Perfect World:
Destiny of Poor: Where every poor qualify for basic needs of food, shelter,
education, career training, job and compete for their wants.
Few centuries back,
workers were physically slaves of employers. They had every possible
restriction on their freedom, enjoyment,
family time, socializing, leisure time, education, planning and so on… They
were pure slaves
or
STEEL CHAIN SLAVES
In
21st century people are enjoying freedom from imperialism and dictatorship in
most part of the world and enjoy the freedom of speech, religious practices,
career choice, family time, family planning and so on….
But it
is evident from recent studies and debates arising out of Gates Foundations analysis and proposed action on destiny of poor
children and social reformer Cody's analysis and proposed action plan on destiny of poor,
that they both differ from each other. Differ more than day and night.
How they differ from
each other is one issue but second issue is why they differ head to head. Why
their take on destiny of poor children are that much different.
Again it is evident
that both belongs to two different classes of society. GF emerges from Wealthy
environment and Social Reform emerges
from Non-Wealthy environment. In other words one represent Rich and other represent
Poor of United States of America (USA).
Even though GF want to be generous to Poor but GF does not understand the Poor
in same as Poor understand Poor.
It won't be wrong to
say, even though very unfortunate, that in past history, worker was PURE SLAVE to the employer (Wealthy) and today
they are DEMOCRATIC SLAVE - SLAVE BY YOUR
OWN CHOICE.
Yes, we are enjoying
the democracy and our rights and have freedom to choose our career and
employer. But friends wake up, you are definitely not a PURE SLAVE today but
still you are DEMOCRATIC SLAVES - SLAVE BY YOUR OWN CHOICE.
I know most people
would call it a non sense statement or analogy. But don't worry I will do my
best to open your eyes , and particularly I will open the eyes of those who
think they are Wealthy and Rich, but they are not… I mean a class in between
Rich and Poor… I mean a Middle Class and Upper Middle Class.
In old times one can
see a slave from his appearance and personality. Lets be straight, you as a
SLAVE was seen with naked eyes from the STEEL CHAINS around your neck and feet so that
you could not run away. But the problem in democracy is that you can not see
those e STEEL CHAINS around your body. But STEEL CHAINS are now all around your
body but you can not see it. Should I say the destiny of poor is in the hands
of poor or in the hands of Wealthy and Rich. Majority of poor will argue that
it is the Government and their employer.
Some who grew out of poverty to richness would blame poor for their destiny.
They will argue that if I can make it why not others. No Rich or Wealthy
stopped me from becoming rich.
On other hand
Wealthy and Rich will argue that we worked our as… off to get there and we
worked hard that is why we are enjoying our wealth. Wealthy will argue
that poor is poor because he/she chose
too. Their destiny is in their hand and not ours. They mean destiny of poor is
in the hands of poor.
Let me take you back
to era of Kings. Kings were wealthy.. They enjoyed every thing… they had
multiple queens… luxurious palaces… diamonds, gold and so on. Now wait a second
here. Did any King collected that stuff by himself. Where did all that wealth
come from? Did they inherent it.. Most would say yes and some may say no. If
they inherent it then where did their ancestors got it from?
Oh! By the way most
of you may be wondering that who is slave in today's world. I am pretty sure
you must be figuring out that pretty much every one is slave other than you and
other poor must be thinking the same way you are.. And if everyone thinks live
you then it means there is no slave in this world… I may have exaggerated a bit
because some always think they are poor regardless how much wealth they hoard
in their treasure.
But my friend if you
are not in top 5-10% of population of the world's top wealthy people then you
are poor even if you have nice house, cars, family and RRSPs, GICs and worse
come worse, even if you working as CEO of multi-national company. So don't look
around for a poor, you are a poor. Especially if you have a slight interest in
this article and you have not thrown the article away in dust bin or flipped to
another article, then you are poor. Most importantly if your worth is not in
Billions then definitely you are not Wealthy and Rich.
Most multi-million companies are not poor either. In nut
shell all employee regardless of their status or designation and small
businesses are poor in my debate. Small farmers and land lords except huge
landlords are also poor. But here we are going to debate about those who are
really poor and middle class. For the sake of simplicity I could exclude the
upper middle class as well from our poor category, even though they are poor in
one way or the other. May be some other time I will elaborate on that as well.
Oh! By the way my
definition of DEMOCRATIC SLAVE is not over yet. In old time, all color people
were mostly slaves except one may with the white color. I am not mentioning
about the color to put down any color here but to explain that DEMOCRATIC
SLAVES comes in all colors and includes white as well. Well my friend we all
are slaves regardless of our race, color, gender, country as long as we don't
belong to Wealthy and Rich class. Our destiny is destiny of poor.
Yes! We were talking
about Kings and Royals! How did they become rich? Because some other
adventurer people were ready to offer
their services to them in exchange of some small percentage of wealth to them.
Those people became loyal to the King. Slowly a big army gathered around the
King. Now King have the power and people are willing to work for them for a
small percentage. Slowly the lower ranks of army were offered a lump sum salary
so that upper ranks and King could keep bigger share.
To divide the shares
properly a proper government was formed to look after the interests of King,
Upper ranks, middle ranks and lower ranks. Lower ranks got the least and have
to offer the most in return. It was lower ranks who have to move forward in wars
and kill each other on either fronts. To motivate them middle rank was also
pushed to the front to command them. After all destiny of poor is no different
on the wars fronts either.
I am not trying to
tell you the history, but trying to remind you how King became powerful and how
army at lower rank get the least but pay the most. And who made them RICH and
Wealthy and Powerful. The poor made them Rich and Wealthy and Powerful. Poor became
loyal to them and Loyalty of poor made their masters Royals. Poor worked Hard,
Poor took Risks, Poor defend the
borders, Poor serve the King, Poor serve the higher ranks and government , Poor
die for country and at the end poor get trapped in slavery. What a destiny of
poor.
Unfortunately in
today's world the destiny of poor, is the destiny of you and me. And in today's
world there are multiple Kings in all countries including China, Russia,
Canada, USA, England, India, Germany, France and rest of the world. The
historical King lost its value and new KINGS emerged in our democracy. During
old King's regimes not all poor were slaves. Don't be fooled that our
politicians are our Kings. It is the Wealthy and Rich and their Corporations
that are the new KINGS-the Democratic Kings. Our governments simply collect
revenue from poor workers and may some
from Wealthy and Rich and their corporations, and distribute back for public
services and bail outs to big corporations. Green House Emission Credits,
Subsidies and Grants and much more…. Of course they have to write a check to
themselves. Politicians and CEO and similar positions deserve more because they
work hard more than poor!!!! I guess they work more than 24 hours a day! May be
longer clock cycle for them from others!!What a destiny of poor worker! Don't
think I do not appreciate the creativity of individuals. But not at the cost of
poor workers.
But, ironically, in
today's world, every poor is DEMOCRATIC SLAVE for the rich and wealthy. Small
employers are not really part of Democratic Kings but some try to be and could
be even more worse and cruel and inconsiderate to employees benefits than the
big employers, I mean Democratic Kings.
So today's Kings are
Wealthy and Rich who are less than 5-10% of world population and they are
surrounded by Smaller Kings called corporations who take care of their
interests.
You may wondering
where to position our democratic governments which safeguards the destiny of
poor. At least we have our own democratic government to safeguard the interests
of poor worker.
Unfortunately,
present governments are not much different from old King's governments. The
elected people are mostly from worker
class, I mean poor class, but once they get power of people, the Wealthy and
Rich keep their eyes on them. The Wealthy and Rich find ways to pamper them
without their knowledge. Some liked to be pampered. After all human nature!
They reward them for
their best emotional and cheesy public speeches and agendas and honor them in
every sense to keep them very close by lucrative election funds but at same
time put all the stress in the world on their shoulders to tell them that if they
want more prosperity in their region, they got to give their corporations some
kind of special advantages. They must go back and tell public that we have
found some Godfathers who will boost our economy provided we give them some
incentives. A little break here and a little break there. If not they may go to
our neighbor province and we may loss the opportunity for ever. Godly Angels!
Alberta grabbed ample amount of corporations from BC based on less corporate
taxes and some other incentives before new Millennium.
Some politicians
don't buy it. They don't want to give any brake to Wealthy and Rich class and
their corporations and they do stand solid and firm in public interest. Guess
what! they are not trusted by people in long run because Wealthy and Rich knows
how to play a ball to stump out those public-advocates. They have two powerful
strategies in their hands. The politicians and the control of media. These are
most powerful vehicles that have the ability to influence the public opinions
from negative to positive or vice-versa. Kings used to torture public-advocates
with their Governing power and with the help of their loyal army. Today, that
is not the case. Today's public-advocates are failed or side lined by influencing the public opinion.
One thing we all know and they know as well that public opinion is supreme and
can not be ignored. In democracy the biggest tool to play with is, the
Public-Sympathy and Public wave by shifting the public-opinion from negative to
neutral or negative to positive and vice-versa.
Just an example, in
last 3 consecutive terms in BC, Canada, voters have outcasted the NDP (a
strong opponent). Why ? Do you think Liberals are better economists than
NDPers. Or they know different politics than NDPers other than their ideology
of left or right.
Liberals did not do
much constructive other than visible construction like roads, bridges and
few hospitals that made public think that our province is progressing. They
were smart enough to leveraged on it. As a matter of fact they cut down major
funding to all public sectors services and even worse they privatized
government institutions as many as they could.
Froze the minimum wages for past whole decade. Decreased minimum wages
for students from $8 to $6. During same decade what happened to cost of living!
In last decade the
price of Canadian Dollar (Our Loonie) had lost its valve less than half. The
same house which was say 2,50,000 Canadian dollars in 2002 are now selling for
more than 5,00,000 Canadian dollars. Gasoline has more than doubled in this period.
Grocery and any other thing you name it have also almost doubled in same
period.
To maintain the same
standard of living, average Canadian have to double his/her earning to off set
the rising cost of living. But that is absolutely not happening. The average
Canadian income did not even increase by 25%. Just a small example minimum wage
in BC jumped from 8 dollar to 10.25 dollars. That is not the true picture to
reflect the economy of province or country but definitely a bench mark for wage
increase comparison for poor Canadian
workers and that is what we are most concerned about. Because majority belong
there. Why minimum wage is a major issue. Because majority of Canadian worker
get paid around that dollar figure or may be a slightly more to show the rest
that we pay more by 25 cent or dollar or few more.
General minimum wage by province
|
Alberta
|
$9.40
|
|
British Columbia
|
$10.25
|
|
Manitoba
|
$10.00
|
|
New Brunswick
|
$10.00
|
|
Newfoundland and Labrador
|
$10.00
|
|
Northwest Territories
|
$10.00
|
|
Nova Scotia
|
$10.15 ($9.65 for
inexperienced workers)
|
|
Nunavut
|
$11
|
|
Ontario
|
$10.25 ($9.60 student minimum)
|
|
P.E.I.
|
$10
|
|
Quebec
|
$9.90
|
|
Saskatchewan
|
$9.50
|
|
Yukon
|
$9.27
|
(Source: Human Resources and
Skills Development Canada)
Minimum
wage increase for British Columbia workers
Posted
on: September 21, 2000 - 12:00am
The B.C. Government has approved
a two-step increase to the minimum wage, from $7.15 an hour to $7.60 an hour
effective November 1, 2000 and to $8.00 an hour effective November 1, 2001.
There has not been an increase in the minimum wage since April 1998.
The Minimum wage was
frozen by Liberal government to $8.00 for almost a decade until it moved up to
$10.25. In other words when everything was getting over the double price mark
in the market, the labour rate were frozen to $8.00 per hour. Even worse for
students, Liberals lowered the minimum wage for new student workers to $6.00
per hour.
If we carefully
examine these numbers, show me how Liberals helped the economy to grow. Unless
there measure to economy is some strange way like Inflation Rate, which are
beyond the comprehension of average Canadians. If one does not understand these
numbers , then how can one make an informed decision. To keep peoples focus
away from real issues politicians and media always find ways to make some one
scapegoat to make fun of it so that public keep enjoying those politician's
gimmicks to keep public away from informed decisions. In past decade minorities
in BC were branded with BLOCK VOTING labels and media made it a big deal out of
it.
When Tim Uppal lost in Conservative nomination during 2005
in Alberta, Canada, that was also a some sort of block voting when but nobody cared because that
would not serve the purpose for the party in power. It would have gone
completely against the party and moreover block voting was by majority voters
and not minority voters. Where was the media?
So called Block
Voters were looked by politicians, media and majority public as political
aliens who know nothing about politics! One of community that was in lime light
was Punjabi Sikh community. But same community always balanced out elected
officials on both sides of the political scale. Same community never elects
same party three times consecutive in elections in Punjab, there native
province in India. But that is not my rationale. Whether they are Block voters
or not is not my point and neither that Block voters are good or bad.
Uninformed voters regardless how educated they are, are BLOCK VOTERS to me.
Voting without proper knowledge of provincial and country economy is BLOCK
VOTING, which simply rely on number of sign boards on roads, more exposure on
national and main stream media, more creative and cartoonistic negative
advertisement against each other and so on. Public hardly knows what
politicians do on daily basis and what are their progress. This may be the
other reason, why lot of voters do not
vote. And who know they may have good chunk of progressive voters in it.
Every worker get paid based on their
efficiency and performance and get evaluated every year, except Politicians!
Why? Half a minute coverage on main stream media does not reflect their
progress and performance on daily basis!
If people do not completely understand the
concept of Inflation Rate and
Value of Canadian Dollar in BC and Canada, then what type of informed
decision they are making to vote for democratic government. Voters may be
involved in forums, public debates, candidates
and their party agenda but most of them don't understand why things are
working the way it should be. It is my guess that majority voters never
bothered about decline in Canadian Dollar to less than half, in last decade
during regime of Liberals in BC, Canada. Still voters of BC elected Liberals
again. Either I am missing something or voters may simply keep on voting in a
hope that next government may do something better than before.
I am not debating
which party in BC is better. That is not my point. My point is most voters are
workers and workers are poor. And in order to make an informed decision one
must understand the economy of country and factors influencing it. It is
governments job to inform the voters especially Election Commission of Canada
and provinces. Every graduate must understand it completely before graduation.
But ask any graduate about Inflation Rate and how economy works!
I bet they will say one thing, "It is
complicated". Not Clear About it. No Clue about it. Destiny of Poor is some what in the hands
of educators ,who decides what to teach.
How come, if every
citizen is a party in democratic system
and we have responsibility to elect officials (MP, MLA, Senate???), then why it
is not a part of our public education curriculum. Any thoughts! Don't know or
don't bother…please discuss with your friends at coffee time. That would be the
best coffee break for you in your life time. Because DESTINY OF POOR is nothing
else other than future of yours, mine and our children.
Obviously there is
reason behind it. Someone going to be disadvantaged! The politicians
have to work hard on real issues. Yes they are working hard even now but not
much on issues but to hide their inabilities and their hidden agendas and their
inability to comprehend the economy completely as well. After all they went to
same schools as you did. If you don't know how economy works, then don’t blame
them for it. If any politician thinks he/she does, then I openly challenge to
come forward and explain to people why COST OF LIVING DOUBLED in past 12 years
and EARNING POWER did not doubles in past 12 years and yet inflation rate in
Canada is below 1%.
My point is not to
put down anybody here. But definitely I would love to see politicians and
voters analyse the past 12 years in depth and ask yourself and others what went
wrong in the system. Who is at fault? The Voters….The Politicians…The Political
Parties…The Social Institutions…The Education System… The Media…The
Corporations….The Wealthy and Rich… The Parents….The Grandparents… Our
Ancestors….
Who is wrong ? What
is wrong? Where is the fault? How can we fix?
I spent all day
writing it and I am tired, now it is your turn to take it forward.. Where?????
Any where, but away
from rising cost of living and un-proportionate increase in earnings to cost of
living for poor and rich.
In past decade the
poor have become more poor and rich have become more rich. How we are going to
plug that difference so that inappropriate share of wealth does not pour into
the courtyard of Wealthy and Rich; and Poor
does not suffer from hard work, stress, depression and Poor would not be
deprived of ones standard of living.
Otherwise rising cost of living are such STEEL
CHAINS of slavery around every neck of
worker in this world that people will have to pay to breath to survive to their
DEMOCRATIC KINGS. The level of rising cost of living (STEEL CHAINS) are rising
at very fast pace and very soon its level will be up to your and mine nose,
which would be much worse than STEEL CHAINS.
DEMOCRATIC SLAVERY
has shown its toll in past decade. Some may have become millionaire in past
decade by selling their real estate but majority have lost the hope of having a
single family home in cities and enough food and clothing to survive.
Perfect World:
Destiny of Poor: Where every poor qualify for basic needs of food, shelter,
education, career training, job and compete for their wants. That should be the
minimum agenda for every Poor voter, Concerned Politicians and Generous Wealthy
and Rich.
And that is the most
problematic situation in today's world. Canada and similar countries have
doubled in cost of living in past decade, India have gone almost more than 10 times in cost of living and rest
of world is no different to these numbers. Whether it is China, Japan, Korea,
Philippines, Russia, Pakistan, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Germany, France,
Holland, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Uganda, Iran, Iraq, Canada, USA, Cuba, New Zealand, Australia and whether it is Surrey, Vancouver, Paris, London, Bombay,
Delhi, Tokyo, Rome…we all are going to suffer from this present economic system
of DEMOCRATIC KINGS and DEMOCRATIC SLAVES…way more than past century STEEL
CHAIN SLAVES.
Deepak Chopra: ‘Immigration Is Us,’ an American Story (via http://kindle-2-ereader.com)
