- Eyad Jamaleddine
George Washington once advocated that “Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” It seems that my fellow men, up over here, in the great North, also known as Quebec Canada fail to see the paradox in the latter statement. As a servant of society, a Bioengineer, I often meet a variety of individuals. At the University, I’m always happy to welcome new coming students from south of our border but never fail to underestimate the American zeal that they bring with them.
At times I wonder how such a great Nation as the United-States of America, the men and woman who extended the far reaches of humanity with the Apollo program, who mesmerized the world hundreds of years before and declared independence from a tyrannical Empire can wither out and die. It is not financial death that troubles me, when one looks at the situation at hand; it is easy to see through the veils of government owned media and propaganda that the deck of cards had been tampered with, so to speak. It isn’t even the failures of a non-ending war on terror, terror becoming a never seen, never known enemy that is continually changing to meet government interests. It is the death of freedom that makes me wonder. How did it happen that ideology in itself ceased to exist? You might wonder how can ideology die. Well when one cannot form his own ideas, when a well-oiled corporate media machine runs the show, ideas become property of the state and thus ideology; the quest of idealism in itself becomes dependent on a foreign agent’s beliefs and not one’s own.
I felt compelled to write when a fellow student, a fervent Obama supporter noted how Quebec and the US would become much alike. The latter, in his opinion, becoming a Socialist country and the former already being a socialist Province. Point given, big government does have advantages, free health care, government run schools, enterprise, utility companies etc. But let’s look at Quebec for instance, the second most taxed place in the world, by first taking a look at our health care system.
If one were to have the unfortunate chance of breaking a bone or get any condition requiring immediate medical assistance than he or she would have to wait between 12 and 20 hours in an ER waiting room before being seen by a doctor. Oncology (cancer treatment) facilities are so backed up that many patients die on the waiting lists. I have witnessed with my own eyes a pregnant woman waiting 13 hours to see a doctor and fainting in the bathroom after loosing a substantial amount of blood and a 5-week-old fetus before being rushed into surgery. Just recently a man died in another waiting room after going to a local hospital because he felt chest pain and waited over 8 hours… Cause of death? A mild stroke.
That said, let’s take a look at government run services, such as the ministry of transport. Well Quebec roads are an utter and complete disaster. Potholes cause countless deaths and injuries every year simply because road construction is done cheaply by government subcontractors, as taxpayer money is laundered for other causes. Some rebut that harsh weather is the cause, when Eastern Ontario roads and Vermont roads are exposed to the same weather yet do not display a tenth of wear that Quebec Roads do.
The educational system on the other hand is probably one of the worst in Canada. Many middle class families are forced to send their children to private school hoping to free them from the burden of public institutions.
Having given these few examples, please consider that Quebec holds around 8 million citizens. Things are pretty bad up here; I couldn’t imagine how horrid it could become with a population rated around 306 million. Corruption would become so flagrant that no form of taxation would be able to cover the gigantic debt of a broken socialist government. Now that’s just considering it in terms of economical hardship. Most of Quebec has become a total Police State very similar to China or Washington DC. From forced ticketing taxation, where motorists are forcibly charged and guilty until proven innocent, a system where driving has become and I quote our minister of transport: “ A Privilege not a Right!” yet she indulges in driving over speed limits, getting caught by the cops, having it spill into the media and then declaring that she is, indeed, is above the law. A Police State where crime rates slowly, yet steadily are increasing. A deteriorating cancer government that engulfs our way of life and takes away every privacy that one requires. A system where Insurance Companies, shark loaning cooperatives and greedy politicians have taken away our rights and replaced them with ever growing plights. This is Socialism, a dreaded nightmare where 45% taxation isn’t enough to pay for 6-7 million dollar parties and the rest of our money laundering politician’s hobbies. We are the best example for the American people; they must look at Quebec and ask why President Obama has double the size of government? Wasn’t Bush’s tripling enough?
All in all my Southern friends Big Government equals big problems, Quebec is the example. If the US was to fall into the same paradox than newly graduated Quebec students would have to look somewhere else than South to set up a practice.
Eyad Jamaleddine is a BioMedical Engineering Student at McGill University
eyadjamaleddine.blogspot.com
