Happy Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RENATA!!!!


About 5 million years ago, in a far away land, I met the Renatita bear. She was only 16. She loved the Carpenters, Nana Mouskouri, Mexico, the Addams Family, and Mexico. Oh, and Mexico. :)

Now she's 21 and all grown up!!! Nowadays, she loves the Carpenters, Nana Mouskouri, Mexico, the Addams Family, and Mexico. Oh, and Olivia Newton-John. Oh, and Mexico. I'm so glad we're still friends, Renata, have an awesome day!!!



Edited to include other Renata interests: JO Stafford, and ABBA, and Doris Day and Mexico and Patti Page and Mexico and Mexico...and Greece and Mexico.
:P

Poverty Sucks

Not that I would know. I'm in the process of reading Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed (On Not Getting By in America), and although everyone knows poverty sucks, I am still surprised and horrified at what some people need to go through just to meet their basic needs. This book is about Ehrenreich's social experiment - as a middle class Phd graduate, she steps into the shoes of low-wage workers in order to see how people survive (or don't survive) on minimum wage. She acknowledges of course, that being in the middle class and merely "visiting" poverty, she has advantages her fellow co-workers don't have, such as good health due to a lifetime of good medical coverage, for instance, or the luxury of a running car. In addition, being white and a native English speaker, Ehrenreich does not pretend to understand what it is like for workers who do not fill that criteria.

In 1998, when Ehrenreich started this project, it took an hourly wage of $8.89 to afford a one-bedroom apartment - this can be contrasted with the fact that for a welfare recipient, the chances of landing such a job were about 97 to 1.

Ehrenreich took jobs as a cleaning lady, a waitress, and retail salesperson. Her experiences are horrific - some of her coworkers live in cars, others work from 7-2, then 2-10 in order to pay for rent, and almost all of her coworkers are ill due to the demands of physical labour. For most of the time that Ehrenreich engages in this project, she takes ibuprofen almost every day in order to manage the pain and keep working. Low-wage earners have very few breaks at their job, if at all, and are often not allowed to sit, drink water, or otherwise be normal human beings with needs. That's probably what struck me most about her book - the lack of human dignity associated with these jobs. I mean, it's bad enough if you have to clean rooms at a motel - but to have to do so without stop for hours on end, only to satisfy a middle-class client who has very little regard for your job, and a boss who sees you as a commodity, is just lowsy. I really don't know how people do it, and it really sucks that they have to. I've worked retail and coffee shops in my day, but not because I really needed to to survive - it was more a matter of having extra money. Working low-wage jobs for those reasons is a whole other matter. When I was working those jobs I also felt humiliated, even though I knew that if I quit, I would be all right, whereas some of my coworkers would not (and sometimes, I did quit, because I couldn't take it). In addition, I never worked full time at these jobs, much less had two full time jobs at the same time. When I did have something resembling an 8-hour shift, it was a nightmare for me. And my low wage jobs weren't as bad a some - I worked at coffee shops, but I wasn't a maid, on my knees, scrubbing floors as Ehrenreich does in her experiment.

Sicko

A few weeks ago, I saw Michael Moore's new film, Sicko. It was definitely interesting, although what I had most heard about the film is that it was hilarious, and I didn't really find that to be the case. Disturbing is more like it. Now, Canadian Bacon was a hilarious Michael Moore movie.

Mountie: "No, the capital of Canada is Ottawa."
John Candy: "Ottawa?? How stupid do you think we are?? Come on guys, let's go to the capital...Toronto!" I miss John Candy.

Canadian Bacon actually ties into Sicko quite well because it exemplifies Moore's fondness of Canada. I wish his version of Canada were true! No garbage on the streets, no crime, a whole lot of polite people...and, of course, a fantastic health care system. In the movie Sicko, he portrays the average wait time at an Ontario hospital at around 20 minutes...that was the funniest part of the movie, in my opinion. I don't know who he interviewed, and which hospital he went to, but that certainly has not been my experience. I once went with a friend to the hospital and we waited a total of three hours - while she was having an asthma attack. If that's not an emergency, I'm not sure what is. I also remember it being impossible to find a family doctor in Ontario, because most of them couldn't take in new patients.

When I finally found a doctor, he had to quit his practice 6 months later because, as he told me, "he just didn't get paid enough by the government." The other I had seen previous to this one would see patients for maybe about 5 minutes, and she saw hundreds of them a day. So although I appreciate Michael Moore making Canada look good, and I agree with all the criticisms of the American health care system, his picture of Canada is definitely a bit glossy.

Now, he says that in polls, Canadians always vote to keep the universal health care system, and this is true. This is mainly because the universal health care system is at the very least fair - we're all in the same boat, even if it is a sinking one. Although that's not entirely true, for you're at a definite advantage being in an urban area in Canada as opposed to like, northern Ontario, where you may need to be airlifted to get medical care, overall, the universal health care system is definitely more fair than one based on insurance companies. In my opinion, if you're poor, or near poor, you are definitely better off in Canada. If you're in the middle class, it really depends. If you're in the upper middle class and above, you're way better off in the States, because you can pay for better care.

One thing that I would've liked to see more discussion of in Sicko is that of the differences of a two-tier system as opposed to the universal health care system. For instance, in some countries, there is universal health care for everyone, but you can "pay up" to get better treatment if you have the money. The Canadian system is not like this - you cannot pay up and everyone gets the same coverage - which makes the system more fair than a two tier system. However, it also makes Canadians who live near the border cross into the U.S to get MRIs, because if you had the money, who wouldn't pay to not have to wait 11 months to find out if you were sick or not? I wonder if the British and French systems are two-tier systems, or if they're just like the Canadian system - that was one thing I would've liked to see covered.

Sicko totally made me want to move to England, since its health care system was portrayed in such a positive way - I hope that that's true. One issue I have heard of the British system, and I don't know to which accuracy, is that certain people have priority in the system over others. Therefore, if you're older, you'll be at a disadvantage in terms of care than if you're younger, because the young are more "valuable" in that sense. Not sure if this is true, though.

What also confused me in terms of the movie is the part where the 9/11 workers go to Cuba with Moore, where they get fantastic health care. Perhaps the care there is fantastic, but in most universal health care systems, you need to be a citizen or at least resident of that country to have access to that health care - or you need to pay (the rationale being, of course, that if you don't pay taxes in that country, you shouldn't have access to the benefits). In the movie, they just showed up and were taken care of, which didn't ring true to me, even if their health care is great. And Moore also implied that in Canada, you can just show up and get care - which isn't true. You need to show them your OHIP card when you go anywhere to get medical treatment - if you don't have it, they will charge you. Of course, most people in Ontario would have an OHIP card anyway, but I doubt an American could like, cross the border and automatically access the Canadian health care system.

Another issue which was not mentioned was that of mental illness. Although people have been fighting for mental health coverage from OHIP for years, this has yet to really happen in any substantial way. So, you do have free (well, taxed) health care in Ontario, unless of course, your illness is mental instead of physical. Then it's more complicated.

One thing which really rang true for me in Sicko is, of course, the unfairness of the American health care system. The outrageousness of the insurance companies, their attempts at not paying you anything at all costs, their ridiculous pre-existing conditions clause, and how they generally screw people over. That part of the movie was fantastic, and hard to deny - who hasn't heard an insurance company horror story? It's outrageous how many people have no health care in this country. I'm lucky enough to have health care, but that's only because I'm a student. I've tried to get health care in the U.S. without being a student - but was denied by all insurance companies, because of my "pre existing" conditions. If I were not a student, I know I wouldn't have access to health care in this country, and that frightens me. Even on my student plan, they try to kick me out every year by claming that I didn't have continuing coverage for my "pre existing" condition - every year I have to fight them to get reinstated.

All in all, I liked the movie, because despite its romanticizing of other countries, it does raise awareness of the pitfalls of the American health care system as it is today. Despite my less-than-rosy experience with the Canadian universal health care system, I would still vote to keep it, like most Canadians would. Because despite its problems, at least everyone has insurance. And although the quality of health care might, depending on where you go, be lower than in the U.S. , at least you don't have to worry about losing your house to pay for your medical bills. If you have a minor problem, you can go to a walk-in clinic and get treated pretty easily, even if, in my case, you are misdiagnosed with ringworm (to the doctor's credit, it did look a lot like ringworm, and I do have a cat).
I wish you all a very healthy day.

Religion

Sometimes I feel sad about religion, or rather, sad about my relationship to it. I'm definitely agnostic - I don't think God can be proven (or disproven), and I don't think anyone actually knows whether God exists, or anything about the nature of God. I've been agnostic for years, but despite this, I always found religion interesting. In the past couple of years though, I've been feeling rather antagonistic towards it. I've felt increasing irritation on my part toward Christmas and the way it "takes over" December - I even get annoyed during Thanksgiving. Lately I've been reading a lot of books on atheism, such as Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, and Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation. And I liked them both very much and agree with the authors in terms of what they believe, for the most part.

However, one thing I don't like about books on atheism, and atheist groups in general, is that they do seem to create this huge division between people who believe in God, and people who are dubious. And although I do think whether you believe in God or not will shape your relationship to other things...the division part makes me sad.

I don't personally believe in religion, but I don't want to feel divided from those who do. And although I am agnostic, I can understand why people would want to have a religion, and would want to believe in God. Life is scary and terrifying, and the fact that we're all going to die and that there's no one around to tell us why on earth we exist in the first place...well, that's really frightening. It makes sense that human beings would want to believe in God, and even from an evolutionary standpoint it makes sense. Whether one believes in God or not, believing itself is comforting, and that's undeniable.

It reminds me of the scene in the movie Corrina, Corrina, where Molly asks Whoppi where her mommy is, and Whoppi says she's in heaven. Later, Molly's dad, a staunch atheist, scolds Whoppi for telling his daughter nonsense, and goes to have a talk with her. I don't remember his exact words, but he says something like, "honey, heaven and God is something people make up so that they don't hurt so much." And Molly turns to him and says, "So? What's wrong with that?" It's a beautiful moment, and really quite interesting in terms of what religion is, and how much of its "truthfulness" really matters.



Lately, very recently, I've been wondering why I feel so antagonistic toward religion. I never had a problem with it before, and when I was young, I used to be Catholic. Even after I was no longer Catholic, I liked the social aspect of religion; people get together in church, make friends, drink wine, etc...socially, religion is interesting. When I still lived in Canada, I didn't mind religion at all. I think things started to change for me when Bush was re-elected in 2004, and I cried for 3 days. I was just so....mad, and since his re-election was deemed to have a lot to do with the evangelical Christians, it just made me really mad at them. The combination of religion and politics does anger me, because although I can respect and even enjoy religion, I don't see why anyone would think that their religion should have influence on government. So I think the recent overlapping of church and state, such as CNN shows like "Politics and Faith", where candidates talk about their faith, like that really matters in a president - that makes me angry. In Canada, I don't remember that happening very much, religion is a much more private affair, which I think is why it was so much easier for me to have a smooth relationship with it. And I'm aware that some religious people are also against the politicization of religion, and I should really think about that more, and focus on why I'm really angry, instead of just directing it blindly at religion (don't get smug, Bruce, I still disagree with you on tons of other things, so there :P).

I just realized that my anger is more political than it is religious, and I've realized that I don't want to be so mad at religion anymore. I may not be religious, but a lot of my friends are, and I don't want to feel like there's this division between us. I want to feel like I used to feel toward religion; like I may not be a part of the religious community, but I am a part of the social community, and religion is a part of that, and of human societies in general.

This also reminds of the South Park episode, All About the Mormons, where there's a new Mormon kid in town, Gary. At first, Stan thinks Mormonism is cool, but then he starts to doubt the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith. Instead of being Gary's friend anyway, while not becoming a Mormon himself, Stan gets angry at Gary for believing in Mormonism when there's no evidence for anything in the Book of Mormon. He gets so angry that he starts avoiding Gary, who happens to be really nice, and avoiding his family. And at the end, Gary gives Stan what I think is a fascinating speech:

Look, maybe us Mormons do believe in crazy stories that make absolutely no sense, and maybe Joseph Smith did make it all up, but I have a great life. and a great family, and I have the Book of Mormon to thank for that. The truth is, I don't care if Joseph Smith made it all up, because what the church teaches now is loving your family, being nice and helping people. And even though people in this town might think that's stupid, I still choose to believe in it. All I ever did was try to be your friend, Stan, but you're so high and mighty you couldn't look past my religion and just be my friend back. You've got a lot of growing up to do, buddy. Suck my balls.

Although, throughout that episode, I agreed with Stan; at the end, I agreed with Gary, too. He had a good point. And Stan missed out on a cool friend, because he was so angry. I suppose sometimes, I feel that way too, and it makes me sad. And I don't want to be that way. And just like Stan also had a hard time admitting that one of the reasons Gary made him crazy is because their family was close-knit (unlike Stan's own), maybe I have to admit that the reason Christmas annoys me is not because it's a Christian holiday, but because all my Christmases have sucked. If I had grown up having good Christmases, I would probably still like it now, whether I was agnostic or not. I guess...I just don't want to be so annoyed during Christmas anymore. Eggnog, anyone?

My tummy hurts.

When I got home this afternoon I decided I was going to have these creepy little organic chips I bought a while ago, although I had tried it before and found it disgusting. I don't think it sat well with me, because now my stomach hurts. I also had like two bowls of yogurt though, so that could be it.

All right, my very first blog is about a tummyache, good times. I have no idea what to write on here, I'm basically just starting a blog because my friend Renata talked me into it. Heh.

I have dye under my fingernails and all over my hands, from playing in it this afternoon with the kids I volunteer with. We made tye dye shirts, which granted, was fun, especially since I had never done it before, but the dye is really pesky. I even used nail polish remover, and it didn't come off. I feel like a mechanic or something.

Oh, and I got a sweater/hoodie in the mail today from my friend Rach! Thanks Rach :) It's so pretty. I also got an awesome card from her.

Wow, this first post was extremely boring. Impressive.