So, I was surfing the web earlier, more or less a result of my tendency towards procrastination. You see, I want to write something for a blog entry, but the one that I have been working on got out of hand, ended up being very long and not particularly focused. So, it needs to be trimmed down and improved, possibly made into two blog entries.
The problem is that my mind seems to be unfocused at the moment. Despite the most restful day off that I have enjoyed in weeks, my mind still feels a bit cloudy and sluggish, if you will. And so, I began just screwing around on the web, which is something that I do sometimes, when I am trying to wake myself up. It sometimes works as well as a slap in the face. Other times? Well, not so much.
In any case, I happened to stumble on a very interesting read. It was interesting in more ways than one. You see, it was a humorous piece on one person's journey to get away from 'American socialism", in particular Obamacare, and escape to freedom in Canada, which itself already has universal, affordable healthcare. And healthcare is a subject that I felt strongly about since I was at least a teenager, and perhaps younger even still. My father, who is French, extolled the virtues of a more affordable, universal healthcare system, or "socialized medicine", or whatever you want to label it. That is what they had in France and, he was quick to point out, what they had in every single industrialized nation but the United States. Oh, and South Africa, but those were the days of apartheid, and the whites were pretty well taken care of, so we can guess who that was targeting, right?
Eventually, South Africa broke the shackles of apartheid and got a "one man, one vote", multiracial democracy. Not long after, they set up their own system of universal, affordable healthcare, leaving the United States as the lone industrialized nation yet to have such a system in place. That means that some people simply cannot afford the costs of their healthcare. Their insurance companies often deny specific coverage or procedures, because it will be pricey. They themselves cannot afford it, of course. Some people lose their good health, because they cannot afford proper healthcare. In some cases, surely, people lose their lives, because they cannot afford the right medicine, or the right procedure. In other documented cases, some others have lost their jobs, their homes, and their quality of life, because they could not afford to pay those enormous bills. In the meanwhile, the health insurance companies are making an absolute killing! Record profits, and that means that they are literally profiting from people's pain. Now, I don't know what your definition of evil is, but that fits mine to a t.
Yet, Americans get offended when Obama talks about wanting to implement an affordable healthcare system. Automatically, they assume it's a scam, a rip off. In many cases, they think it's some evil government ploy towards greater control, a step towards dictatorship. First, they take your healthcare away, next your guns, and finally, you'll be given a one way ticket to a new, American Auschwitz.
Sound ridiculous? Yes, it does to me as well. Not that a holocaust can't happen here. Of course it can, and we need to be on guard for it. In fact, we already have had such a period of genocide - just ask the native people!
But the irrational fears surrounding any and all efforts to actually improve the healthcare system, and make it more accessible to the average American, is just absurd. If you buy into the Tea Party mentality, then it will cost you big time - unless you are rich, of course. Then, you will probably get a big load of money instead, because that is clearly what the nation prioritizes at present. Yes, they get extremely offended by Obamacare. Yet, they don't seem to care when the same drugs that are made here are sold here for much higher prices than they are when sold to Canada,, where there are strict price regulations. The exact same drug, from the exact same place. Still, many Americans have to go to Canada and get their drugs there, because they cannot afford it in their own country, even though it is made here. Now, I would call that a scam. But do Americans even seem to notice? Apparently not.
There are a lot of problems in the United States right now, but few of them bother me like this one issue does. Americans let the opportunity to get a truly improved healthcare system go by, time and time again. They are actively working against their own best interests, and more often than not, doing so with a willful, militantly stupid pride. That almost makes me feel ashamed to be an American.
Indeed, I am not rich, and so the thought of possibly moving to another country was attractive at times. In particular, Canada often seemed the best option. It is close, and has a lot of benefits to it. It is similar to the United States, yet different in many positive ways. It is similar in some respects to Europe, particularly Britain and France, in their own way. Yet, again, it is very different in it's own way.
Canada is perennially overlooked and, frankly, underestimated by many Americans who systematically dismiss it, so entrenched is their sense of superiority and Americentrism.
But Canada actually has a lot going for it, a lot to offer. It is a diverse land, with beautiful shoreline, endless prairies and even deserts, soaring, snow-capped mountain peaks, and many woodlands. There are some incredible cities, from the biggest, Toronto, which was rated the most ethnically diverse city in the world, as well as the city with the most green spaces, to the bilingual metropolis of Montreal, which still retains some of the old, French charm from colonial days, to Vancouver, the temperate metropolis on the West Coast, to Ottawa, a handsome city with a good blend of both Francophone and Anglophone culture, to Quebec City, which retains much of it's Old World charm and would not be out of place in Europe, to other cities that I personally am not nearly as familiar with, like Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg.
This is a country where the third (unofficial) language is from Asia, not Europe. This is a country that has a very high standard of living, and to my mind's eye, retains the best qualities of both North America and Europe, while retaining it's own unique identity. The streets, even in the big cities, tend to be much cleaner and safer than their American counterparts. It is a country that values education. It is a country with many of the same benefits that you find in Europe and other industrialized nations, but also enjoys the wide open expanses and natural, unspoiled beauty of the United States.
Yet, personally, I know some Americans who seem to make a point of not coming here, of not exploring Canada, and who refuse to take the place seriously. In some cases, I have heard them say such things outright. In other cases, it is more subtle, yet still clear: they have no interest, and I mean no interest, in going to Canada.
I have gone to Canada - numerous times. To the point that some people thought I was obsessed. I even had one friend (and he was probably voicing the opinion of others who were not so bold as to say this outright) who would kind of huff and puff and express clear fatigue whenever I made plans to go to Canada.
"Don't you get tired of seeing the same thing, over and over again?"
Now, this guy would take many of the same vacations. At the point of the conversation that I am specifically remembering, he was making plans to go to Las Vegas- not for the first, or even second, time. I just sighed, and remained silent on the clear hypocrisy. As if gong to Las Vegas is so different, and so exciting, original, and imaginative! As if going to "Canada", a huge country thousands of kilometers from east to west and from north to south, and with tremendous diversity in the various regions within, were the same thing. But he did not know enough about Canada to make any distinctions. He did not see going to Old World Quebec as different than going to the modern, bustling city of Toronto. It might as well have been the same thing to him, when I would go to the Maritime provinces, as when I would spend a week in Vancouver and Victoria, or visit Niagara Falls.
To me, that argument that going to "Canada", no matter what part, is doing the same thing, over and over again, is as ridiculous as suggesting that a trip to New England is the same as a trip to Florida, or perhaps a venture to the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone would be the same thing as a trip to Texas, or Alaska. Nobody would think that these are the same vacations, or even close. Same thing with a trip to the Canadian Rockies (which I have not yet had the pleasure of going to yet), or to the fishing villages of the east, or the Great Lakes region of Canada, or to Cape Breton Island, or to Newfoundland. Nobody with any real idea of what those places are like should assume that they are all the same because they all happen to be a part of "Canada". Suggesting such a thing is much more of a statement on the person saying it, then on the country that they are saying it about.
The sad part is that many Americans make the same, dismissive judgments. This is a thing that has earned Americans the ire of many around the world: their all too common ignorance of anything outside of American borders. Hell, in many cases, there is equal ignorance about places within American borders, but that's another story altogether.
We can extend this mixture of arrogance and ignorance on the part of far too many Americans to political realities, as well. Again, "American exceptionalism", which I consider an unofficial, but de facto political doctrine that a large percentage of Americans subscribe to without ever thinking seriously about, lends them that false sense of superiority to everyone else, as well. The thinking behind it seems to be this: the United States has long been the richest, most powerful country in the world: the envy of everyone outside of America's sacred borders. So, they should drop everything that they are doing, and just follow our example.
That the reality within the borders of these other nations is not nearly as nightmarish as most Americans automatically assume is lost on them. I remember being in a class one time, where the teacher was speaking about Europe, and using this conveniently as a way to praise things right here in America. He literally talked about how nobles in Europe were enriching themselves by "stepping on the necks of peasants", and everyone (except me) within the room laughed knowingly. No one disagreed, or even questioned it, and I choose my battles in this regard, and thus also remained silent.
When Americans (and again, there are many of them) make a point of not traveling outside of the national borders, they are doing themselves a disservice, without ever pausing to try and understand this. Because Canada is one of those countries that has many of the same domestic policies and government programs that we here in the United States systematically demonize. It has what many neocons would call "socialized medicine", a derogatory term for many Americans, and never fails to send chills down their spines. But no two countries have the same precise health care systems, and this includes all of those numerous nations (every industrialized nation but the United States, that is) which have such a system in place. The Canadian system differs from the British system, which differs from the French system, which differs from the German, which differs from what they have in Australia. The only people who assume it is correct to lump them all into the same pile (all the better to dismiss them as a real option) would be...(yes, you guessed it!) Americans.
If more Americans traveled to Canada and saw for themselves the lifestyle and general standard of living, maybe they would not be as filled with irrational fears about how any and every attempt to remedy the myriad injustices and failures within the American health care system are not, as many claim, simply smokescreens for a Socialist-Fascist (as if those two things were one and the same) dictatorial takeover.
The fact of the matter is that Canadians seem to like what they have up there. And if anyone knows Americans well (better, I would even suggest, than Americans themselves, simply because they are not Americans, and can thus better see what's what with some measure of objectivity), it is Canadians. So they can see the alternative, and yet they still continue to choose, over and over again, a system that differs from the American model, in almost every substantive way. That, to me, is telling. It is not filled with irrational fears. They simply look, they see the glaring failures of income inequality and the extreme focus on profits for the few at the expense of the many, which is the current American political reality, and they decide that is not for them. Unlike in the United States, this is based on a real look at the example of others, rather than some stale political soundbites and one-liners, clearly motivated by controlling, vested interests. In Canada, the people come before profits more so than they do in the US. There have been attempts by some to dismantle the healthcare system. But the people rise up and defend themselves, unlike most Americans.
The result speaks for itself. Canadians have one of the highest standards of living in the world - higher than Americans. True, they might not generally have quite as many cars parked in their driveway or garages. They might not have as many televisions and homes quite as outlandishly big as those found in America. But what they have is a country that is more balanced, and not quite so consumed by their own sense of grandeur and self-importance. What they have is a beautiful country that works better than their southern counterpart, and a willingness to make things work there.
Also, and this is an advantage that I think Canadians have over Americans as well as many Europeans, Canadians tend to be very modest. They are not weighed down by their own sense of self-importance. As huge as the country is in terms if size (the second biggest nation geographically), it is relatively small in terms of population (hovering around thirty or so million). For a long time, it has been completely overshadowed by the United States, to the point that former Prime Minister Trudeau compared being neighbors to such a huge country to sleeping next to an elephant. Any time the slightest noise emanates, you take notice. You have to. In the meantime, people seem to forget about Canada, and perhaps that has lent them the flexibility not to take themselves too seriously.
In other words, they are not so full of themselves that they cannot learn from the examples of others on the outside. That is a character trait that I could not only admire, but outright identify with. There were times when I felt more at home, and more a sense of attachment, to Canada, than to either Europe or the United States.
I wish we had that here. Better still: I wish that I was a Canadian.
So, here is the article that started me off on this fairly familiar topic. It is a humorous look at Canada, and the extreme, knee-jerk reaction by many Americans. Within the article are links to other articles that delve a little deeper into specific issues, where Canada generally and genuinely ranks higher than the United States. I particularly liked the last article, which was written by a formerly hard-line core conservative American woman, who reluctantly came to live in Canada and found, not an Orwellian, socialist nightmare state, but a country that, on many levels, does things better and enjoys a higher standard of living than her own. Here are the links:
"Screw You Guys, I’m Going To Canada" posted by Jeremy in Travel section of defocus.net, July 28, 2012
http://www.defocus.net/2012/07/niagara-falls.html#more-410
Canadians Are Richer Than They Think:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/canadians-are-richer-than-they-think/article4380634/
"UK AND US MUCH LESS SOCIALLY MOBILE THAN AUSTRALIA AND CANADA" by Social Mobility Summit 2012:
http://www.suttontrust.com/news/news/uk-and-us-much-less-socially-mobile-than-australia-and-canada/
"Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs" by JASON DePARLE of the New York Times, January 4, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/us/harder-for-americans-to-rise-from-lower-rungs.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&
Canadians live longer, healthier than Americans: study | Reuters:
http://www.globalaging.org/health/world/2010/candians_longer.htm
Canadians live longer, healthier on average than Americans: study by Sheryl Ubelacker, Health Reporter, The Canadian Press:
http://bc.ctvnews.ca/canadians-live-longer-healthier-on-average-than-americans-study-1.507023
Read more: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/canadians-live-longer-healthier-on-average-than-americans-study-1.507023#ixzz2jx9NeVXX
Here is the link to that article from the once hard-line conservative American woman who came to Canada expecting the worst, and learned some very different realities than the ones that her political leanings had gotten her to expect. I added a quote from the article here, because it showed the comparisons between the two countries in ways that most Americans are never exposed to - meaning, the comparisons are favorable to Canada, generally. This is a thought provoking article, and I do hope you take a look at it! Here it is:
"And lest you think that the Canada system is draining the government resources, their budget is very close to balanced every year. They’ve had these programs for decades. Last year Canada’s national debt was 586 billion dollars, the USA has 15.5 trillion dollars in national debt. Canada has about one 10th the population of the US, so even accounting for size, the USA is almost 3 times more indebted. And lest you think that taxes are astronomical, our median income taxes each year were only slightly higher than they had been in the States, and we still got a large chunk of it back each year at tax time."
"How I Lost My Fear of Universal Health Care" by Vyckie Garrison, No Longer Qivering, July 16, 2012
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/07/16/how-i-lost-my-fear-universal-health-care/
No comments:
Post a Comment