Random Ruminations of My Mind

On the news the other day, there was a discussion going on about dual citizenship and how Canada is among the very few countries in the world that allows for such priviledges for its own citizens. This discussion came about due to what recently transpired in the middle east, when israel and lebanon were going at it, and about 50,000 “lebanese-canadians” were trapped in lebanon, waiting to be rescued by the Canadian government. Of those, only about 15,000 were rescued and transported to nearby Cyprus or back to Canada via ferries, chartered airplanes, etc. Total Estimated Cost: $65,000,000. Expensive?… lets do the math… $65,000,000 / 15,000 = $4333.33 per person. Very expensive! Back then, the Canadian governement decided that the burden of this expense would be on the taxpayers (ie. those that live and work within Canada and pay hefty taxes for priveledges like this). So here’s the question: Should Canadians living outside of Canada enjoy the same benefits as tax-paying Canadians living inside of Canada?

At first glance, I’d say no. In fact, I’d say this is an outrage! How dare people benefit from my tax dollars, when they don’t pay a single cent towards the Canadian economy. And what pissed me off further was the fact that of the 15,000 that were rescued, nearly half of them, about 7,000 returned back to Lebanon (as reported by CTV). After thinking about it for a while, however, I started leaning the other way. I started thinking that although Dual Citizenship has some holes in it, its still an important part of what I’d call being Canadian.

Notwithstanding the fact that nearly half the Lebanese returned to their homes in Lebanon, I think Canada made an the right decision in spending what it deemed necessary to rescue the 15,000 or so Canadians. Why? Well, first, I don’t really look at this as a burden on taxpayers for rescuing other Canadians. It was moreso a humanitarian effort to rescue people in need. Second of all, had the Canadian government acted pro-actively, and not reactively, they wouldn’t have had to pay so much for the rescue. i mean, come on, $4300 per person to go one way from Lebanon to Canada?!?!? The government made mistakes initially and so that’s why the bill was out of wack.

Now getting back to the idea of dual citizenship, try to put yourself in their shoes. Say you were working in some foreign land and were in trouble of some sort. Would you not want the same rights and priviledges as other Canadians? What if you worked all your life in Canada, payed every tax dollar owed to the government, and happened to be on vacation in Lebanon? Do you not deserve to be rescued then? Of course, there will always be people who will abuse the system. Like get immigration to Canada, become a citizen and then live abroad, meanwhile enjoying the benefits of being a Canadian citizen. But these cases are few and very rare and revamping the whole Dual citizenship system like some have suggested is a bigger waste of my tax dollar then anything.

Anyways, what are your thoughts?

i haven’t posted anything for 16 days now… just been busy with Ramadan and work. i am on vacation (a mini-vacation really) and have been sick since it started, so i finally got the chance to update the blog. as you can see, changed the theme once more. what else… hmmm..

1. north korea tested a nuclear weapon; welcome to the club. of course, its only fitting a pakistani welcome north korea to the nuclear club, given that Pakistan purportedly gave the communist state the know-how in exchange for missile technology. tsk tsk… what was AQ Khan thinking? dolla dolla bill yall!… haha.

2. the raptors are doing great in pre-season action. 5-0 already. new uniforms, new management, totally NEW PLAYERS!!! this season is going to be something to look forward to with the likes of Bargnani, Graham, Tucker and of course, Bosh and Mo Pete. i think they’ll make the playoffs this season, i really hope they do that is, but i don’t see them moving passed the first round.

3. the leafs aren’t doing that well (3-2-2), which is no surprise really, given that not much changed since last season’s dissapointing finish where the leafs didn’t even make it to the playoffs. the only change i saw was in more ice time given to kyle wellwood, who’s making the most of it with 7 points in 7 games. and congrats to mat sundin on making it to the 500 club. 500 career goals that is. what a way to get your 500th but as an overtime goal. kudos! anyways, first-round playoffs loss for the leafs as well. i’m a little hesitant in even giving them a playoff berth, but that’s just me being an eternally optimistic leaf-fan.

4. i got a message on naseeb (one of those *paying* social networking websites) the other day. here’s an excerpt:

“Also ur pics tell me u have lost some serious weight. Good work. Keep it up!”

… arrrr?!?!?! umm, lose weight? okaaaay. not sure how pictures can tell if someone has lost weight or not but anyway, i don’t really go on that crappy excuse for a website anymore. those guys who run naseeb are making a $hit-load of money off people like you and me. its just too bad i didn’t think of the idea first… sigh. i say everyone just boycott naseeb!

5. tv is going great these days. this new show called ‘heroes’ has not dissapointed at all. on the contrary, its almost my new favorite show. gets interesting with every episode. what *has* been dissapointing, however, is ‘lost’. i’m not sure where they are going with that show. i’m not even sure that they are sure where they want to take it. its gets confusing with every new episode. are they alive? are they dead? who the heck are the others?!?!?!

alright, i’m going back to sleep now. lates…

By now I’m sure most of you have heard or read about President Pervez Musharraf’s recent visit to New York City for the UN general assembly as well as to promote his new book, “In the Line of Fire”. And its also likely that you’ve heard about what he had to say on a CBC interview (read transcript here) regarding Canada’s role in Afghanistan and the war on terror. If you haven’t, allow me to give you a summary.

Basically, Musharraf said in the interview that Canadians shouldn’t be “crying and shout all around the place that there are coffins” over losing a few soldiers because when they put on that uniform, they should expect casualties as a repercussion of war. I really don’t see what the big hooplah is with what he said because it certainly makes sense to me. I mean, when the CBC has headlines like “Musharraf downplays Canadian contribution”, I don’t quite think that’s what he was trying to do. Instead, I just think he was trying to say that his country, Pakistan, is not making it harder for Canadians for the point of doing so, but is doing all it can for itself and apparently has lost 500 soldiers in the process. Sure, he may not have said it very tactfully, but this guy is a General, the chief of staff of the armed forces, and there ain’t no sugar coating where he comes from.

As an aside, check out this post (link) on a blog I found on the net. Its so funny, you’re going to roll on the floor laughing. There’s a bunch of anti-musharraf protesters taking part in a rally in NYC. Watch the video, and listen to what the lone pro-musharraf guy has to say to them. Absolutely hilarious! And then read the email correspondence between the blogger, Ali Eteraz, and the organizers of the rally. Funny stuff.

man, i can’t stand it when he does that salute… its like how queen elizabeth has her little wave, hitler had his whatever you call it… saddam even has… err, had his own way of saluting the crowd… anyway, funny interview, check it out…

I was quite surprised with how Iran has handled itself in the last few months, and quite recently when the deadline passed today to halt uranium enrichment. In defiance to UN/US demands, the Iranian president was quoted as saying “The Iranian nation will never abandon its obvious right to peaceful nuclear technology” and also, that the west “should know the Iranian nation will not yield to pressure and not accept any violation of its rights.”

At first I thought it was only rhetoric coming from the Islamic republic in response to Whitehouse statements made about their nuclear ambitions. Now I’m beginning to realize that there is some truth to what President Ahmedinejad is saying. This isn’t simply rhetoric, its the real thing. These guys aren’t going to back down any time soon. What does the US think about that? Well they are of the thinking that they already let one hostile country obtain the nuclear know-how (namely, North Korea) and now controlling them is harder than ever. They can’t just go into N. Korea and bomb the crap out of them because N. Korea now has an “Ace” card which pretty much acts as a deterrent. Unlike Iraq which didn’t have one, and we all know what is going on there.

Iran says it must fulfill its own energy requirements. The US claims otherwise, thinking uranium enrichment in Iran will be used for nuclear bombs. So what will the US do in order to stop Iran from enriching Uranium and obtaining the same Ace card the North Koreans so proudly flaunt. I’m not sure myself, but I’m wondering if there is a possibility for another war, only this time against Iran? The US already has so many troops in the area and it wouldn’t be too hard to re-deploy them next door, I don’t think at least. Another option for them is to impose sanctions. Recall, however, that the US initially imposed sanctions on Iraq also, but they supposedly didn’t work and so the US invaded the country because of a fear of “WMDs”. So, now the ultimate question: Will history be repeating itself? As it stands, it doesn’t look like Iran is going to back down any time soon, bombs or no bombs, sanctions or no sanctions.

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“If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own. We have no other choice.” - Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, then Pakistani Foreign Minister, 1965

after seeing this interview, i was left in awe. this guy has the cahunas to tell off the person who is conducting the interview as well as to the person who owns the very station that has asked him to come on. it is a total must-see emotionally charged interview.

Today is my first day of vacation for the next 9 days. It would have the ideal vacation had I gone somewhere, but even still, staying at home isn’t all that bad. I could catch up on some reading maybe. I’m almost done Angels & Demons (after 4 months :S) so I’m pretty much ready to start something else, fictional that is. ‘The Alchemist’ seems like its been on the bookseller list for quite a long while, so I might just end up starting that one, plus its not that long at all. I seldom get bored reading books more than 500 pages. I might also go out and take pictures somewhere, tidy my bedroom, fix up my computer, make enhancements to my photoblog, do some gardening, learn to cook, go skydiving, have a big a$$ party and invite 10,000 people, learn to speak mandarin, sail around the world in 8 days, etc, etc… Hmmm, ok, maybe not the last few, but at least the thought of doing all that stuff is there

I went to a specialist today for my back, which was injured a while go, getting much better now. I got the appointment about 5 months ago. So finally, after all that time, I got a chance to see him… for 15 whole minutes. That’s right, 5 long months for 15 short minutes. Hmmm, talk about long wait times.

In other news, I just learned today that Israel bombed the last remaining bridge into/out of Lebanon. This bridge was located in a predominantly Christian neighbourhood who were non-partisan so far in the war. After the bombing however, there were reports, by CNN, that people were taking a different stance now in that area. Now, I’m no political pundit or analyst of any sort nor am I a “geo-political strategist”, but what I take from all this is that Israel is losing friends at an alarming rate the further this whole mess goes on. Maybe even its allies at one point might not be as friendly as they are now, Jordan and Egypt for example. And these are countries that border Israel. Many are expecting an imminent cease-fire soon, so let’s hope, god willing, that happens with the least amount of civilian casualties on both sides. As it stands, about 900 Lebanese killed, mostly civilians, and about 70 Israelis killed, mostly soldiers. Hmmm… disproportionate, n’est-ce pas?