Change in your country
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hollydolly
SF VIP
- Location
- London England
Totally agree......also I want to add, we need our Courts to be able to make sentences for serious crime much harsher...
Yes wren…..get those wimps out there fighting for their country not sitting at home on play stations ….
jimintoronto
Well-known Member
As a former Canadian Forces soldier I will tell you this......It is hard enough to train and motivate those who WANT TO BE THERE, never mind those who are being FORCED TO BE THERE. As a instructor at our Canadian Forces basic training school, my experience is this.....If you have a training company of 120 people, all it takes is THREE malcontents to disrupt the entire group. Military service at it's very basic level involves TEAM WORK, where all persons must work together to get proper results . Team work and motivation are the building blocks of the military service.
Instead of forced military service how about this idea ? Skills training for actual jobs that are going unfilled ? In the UK there is a huge problem getting trained HGV drivers both male and female. Modern HGV trucks have power steering and brakes, and automatic transmissions so physical strength is not the need that it once was. Being trained to install fiberoptic cable underground is a skill that is needed in your country. So too is the ability to learn how to build houses and pave roads. JimB. In Toronto.
That sounds good for here in the US also
This is going to be a rather vague answer and I am sure many will disagree but the main thing I would like to see changed in my country is the notion that the word compromise has seemed to become a "bad" word and is a sign of weakness.
This is just my opinion of course but I think compromise takes great strength and wisdom but so few seem to want to make the effort these days for fear of being prosecuted by the press and public opinion. I mainly speak of the politicians (both sides) of course but this thought seems to have seeped down to bossiness and individuals. I don't think that progress can be made unless we become more tolerant about the "art of compromise".
Again, I know it is a very vague concept and perhaps naïve at this point but I don't think the things that the specific things I would like to see changed in my country can be made without compromise, not only from politicians but from individuals.
This is just my opinion of course but I think compromise takes great strength and wisdom but so few seem to want to make the effort these days for fear of being prosecuted by the press and public opinion. I mainly speak of the politicians (both sides) of course but this thought seems to have seeped down to bossiness and individuals. I don't think that progress can be made unless we become more tolerant about the "art of compromise".
Again, I know it is a very vague concept and perhaps naïve at this point but I don't think the things that the specific things I would like to see changed in my country can be made without compromise, not only from politicians but from individuals.
jimintoronto
Well-known Member
Compromise is all most impossible in the strict 2 party system that the US has now. Here in Canada we have had in the past , and do have now, a minority Government that MUST co-operate with at least one of the 4 opposition parties in Parliament, in order to get enough supporting votes to pass legislation bills. Canadians see compromise in many ways on a day to day basis. Our long standing tradition is " What is the best way to help the most people ?" Community needs over individual needs . JimB.
I'd like to see the little bags of salt back in my packets of crisps,
and,
I'd like all people who work in call centres speak clear concise English, they maybe might not be able to understand us who speak the many dialects in the UK, but we'd be able to understand them, so there.
and,
I'd like all people who work in call centres speak clear concise English, they maybe might not be able to understand us who speak the many dialects in the UK, but we'd be able to understand them, so there.
Alligatorob
SF VIP
Really well said, and I certainly do not disagree!
Alligatorob
SF VIP
That does seem to be the case, I don't think the whole party system has served us well...
fuzzybuddy
SF VIP
- Location
- The Sticks, Northeast PA.
I do think that compromise is what is needed the most.
I'd like there to be more social services available for every age of the population. When I lived overseas the country had pediatric nurse people who visited all the new mothers. At the time I was full of American brainwashing and I thought that was awful, and I couldn't understand why my friends with new babies didn't feel offended. But instead they were happy someone would come and answer their questions and teach them baby-care.
And one big change we need is in attitude. There is so much hateful blaming and disapproval, when life would be better for all if we were more positive, cooperative and helpful. I think that suspicious hostile hateful attitude is why I thought the baby nurse people were a bad thing, because I was used to seeing the government as an evil 'them', instead of as an expression of ourselves. It is our government it should be responsive to us and treat us respectfully and helpfully. But in America it seems like our own negative attitude comes back at us with disapproving instead of helpful services. Such as unemployment, in America when I had to fill out the weekly unemployment online form during the 2009 mess the scary threatening language and suspicion expressed by the forms and popups would leave me feeling sad and bad. But when I was unemployed overseas their unemployment person was all positive and helpful.
Also a huge huge need is for more auditing and oversight. I'm so sickened by all the cheating that is done in business and basically robbing people and getting away with it. We know humans cheat when they can, especially when they see others doing it, so we need to put better controls in place. Even thousands of years ago people knew they needed to be suspicious of the weights and measures used by business people. Nowadays there are many more ways we can be cheated.
It makes me shake my head to read on forum threads all the upset about poor people getting anything, when my experience throughout my career is that the people that look like respectable successful business workers with big houses and fancy cars got that way by constant lying and cheating. They would cheat on our stats at work to make the department look good instead of doing the actual effort to improve processes so that we would have legitimately done better. Or like the place I worked that did the billing for Dish and had a secret tax/fee table that was really used for the billing instead of the one that was supposed to be used. Or the project that laid off the person who was responsible for keeping requirements updated with system changes, which meant that it took significantly more hours to fix any problems because after several years of employee turnover and constant system modifications, programmers had no documentation to know what or how things were supposed to work, and so our company got to make lots of money by billing more and more hours to the government to make requested changes while we broke things all over the place in our ignorance. And then of course the same company is trying hard to get the contract to create a new system replacement. So much of our tax money wasted making these horrible dishonest executives wealthy. But no, lets blame all problems on the poor people.
We wouldn't need bigger pensions if we were paid for all the hours we worked. When I started out in my career we were told we were 'exempt' like it was a wonderful freedom-filled status, but what it really turned out to be was not paying us for the hours we worked. And over the years our benefits got smaller, I ended my career with 2 and a half weeks annual vacation, which still makes me so angry.
And one big change we need is in attitude. There is so much hateful blaming and disapproval, when life would be better for all if we were more positive, cooperative and helpful. I think that suspicious hostile hateful attitude is why I thought the baby nurse people were a bad thing, because I was used to seeing the government as an evil 'them', instead of as an expression of ourselves. It is our government it should be responsive to us and treat us respectfully and helpfully. But in America it seems like our own negative attitude comes back at us with disapproving instead of helpful services. Such as unemployment, in America when I had to fill out the weekly unemployment online form during the 2009 mess the scary threatening language and suspicion expressed by the forms and popups would leave me feeling sad and bad. But when I was unemployed overseas their unemployment person was all positive and helpful.
Also a huge huge need is for more auditing and oversight. I'm so sickened by all the cheating that is done in business and basically robbing people and getting away with it. We know humans cheat when they can, especially when they see others doing it, so we need to put better controls in place. Even thousands of years ago people knew they needed to be suspicious of the weights and measures used by business people. Nowadays there are many more ways we can be cheated.
It makes me shake my head to read on forum threads all the upset about poor people getting anything, when my experience throughout my career is that the people that look like respectable successful business workers with big houses and fancy cars got that way by constant lying and cheating. They would cheat on our stats at work to make the department look good instead of doing the actual effort to improve processes so that we would have legitimately done better. Or like the place I worked that did the billing for Dish and had a secret tax/fee table that was really used for the billing instead of the one that was supposed to be used. Or the project that laid off the person who was responsible for keeping requirements updated with system changes, which meant that it took significantly more hours to fix any problems because after several years of employee turnover and constant system modifications, programmers had no documentation to know what or how things were supposed to work, and so our company got to make lots of money by billing more and more hours to the government to make requested changes while we broke things all over the place in our ignorance. And then of course the same company is trying hard to get the contract to create a new system replacement. So much of our tax money wasted making these horrible dishonest executives wealthy. But no, lets blame all problems on the poor people.
We wouldn't need bigger pensions if we were paid for all the hours we worked. When I started out in my career we were told we were 'exempt' like it was a wonderful freedom-filled status, but what it really turned out to be was not paying us for the hours we worked. And over the years our benefits got smaller, I ended my career with 2 and a half weeks annual vacation, which still makes me so angry.
I'd like to see more diplomacy and compromise too. I don't even identify with either side anymore things in the U.S. have changed so much.
I agree wholeheartedly, two party system is horrible, I don't know if any other democracy does it, I wish we had a parliamentary democracy in the US instead of our current system.
A much better idea Jim, but still bring back capital punishment or at least the prison term ‘Life’ to mean just that
On a lighter note, I would like to see telephones being answered by an actual person instead of a recorded messages
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David777
Well-known Member
- Location
- Silicon Valley
Our American as well as other human world societies need to support sustainable societies promoting the well-being of people while promoting healthy natural environments protecting natural ecosystems of our incredible blue water planet and its fragile life. And yes, that means downsizing with less infrastructure and wealth growth.
And also less population growth that conflicts directly with our reproductive human nature. Economically it directly conflicts with our Wall Street masters and their dominant army of wealth seekers that like an out of control pyramid scheme, are accelerating our planet into irreversible decline and chaos.
So yes, that also means all of us would need to sacrifice maximum potentials of what may be possible in our current short lives for the long term future as we guilty Earth monkeys are already up to our necks in its doom.
And also less population growth that conflicts directly with our reproductive human nature. Economically it directly conflicts with our Wall Street masters and their dominant army of wealth seekers that like an out of control pyramid scheme, are accelerating our planet into irreversible decline and chaos.
So yes, that also means all of us would need to sacrifice maximum potentials of what may be possible in our current short lives for the long term future as we guilty Earth monkeys are already up to our necks in its doom.
What I would like to see changed in my country is letting the people vote on what the politicians want to change. To take away politicians' power to change rules and laws as they see fit, let the people vote on it. To not let a politician, have absolute power to do anything they wish, let the people vote on it. Three ways to vote yes, or no, and let it stay the way it is.
SeniorBen
Senior Member
We need to get religion and money out of politics. Doing so will fix much of what is wrong with our country. Publicly funded elections are the way forward, but that's not going to happen any time soon because one party knows that would mean their demise. Instead, we're stuck with minority rule.
The majority supports a woman's right to choose.
The majority supports reasonable gun legislation.
The majority wants the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes.
The majority supports democracy to fairly and legitimately elect political leaders.
Yet the minority has decided their way is best on those issues — everyone else be damned.
The majority supports a woman's right to choose.
The majority supports reasonable gun legislation.
The majority wants the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes.
The majority supports democracy to fairly and legitimately elect political leaders.
Yet the minority has decided their way is best on those issues — everyone else be damned.
jimintoronto
Well-known Member
Canada did away with executions in 1972. During the next decades, a number of convicted murderers were found to have been wrongly convicted, mainly by the development of DNA science by forensic laboratories. By proving that someone ELSE committed the crime, those wrongly convicted persons were released.
In my personal opinion, executing someone, THEN finding out later that they were NOT the person who did the crime is HORRIBLY wrong. In Canada we have a minimum 25 year sentence with out the chance of parole for first degree murder . In some cases the convicted party will be sentenced to multiple 25 year sentences based on the crimes they committed, such as multiple homicides.
I personally know of one killer who has now been locked up for over 40 years in a Canadian Federal prison because he killed another prisoner while imprisoned. He will never win parole, but he is alive. JimB.
Been There
Well-known Member
- Location
- Florida
But then you have Karla Homolka that killed 3 girls and walked, only to go into the greeting card business. Meanwhile, her co-conspirator will pay the price for both of them by dying in prison.
There is no perfect system.
jimintoronto
Well-known Member
She didn't WALK, She served 12 years in prison. If you are going to cite a person, it helps to know the facts, right ? JimB.
Been There
Well-known Member
- Location
- Florida
So I made a mistake. My bad.
Karla got 12 years for killing 3 girls, so her guy could have sex with them. Yeah, that’s justice. Wasn’t one of the girls Karla’s sister?