Unrest in UK, Syria, China, Spain, Portugal and other places – We need more balance and common sense – Editorial by Jamie Gilcig

Cornwall ON –  Wow, the world seems to be exploding.    Riots across England, Syria, Israel; and even China!   Spain and Portugal, and many other countries around the globe simmering.    Imagine what it takes to get people to that point?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDgxEYTQk50

Simple answers?  Nope, but I do think it comes down to Universal Fairness.      Marie Antoinette once uttered that famous, or infamous line “Let them eat cake!” which of course didn’t work out too well for her.

When people lose hope; true hope, in being able to have a chance to live a basic life things happen.  When people fear that they can’t feed themselves or their families things happen too.   When people feel gross injustice because of race, religion, or class; sometimes even education, and when the perception becomes common enough of corruption or artificial suffering big stuff can happen.

You can’t step on everyone’s head all the time.  People like Josef Stalin tried, but eventually things change.    We live in trying times that are changing very very quickly.   It almost feels that in many ways most of us have become obsolete?

Syrian Unrest footage

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_Jnbrcj3-g

In the US, a country that just saw it’s credit rating dropped a notch that resulted in huge volatility in the stock market and a spreading of fear world wide  I marvel how politicians are shaking their fists at cutting social programs while the budget for the Pentagon is where it’s at?   Russia went bankrupt in the 80’s in Afghanistan; maybe it’s time for the US to not spend itself to death over that rocky patch of land and some of the other hot spots US troops are performing in?

It all comes down to that greed pendulum and when it swings too far in one way you get just the tip of the iceberg of what we’re seeing now.

The reality is that a country is a bit like a business.   There’s wealth, via resources, fees, etc that creates a certain amount of revenue and wealth.   Then most countries actually choose people to spend it.  Instead of it being shared somewhere nominally we end up having to pay in extra via taxes.   It’s time for tax systems be more fair and stop allowing the richest 1% to cheat the system and for some of that money to be spread around a bit better.

Balance and common sense.  We need just a bit more of that in this world.

Jamie Gilcig – Editor – The Cornwall Free News

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Best Western Cornwall

8 Comments

  1. Yes, Jamie, well said. Balance and common sense. True common sense, not the perverted Harris variety.

  2. Yes PJR, as you said, this unrest all over the world is Mike Harris’ fault. Does anyone believe that?

  3. Good grief, Stan— How you twist and exaggerate! I never said or implied anything of the sort.

  4. It is not politicians, they are the puppets of big business, it is not jail terms, it is not the disintegration of society as people knew it fifty, sixty, seventy, years ago (they were rioting then too) . It is that we are fooled into believing that we have any control. Corporations and their needs (which conflict with the average human need, with the exception of greed) are and have run the world to their benefit. It is when the rich get too rich leaving the masses behind that discontent and rioting takes place. The French revolution, and all revolutions were about people not having enough sustenance while the elite were busy sending us to war and any other place they saw/see fit.
    Realize that the world is now the field of feasts for your 1 or 2 percent minorty and the rest of us can only aspire to a new car/cellphone/television/computer/etc,etc. We too are the problem. We aspire to be them, and only when we truly see that justice is when all people have enough then might it change. As an example: Don’t you suppose that either Monsanto, or Bill Gates, or the Bush family in the USA could solve the Somalia famine? Go buy your weekly lotto ticket that you might join the elite. The world is truly simply and extremely complicated!

  5. How do we sort things out when views are so polarized and consequences so dramatic? There are several possible by-products to rioting. You may reinforce the thing you are attacking. You may lose reasonable support. You have to think about it. In Canada we like letters, comments and camping. One Canadian way to protest the Harper Crime Bill may be to bring sleeping bags and tents to Parliament Hill and simply not leave until the Bill is amended. That might be a decent way to turn over a new leaf.

    We need to protect people from Parliament. People like Tim Hudak, who admit to committing a series of indictable offenses as part of their moral/ethical history. If Hudak and his dealer (or did he grow it?) had been arrested for marijuana use back then, we might be at a loss for his leadership today. And how would that benefit anyone? I think an adult Tim Hudak and his marijuana dealer (s) behaviour was innocent then and his modern day counterpart’s behaviour innocent now. Of course if he was passing a joint around, we would have to add trafficking to his charges. But I say, Mr. Hudak’s behaviour was as innocent as drinking a cool beer on Saturday night. It’s a shame he should have to give up his political career for admitting to serious and grave indictable crimes. Good luck in your future, sir.

  6. I think Spanner has a few loose nuts that need to be tightened. Put yourself to good use spanner.

  7. So Tim Hudak publicly says that he was an ordinary kid, from an ordinary family, who smoked dope, just like any ordinary student in university, or college, or high-school. Now he thinks that anyone who does what he did should be arrested, charged, and saddled with a criminal record. Is there a hole in the ground in which to throw up? We have a frat-boy turned crime-fighter, who I’m sure is really glad he never got busted.

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