• 176 Posts
  • 20 Comments
Joined 4 months ago
Cake day: April 1st, 2025
  • dwazou@jlai.luOPtoCanada@lemmy.ca•This month, Canadians aged 35-64 can now apply for Government Dental CareEnglish
    2·
    3 months ago

    Thank you so much. This means a lot to me.

    I come from a third world country with tremendous inequality. I was born in the most privileged classes.

    In my country, poor people who don’t pay a lot of money die like DOGS in hospitals. Private hospitals don’t hesitate to overcharge sick people as much as they can. If you are not happy, if you protest, they just let you die. We have mostly free elections. But they are useless. Because most of the time, useless and ignorant politicians get elected. Very few people read investigative journalism. In fact, our newspapers are mostly dead. I’m one of the very few people trying to financially support quality journalism in my country.

    I used to think our problems were specific. We are dumb. We are fools.

    Our problems are actually surprisingly common. I lived in many nations around the world. I noticed that in some countries, some cities, politicians can achieve absolutely amazing things in public health, labor rights, housing. They can really take great decisions. And I noticed that in some rich countries, like the United States, incredibly dumb and corrupt politicians can get massive popular support. And ordinary people always pay the price:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/10/inhaler-cost-death-optum-rx-walgreens/

    My conclusion was simple. At the end of the day, everything stems from the people. In corrupt places, like my country, people don’t pay attention to politics. They don’t educate themselves about policies. They don’t read quality newspapers. Few people get involved in the local community. As a result, they can be easily lied to by oligarchs.

    In democracies that work great, like Denmark, you have ordinary people that educate themselves and actively get involved in their local community. They support strong independent newspapers. They join community organizations pushing for change. They pay close attention to their MPs and their votes.

    If my comment helps people pay closer attention to politics, then I would have achieved my goal.

  • dwazou@jlai.lutoEurope@feddit.org•Green deputy launches leadership bid with UK ‘eco-populism’ visionEnglish
    2·
    3 months ago

    I’m not British. But this is what I think Britain needs :

    1. Campaign finance reform. The United Kingdom is one of the only democracies in the world where corporations are allowed to wire hundreds of thousands of pounds to political parties. Brits often argue their system is better than the US. I’m sorry, but being better than the US is the same as having no standards at all.

    2. Publically owned water companies. The senior management of UK water companies have looted the country. Billions were lost. It’s a complete disaster.

    3. A ban on gambling ads. Gambling ruins the lives of so many people.

    These 3 policies are not extreme in any way. They are not far-left, hard-left, communist, or whatever. They are simply about creating better incentives for a better country. Implementing them would help ordinary people.

    Yet Keir Starmer doesn’t have seem to have the guts to do that. I hope I’m proved wrong.

    Britons deserves better.

  • dwazou@jlai.lutoCanada@lemmy.ca•Which Party Has the Best Blueprint for Fixing the Housing Crisis?English
    7·
    3 months ago

    The Canadian Housing crisis has two sources.

    1. Extreme population growth

    In 2024, the Canadian population increased by 3%.

    This population growth rate means the population of Canada is growing 2 to 3 times faster than the United States, Britain, France, Spain, Colombia, Turkey, Vietnam, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Mexico or Brazil. In fact, Canada is now growing faster than many countries in Africa.

    2. Terrible city zoning rules.

    Several Canadian cities have rules banning multi-storey housing from being built. Multi-storey housing is significantly more affordable than individual homes. But cities ban it. They simply don’t want it. When they do accept multi-storey housing, most Canadian cities often require developers to build parking spots. “You want to build a condo tower without parking spots ? Sorry, we can not accept that”. By forcing developers to build parking spots for each condo unit, they artificially drive up the cost of each unit. They basically force condo buyers to subsidize car ownership. It’s insane.

    The Federal Government needs to reduce the immigration rate. Look, Justin Trudeau did a lot of good things, but his immigration policy was one of his biggest failures. The current immigration rate is simply unsustainable. Canada needs to aim for 1.5% population growth instead of 3%.

    But cities shouldn’t be left of the hook. They are responsible for half the problem.

    I mean, just look at the zoning fight happening at the Ottawa City Council :

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/councillors-spar-over-parking-and-density-as-zoning-debate-flares-up-1.7512045

  • dwazou@jlai.lutoCanada@lemmy.ca•The Canadian IdentityEnglish
    11·
    4 months ago

    American influence is the worst thing that ever happened to Canada.

    Take for instance Opioids.

    Canadians are now the second highest per capita users of opioids on the planet, only behind the USA.

    Opioid sales in Canada have increased by +3000% since the 1980s.

    https://www.mironline.ca/the-opioid-crisis-a-canadian-perspective/

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31845436/

    According to a recent study, Canadian and American doctors are 7 times more likely than European doctors to prescribe Opioids after a surgery:

    https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2019/september/patients-in-the-us-and-canada-are-seven-times-as-likely-as-sweden-to-receive-opioids--surgery

    How did it happen? English-Canada doctors go to conferences with their american colleagues. They liked them. They socialized. They trusted them.

    • “Wow, we are so similar haha”!

    • “It was nice attending this conference with you. See you next year !!”

    Health Canada is also responsible for this disaster.

    A number of studies have pointed out Health Canada’s failures to control the promotion of opioids in Canada, allowing Purdue to spread misinformation about OxyContin in particular and opioids in general

    Based on little evidence, in 1996 Health Canada approved the drug for the management of moderate pain, ignored the risk of addiction, and allowed the statement in the product monograph that the risk of misuse is low. In addition, the product monograph provided no recommended maximum dose, allowing the drug to be marketed and prescribed with no upper dose limit.

    It also took Health Canada more than ten years to revise misleading claims that appeared in the OxyContin product monograph

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10310031/

    Again. Health Canada largely trusts the US FDA. They attend the same conferences every single year. They socialize. If the americans say something is safe, the Health Canada officials largely trust them.

    The Opioid Mess is exactly what happens when you trust the most institutionally corrupt nation in the West because they sound friendly and speak English. Thank god Quebec doctors kept reading french newspapers and listening to french regulators. They largely avoided this Opioid plague.