Bogdan Coman’s blog

Same subject, different story. Same subject, different view. Same subject, different coverage. Same subject, different idea. Same subject, different message. Same subject, different conclusion. Same subject, same target, us! Reality vs. Propaganda.

Reality:

Propaganda:

I will write now about how much I appreciate the job the people working for the government manage to successfully accomplish. Those people are doing an amazing job in keeping this country <insert the name of your country here> united, many light years away from disintegrating. I’m referring here to all the government paid jobs, from the garbage collectors or bus drivers to the policemen, firemen or all the other unionized jobs and eventually to the politicians, ministers and, of course, presidents.

Why do all this people sustain such a fantasy? Maybe because, just like priests, working for a living kind of thing, or competing with others in the free market by improving their knowledge, skills, or by hard working, is interfering with their level of laziness.

Making fun of government is one of the most honorable things men can do, as the government is the biggest force initiator ever invented by humankind.

Now, the problem I have is that I saw on TV this commercial from the government of Canada, for three times in 20 minutes… the add called “Infrastructure”, available at http://www.actionplan.gc.ca/eng/feature.asp?pageId=104 (it can also be downloaded from here).
The transcript is like this:

Canada’s economic action plan is working to create jobs all across the country. Together we’re improving bridges, roads and public transit. We are repairing arenas, buildings and making water cleaner. The signs are all around us. Together we are creating jobs and helping Canada’s economy emerge stronger. To learn how you can benefit visit actionplan.gc.ca. A message from the government of Canada.

So, besides that the content is a low level one, the add says the government creates jobs. I can talk a lot about how job creation works, but to be short I would just say that the government destroys jobs from the private sector in order to “create” what it advertises as “jobs”. Anyway, why would they create commercials about the jobs they “create”? Who’s the competition here? Are they thinking that during an economic recession the private companies would put together a commercial advertising the number of jobs they created? Why would they do something like this? Why are they spending money on broadcasting commercials like this on TV every 5 minutes or so? Well, we all know the answer deep inside (don’t we?), but what’s amazing is that when someone spits this into your face so many times a day, many of us don’t even ask the obvious question (e.g. “Why are they doing this?”).

So, to help with searching for the answer, my question is: can the government create jobs as long as the government is not a business, but it only survive through taxation?

If your own thinking leads you to a “Yes” answer, then probably you can unblock yourself by asking the following: If the government can create jobs, why is it not creating jobs for everybody?

I read a very honest comment on Garth Turner’s blog, which I will take the liberty to copy here:

I’m a gov’t worker and can tell you that the people I work with actually believe that their jobs are important and that they work hard. They’re nice folks, but they are none-the-less delusional.

Yeah, it’s tough working for the gov’t: flex days, jumbo pay, jumbo benefits, pension — and to think — most of us didn’t have to even finish high school to get this free ride!!

When I got my job with the gov’t years back after slogging it out in the private sector, I felt like I had won the 6/49. I knew I never had to worry about working a real job again. And to this day, I pinch myself … it’s a dream come true.

To all of you folks in the private sector — thank you so much and please continue to pay your tax dollars so that I can continue to enjoy my dream-job. If you start to feel sorry for yourself or start to resent us gov’t workers — stop. Instead send out your resume to the gov’t and you might just luck out and win the lottery like I did. Last month 46,000 new lottery winners/gov’t workers joined the workforce. Ain’t it great to be Canadian?

Sincerely,
Useless feeder/gov’t worker

PS Gimme, gimme, gimme

Refreshing, right? Actually the government is a lottery, a huge one. We all buy tickets when we get our salaries, do our grocery shopping or file our tax returns. What’s different with this lottery is that the winners are already decided. The government workers are paid by the lottery winners to be lazy and to use violence when the lottery winners are questioned or when one doesn’t acquire his/her tickets. Government workers are not the lottery winners, they just believe they are.

Going back to useless commercials from the government, here is a remix (after some other add) that helps us getting the real message:

The 2010 Academy Awards (Oscars) ceremony just finished. I knew it is political, but not as much. I understood why the movies about the WWII are making it to the Oscars, but this time it wasn’t about WWII, but about looking at us in the mirror. We sure don’t like what we see in the mirror, don’t we?

My opinion is that The Hurt Locker got the Oscar statuette for the best picture because of the message it sends across: ‘our war needs you, you are not as useful to your family as you can be to your country… take the blue pill‘… a twenty million dollars message from what the box office says.

On the other hand, Avatar has a totally different message, a powerful message of what should be our connectedness with the nature, the nature we are no longer part of, but its parasites, it shows how poisonous the blue pill is… a three billion dollars message, as the same box office says.

For each person that watched The Hurt Locker, 150 people watched Avatar. And you know what? They paid more for a ticket, as Avatar is 3D.

Last month I went to see a different movie with the same sick message, Dear John. For some reason going to fight a war should be more important for you than you achieving happiness… just like in the “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country” message.

I surely can see a value in the way a movie has been made, but I too find the messages the movies send along as very important for the mood I have after watching them.

I remember now about those moralistic movies like “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (2008) or “Law Abiding Citizen” (2009). Good movies, but they left me a bad taste because after setting some high expectations… they left them unfinished. Just like talking a girl into how a ‘big horse pleasure guarantee‘ you are, and when the moment of proof arrives, you fall asleep… and imagine the girl paid you money for your promised potential.

On the other hand I know I shouldn’t care about it, as this same scenario, with unforgettable Sci-Fi movies not getting the award, happened in the past, when “Star Wars” ‘lost’ the best picture award to “Annie Hall” in ‘77, “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” to “Gandhi” in ‘82 and “The Matrix” to “American Beauty” in ‘99. I can’t easily imagine to have blockbusters in 10-20 years from now that will not intercross with the Sci-Fi world. How are the people from the Academy (most of them actors) going to look then if they don’t adapt? Will they award prizes to movies that make losses?

Steve Martin ended the Oscars ceremony by making a joke out of place. He said that because the show lasted for so long, “Avatar is now in the past“. Of course, because of their horse blinders some can’t see the present and analyze the causes from the past, but they can only look to the future and… hope. Unfortunately for them, the future will be delivered by the past and present, this is why movies like Avatar are never going to be in the past, not now, not ever. And you know why? Because they speak the truth.

New exercises on understanding some limitations:

First
Question: One either get it or doesn’t. What should I do when I do get it but most don’t?

Second
Question: Anyone wishes what’s best for himself. Do I think that I can* decide what’s best for myself?

If ‘Yes’: Why would I allow/let/support someone else to decide what’s best for me? Why would I want/wish/desire to decide for someone else?
If ‘No’: What makes me think that someone else is going to decide what’s best for myself?

*Replace I can* with ‘someone else should‘ and try to answer the new question by providing a justification if your answer is positive.
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I grew up in a country where child abuse can be encountered almost everywhere. I’ve been abused by my parents, by some of my teachers and coaches, there’s no question about it. I grew up in a country where this winter, 10 days after the televisions broadcast images with the president hitting a child, the president got reelected (see video bellow).

I think I pretty much felt the abuse and I realize now that I took all the actions I could to limit the effects and I tried to isolate myself as much as I could from people with violent behavior from both points of view, physical and psychological/emotional. Starting with 13 years old I got lucky because I grew up 24 cm in one year, which got me to 194 cm (6′ 4″). Suddenly things changed, the physical abuse vanished and the psychological one diminished and changed up to a point that it became hilarious and easy for me to defeat.

Spanking can easily escalate into a 3 hours beating. Spanked children are usually too confused to learn any lesson, other than they should obey the spanker, as the spanker is more powerful and dangerous. This is terror, not education. Hate, not love. Stupidity, not wisdom. And when the spankers are the ones that should provide you with care, food and education, it becomes tragic.

Now, here is a test the parents may want to have in mind when raising children. When the child will leave home (at 20… 25 years old?), the parents can ask their child to take the following test: ACE Score Calculator. If the child scores 1 or more, they failed as parents. The bigger the score, the bigger failure they are.
This doesn’t mean that we don’t have to have children. No kids means a higher personal success and probably a more enjoyable life, however, it means a failure of our genes, which may be very important, for reasons that I will not discuss here (hint - the movie Idiocracy (2006)).

Think to your childhood for a second. Were you spanked? Did you like it? Do you think violence taught you anything else but violence? Do you think you were such a fool that you couldn’t “learn” in any other way?

Now, moving to my adoptive country… I was surprised to read the comments from the To spank or not to spank? article. The comments can be rated and to my surprise, pro children spanking/beating comments have a 5:1 ratio of positive votes to negative votes, while the rating of the anti spanking comments is the other way around. This says a lot about the state-sponsored propaganda and the brainwashing levels our society reached. I will post at the end of the article some of the comments and their current ratings.

If you don’t have kids yet, or you have and so far you didn’t choose the easy way for yourself, here is a good website one can learn from: Project NoSpank

I hate to sound moralistic, but I can’t help myself after I read those comments and since I understood that child abuse is a very important issue for each of us to fight against.

Now, let me finish in a more optimistic and enjoyable light, by posting a video on what Russell Peters (an amazing Canadian stand-up comic) thinks about beating the kids:

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C’mon, seriously?! … Not as serious as this guys though

Looking at them I see myself 10 years ago… what a journey it was.

This gets better and better. Going forward, having fun, enjoying life…

Thanks Honey! Love You Too!

There are three main categories I use to classify the movies I like:
(M) Mood-Changing Movies - Few are the movies that can shift your mood when you see them. Doesn’t really matter if it makes me feel happy, upset, angry, revenged, etc… once a movie can change my state of mine… I like it.
(E) Entertaining Movies - Go figure… usually high budget movies.
(A) Art Movies - Since filmmaking is an art, some movies can show a great video editing, sound editing, costumes, have philosophical touches, etc.

Before going over what I think are the best movies of 2009, I would first suggest “Michael Jackson’s This Is It“. As I said last year, the order is not random:

Watchmen (M&E&A) - This is the movie I like the most, not just because it’s a great one, but because I saw it when I needed the most.
Avatar (M&E&A) - If Star Wars revolutionized the film industry three decades ago and Matrix did it a decade ago, I think Avatar did it this time.
The Boat That Rocked (M&E) - Sex. Hot and passionate sex.
Invictus (M&A) - This is just another made for Oscar movie. I couldn’t help myself to notice that in South Africa they were having CRT flat screen TVs back in 1995. Probably it was just a technical issue to use old TVs, as they needed a refresh rate higher than 60hz to look good. The movie is about true leadership, uniting people and the 1995 Rugby World Cup that I had the chance to see on TV, not on a flat one, though.
The Hurt Locker (M&E) - Nicely made. If it would not be for the propagandistic idea in the end, the movie would be even better.
I love you man (M&E) - there were -5°C when we got out from this movie, but I was feeling it like +40°C
Star Trek (M&E) - Awesome job in reinventing Star Trek.
Fantastic Mr. Fox(A) - Art. Pure art.
Angels & Demons (E&A)
Everybody’s Fine (M) - Very well done. I have no idea why some people were laughing during the movie…
Paranormal Activity (M) - Brilliant! Probably the biggest ROI a movie can bring.
Nine (M&A)
Up (A)
The Blind Side (M) - when it’s about him/her, it doesn’t really matter what you think is better, but whether if he/she care about your opinion or not.
Sherlock Holmes (E&A)

Other good movies of 2009, this time in the order I watched them: The International (E), Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (E), Knowing (E), State of Play(E&A), The Proposal (E), Flash of Genius (A), The Soloist (A), Public Enemies(E&A), The Hangover (E), The Ugly Truth (E), (500) Days of Summer (M&A), District 9 (M&E&A), Inglourious Basterds (E), Julie & Julia (A), Mr. Nobody (A), Moon (M), The Informant (E), Coco avant Chanel (A), Couples Retreat (E), Law Abiding Citizen (M&E), The Men Who Stare At Goats (E), Disney’s A Christmas Carol (E&A), The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (M&E), 2012 (M&E), Ninja Assassin (E), The Road (M), All About Steve (M), Armored (E), Up In The Air (M), Precious (M), The Young Victoria (A), The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (E), The Last Station (A), The Lovely Bones (A).

What can I say, it was a great year to go to the theater. If my math is correct, 4 movies from the above I watched at home. In total I watched just above a hundred in the cinema room.

Again, shame on me, I’ve fallen asleep during two movies in the cinema room, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus. However, during one of them I was not the only one to do it, a friend of mine slept too, probably because of the night before

There is a reason why I don’t miss any of Alfredo James “Al” Pacino’s new movies… the guy is amazing! I present bellow movie fragments with some of his speeches, which, each of them, I see as a masterpiece.

Al Pacino’s speech - Any Given Sunday

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