Teaser? Plainly, I know first-hand that what the author of the referenced article, in this post, states is certainly of the order of truth. I know and have been displaced into beyond poverty, to rather quite total poverty, for going on seven years, as of the anniversary date next month, on Aug. 8th. It's not the anniversary of going literally into beyond, or total poverty limits, but of the last day of employment that I had had, in 1998; around four ensuing months having been used to recouperate from burnout, and then the job search going into full throttle from the first week of January 1999 until the end of August 1999, when all had to be abandonned; the apartment, the car upon which another year and a half of payments were left to be paid, and by far all of my possessions. Having found myself homeless, car-less, ..., and having had parents who retired to reside in Quebec, long before, and them having a spare room, well, this is where I headed to.

Even before that happened, there were already US companies putting job ads out like the two the author of the referenced article refers to; making it clear that US citizens are, now, and were back then, not welcome, "need not apply", for jobs in their own country.

Paul Craig Roberts: Economic Treason: What Kind of Country Destroys the Job Market for Its Own Citizens?
CounterPunch.org

A question some people might have after reading the above article could be, say, "But how can individual Canadian citizens and residents help out Americans in this kind of (treachorous) context?", and the answer is very simple, albeit not easy for many or all to accept, for many people are self-centered, selfish, greedy, ....

"The how" is, by not seeking jobs in the US that require work visas issued by governments; leaving that Canadians should not seek jobs in the US on either TN or H-1B visas, for example. And, yes, or at least it used to be true, Canadians can also apply for H-1B instead of TN; it's just that they're usually required to go the TN route, and I believe it's most likely because (if the rule hasn't changed over the past several years anyway) TN visas are valid for only one year at a time, needing to be renewed yearly, while H-1B visas (again, if the rule hasn't changed ...) are valid for three years at a time, provide cheaper "bargains", and Canadians, citizens anyway, have access to the TN visas.

And if reality has not changed ..., then around half of all H-1B visas go to people of India; people, who certainly are no worse, certainly not in human terms, but who nevertheless are not only much less expensive than US citizens, but also much less, initially anyway, than Canadians, and not as much but nevertheless considerably less expensive than Mexicans. Remember the news about how NAFTA led to jobs being shipped to Mexico from both Canada and the US, long known news, already, and then how, much more recently and due to globalisation, globalising imperialism and fascism, those jobs were then relocated from Mexico to India?/! It's important reality to carefully remember and pay attention to.

Canadians need to cease seeking jobs in the US for which US citizens are being treasonously refused. That applies to both citizen and non-citizen, resident Canadians, for the latter can't get jobs in the US on TN status, I believe to recall anyway, but certainly can on H-1B. Canadians not yet working in the US should refrain from applying, let alone getting to the point that rejecting actual job offers in the US can be in question. And Canadians already there on either of these visas should seek to exit and to return home as soon as possible; so that US citizens and residents can have a better chance of finding work; for Canadians to cease supporting those treasonous US citizens and residents who refuse to employ other US citizens and residents.

Mike Corbeil
Cantons de Hatley, Qc

P.S. It is very healthy to remember, and very carefully: Do for others that which you would want to be done for yourselves; and do not unto others that which you would not want done unto yourselves; Jesus of Nazareth and Confucious. Holistically, those are synonymous principles, but "appearances can be, often are, deceiving"; and based on all that is known of Jesus, it is thus arguably certain that He meant the principle in its full(est) sense. (It's just that I don't know anything about the actual life of Confucious, not having yet taken time to learn about it, and thus cannot say if he would have meant the principle he stated in its complete, holistically whole sense.)

If Canadians can come to sound, healthy understanding and acceptance of those two principles, then it should help in terms of not seeking jobs, capitalistic opportunities in the US, or anywhere for that matter; where the citizens of the country in question are being treasonously treated. Sometimes we need a little extra inspiration, and the above two principles are not an unhealthy commencement; the combined whole of them being very healthy.

To be complicit with treason, well, the example from Jeanne d'Arc's, aka Joan of Arc, story provides a couple of examples. It's about war, opposing imperialistic invasion, conquest and domination, which is very fitting for current world events, but also with respect to what's been happening for American workers; "tangentially" speaking. For that, people can simply go to TheFreeDictionary.com and search on "Joan of Arc". (Francophones wanting to read the text in French can go to the same page, scroll to the bottom and choose a link on Jeanne d'Arc from there.) Check for the encyclopedia links near the top of the intial page, especially if it's only the dictionary entry on her story; the other pages having many links, including to French texts.

Unfortunately, we're, today, seeing old history repeating itself; again, and again, .... "It's always, 'the same old story', over and over again."

Many people who say to have good intentions are actually lying and know that they are; while many others who ignorantly cause harm only haven't a clue what real critical thinking means, or .... In the following article by Robert Fisk, a Lebanese friend of his and who has real real-world experience expresses his wonder, about whether we people in the West really live on planet earth, or not; and I venture to guess that likely most, i.e., Westerners, do not, but instead in stupid "disneyland" or "hollywood" nonsense; people caught up with nonsensical sensationalism rather than being focused on real reality.

European Crisis?, by Robert Fisk, June 25, 2005,
UK-Watch.net (obtained via SelvesAndOthers.org)

It strikes me as a fitting article for this suggested post, to CMAQ, because "European Crisis?" is important with respect to western Europeans but it also can be translated to our ever further western selves. And Canadians who are unable to refrain from contributing to make life ever more difficult for American workers (as well as, and on other terms, for Haitians, Afghanis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Africans, ..., in capitalistic, imperialistic, colonialist, ... ways) who are qualified, well, these Canadians obviously are illustrated in this article of Fisk's; in the "do they really live on planet earth, or not?", sense.

Even many so-called Charity workers strike me as not living much in the real real-world. Some months ago, I met a woman of Quebec who works on humanitarian activities for people in Peru, or perhaps Ecuador, somewhere in that area anyway, and, yet, Canada continues its hell-bentedness towards the First Nations Peoples of Canada. She's taking her attention away from local calamities, to focus on totally foreign ones; and it's not bad, for she's at least working on trying to help people in need, but I'm not one to be aware of locals in need of whatever asistance that I can offer, while ignoring them and instead focusing on distant places. It's just another example of weird nonsense, to me. "Hey, I've these people right next to me who need help and I can provide, but prefer to ignore them and pretend that by focusing my attention far-far away, I'm some kind of noteworthy humanitarian; no, not a total but nevertheless quite a joke, instead, I'd really be." As they say, before you try to tell your neighbours how to live, get your own household straightened out; and it's an excellent principle, in my opinion; one truly needed when we really wish to illustrate what leadership by example really means.

Such people should do like Robert Fisk, and move to live in the countries adopted for humanitarian, ..., purposes. He surely returns to Great Britain now and then, but made Lebanon his home around 25 years ago, and apparently or evidently does not deny the wrongs back home, in Britain, but realises that conditions are far worse in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Canadians owe MUCH to the First Nations Peoples, and this is not being but but barely seen to; and the same applies in the US, where there's also many others than only, but crucially importantly, also the First Nations Peoples to see to paying sane honesty, ..., towards.

That is, while we can soundly wish to help others, like Robert Fisk, John Pilger, Dahr Jamail, ..., and organisations or groups like CPT, the Christian Peace Team working in Iraq, and the MPT, Muslim Peace Team CPT is helping to build up in Iraq, Doctors Without Borders, aka Medecins Sans Frontieres, and so on, all provide definitely important service to Humanity, well, we have others who seem to individually believe that they can be immitators, all while neglecting the crucial wrongs back home that continue to go unaddressed; except extremely supferificially. People can easily learn about others doing very welcome and noteworthy works, for which they get plenty of honourable mention, and then seek the latter part of the affair, rather than to instead try to understand, realise the whole, and to work on that basis. CPT could be working on trying to bring focus to the plight of First Nations Peoples in Canada, and maybe CPT is and I'm simply not aware of it, but what it's doing in Iraq is very important and definitely is of stand-out order; for people who seek more than merely so-called mainstream media information anyway. There's work to be done basically everywhere in our world, and people like Robert Fisk and John Pilger certainly had no back-home issues to be majorly involved in, except for the British oppression of the Irish, and on which they've perhaps both provided some reporting in the past that I'm not aware of, but there are also others working on that issue, and some variation needs to be accepted, to allow humanity to flourish; and Dahr Jamail is a US citizen, as well as a descendant of Arab lineage, so he's certainly not questionable in his reasons; although, neither would be any other US citizen, for to do what Jamail has been doing definitely is, totally too, in line with the US Constitution, ..., which have been hijacked (by others). However, I was peculiarly struck by this Quebec woman, a province where the First Nations Peoples continue to horribly suffer, and this province being overall awfully silent about this reality.

Humanity is comparable to a chicken yard where most chickens are somehow alive, "kicking" or "running" about, around, but with their heads missing. The rest, meanwhile, have their heads, are whole, but are dazed, confused, ..., by all that's going on around them.

There is crisis but no majorly major one in Canada; only, and very importantly too, nevertheless, in terms of it needing to regain its sovereignty, by cutting down the major dependence that has developed on the US, for Canadians. Canadians are the ones who have given up their country's sovereignty, the US having at most served as a tempter or temptress, which Canadians "bought into"; and it's logically nonsense to fault the stupid temptor more than the stupid, lemming tempted, who stupidly gives up his/her own freedom, .... However, for Americans, there is crisis, for they, qualified workers and professionals in various fields have been, for years, and it only continues to go on, treasonously treated by their fellow citizens and residents; and many foreigners who got in in place of US workers have only worked to try to get ever more, for variable reasons
and profit being certainly one, people from their home countries in, instead of employing Americans.

And that's only one way in which the US is in serious crisis, for the US Constitution and government have been, very liberally and literally, un-/anti-constitutionally hijacked; extremely. Economics is important, for we need some means for surviving, living, having a livelihood; but many of us are being sacrificed by the "golden cow" idolators of today, on their "altar", so that they can reap all of the temporal wealth, ..., comforts, sensantional enjoyment, ..., that they merely and infantile-ly want; while we, therefore, need to be treated as sacrificial lambs for the infantile glories of these other people. And it, those "lambs", certainly does include not all but at least some of those of us who are against all of this apocalyptic order of world governance; we having no way of escaping, "heading for the hills", to get away from all of that or this madness, for we've be dispossessed of land, ..., and job eligibility, etc.

It's all been going on for a decade, if not longer, that is, with specific respect to TN and H-1B, rather than overall; and Paul Craig Roberts has provided some excellent articles. I recommend reading the above referenced one and then, for the truly sincere or caring, to also check for other articles by him at the same website. (CounterPunch is a fitting name or title, certainly of my liking; particularly now that I know what the usual content is like. An occasional bad piece gets in, but it's not long before it's outed. CP responds quite excellently to reader feedback; I've been noticing. And I recommend it to CMAQ readership, for not only is CP a very good resource, as is also www.MonthlyReview.org, and surely enough others, but information gleaned from there can be used to help keep other CMAQ readers more broadly informed.)

Canadians, wake up.

And, there's more that can be stated on my personal experience, like my having been basically in poverty ever since August 1998, instead of only beginning a year later, while nevertheless having had enough personal savings to get me through that following year, but only because (un)employment insurance helped out for half of that period; and etc. However, this has to do for now, for this is already long for an article at CMAQ, and to reduce the risk of being rejected, this post is going to cut off, now.

Know that this world is very, awfully messed up, and mostly because of rotten politics; which, in turn, can't be blamed only on the politicians, themselves, for also all of their infantile and malicious supporters are quite equally to fault. The religious don't escape from that or this faulting; neither. They've been quite extreme appeasers of hellishness upon Humanity; very. They're most surely responsible for the falsification of the History Channel documentary on Jeanne d'Arc, for it strikes me as quite less plausibly realistic than what's described in the referenced encyclopedic description; and it'd certainly not be the first instance in which the Roman(ised) church went and 'anti'-wise chose to instead work on appeasing temporal orders of power. (It's not for no reason that they keep Mass in purely Latin for centuries, while most of the audience had no clue what was been said and read to them. It was, very obvsiously, an attempt at religious imperialism, tyrannic rule, dictatorships, etc. Jesus never spoke to people in a language they did not understand; never, never, never, never .... When He communicated, people were able to undertand, knew the language used. And the Roman church did not exist until well into the second century, long-enough after Jesus was gone, as well as apostles Peter and Paul, albeit am not sure what to make of Paul, given that he was self-appointed, in which case I could therefore do the same, today; given the precedent already set; but it would imperialistically be rejected. "What a laugh, joke" it all is, then, eh!)