Parallel worlds

    I was thinking recently. I know, I know this is a very stupid habit of mine. No, seriously, I was thinking about inequality of people's lives.
   We all live in parallel words. One world is our real everyday life. We need food, shelter, meaningful occupation, something to be busy with and be happy or content with it. We need to earn money! Another world is our dreams, make believe world.
  I think lots of immigrants live in a fantasy world. They come with dreams and visions about better life and those dreams create the ideal or close to the ideal world they live in... their head. When I'll get status...When I'll get a proper education, job, business... When I'll retire...
When I'll get married, buy a house...When my children  grow up...
   We live in this fantasy world for years, sometimes without realization that real life goes on and passes by so fast  that unless we jump from this phantom dream bandwagon into reality and start living this real life and now - we might never be able to accomplish anything worth dreaming about.
   We have to live now and if we do not like our current life - change it now - not when something else happens. I always remember that legendary guy in my old country who lost both his legs during second World War and managed to become a pilot again. That guy did not live in his fantasy world, he managed to accomplish his impossible dream and live it.
   When I see young people with both arms and legs and reasonably healthy living in extreme poverty and unable to find a job to support themselves decently, I always want to ask,'What kind of world are you living in? Why?'
   In real world every day is a fight - with everything that prevents you to live fully and happily on this planet. We have to be brave and strong and never give up if we want to accomplish something. And if you don't want to fight? Well, civilized society is not going to let you die hungry on the street. But don't expect much, let's face it - you are not entitled to much, unless you've earned it.
    And for that you have to get up early and go, and if you've failed today, try again tomorrow, as long as you are alive. It's very simple, I think.
   Okay, I understand that your start up might be different if you are a recent penniless immigrant or if you have family money to back up your needs.
   World of some rich celebrity and mine, they are completely different, they indeed parallel without any connection to each other. World of some drug addict living on a street is completely different from mine, or some native person's, who is living deep North on god knows what and how.
   It was such an eye opening for me when I realized how much real poverty exists in Canada in remote places, where people live with bad education, no jobs, no money and under local very strong peculiar traditions that hold them tight and permanently in that state (of poverty and ignorance).
    This parallel world I do not want to be part of, and it's a shame that we have it in existence in Canada. We help everybody around the world. What about helping people who are part of our history?  Not with money as you never know where these money might end up, in what big pockets and fast greedy hands.
   Start with real education. About self esteem, health, money, civilization, all necessary skills to survive and to prosper. Can we do that? Is it so hard to accomplish? To have the greatest schools on Indian reserves, so in future we do not have any reserves, just areas where anybody can live if he wants to. And be proud of it.
   Is this too much to ask? Talking about parallel words, recently my son's friend died suddenly. No one knew he was living on a street, homeless, even his parents had no idea. Everybody failed him - society, his parents and he, himself. I felt so guilty and hopeless. Such unnecessary tragedy. Next time I pass somebody sitting on the pavement in downtown may be I should stop and ask him why...

Why people in Canada so reluctant to dress properly in winter?

Winter night in Toronto, nice to be out in a warm coat...

   That keeps bugging me. I don't know why. It's clearly none of my business if some stupid people want to get frost bites or just plain good old pneumonia.
   Why do I care? I don't know. It's just so frustrating when I see somebody trembling on a bus stop without a hat or warm coat.
   And what is it about hats that Canadian people so reluctant to wear? They put on big fat mittens, layers upon layers of scarves but no hat? It's like going swimming in your pajamas if you understand what I mean.
  It's so much pleasanter if you have a warm hat and winter boots and a nice thick winter coat that is very well insulated with natural fibers presumably, otherwise it is not warm. No synthetic fiber is going to replace natural fur or feathers(down).
   I have both and if it is -20C all that synthetic fur is no match to natural one, not even close.May be it's a matter of money. If you do not have money to buy real warm coat, you have to be without one and just bravely face the cold. Well, I certainly understand that but nice warm hat is much less costly. I bought mine at second hand store for $5. 100% mohair and very warm.
   May be people in Canada just think that somehow next winter will be less cold. It cannot possibly be that cold again. Well, it will be unfortunately and you better be prepared beforehand and spend some money on winter clothing. Can you?

This is not about Charlie, guys...

Freedom of expression

   People died for a joke. Bad joke in itself. But is it really about Charlie, tasteless satire, freedom of expression etc.?
  Please, people, don't forget that poor guys who died at supermarket did not drew any jokes. Nor a boy soldier in Canada who happened to be on guard near Parliament in Canada at the wrong time.
  This is not about certain people; it's about power. Any religion wants dominance over the world, some want it more than others. Western democracy on the other hand shows way too many weak spots. It failed big time, same as socialism and communism failed in so many countries.
   At this point I am not sure what we need. As a society we cannot be free as there are always people who want to run us down, who want to establish different kind of society with medieval laws, strict religion and behaviors. And democracy cannot fight this because we do not have enough power that could be equal to those ancient medieval traditions that are so alien to us.
   And another thing. So many people  are already here, comfortably established with all those ancient laws and strict religion. And they are allowed to live freely among us without restrictions and without any necessity to integrate. And this is a huge mistake I am sure.
   INTEGRATE OR GO HOME! That should be the first law of immigration. Your medieval rules should be left at the border, when you come to Western world. No one with civilized mentality that was nurtured and cultivated here in this country is not going to buy a gun and go shoot people to avenge God unless he is mentally deranged after taken drugs too many!
  There is no such thing as multiculturalism that can coexist peacefully. If you have too many aliens with mentality, religion, philosophy that is entirely different from yours and totally alien to you and your government says it's okay, we can exercise multiculturalism, do as you please, then what do you expect?
  Those guys who killed people in France just exercised their cultural  and religious rights to kill the infidels and to avenge their God. They don't care about your beliefs and laws, because you let them  live in your country and allowed them to do what they want.
  They don't care about your society or your people. They mentally do not live in France (or Canada). They live in their own country they originated from.
  And we as a system allowed them to do that. To eat our bread and piss at our country. On this exact occasion - to eat our bread and shoot our people. Anybody, whoever is the closest. They probably do not know what satire is, they are so not here you know.

  You are welcome. We are tolerant people. We will demonstrate with pencils in our pockets. And if you shoot too many of us, we will catch you and give you a free room and board for life.
   Enjoy our freedom and democracy, we like to share.

2015 has to be a better year.

   2015 is here. How did it happen so quickly? Are we any better? healthier? richer?

 We talk about health more now, that's for sure. We have more "organic" (who knows what it means really?) stuff around.
We(generally speaking, I don't) still smoke a lot. Poor smokers are being pushed around by legislation. Soon they probably have to go to the Moon to smoke (he-he), not that I pity them. When they stuff their lungs with foul smoke, they stuff mine too if I happen to be around.
 Sometimes on a bus stop I have to step aside quite far from the actual stop in order not to breathe the smelly poisonous whiff.
  People do not see the connection.They think they will be healthy forever and cancer is something that happens to other people. Well, when you've got a cancer it's kind of late to quit. Why not do it now?
  Well, procrastination is a big problem, or laziness, I don't know what is more here in effect. I do not smoke but I have my share of bad food.  Bad food is your enemy. It's like a terrorist inside your body. I like it fast and fatty, and then suddenly there is just too much of me in this world.
  When you eat for two and do not exercise, very soon you have two of you in one person. You need two chairs to sit on a bus or anywhere else and lots of fabric to make your clothing...
   Once I was sitting on a bus in front sit and this lady that you would call very obese came on.  I was very tired and did not want to get up to give her an extra sit. One sit close to mine was free but I thought, 'no way you can fit in there and I am older than you anyway, I am not getting up for you.'  Never mind, she came close to me turned around and sat right on me, expecting probably that I will get up for her! I freed myself somehow from her enormous rear end,very annoyed and embarrassed. But she was not embarrassed, not in the least. She even said thank you to me! That Canadian sense of entitlement...
  Well I think I stepped away from my topic. I hope 2015 will be better. I hope we will learn to be smarter and healthier. That we will be more diligent with our money and food, more careful with our credits and more vigilant toward people we call Canadians...
   Last year showed very clearly that we cannot trust everybody. Some people clearly come to Canada for bad reasons and we have to remember that. No more night walks for me. I do not believe in safety in Canada anymore. I do not want to end up with my head cut off as an scary example to the public. Terrorism used to target rich and powerful. Now everybody is at risk. I hate terrorism, but it's a fact of life now. So, try to be healthy, happy, and prosperous for a change. We all need that I am sure.
Happy New Year to everybody! Stay safe.

I am glad Tory is here not Ford!

Yes, I am not a great admirer of Ford, so anybody is better.
 I do not like bullies and Ford is clearly a big bully, who thinks he is the best. No, I am sorry, you are not the best, may be the fattiest among politicians but clearly not the best and clearly lots of people are tired of you and your embarrassing antics.
  So forget about your politics big bully and take care of your health, you really need it. I wish you'd be able to lose some weight, and I do not want you to have cancer - it's a nasty disease and way too many people in Canada suffer from it.
   It's a great pity that such a nice clean peaceful country has so many sick and sick on a head people.
  May be our government has to change some rules regarding all that chemicals our food producers shamelessly put in all our food. But that's another story.
   Right now I just wanted to say that I am very VERY pleased that Tory will be on pages of our magazines and newspapers not Ford.
   Hopefully there will be less fight and more quiet diligent legislative work in Toronto. We have lots of recent immigrants there and they need really good example to follow, not the 'circus in town' behavior. It's all yours John Tory, have a great time with it!
  People trust you I am sure, I do too, well, may be.

Why I stopped drinking tap water completely.

A simple drink - glass of water

I've been drinking tap water always - in my home country and here in Canada after immigrating. I never gave it a second thought. I was told that water in Canada is good. Well, it looked pretty good - clean,odorless liquid with no residue whatsoever, perfect as everything in Canada(?). Big civilized country, government is taking care of people.
   How naive. Well I am immigrant. What do I know? I have to survive  - I came to Canada without money.  I have to take care of my family and I did not see the reason not to trust. Authorities know better - they've built such a beautiful country. They know the best.
   Well, appears it is not completely true. People are people everywhere. They pursue their own interests first and foremost. Interests where big  money involved and big companies have large investments. Not a small poor schmuck. Even if he gets sick and dies - we have to see a big picture. Everything should be nice and smooth and quiet. No revolution, no drastic changes. Just little poison here and there and if you have a problem with that - go to your doctor. We have plenty of them in Canada, especially in big cities like Toronto.
   Well, you might ask,what are you talking about?
    I am talking about my decision not to drink tap water anymore. I can afford that if I'll be frugal enough and use it sparingly. No pasta cooking of course. Everything will be steamed or baked or cooked with a little of real water, that one I have to buy at the store, not the one from my tap. That chemical concoction my health cannot endure any more.
   I am not going to tell you to do the same, you might be still young and can tolerate a bit of poison they put it in water. I cannot do that. I want my heart to be healthy. I do not want it to be fluoridated or chlorinated (or whatever else 'nated')up to my ears.
  Since year 2000 I was suffering from severe fibrillation attacks that was simply unbearable because there is no cure from that and only large amounts of magnesium helped me somehow. By a complete accident I stopped  drinking  tap water and then stopped cooking with it - just to prove my son that tap or no tap water  that fact does not make any difference.
  Oh boy, I was wrong! It does make a difference, a huge one. I do not have any fibrillation attacks any more and take some magnesium when I remember to take it just for prophylactics. My heart works like a good oiled Swiss watch.
  I am not telling you to run and do the same, I am not a doctor, I do not have any financial interest in promotion bottled water. I am just a happy person who found something good and now shares it with you. Make your own decision and have a good life.
   Canada have many good qualities, only tap water is not one of them. It looks good though, it's been fooling me for 20 years but not anymore. Well, let's put it this way - at least we do not give children fluoridated milk. In some areas of England they do that. Imagine - fluoridated water, milk, tooth paste everything in the name of health and progress and nice sparkling teeth!
   Oh boy, oh boy, it's so reminds me of my good old (long departed) country of communism. Communism is dead but stupidity and bureaucrat-ism live for ever!
  By the way you can check this link for the places in Canada where stupidity is a little bit less - 
http://www.ffo-olf.org/end.html

Urban jungle survival - how to fight elements.

Please, do understand, I don't mean weather when I am saying "elements"
.
   Yes, when you are in a real jungle, you have to fight wild beasts, cold, hunger, what not. But in our civilized world  people are not exposed to wild elements so often. In a civilized society we are surrounded by walls, heaters or/and air conditioners. And it's a good thing.
  We have warm clothing, plenty of places to buy food, transportation - personal or public and shelters. We are getting relaxed. We trust. If it says 'diet' we think it's good. But...
   There are so much hidden elements that may spoil, endanger and ruin your life and those elements do not look like wild beasts at all; and their threat is much more hidden, gentle; and sometimes it takes years to realize, to fully understand what exactly threatens you not less than a wild beast.
   Everything is about safety nowadays -  safe water and plenty of it.
   It's so clean, amazingly transparent,it does not smell, it is tasteless, odorless and seemingly good liquid. We consume it freely, we give it to our children and pets, we drink it from a tap without fear of becoming sick or poisoned by polluted water. Should we? Or should we not?
  We go to a store. Every product is sealed securely, labelled properly. You can read all the ingredients, calories, percentage of everything on a label. The product is in convenient portions and in colorful, inviting, appetizing containers. It has expiration date so you don't have to worry about eating the spoiled products. You trust your food industry, they know the best,they are professionals. They would never sell you a bad product. As soon as it is past expiration date, it is removed from shelves and destroyed - you can rely on that. Can you?
  That's what we all do, well, up to the point. Then we start asking questions. Why? Why my son suddenly gains weight and have dizzy spells(which his doctor calls migraines though he never has headaches, ever).
  We eat normal Canadian  healthy food - why do we all gain weight? Is it because we are immigrants and used to different food? Or is it something more sinister in all this?
  How to fight this?
  You start reading food labels. You see that under all that colorful pictures there is the product that contains  lots of chemicals that are absolutely unnecessary to your nourishment. Okay, may be they are not harmful in small dozes, but what if you eat them day, after day, after day and add other small ingredients of unnecessary chemicals from other food products that are lased with all that stuff that keeps them fresh, appetizingly looking, smooth, sell-able for weeks and months.
  Why do I care if  the sour cream is smooth or not, as long as I know that this is a good and fresh product? Why do I buy a drink and in 2 months (?) forgotten on a kitchen table in summer weather with no refrigeration, not sealed, because somebody drank some of it, and it still tastes good and looks perfect??? Well I tried to drink it for mere curiosity and my stomach felt strange after but nothing happened, not even diarrhea... Long live our food industry, they know how to preserve products and us!
   Well, I am not concerned about shelf life, I have refrigerator and I can go and buy some more products, I don't have to keep them for months and months.
  And I prefer fresh stuff. Not artificially fresh, not chemically laden fresh, but really fresh. And it's shelf life is not going to be months but much less and may be we should learn to deal with that and freeze products when you can or buy them in smaller portions, I don't know.
   I can tell you one thing - when I started to read all labels on regular everyday products I was so appalled, so disgusted  because every single one had some ingredients and sometimes lots of them that are no supposed to be there at all. They do not have any nutritional value for me or anybody else.
  I do not want my milk pasteurized and then laced with synthetic vitamins because natural ones have been lost in a process of pasteurization, I find it's extremely ridiculous.
   I do not like ALL my milk products being made from pasteurized milk with all kind of weird added stuff. I want them to be made from raw, RAW MILK.
   Sour cream, butter, cream, cheese - all that can give you lots and lots nutritional goodness, just do not add crap(chemicals) to it. Something should be done and soon or our children will never have healthy kids of their own and will never know what healthy life is.
  Nowadays they talk a lot about organic food. Okay, organic is perfect but it is expensive and hardly affordable for most people. I certainly cannot afford it. But free run eggs I can afford. And clean, not chlorinated and not fluoridated water I can and I do. Recently I stopped drinking tap water and cooking in it (that one is harder but doable) and  I will tell you next time how amazing it was to my health. That's the elements we have to fight in civilized society. We have to fight our own trust into our civilized rules of the game if you know what I mean. To survive in an urban jungle you have to be not less smart and resourceful than out there  in the wild. Your tools have to be different though. You have to be alert and vigilant and...
 well, let's put it this way. You get up in the morning from your chemically laden anti-inflammable mattress, clean you teeth with fluoridated paste, take your shower in fluoridated water, put on a clean shirt that was chemically dry cleaned, eat cereal full of preservatives and sugar with pasteurized milk, drink chemical juice or coffee made with fluoridated and chlorinated water... I think you've got it. After all that you cannot expect to be healthy. It's a miracle if you still are.
  Annual check-ups are good too but it's not enough. You have to spend some time and really investigate what you are putting into your mouth every day and how you treat your body.
   Is it a garbage disposal for food industry or is it your temple that will serve you loyally through your long and healthy life?
   You just have to take care of it, protect it, really take care of it. It's your survival mode, you can do it if you want a good life. Fight the elements. Small things are important. Now. When it's not too late. When you are still healthy. Stay that way, please.