March 5, 2013

• Report # 978

  Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all been having a great start to the week. I ended up going to VIPS one more time on Saturday seeing as I went downtown to buy a few things from the market and I was in the area. I bought some cajeta type cookies as well as a Mexican design thing for my mom and afterwards I had lunch and read the paper for a while in the restaurant. I picked up a frappuichino from El Globo later on before heading home.

  On Sunday I met a friend at Fundidora Park and we went to the Horno 3 museum there which is a very cool place within the park that used to be where steel was made for many years. The actual museum is surrounding an old furnace and there is a cool show with lights and sparks as well as a video explaining the history of the steel industry in Monterrey. The coolest part was going up in a lift all the way to the top and having a wonderful view of all of Monterrey.

  Unfortunately I had no idea that we were going to go to this place so I was caught without my camera which really sucked. It was such a sunny and clear day, so I really missed a great opportunity to take some very cool pictures. I sat a table with my friend for a while and we talked for a bit before the show and we were going to get something to eat later on but she had to go as her brother had a car accident and was in the hospital.

  I walked to the metro and headed downtown to quickly stop at Interplaza and pick up some tacos from Buchakas. It was an absolute zoo in there like always so I just wanted to quickly grab the food and get out of there. I headed home and ate and just had a relaxing evening. Before going to bed I watched The Thing, a movie about some scientists who discover an alien space ship under the ice in Antarctica and when the aliens try to get into the humans’ bodies and copy them.

  I saw the original one when I was 11 years old, and there were a lot of parts that reminded me of that movie, so it was very similar. On Monday I woke up around 11:00 am and I had a shower and headed straight to the San Agustin mall to meet a friend for lunch. I had told her that we could meet at the Sirloin Stockade, but after arriving at the mall, walking around for a while, and reading the directory, it became very clear there was no Sirloin Stockade at this mall.

  My friend texted me saying she was there and that she asked and was told there was no Sirloin Stockade as well, so I must have been confused with another mall I went to. I met her in front of Sears and we ended up having lunch in Focaccia. I always enjoy going there, and it was even better this time as we got the lunch special of a main dish, two side dishes and a desert for 99 pesos. (like 8 dollars) And this time they had converted to the coke machines so there were refills.

  We had lunch and talked for a long time and we actually were in the restaurant for four hours ! It’s very rare for me to sit in a restaurant talking to someone for so long, but the time really went by fast. Afterwards we bought some ice cream cones from Helados Sultana. Luckily I remembered how super big their ice cream is, so I only bought a single, and it was still huge. We walked around the mall for a while longer, and around 6:45 pm we decided it was time to head home.

  I hugged my friend good-bye and caught the bus and then took two metro trains and another bus to go to Guadalupe as I had to meet another friend for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Seeing as I’m leaving Monterrey tomorrow I’ve been trying to spend time with everyone and say good-bye. I wasn’t overly hungry, but I wasn’t stuffed either, so I was able to have a plate of sushi and some miso soup. Of course after this meal I was completely full.

  I got home at 10:00 pm, and that finished what was a fun but very long day. I got up today around 10:30 am and went to Fundidora Park to go for a run. I thought about making a stop at the museum again to see if I could head up and take pictures, but it was very cloudy today, so it wouldn’t have been worth it. I will have time to go tomorrow morning, so if it’s clear enough I will go and if not it will have to wait until I’m in Monterrey again in the future.

  It felt a lot fresher outside today because of a big drop in the temperature. Yesterday was 33 C (91 F) and today was only around 23 C (73 F) with a very strong breeze, so it felt really nice today. I came home and had a shower and started to do my laundry one last time and then I headed to the Galerias mall to go to Cinépolis one final time. This time I watched a Mexican movie called Me Late Chocolate, and I really liked it !

  I would say I’ve enjoyed over 75 % of the Mexican movies I’ve seen…. there have only been a couple that I thought were kind of boring, and only really one that I thought was complete trash. So the majority of the movies made in Mexico are actually of great quality and they have such good comedies. I will have to try and keep up and watch them while I’m at home. I still have a telenovela on DVD to watch, so I will start with that after returning home.

  After the movie I had one final taco from Buchackas. It’s interesting after never going there in four months, I went there three times in March, so I really enjoyed it and it was nice to find another good place to eat before leaving. I made a stop at HEB to buy some Mexican coffee for my dad and brother and then I walked home and here I am. So tomorrow evening is my flight to Mexico City and Arturo will drive me to the airport. I’ll have one full day in Mexico City on Thursday and early on Friday morning I will board my plane and return to Vancouver.

  I’ve been reading some very stupid stories about some political happenings that have been going on in Canada and my own province of British Columbia very recently. The senate in Canada is a huge problem and it’s just full of corruption. Senators are completely unelected in Canada, and they are just appointed by the Prime Minister. I remember back in 2006 when he was first elected, the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper talked about really reforming the senate and making it accountable, but seven years later, he has utterly failed in that regard.

  In the past few weeks there have been stories about some senators collecting living allowance money when they probably shouldn’t be, one senator was arrested for domestic violence, and a few others might not even be living in the province they are supposed to be representing. At first the Prime Minister didn’t have a majority in the senate to implement those changes, so he kept appointing people from his own party, and soon he obtained his senate majority.

  Next he didn’t have a majority in the House of Commons, but he achieved that goal with the big election win in May of 2011. So almost two years later and Canada still is stuck with an unelected and unaccountable senate full of corruption. From what I read the Supreme Court of Canada is looking into what would be needed to either make changes to the senate to make it more accountable to Canadians (such as having elections) or to just outright eliminate the senate….. which I think most Canadians would support.

  This will take a long time to have any real answer, but I hope when there is an answer it is a good one. As far as I’m concerned the Prime Minister and his Conservative party have been dragging their feet on this whole issue and they’ve done very little to truly make the positive changes needed that the Canadian people deserve that would give them at least some hope and confidence.

  Ultimately though I think Canadians are fed up with the corruption that has taken place in the senate for so many years, so to suggest anything else other than to eliminate the whole senate altogether would just not be going far enough. I can say after all of the stories I’ve read regarding some of the senators in the last few weeks, I have less confidence in politicians than ever before as well as even less respect.

  Things have gotten so bad I just really don’t blame people for not voting anymore. Almost 40 % of Canadians didn’t even bother voting in the last federal election, and unless politicians start listening to the people more and stop with the lies and corruption, it will be even less in the next one. So in terms of senate reform the Canadian government has failed miserably up until this point.

  While they may one day reach a solution to this, taking over seven years is not acceptable, and the Prime Minister ended up doing exactly what all the previous Prime Ministers did….. appoint their own friends basically. And to think Canadians as a country have it really, really good it just scares me thinking how much more corruption there is in so many other countries in the world, because in Canada it is bad enough !

  Speaking of elections, there will be a provincial election in my province of British Columbia this May, and if the opinion polls are to be believed, the governing party will go down to defeat after 12 years in power. There was some controversy this week as the opposition party released pages of a government plan to try and get more votes in the multicultural community.

  If anyone is more interested of what exactly happened they can check out this article from CBC news: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/02/27/bc-liberal-ethnic-strategy.html Some of the wording of what was written in the plan has offended some people in the Chinese community, and other communities as well. The opposition party has tried to make people believe that government money was used in this plan, but the government has said it was just a plan and was never started.

  From what I have read some of the wording is kind of offensive to minorities from certain ethnic groups, but the story has been blown out of proportion. It is to be noted the whole plan was released by the party trying to win the next election, so they didn’t do so because they really felt it was wrong or outrageous, they did so because they knew it would make the government look bad and that they could get political points for doing so.

  I’ve read some people calling on the Premier of British Columbia, Christy Clark, to resign, but that’s just ridiculous. There have already been a few people within the party resign, and I mean I think the government has shown mistakes were made and people have taken responsibility. It was wrong to word the plans the way they did in such a way that made it seem like it was all about making apologies to ethnic voters about sins of the past just to get votes, but it’s politics…. every politician will do something crazy to get votes.

  And I still have no doubt in my mind that the BC Liberal Party will go down to defeat to the New Democratic Party in the May election, so there is no point of the premier resigning now….. she’ll be fired by the voters in two months time anyways. I kind of feel bad for the woman as she hasn’t done a bad job in her two years as premier.

  She’s mainly been cleaning up the trash left by her predecessor, but she has made some bad mistakes as well such as continuing to be a cheer leader for the HST even though it was super clear that the majority of British Columbians hated that tax. So in any event this is just an overblown issue and people can’t be offended that the government had a plan to earn votes…. every government will try to earn votes in some way. The wording was stupid and not overly appropriate, but people are just overreacting !

  Anyways that’s enough politics for a long time again. I’m absolutely sick of the majority of the politicians out there and as I’ve said before I think 90 % of them are really not in it for the right reasons… well now I’m starting to think 95 % of them. I think the problem is that politics shouldn’t be a career profession, it should be something that people who truly believe they have something to offer the people get involved with and stay around for 8-10 years and move on.

  However having people who are politicians for decades, they just lose all touch with reality and become part of the problem and not the solution they probably wanted to be part of when they first came aboard. And until people understand that politics should just be a temporary job truly about making a positive difference within the communities, cities, and countries people live in, things will not change and the whole business will continue to be clouded with corruption. For the next question:

  What issues are going on in your area right now that are truly frustrating you ? What do you think possible solutions are to fix these lingering problems ?

  I wish everyone all of the best. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Friday, bye for now.
  
  Sources: Senate abolition debated in the House of Commons. March 5, 2013 By Andy Radia. Canada Politics. ca.news.yahoo.com.

  Leaked documents reveal Liberals’ plan to win ethnic vote. cbc.ca. February 27, 2013

  • 7:21 pm
  • 3 Comments