Jon's <insert appropriate adjective here> Experience

So, as people can gather, I haven't had much to say lately. Well really, I've actually had a lot to say about a lot of things, but nothing that seemed useful to post on a blog. Now that I'm no longer galavanting, I'm stuck with the blog having no particular focus. And we all know blogs with no focus aren't particularly good (he says, as if more than 6 people actually read this...). I can't particularly write about my work so much--and besides, government procurement would bore pretty much everybody. And I don't really have the time these days to travel much. So I can't write about those things any more.

 

I could turn this thing in to wild political speculation and comment, which could be fun. The problem with that is the probability of me saying something wrong, or at the very least ridiculous, goes way up. So until I come up with any particular focus... I guess just deal with random, inconsequential posts like my last one ;-)

Alright, time or me to get on a soap box on a topic I really love to talk about. I hope not everyone turns away instinctively by seeing that the title is about politics; I hope I can take this usually dry topic and make it more exciting!

 

The results of the last election brought up a number of important issues. First is the conecpt of "uniting the left" under the Liberals, apparently. I was shocked to hear anyone talking about this, least of all people that consider themselves Liberal. These, the same people that argue at the Tories would make Canada more American! Yes, and a bipartisan system is not in the least American is it? In Canada, there are at least 3 definitively different national views. The Liberals, it has been said (most recently on "the Point" on CBC radio) are only narrowly different from the Conservatives. I think they're a little more different than that, but certainly the NDP are much different from both of the other two. What is conceivable, is a joining of the NDP and the Greens. The Bloc Quebecois will not be going anywhere any time soon, and no national party will (or at least should) be caught dead trying to roll in a separatist party in with themselves. The NDP and the Greens together does tend to make sense. They had a similar environmental policy, with the Greens being understandably a bit stricter. Other than that, the Greens had no strong policy positions at all, and those they had were not irreconcileable with the NDP.

 

The second big issue is that of Proportional Representation (referred to as PR, because people hate writing such a long phrase all the time). This is an issue I've felt very strongly about, and I even thought about joining a group that promotes it across Canada. But, the biggest one, Fair Vote Canada (www.fairvote.ca) makes a really horrible mistake in trying to "promote" PR. They say that we need PR because the first past the post system that we currently have is undemocratic. This is absolutely false. Modern democracy is best defined as a system of government wherein the citizens of a country have the right to choose some person or group to represent them in a national/state-wide legislature of some sort. It requires only that citizens have a free and fair choice between at least two people, that's all. In Canada, we have that. The only problem is that in some places people can, and will, choose between up to 5 or 6 people. As such, with the first past the post system, the winner can have only 35% of the vote, or even less. But, everyone has their choice (or even the choice not to choose, as increasing numbers of Canadians are doing these days), and no one is coerced or co-opted, and the votes are counted fairly (I can only assume, though I have heard horror stories).

 

So now we know that the current system is democratic. Why does it need changing? Simply because it's old and cannot keep up with a modern society, where people are more informed about government and national and international issues, and can voice their opinions so easily (like starting some cheap blog that no one ever reads ;-) The people at Fair Vote will try and tell you that if you didn't vote for the winner, your vote didn't count. Sure it did--it will help get whatever party funding, and sends a message to the "winners" about whatever the prevailing mood is among people that disagree with them.

 

However, with a PR system (and there's plenty of different types to choose from), every party that gets over a certain percentage of votes (say 5%, which is common) will have seats in the House of Commons. This ensures a more accurate portrayal of the views of citizens on whatever issue in the House, and removes the power of regionalization--ie, that the Bloc can get 50 seats with only 10% of the votes, because those votes were all in the same place, or a party that does really well in Ontario can become the government with only a few seats elsewhere. Here's the problem though: Because more parties will be represented, the possibility of a minority government will be greatly increased. In most PR countries, I believe they almost always have minority or coalition governments. More coalitions would be a great thing I think, because it would ensure a more diverse set of views being represented in the government side of the House. But, many people hate minority governments because "nothing gets done." I think this is not entirely true, and minority or coalition governments are better, but that's another blog entry.

 

One more thing has come up. That in Canada we have no candidates that can really capture the imagination of the electorate, "like Obama." Of course people will have egg on their faces if Obama actually loses next month... In any case, there's a huge number of reasons for this. Really smart people, first off, can usually make more money in the private sector than in politics. I don't seem to fit that characterization right now though, so if the Liberals want another genius leader, I'm ready to take your call ;-) Second, public life, especially in the House of Commons of the last 15 years or so, is hell. People get raked over the coals for the smallest, most insignificant things. Public life for a Canadian politician is so odd that when a minister left some top secret documents at his girlfriends apartment (okay, dumbest thing ever, to be fair) she got a book out of it and all sorts of interviews across Canadian news networks. How ridiculous is that! Add to that that Canadian political arguments tend to be grounded more on personal attacks than about policy debates. For example, when the Conservatives said "Stephane Dion is not leadership material" rather than "this policy of the Liberals is not good for Canada, because..." Granted, the latter requires work on the part of the Tories, and comprehension by the people towards which that message is aimed, but supposedly that's what an election is supposed to be about.

 

So that's my take. My solution? Jon for Prime Minister. I'll be waiting for your call, Liberals ;-)

Well, I'm back in Canada. Again, I apologize for not having updated in a long time, but it's a combination of being super busy, trying to organize to leave, and things just not being that interesting. Or at least, so commonplace for me that I can't bring myself to write about it in an interesting manner, even if it's something the average person in Canada, or any-not-Korean place, would find entertaining. I am searching for a job in Canada, with no intention of returning to East Asia to teach again. Though, at the same time, I'm having a lot of trouble deciding what industry I want to work in, and even then I have to convince whoever that all my experience is worthwhile in that industry, which is a task and a half. And believe me, I've heard the "why don't you just apply to a government job" argument. And I'd like to, but the fact of the matter is, you can only get a job in government if you're pretty much fluently bilingual, and highly over-qualified, or if you're buddies with the person doing the hiring--because I know there are programs in place to teach government employees a second language if they need it. So despite the fact I'm otherwise very qualified to do a lot in government, they won't look at me because I don't have a masters, and my french is not so good. Never mind I speak 4 languages more--again not great, but that's just me--and my univesity research I did do, as far as I know, remains unique in the world, and I've been able to successfully live in places where absolutely anything could change in a moments notice, in another language, and have been able to deal with it fine. But clearly, I'm not good enough for a civil service job :-P

 

I'm not going to get on the whole job thing now. I'll save that for 3 months from now if I'm still unemployed. Today, I'm going to write about Canadian political culture and the election. Is it just me, or has Canadian politics for the past 10 years or so consisted solely of mud-slinging campaigns? People always say that we shouldn't have an American style election, and for the most part I agree, and of course we never will. But there's one thing that they do that we need to do, desperately: They talk about issues! Canadians seem to only say things like "Harper is just a Republican, be afraid!" When nobody has been able to actually prove he's like that at all. People say "well look at his policies, they're the same!" Yeah right. Name them. Give me web links to the Bush admin policy, and to Harper's policy that's the same, or even similar. I dare you. They say things like "Dion can't lead!" Clearly, he can. He's lead his party this far, and though he hasn't been a very effective Official Opposition in my view (I do keep track of these things, even from other countries), he definitely is leading something. I want to see substantive debate in this election. If someone comes up to me and effectively says something like "I'm not going to vote for him because I'm afraid of him having a majority!" For no valid reason whatsoever, and also assuming that you actually vote for the party leader, when most of us don't. Or if someone says "I'm not going to vote for this party because they're wrong!" I'm going to, hopefully, just walk away. If it keeps happening, I might be tempted to punch the stupidity out of them, so what out. Give me a reason, a policy reason, why you like or dislike someone, then whether or not I agree, I can accept it.

 

And now my opinion. And right now, I'm even surprised at myself. I actually am thinking I'd support the NDP this election. Their environmental policy makes more sense. Rather than just taxing the excess carbon, that the Liberals would do, they want to cap it. A tax won't do anything but drive up prices and get government a bit of cash, while not fixing the problem in any way. The cap will also drive up prices, to be sure. But the NDP will back it up with personal tax cuts so us individuals will have more money, as well as incentives to build alternative energy sources such as wind power nationally, and solar panels individually--ie, on your house. Somehow they also say they'll find a way to save car manufacturing jobs. I think this is a long shot, but it's a nice thought. Were I rich, I'd buy out some of these plants that the larger companies are selling, and retool them to make fuel-efficient, hybrid, fuel-cell, or other electric cars--whichever makes the most sense--that are better for the environment of course, will be totally Canadian made so hopefully cheaper for Canadians, and which will really have a larger market in the world sooner rather than later. Right now I'm faced with the idea of needing a car and I hate it, because I don't want to have to pay for all that gas. But, I'm digressing...

 

Another thing that Jack Layton has said--and I admit, I'm going off interviews I've heard of his rather than having read the policies myself *kicks self in pants* --is that he, too, is tired of the mud slinging, in Parliament though. He's doing a ton of it himself in the campaign, in his ads anyway. But I really would like to see Parliament, too, debate issues rather than just sling insults back and forth like babies. Canadian politics, for the past 10 years or more, have been pathetic because of this, and I really hope it cleans up and becomes respectful.

 

For all of you who were looking to vote for me this time in London, I apologize. The call came much too fast for me to get organized. I even had a friend, who usually has a good nose for these things, suggest that an election so soon was highly unlikely. I guess everyone makes mistakes. Don't worry though. The outcome will be another minority government, whoever it is, and there will be another election soon thereafter. Sorry that's the way these things go. At least if leaders know they have to face an election soon, they don't tend to screw up as much, and do things like steal/embezzle billions of dollars and get all their good buddies nice cushie government positions. I'm looking at you Chretien and Martin.

 

Much more on this topic to be sure. Now that I spend all my time in front of my computer looking for jobs anyway, I might as well write on here a bit to break the boredom of looking at yet another door to door sales job that seems to be the only thing anyone thinks I can do :-P

 

Oh, and one more thing before I finish. Everyone always asks me how they should vote. And though I don't really advocate choosing a party solely on the leader, check this out: http://www.ctv.ca/mini/election2008/quiz/game.html or if that doesn't work got to http://www.ctv.ca/mini/election2008/ and it's on the right. Kudos to the Greens by the way. Can't wait to see how many seats you'll win!

I've done so many things lately, and I just haven't had any time--or any energy--to write about anything. The fact that this blog entry tool doesn't like to keep up with my typing and I frequently have to go back to add letters it couldn't keep up with doesn't help...

 

Anyway, a few weekends ago, May 17th to be exact, myself and a couple friends from Jinju went to a baseball game in Busan. The Lotte Giants vs. the Woori somethingorothers. The game started at 2, and the seats were all "festival seating." I hadn't heard of this before, but apparently it means first come first serve. So we aimed to show up at 12pm, which we almost did. On the way out of the train station, there were people selling roast chicken everywhere. I bought a box, but then realized something very important. I didn't see a chicken roaster anywhere... Often people sell them off trucks with an oven in the back running off a generator, but not this time. I was hungry enough at that point though, a little salmonella only meant flavour. Us coming from Jinju had to meet up with 2 of my friends from Suncheon--a town in the southwest province--so when we arrived I called them up. We eventually found where they were supposed to be, and my friend asked "don't you see us?" Now, my friend is short for Korean standards, has olive skin and black, shoulder length hair. Her friend has similar features, but is shorter. And I, of course, am a six-foot-tall, white blonde man. The only one around, oddly enough. Thus I felt it made more sense for her to look for me. Which we did, and in we went.

 

Now when my friend who bought the tickets said we had to arrive so early, I just assumed there'd be plenty of seats. It made sense.. 2 hours before the game, who would be there, right?? Yeah, it was half full already. We got decent seats in the front row in the left field and settled in for roast salmo... err.. chicken and waited for the game. People wandered by selling the traditional beer and other drinks, but also more roast chicken, cardboard hats--which we bought for 50 cents each--and of course dried squid. Before the game started, the cheerleaders--yes, they had cheerleaders--came out and got the crowd going. They were led by a guy jumping around like a maniac, and there were also some guys playing drums. And naturally the mascot running around and doing tricks.

 

Once the cheering started, it didn't stop. The first batter came up, and the crowd started to sing a song with the batter's name in it. Then they started to sing songs that translated simply to "get a hit" or "home run!" and things like that. They obliged often. The score in the end was something like 9 to 2. Woori went through 3 pitchers. The number of cheers and songs that everyone seemed to know was really amazing. And the fact that they sang a song for every player as they got up to bat was really cool. My frieds and I decided on songs for ourselves were we sports players in Korea. One chose something by Wagner, another chose Beethoven's 9th, and I just chose Beethoven's 5th.

 

After the game, we headed to the Haundae beach area for some tacos, which were amazing as always. After a beach dinner, we split up with some of us going off to other places in Busan, myself and one friend heading back home to Jinju, and two other friends heading back to Suncheon. Got back in time to meet up with friends for a usual night out on the town.

 

Last weekend, the Canadian Embassy gave an information session in Gwangju, the capital of Jeollanam-do, west of Gyeongsangnam-do where Jinju is. We asked a bunch of people if they wanted to go, and lots were willing, until they found out we'd have to get a busat 7am to make it there on time. So only Carolina and I ended up going. It actually wasn't so fantastic. The consular information was stuff I already knew, at least, and the Korean government informtion offered was delivered in some pretty poor English which made the topics, difficult to understand already, even more difficult. Some people came clearly just to complain about some things that the Canadian and Korean governments do. Like, the whole residency thing for taxes which is ridiculously confusing, and labour laws in Korea (which are actually quite good but few people bother to stand up for their rights, and Korean employers do tend to try and steal money from foreign employees trying to say some laws don't apply to us).

 

After the information session, a local brought us to a place for lunch and showed us how to get to some points of interest in town. Gwangju was the site of pro-democracy demonstrations in... the 60s I believe, and one day--May 18th--the military government sent troops to quash their protests and fired on the protestors, killing hundreds (I think..). Thus, there are parks and memorials everywhere, and Gwangju is often called the seat of Korean democracy. We only got to see one memorial park among many, then headed downtown for some good, western style food for dinner and a bit of a night out. Hotels were really hard to find, but we eventually found one good enough that didn't gouge us. The next day, a light breakfast and heavy, steak-filled lunch. Hard to turn down really.

 

I swear I did something cool on the intervening weekend between these two events, but it mustn't have been too amazing because I really can't remember what I did. If I remember I'll write something. Tomorrow I plan to go to Seoul with a friend to listen to some jazz, without interruption, and do some palace tours. I'm probably going to have to stay in jimjilbangs though. These are places like spas, with public saunas and baths, as well as different rooms to make you sweat in different ways, apparently, and places to sleep at. I always have a picture of people sleeping with wooden blocks as pillows, which is a definite possibility if you get there late and all the pillows are gone... hope that's not me!