Posts tagged Serious

Two Teared Health Care

Apr17
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Jules


Please, please, please let me pay money so that I can see a Doctor quicker.    Why cannot I not do this?  I have many socialistic tendancies and really believe that “we are all in this together” but I also believe that our health care system is broken and something’s gotta give.  We do not have socialized medicare in this country, we have socialized EMERGENCY medicare.  If you are in crisis, you will get top notch, quick, absolutely free health care.  There is not doubt in my mind that that occurs and is absolutely necessary for any medical system.  But outside of that, we are living in a two tiered world. 

When was the last time you got free glasses?  Who paid for your trip to the dentist?  Got a cast for free?  Even our presciptions are not free, heavily subsidised, but far from free.    Why is it okay for me to pay for these things but not other services?  Why should I have better oral health, or eyes, or splints because I can pay for them and someone else can’t?   The next step, in this two-tiered system that appears to be the point of no return, is to pay for regular family care and for specialits.     We cant’ pay for these so we all get in line if we need them, only exception is if you fall into that emergency category we discussed earlier.

Here is my question, and its a simple one … why not?  As I can tell, here are the arguments against furthering our two tiered medical system:

1) Private Clinics will take away all the good Doctors:  The belief here is that talent will follow the money; if you can pay you can get better service.  This is the crux of the whole debate and what people really mean when two-tiered is mentioned.  The fear that the tiers will be tiers of quality. 

Although some people follow the money, I think we’ve proven this wrong with our legal system.  We currently have two tiered legal services in this country.  Everyone has a right to counsel, under the constitution, but some of us have to pay and some of us don’t.  Having been exposed to our Legal Aid system, I can tell you that these are some of the best defence lawyers in the country.  They know their jobs inside and out; they know what to do for their client; and I WISH I could access one of them if Iever needed one.   These people could be in private practice, but chose not to because they want to serve those that need it the most.

I don’t see why that wouldn’t be the case in a two tiered medical system as well?  Look at Doctors without Borders — selfless individuals, loads of talent.  If we can make the public side attractive enough we can have a health bifurcated system. 

2) Health care will turn too much into a business:  Have you been to your family doctor lately?  Have you ever gotten in on time?  No?  Its because they try to jam as many patients as they can into one day so they are alwasy overbooked.  Why do they do this?  To get money.  Can you contact your doctor for some advice?  No?  Why?  Because they don’t do work outside of billable appointments.  So, if I want to ask my doctor a quick question, I need to book an appointment a week from now, take 1h30 off of work because I don’t know when he will see me to ask him the 5 minute question.  In the Facebook age when communication is instantaneous, I shouldn’t have to get out my horse and buggy to see my doctor.

In all honesty, I don’t blame them.  If  I only got paid for doing one thing (appointments), why would I spend any other time doing anything but that?  If you ask me, it pretty much is a business already. Here is the crappy part; even though it is a business we don’t get good customer service that comes with a business model — and since everyone is like that, you can’t even take your business elsewhere.

3) It will drain medical staff away from public clinics:  You ever stand in the line at the grocery store?  Ever been in a long line?  Yes, because you’ve been to Superstore on a Saturday.  You know that feeling you get when your 10th in line and all of a sudden another till opens up?  Even if you don’t get in that line its awesome becuase some people ahead of you go into that line and yours is shorter.  Now imagine, they charged people to go into that other line.  You know what, even if I didn’t pay, my line is now STILL SHORTER.  Good times for all.

I don’t know what the answers are but I do know that when debate is stiffled and we aren’t even allowed to try new things because of fear we get stuck.  Let’s have the debate, lets talk about how to do it right.  When something is broke, you either fix it, or it gets broken even more.  

I’m up for fixing it.

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Electial Dysfunction

Apr09
2011 1 Comment Written by Jules
 
Twice in three years? Oh no!

The last Canadian Election had the lower votest turnout EVER.  Less than 60% of Canadians bothered to walk the 12 steps to a voting booth sometime in the 8 hour they were open to mark a tick in a box.  Yeah, I can see how tiring that can be.  People say they have their reasons but lets break them down:

Twice in three years? Oh no!

1) “I don’t know who to vote for so I shouldn’t vote.”  I call this the DDUB excuse; an excuse used by intelligent people who think they are making an educated decision to not vote.   This is like saying “I don’t know what to wear so I am not going to put on pants today.”  Life is full of choices; we never have all the information.  You don’t like any of the candidates?  Return your ballot as “rejected” it will count as “none-of-the-above”.  Seriously though, man up and make a choice.

 
2) “My vote won’t make a difference.”  I could quote something that says the only thing that has ever changed the world is a small group of people but I think I will more accurately tell you that you are stupid.  Do you not understand how elections work?  One vote, one “point” for that team.  This is a manifest destiny; you don’t vote because you think the other guy will win, so the other guy wins because you don’t vote.   Your vote does give $1.75 to the party you voted for, for next time so think of it as your donation if you don’t think it will make a difference.
 
3) ”I’m not very political.”  Do you drive on a road?  Do you have a job? Do you pay tax? Then you are immersed in politics.  Just because you aren’t into the political parties doesn’t mean you are affected by politics.  You may not see a direct impact everyday but it is all around you my friends. 
 
4) “Voter Fatigue”  I don’t even know what this means.  Are we so lazy we can’t get off Netflix for 20 minutes and read the Globe and Mail to see what’s going on?  Did you know that political parties will pick you up to go vote — pick you up.  As long as you can wipe your own ass your covered everywhere else. 
 
5) “I have no arms and can’t mark the ballot”  I hear this one all the time.  Put the pen in your mouth.  ‘Nuff said.
 
6) “I don’t have time”  You know you can get like up to 3 hours off from work to vote.  Don’t work? Then you gots lots of time.  How can we make this any easier people?!!
 
There are many things I cannot do.  I can’t travel in time; although I know exactly what I would do if I could.  I can’t wear a size 38 pant, although I know exactly what I would do if I could.  Even more so, there are very few things we can ALL do as Canadians.    We can all roll up the rim; We can all complain about the weather; and we can all vote.  Four out ot ten Canadians sit at home on election day.    Don’t be one of them. 
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“That’s so Gay” and other odd phrases.

Apr08
2011 3 Comments Written by Jules

We’ve all heard it. Some of us use it; the word “gay” as a derrogatory word — but not your traditional derrogation. “That parking job was so gay.” “You can’t come to the party tonight? Gay!” What does it all mean, and who are we being derrogatory towards. Way way back when, Aristotle formulated the idea of the enthymeme. The enthymeme is a logical construct where there is an unstated premise. In a standard logic statement A = B; B=C; therefore A = C. In an enthymeme, we skip to the A=C becuase we already know about “B”

For example; I could say A) Buffets have a lot of food. B) People who eat a lot of food get fat. Therefore C)if you eat at a buffet all the time you will get fat. But I don’t say that, I say something like “Hey Robyn, if you wanna watch your weight you better quit eating at Bonanza”. We ALL know that buffets are fattening, its something we don’t need to state. I even threw in another enthymeme there that Bonanza is well known for its buffets — unstated premises all over the place!

The problem is, when the unstated premise we all share isn’t shared by everyone OR worse, has another meaning completely! “Gay” is the perfect example of this. In most Thirtynothing circles, calling someone “gay” isn’t actually making fun of homosexuals, its making fun of people who make fun of homosexuals. Here is how the enthymeme goes:

Homophobes don’t like gays. Homophobes use the term “gay” to put someone or something down. We don’t like homophobes. We think that using “gay” as a derrogatory term is just plain stupid. Therefore “gay” to us means “as-stupid-as-calling-someone-gay”.

So the phrase “You can’t come to the party? That is so gay” can be literally translated as “You can’t come to the party? I think that is as ridiculous as a homophobe thinking that being gay is bad.” As you can see, it doesn’t roll off the tongue as nicely. But this is the wonder of our language. Its why kids today wonder why the Flintstones were having a “gay” old time back in the early 60s — language changes and evolves. Words can even take on completely different and somtimes opposite connotations over time. Think of old words we use today that really don’t mean what is happening: I am going to “dial” that number you gave me. Did you “tape” that show for me? When does that new “albulm” come out? These are words that are only 20 years old but we don’t dial, tape, or albulm anything anymore — imagine how many more words have changed, died, and were ressurected with completely new meanings?

The problem with these transition times are when you still have people using the old meaning, so when others aren’t in on the complex enthymeme they don’t know if you are using the old connotation or the new one. So if I said “You park like a gay” someone may think I don’t like homosexuals, and for some weird reason, think they cannot park. When really I just mean their parking is as ridculous as a person using the word gay as a derrogatory remark — so ridiculous.

In the end, you gotta take risks when you communicate, and especially if you want to be funny. Sometimes you risk offending, but you hope most of the time the people you are targeting are in on the enthymeme and get what you are trying to do. Like the Kids In the Hall have said about the incomparable comedian “Le Poopy” — “Where most comedians go from A to B, Le Poopy goes from A, circles around B and lands on the very unpopular C”.

Stick that in your enthymeme and smoke it!

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