Some points of interest for those self-righteous, indignant, clueless, angst-ridden, striking fuck-tards ruining the university experience for the 2/3rds of Quebec students who still believe an education is a privilege you earn and not a right owed to you...
- As far as I know, Quebec already has the lowest university tuition rates in North America.
- Keep this up, and Montreal will soon see soldiers in the streets, and deservedly so.
- I was once a university student in Montreal. I had issues with "authority" but I took my anger out on many a video game machine at the various arcades downtown at the time. (Yeah, I'm dating myself, I don't care.) And I always, ALWAYS, remembered that I was one lucky s.o.b. to be able to receive a university education at bargain-basement prices compared to the Ivy League schools in the states and elsewhere.
- Who the fuck do you think you guys and gals are? Oh wait, I know. You're no one. That's why you're all so pissed at the system and capitalism and imperialism and, perhaps, mercantilism and numerous other "isms" that don't fall into your neat, neo-communist, insecure worldview of equality for all; as long as that equality means descent into mob rule and the elimination of societal progress.
- Karl Marx has been proven wrong so many times, it's scary.
- You've made Montreal into a joke of a city.
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| Karl Marx, in repentance |
I mean, seriously, you idiots, if you all put half as much effort into either working part-time jobs to pay for your courses – in order to one day work at better-paying jobs and the fulfilling careers of your choice – or protesting some real problems, say like noisily demonstrating in front of the Syrian or Iranian embassies, you could probably achieve some good.
Instead, you're all choosing to act like mindless animals. Did your high school classmates tease you so mercilessly that this is the only way to get revenge? Or, maybe the majority of you are being used as "useful idiots" (if you don't know the term, look it up; it's something you learn in university) by a cadre of sociopathic, keffiyeh-wearing, professional agitators who've made it their life-quests to stir up shit, just because. Really, these guys exist. Their sole purpose is to become irrationally outraged by a flavour-of-the-month cause and go at it like a dog on a bone, usually sweeping up gullible youth along the way.
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| Quebec: Now with more Middle East |
People, the world is not out to screw you. The world is sometimes an unfair place. Always has been, always will be. But the answer is not to smash windows, intimidate your peers and cause havoc in major metropolitan centres. The answer is to work hard, bear down in your studies, humble yourselves and stop believing you're owed the whole world on a platter just because you're a precious soul.
Suck it up. Get the hell back to your desks and better yourselves. Because one day, when history looks back on your actions, the only one hurt by all this, will be you. And when that time comes, I'll have fries with that, thanks. Now where's my change?
And to you, dear Premier Charest: What are you doing capitulating to these clowns?!? My god man! Remind me never to hire you as a SWAT negotiator or seek advice from you should terrorists demand endless concessions from the province. You spineless twit.
MAY 20th UPDATE:
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Yup. Bill 78 now in force. Meaning: Police now using more force. Gives both hot-headed police and the above-mentioned idiot rioters more motivation to cause bodily harm. Yeah, this'll go well.
I agree with you on all your points. I am all for fighting wrong and helping lift up the downtrodden. This whole student "strike" has been a muddled message from the beginning and the celebrities (come on Arcade Fire don't go there) jumping on the bandwagon as the wheels are falling off is a joke. The students knew these fee hikes were coming for a while, they should have debated and voted on negotiation points with the government years ago. That is how democracy works. Stomping your feet and pouting is so 2 years old.If you want to sit at the adult table, act like an adult.Yes there is waste in universities and CEGEPs, that should have been your point from the beginning, the the adults would have sided with you. Most of these a**holes will, in a few years, leave the province with their degrees, complaining about high Quebec taxes and decaying infrastructure. Do the math morons.
ReplyDeleteThe US consulate in Montreal has warned visitors and US expatriates to be careful because of the demonstrations.
ReplyDeleteHow much more embarrassing will this get?
Vahan, Shawn,
ReplyDeleteIt becomes more embarrassing by the second. That will end when Charest and the government put an end to this ridiculousness. And that will likely mean excessive force; force that wouldn't have been necessary if they'd clamped down on this right away. Now, it;s harder politically and legally.
It's idiocy writ large.
I think that maybe the government thought that this would fizzle out, so did I. I believe there is a built in obsolescence to this whole strike, as spring moves on to summer and now the striking students have to find jobs to support themselves, or go back home to mom and dad. It may still happen, this may be the last hurrah. Then reality will sink in. I may be overly optimistic about that, but time will tell. Of course the army can not be called in, like it was during the October crisis, the french talking heads would have a field day with that. The S.Q. should be called out, to join forces with the Montreal cops. This is now terrorism. I work with an older gentleman, and he told me he is now getting anxious every time he takes the metro to and from work each day. It is affecting him profoundly and I could see the anger/anxiety in his face and words.Time to push back and tell the kids it is bed time.
ReplyDeleteVahan, see my update in the blog above. Couldn't agree with you more.
ReplyDeleteWhoa! Mr. Bunga. The students shouldn't be rioting, but lost in all of this is the larger point that tuition is already too high for undergraduate degrees that don't bring much payoff for the people who hold them. In a knowledge economy, tuition for BAs and BSCs should be lower across the country. Spending on post-secondary education makes economic sense. Unfortunately, we're in a race to the bottom in terms of budget cuts. The Quebec students are trying to hold the line against it, if more than a bit too violently. (Not to mention, some of them may have made calculations about how much their educations' would cost that are now out the window and they're confronting more debt than they probably thought they'd have). I don't condone their actions, but do have sympathy with their aims.
ReplyDeleteGood sir wRanter,
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with the voicing of their discontent. But I have to disagree with your assessment of tuition fee levels. In an ideal world (or Germany, as someone once pointed out to me) tuition would be free, subsidies for parents of children in parochial schools would be ample, everything thing would be made of chocolate as per one Homer Simpson's daydream fantasies, and money would grow on trees. But here are the facts as I see them:
1. Tuition levels for Quebec post-secondary students are the lowest in North America. But assuming your argument is valid and BA and BsC degrees should cost less, do you then think that tuition fees for MA and PhD level studies should be higher?
2. Quebec already subsidizes childcare to the tune of $7-a-day. That subsidy has to be made up somewhere else. I'm not saying it has to be at the expense of student tuition rates, but somewhere, something's gotta give. And people need to be realistic about that fact if we assume most people still want to live in a mixed capitalist democracy.
3. Having grown up and lived in Quebec for the first 30+ years of my life, I can attest that the province has inculcated a culture of entitlement – whether it be with regards to language rights, the perceived necessity of separation or unparalleled union employment – unrivaled except for maybe Greece.
4. I'm not sure how Germany does it as far as providing free post-secondary education, but I'm pretty sure Germany doesn't spend nearly the amount on internal, asinine language laws (and their enforcement) as Quebec. Someone's paying for their educational privilege. Is it the corporate sector, feeding back into the system to keep from having a brain-drain domestically? Could be. But most corporate actors I know aren't that generous. I do know that their system is state-funded but that their students have ranked pretty low on the OECD rankings charts for education achievement.
6. It's late. I'm tired. Good night.