Monday, March 9, 2015

Permission for Sedition

I tried to take a vid of my new apartment and post it here but failed. Anyhoo, I'm now in my 6th place already in my 10 months in Jakarta. With any luck I'll be in number 7 within about a month. Hang Tua Hotel in Sudirman for 5 days. Gandaria Kost off Haji Nawi for a month and a bit. Then moved in with Matthew and Abbey in the same Kost but different unit. I think about 3 weeks I was there. Then I moved to a crappy Kost behind the Four Season Hotel in Kuningan. Two months I was there I think? Then I moved to the Gardenia Kost in Cipete in Herry's room, (201). Herry's family came to use the room so I moved down the hall into 209. And now I'm in the Gandaria Heights, which is attached directly to Gandaria City Mall. Hmmm so I guess this is my SEVENTH place! Crazy!

It's convenient though. I don't even have to walk outside to get to the mall! There's a health club and swimming pool I'll be able to use starting tonight. Mr. Jang has requested another access card for me. He's got Erna, the maid coming three times a week. And Mr. Jang pays her well. She's not one of those maids working for peanuts. She's nice. Washed my clothes without even asking me. Does the dishes. I'm loving it here!

Here I've been going to bed at decent times and getting up refreshed in the morning! Like 7 or 8 o'clock! Even though I don't have to! I can't wait till I get my passcard so I can put that energy to good use and get to the gym! I've exercised but haven't been to a gym in a long time. It'll be good to get into better shape. Then place number 8 will likely be something similar to this. I've heard that there's a good place right across from the place I'll be working. It's more pricey than I've been paying here, but I'll be gainfully and dependably employed so I'll probably splurge. It's got a gym and a pool too so I hope to carry on with a healthier lifestyle once I get working with Wall Street again.

Wow!!! How brainlessly positive is THIS post so far?! Why is it stupid for me to be positive? Well if you have to ask, you haven't been following. Probably what will happen is the apartment management will charge extra rent even though this is a two bedroom apartment and even though there are some two bedrooms with 4 people in them and their rent is lower. And probably the cleaning lady, who is already working the mother of all cleaning jobs in this country, will ask for more money now that she's cleaning for two. I've been washing my own dishes and cleaning my own laundry. Sweeping up and that. Actually doing some of Erna's work for her. But my experience with Indonesia so far tells me that she'll hit Mr. Jang up for more dough. He pays her 700 a month. That's the average price for maids over here. Actually I think it's a bit higher than average. But that's what they'd make in a big house with a family of 5 working 7 days a week! Mr. Jang only has her come in 3 days a week.

The apartment is probably paid for by Lotte, Mr. Jang's employer, so it might be harder to charge more rent now that he has a houseguest, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen. Maybe management won't actually do it but an enterprising, young clerk might sharpen her pencil and see if he can skim a little off the top.

"Oh Dave, you're so negative!" Not so! I'm just not a dummy though the world insists on treating me like one. Trying to give me an opinion through spurious arguments like "Anti-vaxxers are wrong or right." That's like saying "Animals are dangerous or not dangerous." There are many vaccinations and anyone who is trying to keep us from judging them on individual merit is trying to sell us something. Then you have these chowderheads who continually bombard us with the soundbites in the media calling terrorist actions unexpected, unwarranted, out of left field, cowardly and unprovoked, things like that. These are the people who think that continuous bombardment is the way to go and this is what they expect as their bomb recipints' reactions:
I watched the Canucks beat the number one team in hockey this morning, (winning goal by Kassian set up by Dan Hamhuis), and the TV commercials! I'm almost speechless. Or I guess, typeless? Unable to type anything about them I'm so gobsmacked. ALMOST unable, that is. An old couple getting tested for cholesterol and the old lady narrating, "We had high cholesterol. Then we went on a program of regular exercise, eating right and Perco-cell Margarine. Our cholesterol went way down! Thanks, Perco-cell!" It probably wasn't the margarine, you demented old bat! It might have had a little bit to do with eating fruit and veggies instead of triple fried potato chips dipped in bacon grease. It might have had something to do with the fact that now you work up a healthy sweat doing sit-ups and speed walking in the cool, bracing air instead of working up an UNhealthy sweat sitting up, taking speed and walking to the Frigidaire.

A generation or two have been efficiently mindscrubbed into obedient beliefs in the corporations represented on their computers, TV's and cellphones that the one and only factor in conditioning, body-type, weight, appearance, happiness and cholesterol is the wonderful products we consume. Products lovingly brought to us and our families by the caring people of Screw-corp. "Screw-corp, leave the thinking to us." Screw-corp products may cause internal hemorhagging, temporary or permanent blindness, anal leakage, uncontrollable flatulence, spontaneous combustion, hallucination, calciphication, transmogriphication, muscle atrophy, leprosy, wonky eye, nasal blockage, or death. But thanks to this disclaimer, if you try to sue us for any of these, you're screwed because, hey, we warned you... in microscopic print and impossibly fast talking.

And political ads... Are they any different? Politicians are always heroically "fighting" for us regular folks. Ever notice that? Fighting for us because certainly we don't have the strength, (or in the egotistical, swollen heads of the whole political lot, the brains), to fight our own battles. "We're fighting for your rights and freedoms, Canada!" Well that may be the case but I think the expression might be artistically ambiguous. What they are doing is fighting US so that they, (the monetarily advantaged), can have our rights and freedoms. And what will they do with them? Why, sell them, or even give them away when and where it is deemed to be financially advantageous.

Case in point:

"UP TO $2.25 per million litres!" And they're paying zip right now! Have been for who knows how many secretive years? This is your government "fighting" for you! Why do water corporations pay less for swimming pools full of water than that reporter paid for the bottle of water he's holding. And these are water corporations based in France, the U.S., I think Nestle Group is based in Switzerland. Yeah, right! Not neutral in the Water Wars are they?

Nestle paid $3.71 in Ontario and only backed down during drought time because of a court battle fought against them by Wellington Water Watchers, Ecojustice, and the Council of Canadians. THESE are the folks who are fighting for Canadians!

Look, if we're Canadians and we've been somehow convinced by these same people that because of arbitrary geographic birthplace, we are obligated to pay taxes for Canada, then, by golly, we should be getting a little return on the resources that are part of this land we rent! Take a look at the Alberta oilsands.

Look closely at the first paragraph. Norway assumes that the oil underneath Norway belongs to the people of Norway. Canada assumes that the oil in the oilsands belongs to the company that extracts it. Do the PEOPLE of Canada assume this? Hell no! It's the independant, backroom dealing, citizen-opposing "leadership" we have ended up with in Canada.

These are just a few things they do behind our backs to ruin Canada. Don't even get me started with the Great Canadian Real Estate Giveaway! Canadians pay 70% on real estate capital gains. Foreigners? Zilch. "They're too hard to track down." The list goes on and on! And as it does, it only gets easier for our Crime Minister to do these things.

It's a wonder Canadians own ANYthing in Canada! And if we do it won't be for long. The time has come for some sedition in Canada. The innumerable treasonous acts by government is virtual permission for it. In fact it's almost as if they're daring us! We need more than just small groups like Wellington Water Watchers, Ecojustice or the Council of Canada. We need Canadians to stop taking shit from the government, get organized and do something. Positive signs are showing. I actually have hope that Canadians can do it. I think from a strategic standpoint right now, we gotta piss off the women! Canadian women are scary when they're united and pissed off. That's what's gotta happen. Like the women of Iceland.
You think our Canadian gals aren't as tough? I got news for you:

We can do it, Canada! Refine the oil in Canada and create jobs that way. Stop with the dangerous pipelines. And put some of the wealth produced by that oil into Canadian pockets. Same with the water. Get Canadian conservationists to determine safe ways of selling it, and make the greedy corporations stop selling us our water at a million percent profit! Prove to the government and the world we are not as dumb as they think we are!

Then maybe next... the whole world!


March 12: Well, guess what! The maid hit Mr. Jang up for more money and today, 9 days after I moved into this apartment, after several attempts by both Mr. Yoo and myself, my access card actully works! They still haven't raised the rent though so I'm 1 for 2 on that call.

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