Is bilingualism still relevant in Canada?

After four decades of promoted bilingualism, now a slightly smaller percentage of Canadians can converse in both French and English, a Statistics Canada study says.

Mystery lovers and conspiracy theorists should decompress as the reasons for this turn of events should not be a surprise. The influx of immigrants from Asia, Middle East, Africa, with small exception are busy learning English, if they did not speak the language before they came to Canada.

The emerging global marketplace demands that our multicultural workforce must be ready to compete in a tough global market. Apparently, French is not even in the top 10 most common languages spoken on the planet. Even in Quebec more people becoming bilingual.-- They are learning English.

If you travel around the country, feeling the pulse of Canada's multicultural cities, like the Greater Toronto Area, Vancouver, Richmond B.C. and many others, one may does not feel the presence of the French / English Bilingualism's relevance for the inhabitants of the these regions.

Perhaps those who are saying, if our students were leaving school conversant   in Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish or other practical languages, are the realists with a vision for the future.Still, the French-English biligualism of the past is part of Canada's heritage and it had a role in building Canada - and it still contributes.
We should respect it and uilize it when we can.

 

Universities not responsible for finding jobs for graduates

Although some people may disagree, it is not the universities' function to get jobs for graduates. People should research available jobs in their field of studies before investing money, time and effort to obtain a degree.

These days if one chooses to major in Creative Dancing, Film Studies, Gender Studies, and a host of similar fields, the sad but inescapable truth is that job opportunities will be few and far between for the graduate.

We are living in a very materialistic world where the labour market can only absorb a limited number of well-educated people unless they have the skills what the market needs.

Universities are kidding themselves by letting students cherry-pick courses in order to "find themselves".

Engineers, Applied Sciences graduates are needed as many other skills in the technical trades where mathematics is the key. There is no way around this and hundreds of career counsellors can't change this. -- That's the way it is.

The collapse of industrial civilization is not unavoidable

 According to some gurus in a number of sciences we should be aware that our civilization is fragile and it will collapse. The source of the bad news is not  some star-gazing, super vegan, post-apocalypse worshipping group but the measured conclusion of a NASA financed endeavour conducted by a reputable scientist with empirical methods. His name is Safa Motesharri.

With rising population, depleting natural resources and stretching social divide, civilization could be facing collapse within the next few decades. This is not a pleasant soul lifting subject to discuss but it will not go away.

In the report prepared by applied mathematician Safa Motesharri, his “Human And Nature Dynamical” (Handy) model claims “the process of rise-and-collapse is actually a recurrent cycle found throughout history.”

What makes today's civilization very different, however, from previous civilizations that have collapsed is its global nature. We are all interlinked and interdependent. In the past, one civilization would fall, only to be superseded by others somewhere else in the world.

If the report is credible and the predictions are on the way to fulfilment, then humanity is in for a very tough time in the not-so-distant future.

By investigating the human-nature dynamics of these past cases of collapse,Safa Motesharri's  project identifies the most salient interrelated factors which explain civilisational decline, and which may help determine the risk of collapse today: namely, Population, Climate, Water, Agriculture, and Energy,

However, the scientists point out that the worst-case scenarios are by no means inevitable, and suggest that appropriate policy and structural changes could avoid collapse, if not pave the way toward a more stable civilisation.

Therefore, cheer up, all is not lost. Credible wake-up call to governments, corporations and business - and consumers have been issued - to recognise that 'business as usual' cannot be sustained, and that policy and structural changes are required immediately.

Will they happen? Perhaps not as soon as we would like,  but changes are on the way. So, hang in there.

The robots are coming for jobs that pay $20 an hour or less?

 Automation is marching on relentlessly and we are looking on the sidelines until we are affected.

According an American study, there is an 83% chance that automation will replace a job with an hourly wage below $20, a 31% chance automation will take a job with an hourly wage between $20 and $40, and just a 4% chance automation will take a job with an hourly wage above $40.

What many people toiling in any of the affected job categories are anxious to hear is this: What will happen to people who are actually becoming one of the jobless?

Will the product  produced by the robotic help will be cheaper? How will this help the customer beside increasing the margin of profit for the operator of these robots?

As of now there are no feasible solutions to the emerging problems. The standard advice is one we are familiar from the past when many well paying jobs disappeared due to outsourcing and automation already in use; Recognize the need for training and education to help displaced workers find new jobs. - Good luck!

A Beard Man is a Real Man?

I have tried to grow beard once or twice but it did not work out.

Somehow,  I looked like an  abandoned Schnauzer. Which is almost the norm for me, with or without embellished by a soul patch.

A friend enlightened me with well meaning but unsolicited advice, "The only reason to shave your beard is for the joy of growing it again."

In our days you see men adorned with beards almost everywhere you go.

You are not in the Middle East or accidentally transferred back to the middle ages by a time machine. Yet, just about everywhere you look, today, you see males of all ages strolling around with hipster beards, or what some see as "Spastic face rugs".

Unkind people and some studies claim that hipster beards are hiding something, or are grown to compensate for lack of personality.

Others, including some aging anti-gadget types parroting the line that the abundance of facial hair is the result of  the monotone plebeian social media generation that allows people to live their life with minimal human contact.

Some people are scared of the beards, or just simply feel uncomfortable seeing them, because it reminds them of some nasty organizations they see on some newscast day in and day out.

Then, there must be people  affiliated with the razor industry or even have connections in the world of barbers.

Obviously their business interests may be affected.  And so on.

Actually, beards are okay, if they neat and  covered when the wearer flips my hamburger or stirs my Beef Stroganoff.

One does not really know or is even qualified to shove down an opinion on a hairy matter like the situation surrounding facial hair.

Nevertheless, I believe that the fad is the sign of the times.

Back in the 60's, when civil rights was in the news, marches were almost a daily occurrence by African Americans and others. Many people changed their hair style to what is called the Afro.

Today, when we are pumped with news from the Middle East, some people  unconsciously, or just by following the trend growing beards.

Add to this a legion of men who hate the ritual of shaving, like yours truly, and you end up with a sizable and still growing number of people sporting a fuzz, beard, or whatever you call it.

I am ready to scribble more on this ticklish subject. Well, not really:  I must hurry to shave to meet  the standard dictated by somebody else -- Or I go to the movies by myself.-:)

Corruption is dishonest action that destroys people's trust

Corruption and bribery exists everywhere, in fact it is growing. Apparently in India corruption is perceived as the civil servants' favourite contest nationwide.

But we should not dump on India. Hardly a day goes by in the West that this or that politician or leading businessman is not in the news as one who was just caught taking payment for something. Actually, this state of affairs is disheartening for the millions of people who had voted for the charged and convicted individuals.

In reality things are not that bleak. In many countries  people charged with corruption fraud and alike offences may go to jail. Although, somehow people at the higher level of society are well lawyered-up and not often sentenced to a jail term.

Corruption must pay for some individuals and companies. We are not talking of small potatoes. You can read that corruption in the 28 countries of the EU is costing European taxpayers about €120bn (£100bn) a year, or the equivalent of the union's annual budget.

The fact is that corruption is part and parcel of the modern world, it is growing massively in huge proportions. The developing world losing billions of dollars each year through corruption. In Africa, corruption is the major cause of poverty and conflicts.

As for the fight against corruption? Sounds good. Unfortunately it is like fighting to keep the Titanic afloat after hitting the iceberg.

Alan Greenspan came close to a viable way to handle corruption. He wrote" Corruption, embezzlement, fraud, these are all characteristics which exist everywhere. It is regrettably the way human nature functions, whether we like it or not. What successful economies do is keep it to a minimum. No one has ever eliminated any of that stuff."

There it is. Perhaps we can do better. If anyone knows how to go about it, just tell us.

   

No need for denser cities in spacious Canada

First, they came trying to sell us the wonders of cutting our carbon foot print by introducing the carbon tax and similar ideas to make some people rich and to save all of us from a future with a climate very different from what we enduring today.

The climate is changing as it has since the formation of the planet, carbon tax or no carbon tax. In countries where we are still not starving due to uncontrolled population explosion, the people would be expected to pick up the bill for stopping or slowing down the climate change. Of course, success is not guaranteed. All it takes one or two Volcano to came alive as it happened more than once in recent memory.

The expected gain from the imaginary smaller carbon foot print would be wiped out within a short time. As for the taxes paid in? Well, there be no refund.

But this is not sufficient for some of the 'great thinkers' of our age including environmentalist David Suzuki and others. They are ready promote greater density in our cities and save the surrounding areas for nature. Actually on surface the idea sounds good.

One like to think the intent is noble and aims to improve the human condition. Reality may be something else.

Already builders of Condos discovered there is a potential and significant number of people who are ready to cram themselves and very limited belongings into micro condos that they are able to afford.- At first, this is a win-win situation; Profits for the builder are optimized and the mostly young customers have a place they may call their own.

Ten or twenty years down the road buildings age, the city's demography will continue to change and the achieved human densit in relatively small area will start to fall apart at the seams. Social costs will increase, mental illness will be more prevalent with an increase in crime.

I hope it will not be like this. In a country with abundant space and resources like Canada, is not necessary to pack people like sardines in urban areas.

One only has to look at some of the densities and prevalent human conditions in many of the cities on other continents, where tens of thousands live and die among the misery of human density.

Densification for all it's sudden artificially promoted popularity, is not what they trying to sell us.

Why Aren't There More Women Airline Pilots?

 Today, in a restaurant I overheard a young girl asking her mother
"Mom, Why could not I be a pilot and fly a big jet?"

 Actually it is a valid question. Why should not be there more female pilots? Women when given the opportunity, today, are doing very well in almost any area of human activity.

Yet, when it comes to flying, Globally only about 4,000 out of 130,000 pilots, are women.

Here is an idea to amend the situation: Based on the desire for profit, create an airline where every employee, pilots,mechanics, captains, attendants, etc., would be women. Perhaps the airline could be called,"Fly High With Me".

The reasoning behind the idea is as follows: Women make up almost half of the flying public. More often than not, women decide the mode of travel when going to a vacation or any other destination in the family unit.

Powerful and economically savvy women, like Oprah Winfrey most certainly could initiate the creation of an all female airline. Once such endeavor shows positive results and patronized by millions of women, other airlines would imitate the success of the all female airline and the hiring of many able women wanting to become pilots would begin.

Thus the unrealized dream of many able women would materialize.