For any of you who know me or read my righteous outrage from time to time, you have probably heard me rail, blather and rant, but certainly not rave, about China and its inexplicable “trade” relationship with Canada. I want to start off by saying that doing business with China is not inherently wrong, but the quotes around the word, “trade” might lead you to the conclusion, the correct conclusion, that I don’t think it can be done fairly. China is never going to play fair with Canada. It won’t happen. Ask a person from China. But until now I was entertaining a naïve and somewhat uncharacteristic hope that Canada might be able to use the trade relationship as a wonderful opportunity to loosen the stranglehold the Chinese Communist Party has on China, tell them to smarten up on the human rights violations and for the love of GOD leave Tibet alone! I thought that maybe China could learn some things from Canada. Like educating people, not training them to be obedient disciples walking in the light of the Party, is better. I thought on a national scale, perhaps a cool country like Canada could find the funny, (or maybe just not so evil), character hidden inside the nerdy, Long Duk Dong country of China. Well, I was shooting for the moon I guess.
China and Canada are very different countries. Almost opposites. I was looking at Facebook posts the other day and found 26 interesting facts about Canada posted by one of my friends. They WERE interesting. Some questionable and impossible to prove. Like second happiest people in the world. I put no stock into this. Canada is a world leader in antidepressant use, top 40 in suicide rate and of all the really happy people I’ve met, most were not in Canada. And, contrary to what the website says, this will only get worse. Continue reading and you'll understand that statement. Like for most things no stats were available on antidepressant use or suicide for China.
But the one interesting thing about Canada that jumped off the screen at me was that almost half the population of Canada was born in other countries. In a 2010 census China was found to have the lowest percentage of foreigners of any country in the world with 0.05%. That lower than North Korea! China and Canada are both big countries but our populations are very different. I think of Apu from the Simpsons stating that the U.S. is a dangerously underpopulated country. But I know that it’s predominantly the Chinese who are already trying to save Canada from the horrors of wide open spaces. No danger of that in THEIR country.
More donut shops per capita than any other country. Not so much for the donuts but the coffee. We love our coffee! The Chinese drink tea. Canadians smoke weed and don’t test for drugs. The Chinese execute far more people on marijuana charges than die from it in their country. I made Kraft Dinner for my Chinese girlfriend. She hated it. We conserve forests. For every tree we cut down two are planted. If there is a word for conservation in Chinese, the people show no understanding of that word. They broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven. But I'm with you in Rockland, Canada. Our tap water is better than the bottled water in China. We drink a lot of fruit juice too.
I’ll tell you one other big difference: Canadians blow money. We spend loads of money having fun. This is part of what makes us socially adept. May be a contributor to the antidepressant use or suicide too. We “buy” things on credit and spend our lifetimes working jobs we may not like to pay off our debts. I know money problems are the major cause of our massive divorce rate in Canada. The Chinese save first then buy. Or maybe just keep saving. They’re incredible savers! And they don’t get divorces. I’ve never seen a Chinese hockey team but they’re getting better at curling.
You’d be hard pressed to find two countries that are more different. Not a good match. Like oil and water some might say. HOWEVER, the leadership of the country of Canada is anything but an accurate reflection of the people of our country, and it is with a sickness in my gut that I type it is going to be mostly oil and water that will solidify the union between the countries and will inevitably start the steady decline and fall of Canada into the environmental hell that China is now. In this article about the FIPA agreement between Stephen Harper, (not Canada), and China, Patrick Brown, the author, says Harper fits right in there. I wrote a blog post about a Chinese food named after Harper. It was made with knuckles but called Harper's Elbows because the Chinese with their thousands of years of medical history they'll all be glad to tell you about, have not differentiated kunckles and elbows linguistically. And in all that time they also did not build up any reputation for equitable business practices either. Nor did they seem to gain any respect for the land, nature, or the environment.
I'm being a bit unfair. Of course I am talking about the leadership of China, not the average Chinese person. The problem in China is that the average person, who most likely disagrees with the practices that cause them to breathe air that there hasn't yet been a pollution scale invented that can measure the toxicity of, doesn't know, or can do nothing about what those pracices are. They are probably against the decisions that caused to the little known oil spill that is four times as large as the Deepwater Horizon spill. Remember those gutwrenching daily picture on TV of oil gushing into the gulf without any way to be stopped? Imagine 4 times worse. Betcha didn't know that happened in China didja? They don't like people knowing too much of the bad stuff about their country, that's why. They're secretive about bad stuff they don't want anyone to know about. Like suicide rates, drug use, oil spills, government ordered executions and FIPA. And there is nothing the people of China can really do about it.
Canada, on the other hand, although we've allowed Harper to continue as our P.M. even though he was fraudulently elected; even though we sat back and allowed him to get away with that omnibus crap which included several surprises like water deprotection that will expedite the Chinese pillaging of Canadian resources; even though we let him shove the Northern Gateway Pipeline down our two thirds opposed throats; even though we lounged idly by whilst he systematically defunded all the programs from whence any opposition to the Chinese raping of Canada might come, (like the scientists and environmentalists who detect, clean up and fight against oil spills and the infrastructure that leads to them); even though we helplessly watched as China bought Nexen to get at Alberta's oil and we worried then about percentage ownership but with FIPA they'll have similar powers to majority owners even though Harper assured us then that Canada is not for sale; even though we might have thought it was a positive statement and even clapped when Harper said we wouldn't even recognize Canada when he got through with it, we still have time to change the disastrous effects this FIPA deal could have if we DO something about it before October 1.
Here's what the deal will do: If at some time in the next 31 years, some laws or rules in Canada are changed that affect the profitability of any Chinese business in our country, the Chinese will have the right to oppose the law and actually sue our government for damages. Our government in this case means Canadian tax payers. If, and I'm just spitballing here, for example, the pipeline to get oil out of the Alberta tar sands and onto the ocean destined to China, the Energy East Pipeline, were to be voted down by Canadians, (do so here), the companies losing money could force Canada to pay up. Then we'd have the government saying, "Well we can either just fork over the money out of your taxes, or we can let them go ahead with the pipeline." And there will be announcement like this aplenty if we have learned anything about Chinese greed for natural resources and their thoroughly environmentally devastating way of extracting them.
China has been jonesing for Canada's oil, water and probably everything else they can frack, pump, pipe, dig, cut or haul out of the country for many years. Harper has believed for years that he has some special understanding of the Chinese that other inferiors aren't privy to. I'm privy. It's called being moronic enough to agree to the completely one-sided terms that were laughed out of other countries with leaders who don't have broners for the Chinese. They have gutted their own country in a mad frenzy of capitalistic resource stripping. Imagine what they'll do to a foreign country! Ask the Hong Kong Chinese how they like being run from Beijing.
That's what's coming to Canada in two short days, folks! But it can still be stopped. Do what you can. Go to leadnow.ca and sign the petition. Walk in the streets for the environment. DO something! There's a line in our national anthem that says, "Oh Canada we stand on guard for thee." Whether he's evil or just plain stupid, the deal Harper is trying to secretly sneak into action for the next 31 years is a bad one for Canada and it's people like Stephen Harper we need to stand on guard against. Kick his gold-brickin' ass all the way to China where he obviously likes the people better.
Thank you.
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