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Originally Posted by RawAlex
painintheass, the problem isn't that you feel different in some way, but that you want to force everyone else to be different like you. If your town / city / village / tent / whatever it is just happens to be 300 miles from the nearest highway, don't complain about how hard it is to drive to walmart (that closed because some morons think stocking shelves at a discount store should somehow earn them enough to both buy a house and drive a new car - and support their whole family).
Choosing to live in a place that has limited services, or choosing to REMAIN in those places is a choice you make. It is a lifestyle thing, it is a way of life. Trust me, I have done the tour of the province completely, and I have seen the types of places you must surely be from (the places that think chimbougamou is the BIG CITY). It's nice, it's lovely it's peaceful - but there is no way you can tell me that you should get as much access to services up there that I do here in a city. Quite simply, it isn't economically feasable to do it.
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Lifestyle choice.....
Let me walk you through the "lifestyle choice."
Let suppose Jean Luc grew up in an extreme impoverished area and when he has 20 years of age he decides to leave and go to montreal for a better lifestyle.
Ok, he walks out of the rural area and gets on a bus and 20 hours later is in montreal.
He needs a place to sleep and hotels are expensive. He hasn't saved much money so he decideds to look for an apartment.
1. First obsticle. He has never had to look for an apartment before or seen anyone do it. Minor probleme but annoying. He manages to find out that you search newspaper classifieds.
He finds a newspaper and gets set to search.
2. Second obsticle. He either can't or has marginal reading skills. Newspaper is useless.
Not being able to read has made his life more difficult. Can't read a map, the road signs, write a resume, etc. This isn't looking too good for him now.
Ok, for the benefit of the argument he somehow manages to locate an available apartment and gets to go and see it.
3. Third obsticle. Landlord wants to run a credit application, references and the contact number of his employer. Well he has never had credit in his life, his references don't have a phone and he just got to montreal so he hasn't found a job yet.
Again for the benefit of this ilustration we can assume the landlord was gay and thought the rural boy was cute and rents it for 1 month.
He gets up early in the morning to find a job and starts to search.
4. Forth obsticle. Potential employer wants a resume. (If he can't read he can't write) The potential employer asks him what skills he has and unfortunately he doesn't have many useable. And even if he did, he can't think of them because he has no idea what he can bring to an employer's table.
None of this is working out for him. And by this point in time he is told to see help with goverment programs. Everyone has told him the goverment has things for people like him. But no one knows what part of the goverment does it.
Benefit for the argument he finds a priest that lends him a helping hand. Makes the phone calls on his behalf and sends him to the welfare office.
5. Fith obsticle. At the welfare office he admits he can't read or write. The kind lady wants to help. Afterall it is her job. So she starts by asking for a S.I.N. number and of course he doesn't have one. He also can't supply a health card and for people like him having certificate of live birth is a 50/50 gamble.
It was his lucky day, his mom gave him a piece of paper before he left home and it turns out to be a certificate of live birth. A doctor on a hunting trip birthed him in the kitchen. He proves beyond a doubt that he is canadien and entitled to services. He now has 30 to 60 days to get a S.I.N. number and welfare cuts him a cheque and enrolls him in the system.
His priest friend goes with him to the bank, shames the secretary into giving him an account and he deposits the cheque. Yioppie! He isn't homeless in montreal.
But it is far from over and even in the city his future is minimal at best. He needs to learn to read and write, learn social skills, job skills, how to not over spend, etc. What work he does find will be most likely low wage and his future will probably not include such things as a home of his own or a new car.
In years to come he will suffer from cultural shock, riddicule from people around because of his lack of social and intellectual sophistication. At lest back in the woods he was respected and loved by his peers and had a greater measure of dignity.
The above example I have ilustrated is a really a good cause scenario. For most it doesn't go this well.
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Originally Posted by RawAlex
When it does happen, it occurs at great expense. The collective governments spend millions of dollars each year running air ambulances from the north to the cities to treat sick and injured people. Why? Because millions is still way cheaper and way more effective than building a full hospital in every town, inlet, and hamlet. Seperating from Canada isn't suddenly going to make a hospital appear, nor will it suddenly make jobs, properity, and a videotron video club appear at the end of the block.
I have come to the conclusion that you are bitching mostly because you parents raised you in a place that had little, and now that you have seen the world, you feel somewhat slighted. Don't blame Canada for your personal issues.
Alex
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I don't feel slighted towards anything I lived through. In fact I'm very open and blunt about my life because I'm one of the lucky few. But I have 2 older brothers, newphews and friends that still live in these conditions.
They were born into this type of life and as such were never given another option. Having understanding and empathy of that, it will be the proverbial very cold day in hell before I forget them and shrug everything off saying that this was their lifestyle choice.
But on that note I will caution you. My majors were psychology and biology and I don't think anyone would find it polite if I started to analyze their messages on this forum. They might be more reflective and revealing then you think.