morning, it doesn't matter. Then they lock you in a room (after they torture, rape and mutilate you) and they don't just throw away the key, they throw away the room. So when you claim you and your children are out in the street protecting your fundamental rights take a look at what incredible rights you benefit from before crapping on the ones you enjoy.

Number 2. The minority speaking for the majority. There are approximately 8 million people in the Province of Quebec. So here is a message that the main stream press seems to have lost in translation. When two Thousand, or five thousand or twenty thousand or one hundred Thousand people or even Two Hundred and fifty thousand people show up to ‘Protest’’ those people account for the smallest portion of the population. They are not the majority, they are not ‘’incredible’’ numbers which demonstrate a massive dissatisfaction with the Government or its bill C78 (although i can understand peoples frustration with this government). Those numbers represent less then 1% of the population on an ongoing basis and not even 4 % of the population in the biggest demonstrations (250,000). We know what sells news papers. We know what sells advertising time on the local and 24 hrs news networks. We know what sells hit advertising on the internet. We know sensationalism goes a long and in many cases, the only way, to SELL! So while a large number of your journalists actively work to mold the future of this story; the majority understands that your simply like pimps trying to push your product and make it as attractive as possible to lure the most clients you can. Now it would be wrong for me to paint all journalists with the same brush. There are those who have not forgotten what it is to report, ‘’THE FACTS’’. Unfortunately they seem to be in the minority also. In this particular situation the silent majority is just as responsible for the current situation because sometimes your unwillingness to participate in the dialog will end up making you unwilling accomplices to the end result.

3. The hypocrite kids. Over 1000 injunctions against them in the courts. NOT ONE of those injunctions respected by them. Bill 78 comes into law and what do those same kids do? They go to court to get an injunction. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? There is this immature part of me that hopes that if for some ridiculous reason the courts were to side with the kids on C78 that the Government would just ignore whatever the court ruled just like the kids have done since day one of their ‘’Boycott’’. What the kids action has shown everyone in this province including the night parading kitchen brigade is that democracy in this province is a pick and chose menu. You do not like something, you don’t respect it. It does not matter if its the law. If it works against you, you fight it with the same tools used against you and then you can bet they will demand that their legal rights be respected.. So in essence every time you take to the streets your saying that democracy and the law only matters to you if its on your side. You are in essence as much a hypocrite as those kids. Democracy and the law are not easy. They can be ugly and can often leave a bad taste in your mouth. In this Country and in this Province the only thing that seperates us from Syria and those 30 other places; is that no matter how much we might not like something we respect it and obide by it. We don't flaunt the law, we don't spit on it. We don't vandalise and demonstrate or intimidate. Why don't we? Because WE have the knowledge that WE have the strongest tool of all to change what WE don't like. ITS CALLED A VOTE!

Summer is on our doorstep. It hasn’t even really started to get hot and everyone is already burnt out. The merchants losing tens of thousands of dollars are tired. The police doing the best they can in nearly impossible conditions are burnt out, the Politicians (the ones with an ounce of logic) are burnt out. A lot of smart young adults (not boycotting) who want just to get their education are burnt out. I bet even some of those yahoo protestors are tired to. The silent majority are tired to (although I don’t know why. They haven’t done anything). Yes friends everyone is burnt out and summer hasn’t even started. Maybe its time to change the menu. ‘’Could I have a Pina Colada and cancel my order for the pea soup….it kind of makes you bloated this time of the year.

THE END OF LOGIC

You don't have to like the Government in power. You don't have to like its policies. You don't even have to really care for politics in general. But there is something you have to care about and that is the existence of some form of logic Today marked the day that logic ended in the Province of Quebec. This afternoon the Minister responsible for Education Line Beauchamp, resigned not only from her position but from politics all together. She was quoted as saying, '' I am no longer part of the solution,'' end quote, to the ongoing student dispute, boycott, strike or whatever you wish to call it. Line Beauchamp was not only the Minister of Education but was also the Deputy-Premier, which simply meant that should the Premier himself become unable to fill his duties Madame Beauchamp would take over running the Province. This Minister was not some fly by night politician. She was an example of what politicians should aspire to. She entered politics in 1998, in 2003 she was named Minister of Culture and Communications. During this time she sat on a variety of Parliamentary Committees working to make the Province a better place. In 2007 she became the Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks. In 2010 she became the Minister of Education. During all of this time she served the members of the Quebec community without controversy. She did her job and contributed to the improvement of the Province with a dedication to its people and their quality of life and now she has resigned.

For what? For a dollar a day increase in tuition fee increases proposed by the Government? Because she agree to negotiate with student association representatives who could not even back their own signatures on paper? Because she gave into numerous demands which were not even part of the original boycott (strike). Because she sat across the table from naive, individualistic, self centred kids (yes I said kids) who had only the capacity to negotiate a, ''principal of agreement'' and then not even back it? Because she worked with the attitude that she could offer the base line to a better future in the education system only to see an agreement voted down by associations who in many cases were made up of 15 and 30 who represent 30,000 but never took the offer to those 30,000 and allowed them to vote on it? Because she sat across the table from individuals who have allowed violence to fester and manifest itself in a variety of destructive demonstrations? Because she sat across from kids who claimed to everyone that would listen that they had, ''given enough concessions to the Government''? When in fact they had given NONE! Well yes, for all of these reasons she resigned but I think for one more important one. She recognized that logic had seen its day in this Province!

Today all logic ended in this Province and we should all be ashamed of ourselves. All of us for allowing what has become a mockery of democracy to go on this long. The silent majority who are in fact silent (shamefully so). The leaders of the opposition parties who posture and position with little interest in what is good for the people of this Province but what is good for their prospective in getting elected. The grey haired, still smoking weed journalists, dreaming of the 1960 and 70's revolutions pumping out the same old crap they were back in the day. Crack pots like Amir Khadir who create a septic environment by trying to increase the volatility by making innuendos that the police are infiltrating the violent protesters and actually causing the violence. The Union leaders who insert themselves into the fray like termites into wood and chew away at the fabric of democracy hidden from detection, weaving a path of destruction with only self serving objectives. The professors who claim to be on the side of the students but only of course those boycotting, not the ones with court injunctions in hand allowing them the education they pay for; to be taught by those professors who from day one of the conflict have continued to draw their full salary while doing nothing but adding fuel to the fire. The students who rallied at the court house on Monday to support the 4 metro smoke bomb tossing idiots. The ones now charged with promoting terrorism. ( I wonder if some older person in not so good health had died of a heart attack due to the panic of finding themselves underground surrounded by smoke. I wonder if there had been panic and someone had gotten knocked down a few flights of stairs and broken their skull and died, if those same students lending support to those 4 dip shits would still be outside the courthouse? Logic? None to be found!


Yes today all logic ended and we are all to blame. The simple fact is the tuition issues is only the tip of the iceberg of what must be dealt with in the years to come concerning fiscal management in this Province. This Province that tilts towards independence and claims to have the ingredients necessary to make out in the big, big World. If this is how we apply logic in this Province then we have to believe that in fact not only did logic end. It is possibly dead forever and if so we just may be too.

BAMBOOZLED

They have been BAMBOOZLED!!! Quick call the police. NO WAIT! On second thought that might not be such a good idea. Police + Students = Well you know. For the love of GOD (sorry to all my religious friends out there) are we seriously going to go down this road? Are they actually expecting us, after nearly 14 weeks of this absolute nonsense to believe that what they agreed to isn't what they signed, which in fact isn't what they signed to agree too! Confused? You bet! Need a CEGEP or University degree to understand it? You bet! Understand this though just when you thought there was some clearing air of all that tear gas smoke you were WRONG! The deal that was a deal that isn't a deal that should have been a deal that could have been a deal....is well no deal at all!

Yes ladies and gentlemen of our tax paying society the poor students were BAMBOOZLED by the big bad Charest and his willing accomplices. The dirty, smelly, old government machine just took advantage of those poor desolate students and ran rough shot all over them. YES THEY DID, i tell you! Not important is it that three major labour union representatives from the FTQ, CSN and CSQ were present at the negotiation to hold their hands through the process. Not important that the details were provided in every major newspaper, TV news program and Internet site available to man (and woman). NOOOO...Its not important that everyone (and yes i mean everyone) appears to be saying that the agreement the students signed was precisely what they agreed to verbally. No sir, none of that is important. You know why? Because we the people paying 83% of a post secondary students education truly believe that those poor, peaceful, food stamp requiring, can't afford a new I phone students have been BAMBOOZLED. Its a travesty, call the international court of appeal. The repression is suffocating, i don't know how much longer those poor kids can hang on.....someone call 911 its terrible.


Here is where they should see the value of a good education. Before you decide to go up against the big dogs its maybe prudent to get prepared. By prepared i don't mean, blocking roads, marching down the street half naked, throwing rocks or blockading buildings. By prepared I did mean getting an education, increasing your knowledge base, getting real world experience (and no your trip to Cancun does not qualify as real world experience). There should be nothing more obvious to the 179,000 striking students then the fact that they are not at all prepared to play in the big league. No that is reserved for the piranha's that swim in our political and union pools. Being prepared for something beyond rock throwing, glass breaking and parades requires much more time and energy. A good deal of which comes from the 4 to 7 years it takes to get a a university degree. So now is your chance to high tail it back to class, to gain some political points, to build on your 14 weeks of dedication to, ''the cause''. Are you going to take advantage of this opportunity? It appears not.

So based on this i have something i would like to share with you. Call it wisdom. Yes I know you'll say I'm old and out of touch with ''YOUR'' world. That i am tainted by to many years of being repressed by the big bad government man. I am not though, i assure you; Even if i don't know who Justin Beiber is or the fact i don't care. Or the fact that i still use a cell phone that actually has real life buttons you have to push on a pad. Or that the last time i tweeted was while looking at the birds outside in the bird feeder. EVEN given all these lacks i still have something valuable to share. It is this. There comes a time when you have to be able to see further then the nose on your face. When you actually have to take the points you can get even if it means the score board shows you have less points then your adversary. You also have to learn the concept of compromise; you'll learn this when you get divorced..ah..i mean married. Compromise doesn't mean defeat, less points on the board does not necessarily spell defeat, especially if its a best out of 7 series. One game at a time my young friends (that is a sports analogy i know you might not know what sports are any more...look it up on Wikipedia). You have to understand that life experiences are like a filing cabinet. You fill it up as you go along and from time to time you go back to it to take out parts that you have kept there to help you face a variety of lifes challenges.  This gives you strength in winning future battles.

Now that i have shared that with you are you ready for the most important thing i have to share? Here it is and it comes from a guy called the ''BOSS'' (you won't know him either his music is much to progressive (or old) for you). He once said, ''blind faith in your leaders or in anything, will get you killed!'' The people you think are leading you, your association leaders, the union leaders, the grey haired 1960's activist journalist and the self serving opposition politicians. They aren't helping you. OH NO! They have their own agenda's and they have absolutely nothing to do with yours! What they are doing is leading down a path. It isn't a pretty one. Its one full of dead ends, wrong turns and disaster. They are mortgaging your future and your energy on their personal aspirations. This you need to understand more then anything. You need to open your eyes and see that the being bamboozled by someone is never any fun, but what is even less fun is when your, BAMBOOZLING YOURSELF!