Personal Directive Alberta 2008 Form: Fill & Download for Free

Every country has its failings. They accumulate over the years. Because the United States is a big country, when they fail, they tend to fail big, and their failures can become domestic problems for other countries.Because the United States is not doing very well at the moment in a number of ways, there tends to be a heavy focus internationally on American failings. But these failings are an event that is happens all the time. During the Presidency of Barack Obama, there was a lot of international sentiment that the USA was doing a lot of things very right but some things really weren’tAnd, I think it has to be said, other countries and the people in them sometimes have some culpability. Foreign politicians and influencers have worked at drawing the USA into inappropriate situations. But also, the Americans have two phrases that describe what foreign countries and the people in them should be doing a lot more about Americans, “If you see something, say something.”, and, “call them out”.Not Getting the WorldI think this has been a long-term failure for the United States. There are several factors that contribute to this:-The United States’ rather strong tradition of isolationism clashes badly with the real situation of the USA in the world. The Administration of the United States, Democratic or Republican, quite deliberately sets out to be a powerful, or the most powerful, director of world political, military and economic affairs. Sometimes, for quite justifiable reasons they seek to weaken the influence of countries with a malevolent intent toward the world. But then, we see American intelligence agencies surreptitiously trying to effect the internal politics of other countries. American countries involve themselves in billions of dollars of overseas investments and the USA permits and solicits foreign investment in the USA.At some point some courageous, influential Americans should stand up and tell average Americans what is obvious, American isolationism has shot its bolt. It can't exist in any real way. The USA is deeply enmired in situations across the world and cannot escape. The United States is not going to shut down all the investments American companies have placed overseas. It will not shut down the American operations of foreign companies. The USA will not stop relying on overseas purchasers of American bonds. It will not shut down legal immigration. It will not shut down all its bilateral and multilateral trade agreements and revert to treating every other nation according to World Trade Organization rules. It will not shut down all its bases overseas. The USA is stuck in very deep, two-way involvements with many other countries. Failure to accept this is a delusion that damages how the USA can benefit from its dealings in the world.I think foreign politicians fail when they fail to say this directly to the United States administration but, fail again in public diplomacy if they don't try to ask Americans to see the truth. Their failure makes them culpable in some of the mistakes the USA makes.-I have alluded in a few recent Answers to what I believe is equivalent to a “theory of mind” failure in America that extend beyond its borders. This failure is painfully obvious during the current Administration but it is always around.From Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind“Theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, emotions, knowledge, etc.—to oneself, and to others, and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one's own. Theory of mind is crucial for everyday social interactions and is used when analyzing, judging, and inferring others' behavior...”I am not suggesting that it is the case for all Americans regarding all non-Americans, but it visibly is for quite a few. They can't bring their theory of mind beyond America's borders. In the worst cases, foreign people seem like cardboard cutouts or villains in a comic book. When you get aggregates of Americans thinking that way, the lack of theory of foreign mind effects how they view America's international affairs, or their own, personal international affairs. Flinging insults at foreign leaders, and boasting about it to your base, means that those leaders and their bases will get very angry at you. They won't care about your beliefs and desires. Now they have beliefs and desires that mean they want to hit back and inflict damage on you.I attribute some of this fairly bad failing to America's immigration history. The popular account is that America lifted its lamp beside the golden door and then, the not quite so human, huddled masses of foreign countries pass through Ellice Island, and, as the lights of Manhattan shine on them, metamorphisize into real people, new Americans. Once you are a few generations into Americanhood, the folk tales the first generation told you about Russia, Poland, Italy, Ireland, China, etc. are forgotten. You no longer see the Russian-born grandparents and do not know they were full human beings before they ever left Russian soil.Keep the People IgnorantI have mentioned in other Answers that Alberta is not my favourite Canadian province. (And, yes, I have lived there.) There are various reasons that Alberta makes me twingy but I have summarized it this way. In an exceptional way, Alberta politicians and influencers struggled to keep the people ignorant. The average Albertans were putty in the hands of the province's political and business elites. A large part of them were rural, inland people, with limited formal educations. The Province of Alberta, previously poor, got rich when there was a major oil strike in 1947. I say the Province of Alberta deliberately, because in Western Canada, the provincial governments, or more precisely the provincial governments in right of Her Majesty the Queen, own most natural resources. This meant that just after the Great Depression and World War II ended, the provincial government had plenty of money to throw around and keep the population from getting too curious about things. Also, Albertans were encouraged to believe that their oil resources weren't just good luck (A boss of mine in Edmonton, the provincial capital, described Albertans as farmers who got lucky with a lottery ticket.) but a sign of their own moral rectitude. (lots of Bible Thumpers in Alberta.) This contributed to a accusatory, finger pointing approach to other Canadians that Albertan politicians, and some other Albertans, still have today.Certainly America has benefited from the very hard work and skills of many, including those immigrants who emerged from the meaningless foreign darkness and came to understand that they needed to forget about Podolsk and accept that Oklahoma was looking just fine and that there was a bright, golden haze on the meadow. But, I maintain, in some ways the United States is a huge Alberta.And, I do not wish to insult individual working and lower middle-class Americans, but some of them would not be living so high except that their ancestors came to a huge country with enormous natural resources, stole them from the Native Americans and redistributed the wealth with just enough going to the working class to keep them more or less content. There has been something of a breakdown in this since 2008, but people who have been kept ignorant from generation to generation, have very little idea about what is really going on. Can you imagine Roseanne feeling solidarity with a farmers' union in France?Failure to Understand that Deference Comes from LeadershipI think it went overboard but I understand why. After World War II, the United States and its citizens took on the heavy burden of leading the democratic world. They organized the resistance against the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China and provided much of the resources. They used their huge economy to lead the creation of a relatively stable economic order in North America, Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. There wasn't any official isolationship. There was American leadership and America organizing international team work.This created an environment where, to a quite considerable extent, the United States and its citizens were looked upon with admiration and, a lot of deference. Don't criticize the United States and individual Americans when they are the leaders. Show them respect.But look what happens when the United States chooses not to lead, and manifests that choice in a foul, vulgar way. The reason for deference is lost. Americans lose their halo and the world media present individual Americans who are seriously deficient in personal ways,. We see the Manaforts, the Lewandowskis, the Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Kellyanne Elizabeth Conways (Sorry, the USA has some awful women in public life.) the Jeff Sessions and the Sean Spicers. Now that the United States administration has thrown away that veil of deference, we are left seeing Americans who are just bad, individual human beings.I think wiser Americans understood that the deference, the USA and Americans were enjoying, had to be earned. But, if they tried to get the message out, it wasn't enough. The working class doesn't understand. They are seeing foreign governments and individuals failing to defer, feel furious, feel frightened and feel that their personal self-esteem has been wounded.Maybe some of the foreigners did not have a full theory of mind about individual Americans. Even in better times, there should have been less deference, more calling out and maybe seeing and saying things to not just the United States Government, but to individual Americans on their own or in the groups they belong to.Lots of Bad Presidential ChoicesThis is a failure of the American political system but also the failure of the choices of individual Americans. The United States political system relies on a strong President, the head of a powerful executive. Checks and balances only work when you have strong members of the Senate and the House of Representatives.But, in the past few decades, there have seen some serious lapses in terms of quality Presidents. We have seen Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush and Donald Trump. The effect of having Presidents of limited competency has built up.A Basic FlawI have heard Americans in Quora insist the free, protected speech includes hate, threatening and incitement speech. I have heard them insist that any social programme is of necessity bad and that any recognition of collective rights is wrong.I respect their right to their point of view. I accept that they are making arguments under the United States Constitution.However, when these views are taken to the extreme they are a failure, both of the United States and of individual Americans. A modern nation can't succeed that way. You need limits. You need respectful relations between very disparate groups.Any good citizen should constantly be vigilant against abuse of power, incompetence and corruption in the bureaucracy. But you need that bureaucracy just the same.Not accepting that your country needs these things is the embrace of non-reality, the embrace of fantasy. When you do it you are creating opportunities for your own country to fail.Martin

8x10 TASVEER.I have not found even one person who recalls or even believes that this movie had ever ever released.This was the worst ever movie I have ever watched in a movie hall, and when I say that take my word for it because my family has a knack for watching terrible flops in super expensive movie halls.8 x 10 Tasveer (English: 8 x 10 Picture) is a 2009 Indian Hindi mystery psychological thriller film written and directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, and produced by Percept Picture Company, starring Akshay Kumar and Ayesha Takia Azmi. The film features Sharmila Tagore, Javed Jaffrey, Anant Mahadevan, Girish Karnad, Benjamin Gilani, Rushad Rana, Andrea Tully, and Pia Shah in supporting roles. In March 2008, the cast and crew filmed in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and a few parts were noticed to be the Western Cape of South Africa. It was previously called Tasveer, but changed due to the director's insistence that the title was jinxed.The film's music is composed by Salim-Sulaimanwith a title track by Bohemia. (Wikipedia)In the movie, Akshay Kumar or Jai has a supernatural gift: he is able to enter a photograph and vividly experience the events preceding the time of the photograph. Jai is unable to understand or explain this gift, except to recall that it started when he was very young. He tries to use this gift to help people, despite the risks to his own body. He can remain in photographs only for a minute, and experiences life-threatening, stroke-like effects afterward.And the best part : he takes adrenaline injections to come out of his stroke like condition, and he does it on its own!!It is to be injected intramuscularly or subcutaneously into the anterolateral aspect of the thigh, through clothing if necessary. And the patient is to monitored for may side effects.. well, Bollywood after all they can do anything.And when he goes into a photograph, he sees from the eyes of the person he focuses on present on the photograph. And he sees and hears everything that goes down before and also after the photograph was clicked. Oscar for the scriptwriter?Yeah, he sees it just like one would look at the world.. with blurred vision and mysteriously darkened edges.Another interesting thing is that he gets stuck in the photograph for a fixed amount of time and he keeps a stop watch beside him.. to call him back?His supernatural powers are released due to the accidental death (not really) of his twin brother, after which he goes into a coma and the doctor tells the parents to take him away and make him forget about his twin and especially to keep photographs away from him, noone knows what tests she conducted to come to that conclusion.Now the twin actually doesn't die, even though he falls off a steep cliff and lands on rocks.. he survives. And comes back to take over his family's wealth because he thinks Jai had intentionally pushed him.There are many awesome points to write about this equally awesome movie, but I want you all to actually WATCH IT AND GET THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE. :)It's crazy that noone seems to know or have ever heard about this one!Peace out.

In 2008, I spent a week in Ottawa for the R&D Management Conference. I didn't know anyone else at the conference, I sought out a few of the other attendees to make some social connections. The group I wound up spending time with was quite diverse - myself (American), three guys from Europe (Belgium, Germany and the UK) and four women from Ottawa who were working at the host school.I had a realization during this conference - almost universally, when I travel to foreign countries I spend time with other Americans; generally, it's my family that I'm travelling with. Rarely (if ever) do I spend time with people from the country itself. This was a notable exception in that I spent significant time in Canada with native Canadians.Even though Ottawa is less than 100 miles from the US border, I was surprised at the number of differences between Canadian and American life. There were no major differences, just small things that made me laugh. This is an attempt to document a few of them. A quick disclaimer, though: this is in no way intended to be negative towards Canada - I had a great time there and really enjoyed meeting and hanging out with a bunch of new people. However, some of these differences did make me laugh. Maybe they'll make you laugh too.Street signsThis was a great example of "I don't understand how these wound up different." The lighted walk/don't walk signs were different in Canada. The Canadian walking guy has feet and his legs are further apart. I found some pictures on the internet. The first is the US example. The second is the Canadian example.Yield signs and one way signs in Ottawa don't have the text written on them like we do in the US. Someone suggested to me that it was because if they were spelled out, they'd have to be in both French and English. Seems reasonable, but it was still amusing.Credit/Debit/etc.There appears to be some confusion about what to call a machine that dispenses cash in Canada. One person from Ottawa told me it was called an "Interac" machine. I think this is the machine brand, but a little wikipedia research tells me Interac is a consortium of banks similar to Plus in the US. We don't call it a Plus machine, though. Another person called it an ABM (automated banking machine). I have always called it an ATM (automated teller machine).There also appears to be a strong preference for paying with debit cards over credit cards. When I totaled up all the lines of credit I could get with the credit cards in my pocket, the Canadians were shocked at how high the number was. In Canada (like in Europe), you can easily use debit cards at restaurants and other locations - the wait staff just brings you a machine that you can type in a pin and even the tip. In the US, you generally have to use your debit card like a credit card (no PIN entry). Some of the Canadians I met didn't even have credit cards. Of course, given the current credit problems facing the US at the time, maybe this isn't a bad thing.Geography / PoliticsWhile I've traveled extensively outside the US, at the time (2008) I was nervous that the foreign policy of the US government right now will breed hostility towards Americans. I was happy to find that most people from other countries did not automatically associate individual Americans with their feelings towards the US government. The 8 of us had a number of really interesting conversations about the differences in governments. Most were surprised that Americans elect so many positions, so far down in the government. I described voting for President, Congress, Senate, Governor, Lieutenant Governer, Colorado Secretary of State, County Commissioner, Mayor, City Council, City Clerk, etc. It does seem a little excessive. Of course, I did run into a person in a nightclub wearing a shirt that said, "America is Scary." I of course had to get my picture taken with her. She was a good sport but was a little embarassed that she ran into someone from the US. Oh well.A funny competition was to see who could name world states/provinces/countries of regions they weren't from. A quick summary of the results:A woman from Canada named 47/50 states! Very impressive (sorry Minnesota, Vermont and Illinois)! The way she remembered them was amusing too: "There are 8 M's and 4 New's." I never thought of it that way.Guy from Belgium + guy from the UK = 27 correct states. Also got a few extras in there - New England, Dakota (in addition to North and South Dakota) and Manhattan made the list. Not so much.I could name 6 out of 13 Canadian provinces/territories. Not impressive, although I don't feel bad about missing the one that was created after I was out of school.A Canadian and I named all but 2 of the 27 member countries of the EU (sorry Malta and Cyprus). I did get to name some extra countries and was told as I go if they weren't EU countries, so it was really just a competition to name European countries. I was still pretty proud of my self.Canadians seem a little sensitive about the word "Eh?". The first time I heard someone use it, I had to point it out. She immediately leapt to its defense about how it's a very useful word. Her argument was that there's no other phrase that can so easily turn a statement into a question that asks someone else for validation of the statement. Personally, I don't run into that need very often, but whatever. They also seemed a little sensitive about their pronunciation of the word "about". I could clearly hear a difference in the way the Canadians in the group pronounced the word, although it wasn't as bad as the stereotypical "aboot".I was also very impressed with the complete lack of accent when Canadians who learned French as a first language spoke English.MiscellaneousCanada uses the metric system. Not a big deal.If a Canadian goes to a 4 year university, they don’t say they "went to college" like we do here in the US. If you went to a 4 year school, you "went to university". College generally means a 2 year school, generally vocational. Even if someone went to a school named a university here in the US, you could say "Where did you go to college?" and they would answer something like: "I went to Rice University." The words are interchangeable here - not so much in Canada (or Europe, from what I could gather).Ottawa nightlife is pretty impressive. I remember thinking that it was pretty good for nightclubs to be packed at 2:00AM on a Wednesday or Thursday. However, finding that nightlife without a local guide might be hard. The places we walked seemed pretty out of the way to me.In Ottawa, you pay a hydro bill. I thought this was just a different way to say you pay a water bill, but no - it means electric. Is this because most of the power is generated hydroelectrically? I have no idea.Bags of MilkThis was perhaps the funniest difference to me. Someone from Ottawa made a passing comment about getting a bag of milk. I was totally confused - I had heard of bags of milk from my father who grew up in Holland in the 1960's, but I had no idea that they still existed. The guy from the UK was equally surprised: "I know! I thought this was a civilized country!" Anyways, here's how bags of milk work: you buy a bag that has 3 smaller bags in it. The total volume of the 3 bags combined is 4L (close to a US gallon). When you want to drink one of your bags of milk, you take it out of the bigger bag, and put it in a specially designed pitcher. You then cut off the corner of one of the bags, and pour directly out of that. This leads to having to make choices about how big to cut the corner - are you going to use it for tea, or for drinking?I couldn't really believe this was happening a mere 60 miles from the US border, but sure enough, one of the Canadian hosts took me back to the catering area and had the catering staff show me the bags of milk. She asked the staff, "Can he see a bag of milk? He doesn't have them where he's from." They were quite happy to oblige, but asked, "Where are you from?" I deadpanned, "The US." They were dumbfounded, and didn't really believe it. I guess that goes both ways.There was some debate about the merits of bags of milk vs. the hard plastic containers we have in the US. One person indicated that the milk stays fresher longer because you don't open it in as large quantities as a gallon container, but the counter argument to that was that once you open one of the small bags it goes bad sooner because it is always open to the refrigerator air. Another person claimed that it was less wasteful because there wasn't as much plastic involved, but there was some debate about whether the plastic containers are recycled more often. A sole Canadian claimed she recycles the bags, but another immediately said, "Come on, no one does that."And to even further add to the mystery, Alberta, one of the provinces of Canada, does not use bags of milk. How odd.SummaryAlmost all of these fall into the category of unimportant differences, but I still am curious how two countries that are so close geographically and culturally wound up with these small little differences. If you've got any other funny cultural differences you've noticed in your global travels, post 'em here.