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The Sinkhole
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2667
And walking back towards Wayne from the Cemetery I take some precarious shortcuts over sandstone cliffs and ledges, 20, 30 feet above rocks, clinging to crumbly handholds, stepping cautiously onto tiny 6 inch ledges, over slouched, cracked overburden that hangs just waiting to fall, it's stupid, and so having made it across safely I resolve to take the road back...
Safely making my way to the road, a disused affair blocked off on both ends, from the cliffs I could see it was abandoned, obvious washouts and sinkholes, but it beats edging along cliff faces, and after that it seems a stroll down a country lane. And looking at the rocks along the cliff as I walk down, some good ironstone beddings that look promising for fossils when...!!!
...I come to, I've fallen into a sinkhole, walked straight in, a washout hole in the middle of the road, obvious, if you were looking, obviously I wasn't, lying down upon my back I've fallen 10 feet, 2 steel culverts on either side of me, broken, dark, and rolling over in pain I see that if I'd fallen just a bit further to my right the hole extends past the reach of sunlight...
Bruised, but nothing apparently broken I find leverage climbing on the culverts, scrambling and pulling out tufts of grass manage to haul myself to the ground, pain, my leg feels - well, not broken, but definitely torn and sprained, hobbling back down to the town...
2 days now, the right leg aching and unable to bend, extend, and only briefly walk upon it, the left leg is bruised, my shoulder slightly torn, nothing broken, but the other injuries now making themselves known, the pain of my right knee, flex, extend, contract, painful when moving, when doing nothing, but it really could have been a lot worse...
And i have to laugh, of all the places misfortune could so deservedly find me it's on the unexpected country road, the quiet and uneventful walk home...
Force Majeure - Eddie Izzard
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 2198
And so I've downloaded "Force Majeure", Eddie Izzard, which I believe to be a Danish film about a relationship that goes bad when the wife discovers proof of her husbands cowardice.
It opens in English, over-the-top graphics, a comedian on stage in London, Wembley Arena, charismatic, talking on stage to an overly amused audience. And I watch it for 10 minutes, it's not funny, the jokes, "intelligent", but not, obvious, peculiar, and I keep waiting for it to cut to the drama, the Avalanche, but it's not happening, and after 20 minutes I finally fast-forward through the rest of it to discover that in fact there is a real comedian by the name of Eddie Izzard and as over-the-top as I found the opening this is apparently a real video that people watch to be amused.
Perhaps it was the fact that I was expecting something else, something - well, brighter, with a little more depth, but I'm amazed that this passes for entertainment, that people buy into this, attend the shows, laugh, buy the DVD, I'm missing something, and while he's definitely not my cup of tea I learned something new, mainly, what other people like, and I wouldn't have believed it if you told me...
Leonardo Da Vinci on Work
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Quotes
- Hits: 2034
“It vexes me greatly that having to earn my living has forced me to interrupt the work and to attend to small matters.”
Temporary Foreign Workers
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Rants
- Hits: 2538
Alberta, as of the last 5 to 10 years, like most of Canada, has seen an influx of Temporary Foreign Workers. For those outside Canada, Temporary workers are brought by businesses to Canada from places such as the Philippines or Mexico to fill low paid positions, generally in restaurants and fast food outlets.
The government's argument is that there are not enough Canadians to fill these jobs. This, of course, is absurd, there are plenty enough Canadians to fill every job in Canada. The problem, of course, is that most of these jobs offer wages and / or circumstance that no Canadian would accept; things like the Charter of Rights, basic human dignity, a living wage, are frequently disregarded in these positions. Companies that offer these "perks" don't need to hire Temporary Foreign Workers.
In a free market economy, such as the one that Stephen Harper proposes he offers Canada (the motto of Conservatives generally being "less government, more business"), if you are unable to find staff willing to work for the wages or conditions you offer you:
a) raise the price of your product
and, with the profits -
b) pay your staff more.
and/or
c) Improve the conditions they work under (hours, benefits, competent and trained management), etc,
This is called "Free Enterprise", or "Capitalism". Unfortunately, as the system stands now we are importing people from various places to:
a) Work for less than a living wage, or for a wage that most naturalized Canadians find unacceptable
b) Work for employers that cannot retain Canadian employees, due to "management style" or other issues. (In the last 2 jobs I had where TFW formed the backbone of the restaurants, they were working in environments that in any major corporation would result in a 7 figure lawsuit and out-of-court settlements).
As the situation stands, the Temporary Foreign Worker provisions are being abused by businesses that refuse to compete in a free market ( - really, wouldn't you pay 25 cents more for your McBurger/Tim Horton's coffee to know that your server was being paid a living wage and working in a respectful environment?). Face it, all businesses in the service sector would have to raise prices, as most of them are abusing the TFW provisions, so any arguments about "being competitive" are moot. The TFW provision is generally abused by employers and businesses looking to pay lower wages, no benefits, and pocket the profits.
The word for this is not capitalism, it's "Exploitation".
Summing it up, if your business model depends on low wages and dire circumstance to maintain it's profitability, maybe, just maybe, you shouldn't be in business.
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