*JENlightened~

Image from cprnetwork.ca

Fact: Babies cost money.

Fact: If you live in the States, babies cost a LOT of money.

So what happens if you don’t have money?

According to an article published by The Associated Press, the demand for vasectomies, abortions and subsidized birth control in the United States has soared since the recession began.

Before we assume that unwed, promiscuous teens are our sample population, know that many reports are from married women, some with children already. The answer here is not simply “stop having sex, heathens”. People just can’t afford to add to the family.

Why not opt for adoption? While adoption is a great choice for those who cannot care for the child throughout its lifetime, adoption doesn’t remove the cost of actually giving birth-an estimated $30,000 (USD).

Of course, there are preventative measures, like birth control. Contraceptives are always a responsible option, but let’s face it, sex doesn’t pay for itself. If you’ve lost a job along with health insurance, birth control is an added expense.

It’s not just women who are concerned for their inability to support a larger family-more men are going in for vasectomies. One doctor said his monthly caseload rose from about 45 to more than 70 since November, claiming most of the men were married, had kids, and couldn’t afford more.

Family planning for the middle class has officially huddled around the dwindling garbage fire that is the stock market.

First its savings, then its jobs and now sex. Well, that’s not entirely true–at least we’re getting screwed by the economy.

photo from theinsider.com

I’ve mentioned that it’s part of my job to read the business news everyday. Today, these two stories in particular are grinding my gears:

Citi CEO awarded US$10.8M in 2008

AIG bonus payouts an ‘outrage’: Obama

If you don’t have the time to read them, they both talk about companies who have taken portions of their bailouts to give C-levels nice bonuses (as in millions). Citi was actually the recipient of two bailouts because they were that financially “strained.”

These bailouts are tax payer dollars. The same tax payers that are getting their hours cut, or being laid off, or being expected to work more without a pay increase, still thankful they even have a job. What more is there to say? It’s wholly unacceptable.

Some contestant on CHUM FM won $6,500 today. I found myself unusally happy for the winner because she was just laid off yesterday. I imagined her using the money to pay off a few credit cards or keep her afloat until her EI kicks in. Then I come to work and read this nonsense.

This kind of mess is why business people need Arts degrees before they get their MBAs.

Image from theywillrockyou.com

I am in my car for roughly 1.5 hours per day. I listen to the radio for 65 per cent of that time. When I decide I’m done listening, it’s usually for one of three reasons: (1) I can’t stand listening to the same songs anymore (2) I need the quiet (3) Nickelback comes on.

The only Nickelback song I ever liked was their first single. I probably liked it for the same reasons I assume everyone else did: it was funny to see a 20-something sing the words “must have damn-near killed you”.  After that, it was all rasp and no gumption.

I know a lot of people who don’t like the band. Hundreds at least. In fact, I don’t know anyone who likes them. If I think about it really hard, I only know *of* someone who enjoys their music but she doesn’t count because she wants to marry the lead singer–that’s two strikes in good judgement baseball.

You might argue that someone must like them if they’re on the radio all the time. But I disagree on the basis that they’re Canadian. Our CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) requires  broadcasters to air a certain percentage of Canadian content in a given day. If I’m not mistaken, I believe it’s 25 per cent–a significant ratio.

(The definition of Canadian content, by the way, is anything at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from Canada)

As you know, our population in the Great White North is still pretty low. Our funding for artists is lower. While we have some fabulous musicians that come from Canada, there aren’t that many relative to what’s out there in pop culture. It’s slim pickins.

So what do we do? We hold onto the marginally well-known musicians and play the hell out of their records. That’s radio stations do with these guys. So much so that I think Canada has made Nickelback more famous than they deserve to be. Because they are one of few famous Canadian pop bands, they get a disproportionate amount of air play.

If they were American and getting this sort of recognition then I might buy it. But as it stands, I feel that someone is doing a poor job of lying to me.

I’ve been thinking about how we get our other famous musicians more popular and this is what I came up with:

-Nelly Furtado needs to come out with a new album, as does Feist.

-The Tragically Hip needs to incorporate house beats

- Celine Dion needs to partner with Timbaland

- The Arcade Fire needs to sing more about money and partying

Until any of this happens, I’ll be sitting in my car in silence.

from www.filmschoolstudent.com

I just finished reading an article in SaskBusiness called “Don’t believe everything you read”. It was about how national news coverage on the Canadian economy is disproportionately bleak.

The reason?

Most national news is produced in Toronto. The columnist writes that Ontario has been hit the hardest (due to our auto manufacturers and heavy reliance on the U.S. economy) and so the rest of the country has to hear about our bad luck because we run the media.

Apparently, Saskatchewan is doing just fine–thank you very much–as are PEI, New Brunswick and Manitoba. The writer goes on to warn the citizens of Saskatchewan not to get caught up in the media’s doom and gloom; after all, it’s just Torontonian whining.

Overall, I found his idea interesting. Toronto is Canada’s media hub and it’s quite possible that we take our local observations into the national newsroom. It’s a theory that deserves to be explored.

That said, the article laced into Torontonians (and Ontarians in general), claiming that we’re arrogant SOBs who think we’re the centre of the universe. Apparently, we don’t know or care enough about the rest of the country and its vast offerings. He even made fun of the Leafs–a low blow, but a fair one… well, it would have been if Saskatchewan *had* an NHL team.

Basically, he said we’re the Americans of Canada.

Since I just wrote about this in my BMO post, I thought I should give it a fair shake.

This isn’t the first time Toronto has been dumped on, so maybe there’s something to it. I’ve read a lot on the topic–nothing academic–but in the court of public opinion, it seems that this is how everyone else feels. The Arrogant Worms actually wrote a song called “Toronto Sucks” in which it states:

“I hate the Sky dome and the CN Tower too
I hate Nathan Phillips Square and the Ontario Zoo
The rents too high, the airs unclean
The beaches are dirty and the people are mean
And the women are big and the men are dumb
And the children are loopy ’cause they live in a slum
The water is polluted and the mayor’s a dork
They dress real bad and they think they’re New York
In Toronto, Ontario”

As a Torontonian, I’m not surprised by the comments (except the “women are big and the men are dumb” line, which is completely untrue). I think there’s always that divide between urban and rural. People from each side believe there is something separating them from the other (see “Sweet Home Alabama” versus “Downtown”). Rural sees urban as unfriendly, pretentious and arrogant. Urban sees rural as uneducated, naive and traditional. I don’t think either of those perceptions are entirely true or false. Like most stereotypes, it applies to some.

In closing, I would like to present other Canadian cities with some of their unflattering stereotypes. Instead of taking the high road, I aim to make myself feel better by bashing others. Simple math.

Vancouver–gloomy, depressing, dangerous
Calgary and Edmonton–you both suck, now stop fighting with each other and ride some bulls
Regina–Boring, boring, boring
Winnipeg–too cold for real people to live there
Ottawa–uptight poli-sci losers
Montreal–culture snobs
Halifax–drunkity drunkards
Fredicton–naive simpletons
St John’s–loony, incestuous fishermen

HOW DOES IT FEEL?? HUH? HUH? WAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!

(p.s. I like Canada. We should love each other!)

Who watched The Bachelor finale last night?

I stayed up (yes, 11pm is staying up) to watch the guy break more hearts. If you have comments about last night’s episodes, this is a safe zone for discussion!

Every weekday morning, it’s my job to check the Canadian business news to post on the company website. We upload about four stories each day-an easy task if you have a RSS feed, but difficult when you can only post good news. I can’t, for instance, link to a story about layoffs and falling profits (READ: every article in the business section).  While posting only positive (or at least neutral) articles is a misrepresentation of reality, I understand why they want me to do it. Bad news is a downer.

It’s no secret that the global economy sucks, and Canada is no different. Sure, we’re doing better than Japan, Europe and the United States, but we’re in no way out of the forest. Just ask the thousands of Canadians without jobs. It’s rough out there. A lot of us are concerned, and with good reason.

This all being said, the majority of us still have access to food, shelter and clothing-the bare necessities that keep us alive. When you think about it, those are the things that we actually need. There are millions of people in the world who have never been able to take those things for granted.

It was in watching the BMO commercial that I was reminded of just how good we have it. (Sometimes the truth shows up in the most unexpected places).

Watch it here:

Here is an old woman who, in the West, should have retired a decade ago. She’s on her feet and in the sun, working to pay the bills. Enter the white, slightly overweight North Americans, complaining about their investments. They are worried that their *surplus* money isn’t as valuable as it used to be. Forgetting that they have enough money to travel in the first place, they stumble around with broken and frankly embarrassing Spanish, declaring that the old woman’s worry dolls aren’t big enough for their problems.

As a Canadian, I’m ashamed every time I see this commercial, but admittedly not surprised. Without being too stereotypical, it’s not hard to conceive how this ad was approved by some navel-gazing multimillionaire. It’s funny because Canadians are guilty of accusing Americans of their egocentrism. It makes us feel good to differentiate ourselves from their greed. Maybe we’re not so different after all.