September update
Hey kids, (those kids of you who still read my updates),
It's September in Italy and it's actually getting cold. The summer seemed so long this year, spanning from April until just a couple weeks ago. I remember last year seeing snow in May. I'll be sure to remember this summer next year when I'm watching it snow again in May, on the East coast of America.
Nate and I have been looking at houses and cars; checking our budget repeatedly for any unforeseen expenses we may have neglected to account for in our preliminary attempts at balancing the onslaught of all the extra hidden costs associated with buying a new life. (When I say Nate and I, I really mean that I stress over crunched numbers and drag Nate to my findings with my arms flailing wildly at the injustice of the world.) For instance: I won't be able to take a MAC flight with Nate and the puppies, since I'm neither a legal dependent nor a dog. I'll have to fly solo to New Haven from either Rome or Naples. Curious, I checked the costs on Expedia last night and found that a flight to "there" from "here" is going to cost over $2000. I opted to fly to New York instead, for about $600, (Cross your fingers that AerLingus doesn't go out of business too...), and take the train into New London from there.
Is the world in the hyped up state of chaotic disarray that the media portrays? The only source of news from my home continent is that of Fox news and Good Morning America. I've been trying to stay tuned in to Reuters, but is it a realistic source for things that matter to me, or have ever mattered to me? What was it I used to read about every morning on the train after relenting to accept a free paper from the news lepers? If memory serves, (it probably doesn't.), I read the Georgia Straight pretty often. Mostly sourcing out shows and indie comic strips. I think this is the news that mattered to me most; not what some politician said/ what sparked more media fodder until an actual story came along, not news of the Canadian military, or even news of the American military... I miss reading about what Dan Savage stuck where and what he thought about it. I miss reading about what hippie dads and lesbian moms say about local parks and RCMP horses. I miss reading about local rallies and awareness fundraisers at the VPL that I should have gone to.
Instead, I only hear news about the American election and get in biased debates with my American friends, 99% of whom are Republican. The only joy I get in American news is seeing Whoopi Goldberg do her best not to punch John McCain in the face in front of his wife on The View. I'm curious, in a slightly nervous way, about moving to America and finding the free media there just as conservative, partial, and uninformative as the AFN news feed I have at home now. While I'm sure that the same could be said of the Canadian media, I'm more than hesitant to accept it from any other country.
I see an election is approaching, and am printing out an application for an absentee ballot. I hope I can get an American friend to lend me the use of her mailbox, as the ship will be gone come election time, and god knows the Italian postal service won't get my mailing back and forth done until January at the earliest. I'm not sure yet with whom I'll give my vote. I've been trying to wrap my head around the American political system and have just today started to delve into the tangled web of Canadian political platforms.
In reading a book on the American political system, I found the famed passage: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.". It's a nice idea; I'm glad they included that in their declaration of Independance. But aside from the obvious disclusions, it highlights of hypocricy of the electoral system. According to this book, the Framers, who devised the process when founding the basic rules of government in their fledgeling country, had little confidence in the ability of the people to elect the right president. So all men (of Anglo-Saxon descent) were not created equal? Some men were not suit to form rational opinions on those things which affected their everyday lives? When Americans vote, they're not voting for a presidential candidate; they're voting for their electoral college: a body of people based on the number of congressional and senate representatives held be that state, to do their voting for them. This idea, which should by now be archaic, is actually perpetuated and worsened further by the marriage of political influence and media sensationalism. Where people should be taking note of bills being passed, they are instead fawning over who wore what to conventions. The idolization of politicians is a way to keep the "hearts and minds" of voters tuned in and dumbed down. They only know what they're told, after all.
As curious as I am to find further flaws in the Empire's democracy, I'm even more curious to learn about my own. How does Canada's system compare? Are the citizens just as removed from intellectual accountability as the average American?
It's September in Italy and it's actually getting cold. The summer seemed so long this year, spanning from April until just a couple weeks ago. I remember last year seeing snow in May. I'll be sure to remember this summer next year when I'm watching it snow again in May, on the East coast of America.
Nate and I have been looking at houses and cars; checking our budget repeatedly for any unforeseen expenses we may have neglected to account for in our preliminary attempts at balancing the onslaught of all the extra hidden costs associated with buying a new life. (When I say Nate and I, I really mean that I stress over crunched numbers and drag Nate to my findings with my arms flailing wildly at the injustice of the world.) For instance: I won't be able to take a MAC flight with Nate and the puppies, since I'm neither a legal dependent nor a dog. I'll have to fly solo to New Haven from either Rome or Naples. Curious, I checked the costs on Expedia last night and found that a flight to "there" from "here" is going to cost over $2000. I opted to fly to New York instead, for about $600, (Cross your fingers that AerLingus doesn't go out of business too...), and take the train into New London from there.
Is the world in the hyped up state of chaotic disarray that the media portrays? The only source of news from my home continent is that of Fox news and Good Morning America. I've been trying to stay tuned in to Reuters, but is it a realistic source for things that matter to me, or have ever mattered to me? What was it I used to read about every morning on the train after relenting to accept a free paper from the news lepers? If memory serves, (it probably doesn't.), I read the Georgia Straight pretty often. Mostly sourcing out shows and indie comic strips. I think this is the news that mattered to me most; not what some politician said/ what sparked more media fodder until an actual story came along, not news of the Canadian military, or even news of the American military... I miss reading about what Dan Savage stuck where and what he thought about it. I miss reading about what hippie dads and lesbian moms say about local parks and RCMP horses. I miss reading about local rallies and awareness fundraisers at the VPL that I should have gone to.
Instead, I only hear news about the American election and get in biased debates with my American friends, 99% of whom are Republican. The only joy I get in American news is seeing Whoopi Goldberg do her best not to punch John McCain in the face in front of his wife on The View. I'm curious, in a slightly nervous way, about moving to America and finding the free media there just as conservative, partial, and uninformative as the AFN news feed I have at home now. While I'm sure that the same could be said of the Canadian media, I'm more than hesitant to accept it from any other country.
I see an election is approaching, and am printing out an application for an absentee ballot. I hope I can get an American friend to lend me the use of her mailbox, as the ship will be gone come election time, and god knows the Italian postal service won't get my mailing back and forth done until January at the earliest. I'm not sure yet with whom I'll give my vote. I've been trying to wrap my head around the American political system and have just today started to delve into the tangled web of Canadian political platforms.
In reading a book on the American political system, I found the famed passage: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.". It's a nice idea; I'm glad they included that in their declaration of Independance. But aside from the obvious disclusions, it highlights of hypocricy of the electoral system. According to this book, the Framers, who devised the process when founding the basic rules of government in their fledgeling country, had little confidence in the ability of the people to elect the right president. So all men (of Anglo-Saxon descent) were not created equal? Some men were not suit to form rational opinions on those things which affected their everyday lives? When Americans vote, they're not voting for a presidential candidate; they're voting for their electoral college: a body of people based on the number of congressional and senate representatives held be that state, to do their voting for them. This idea, which should by now be archaic, is actually perpetuated and worsened further by the marriage of political influence and media sensationalism. Where people should be taking note of bills being passed, they are instead fawning over who wore what to conventions. The idolization of politicians is a way to keep the "hearts and minds" of voters tuned in and dumbed down. They only know what they're told, after all.
As curious as I am to find further flaws in the Empire's democracy, I'm even more curious to learn about my own. How does Canada's system compare? Are the citizens just as removed from intellectual accountability as the average American?