Would You Like Fries With That?

There is an interesting article on globeandmail.com today. Well, the article isn't that interesting, it's actually really lame, but the 165 comments that Globe readers sent in are interesting. The article is titled "Canucks Come Home" and the government is asking expats to return home because Canada apparently needs skilled workers. The majority of the comments were, not surprisingly, negative.

Most respondents cited high taxes as a reason for not coming back. However, that's not really an issue for me because I live in Europe. My taxes might be slightly lower in Dublin, but not for much longer (I move up to a higher tax bracket next year) and the health care system is worse here. I think there is a much better quality of life in Canada.

However, I did agree with the respondents who said that there are no jobs for skilled workers in Canada, and therefore no point in asking expats to come home - there is nothing for them. Just look at our taxi drivers - we have the highest-educated taxi drivers in the world. I for one know from personal experience that you basically have to be overqualified in order to get a job in Canada. I remember when I was working at the mall after graduation. Yes, you read right. Working at the mall after graduation. When a lot of stores put up job ads, they requested a university education - to work at the mall. That's so utterly ridiculous. Or is it? If there is a glut of overeducated people in Canada, which there is, then you can demand over-the-top educational requirements for menial jobs. The problem is that Canada has one of the highest rate of university graduates per capita, but doesn't have the employment landscape to absorb these graduates. The problem is, by educating these people, you're setting them up with expectations for employment - and those expectations don't involve wearing a polyester uniform.

Also, it's very difficult for someone to get valid work experience after graduation. There is little in the way of proper intern, work experience, or in-house training programmes for young graduates. Many are caught in a no-work, no-experience cycle until they either somehow break in, or decide that delivering pizzas for a living isn't that bad.

I remember back when I was working at the ad agency and I was looking for work elsewhere. One of the reasons why I wanted to leave was that I was under-paid and I didn't have room to move up or grow because it was a small company. The only person above me was my boss. When I went on interviews, I was told that I wasn't qualified because I hadn't ever had someone working under me before. First of all, all managers haven't when they first become a manager, and secondly, I had been a manager before - I had managed my own retail store for a short period of time and was responsible for hiring, firing and training staff. Of course, that didn't count - that was different. After all it's much harder to keep a high school kid working for pocket change motivated than it is someone who is trying to build a career.

It doesn't help that HR practitioners in Canada are dreadfully conservative. They like to see the classic, linear career path. Any bends in that path and game over, they're not interested. I remember another time when I was at the ad agency and looking for another job. I was in the interview and I have (had) a five-month gap on my CV. When I graduated from my post-graduate diploma, it took me five months to find a job in my field. During that time, I temped a a receptionist. However in an effort to keep my CV to the recommended two pages, and because the job had no bearing on my experience as an advertising practitioner, I left it off. The HR person asked me what I did during that time and I explained that after graduation, I was caught in the no-job, no-experience cycle, that it took me some time to find a job and I temped to earn a paycheque. She then said, "but what did you do?" So I replied, "I temped as a receptionist for a mining company." And explained why I felt that I didn't need to have it on my CV. Her response, "Yes, but what did you DO??" "Well, I answered the phone and transferred calls to various departments, I received courier packages, as it was a high security building, I screened visitors before allowing them access and I also used Microsoft Word Mail Merge to send out mass mailings to shareholders." Her response, "so what did you DO???" What did I DO???? I went home and changed the dates of my schooling on my CV to eliminate the damn gap, that's what I did. I couldn't fathom how an irrelevant five-month gap from four years ago had anything to do with how good I was at advertising. But then again, if I wasn't good enough to be hired right out of school with no gaps, I wasn't good enough for them.

Job prospects were tight for me in Canada. When I wanted to leave the ad agency, I wanted to leave for more money because I was already underpaid. However, I was currently paying next to nothing for transportation because I walked to work. If I moved jobs, I would probably need to add in the cost of a commute. As nothing that I was applying for was within walking distance, I needed to consider that unless I was making more money, my disposable income would be lower. I couldn't find anything that was going to pay me more money to offset my higher living costs. At the same time, none of these jobs were sufficiently interesting for me to sacrifice a bit of money for long-term gain. Also, considering the wage-freeze, hiring-freeze climate that Canada was in at the time, I had to consider that the wage I accepted upon hiring was probably going to be my wage for around 2-3 years.

I know that I would never have the job that I have now back home. In fact, the company I work for has offices in Canada, and had I sent my CV to them instead of moving abroad, they probably wouldn't even have considered me worthy of a thanks-but-no-thanks email in response.

I often think about moving home but my main barrier, besides the lack of vacation time and travel opportunities, is the fact that I'm not sure there is anything for me at home. Will there be a decent, challenging job for me back home, or will I be turned down because I'm considered a waster for quitting my job and leaving for Europe in the first place? Will any employers feel that my international work experience is worthy and valid, or will they write it off because it's not "Canadian experience"? In the past, I heard critcisms from would-be employers that I wasn't qualified because I didn't have enough experience with PowerPoint. (PowerPoint? Hi, I'm a moron and have the inability to learn a Microsoft application). Will I return home to hear that I am not qualified because I haven't been in the Canadian workforce for the past few years, and international experience is not desirable because it's something akin to colouring outside the lines?

Will I pack up my wealth of life and work experience to return home to end up performing the office equivalent of asking "Would you like fries with that?" According to those 165 comments, the answer to that is yes.

Article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051113.wcanada1113/CommentStory/National/

Now what the hell am I supposed to eat?

Once upon a time, bread was good for you - as long as it wasn't white bread of course. Bacon, eggs and red meat were bad for you if you ate them every day, so you really only had them on weekends. They were fine in moderation. Milk was essential for strong bones, and if you didn't drink it, you would never be strong and healthy.

Then we found out that milk isn't that good for you. Cows are given so many antibiotics, some of them are transferred into the milk and it's the long term effects haven't been determined, but it's sometimes cited as a reason for the rise of lactose intolerance. That's fine, because I don't like milk and I haven't had any for years.

Bread then became the new public enemy #1. It is a carb, and all carbs are bad. They contribute to insulin resistance, which occurs because the body can no longer process fuels, fats and sugars. This occurs because our bodies are geared towards storing food for an upcoming famine, but in this current day and age, there never is a famine. Our carbs are over-processed so they're broken down into sugars too quickly and easily, and our body develops an insulin resistance, which causes us to gain weight and keep it on despite reducing caloric intake. Bread also bears no resemblance to the product of our grandparents' generation anyway. Unless you're buying whole grain bread, most of the nutrients have actually been stripped out of it during the processing. Also, apparently there is more gluten in today's bread than there was several years ago, and many people have difficulty digesting it. This too was ok. After I returned from Germany when I was 16, I declared that I only wanted to eat bakery whole grain or rye bread, so I could still have my honey on toast with a clear conscience - I wasn't eating mass-produced bread.

However, now that I am in Ireland and am struggling more with my figure, I have had to eliminate many carbs from my diet. I find it's the only way I can keep weight down. So I've had to say good-bye to my beloved honey on toast - for now anyway. I could never find proper whole grain bread here anyway.

So my diet mainly consists of salads, cheese, eggs, chicken and pork. I do eat carbs sometimes because I'm just not that good of a dieter, but when I am being strict, it's mostly salads and meats.

Of course, by salad I don't mean iceberg lettuce. I read in the Globe & Mail a couple of years ago that the molecules in iceberg lettuce in particular retain radioactive material even after washing. California farms get most of their water from the Colorado River which contains some toxic contaminants from the aerospace/nuclear industry from companies like Lockheed Martin that sometimes illegally dump waste in the river. So since then I only buy greenhouse-grown Boston Leaf lettuce.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a report that avian flu has hit Britain. Now it turns out that the bird was never in the regular poultry supply so it's all good, but considering the British track record - foot & mouth, mad cow, I'm not convinced. Also, the health authorities have assured us that eating poultry and eggs is ok - just be sure to make sure that the yolk on your eggs is cooked. Ok, so runny yolk is risky, but cooked yolk is ok. I'm feeling a little more uneasy now. Also, though I live in Ireland, that doesn't make me immune. The Irish are notorious for half-assed laziness when it comes to manufacturing/production.

Since that report came out, I've had a really hard time eating chicken. It's just the last straw for me. First it was "Fast Food Nation". After reading about the meat processing process, I was freaking out that I couldn't afford to only buy organic meat on a regular basis. After awhile, however, I started to not think about it so much. Then a couple of months ago I read an article about the manufacturing of chickens and how they're fed massive amounts of hormones to grow faster and that if you see bruise-like marks on the chicken, it's actually urine - they accidentally pee on each other and themselves because they're in such close quarters. So I just made sure that none of the chicken I bought had bruises on it. Now I'm possibly eating something that can cause the next world pandemic... That just did it for me. I can't even look at the chicken breasts at the meat counter.

So for the eighth day in a row I'm eating pork. I like pork, and garlic spareribs are one of my favourite foods. Of course, I can't eat rice with those spareribs anymore, but that's ok. I remember hearing something about pork - or is it just that you can't eat it if you're Jewish? Well, I'm not Jewish and I'm certainly not going to seek out any information about whether or not pork is good for you. I don't want to know. As it is, I'm so bored with my diet. It's completely uninspiring but there is nothing else I can eat (that I like). I can make fish sometimes, but I bring a packed lunch to work and fish isn't suitable for that. I get home from the gym too late during the week to cook a meal then so I can only really have fish on the weekends. So that leaves salad, pork, cheese and eggs... but wait, cheese comes from cows pumped up on antibiotics doesn't it, and eggs come from avian flu-infected chickens.... CRAP!!!

Now what the hell do I eat?

Some recent thoughts

Ok, I know I haven't written lately. There are a few reasons for it. I'm pretty happy in my new apartment so I haven't been going out into town as much - and into net cafes. I have broadband now though so I plan on posting more regularly from now on. Also, work has been shockingly busy, leaving me little time to think about other stuff.

I had a few thoughts for the topic of this post, but I've decided that for my first post back after my hiatus, I'll just post a collection of some random thoughts from the past week or two.

I can't believe that Kate Moss is still in the news here. What is so shocking about the fact that she's a cocaine addict? I thought it was shocking that pictures haven't come out before now.

I've been reading slate.com recently. They have a geat mix of articles from the political to pop cultural. This past week, I read a very good series about a terrorist's wife and also a couple of great articles about the high school prom. As my prom, uh I mean company Christmas party, is coming up, I found the prom series of articles very topical. No I don't intend on going to this year's Christmas party. Once you've graduated from high school, there is no reason to ever look back.

I can't believe that a senior White House politician is named Skippy - whoops, I mean Scooter. Ok, considering this current administration, I can believe it. However, nothing says "frat boy" more than the name Scooter. Does anyone take this guy seriously? Let me guess, Daddy got him into Yale, he rode his connections to the top, stole an election with the help of his governor brother.... oops, wrong Republican. Anyway, I think that you should never trust a man named for a child's mode of transportation. Verdict: Guilty. As an aside, this prosecuter seems to be really tough. I hope Official A is Karl Rove.

My newest favourite TV show is "Lost". Before anyone comments, pickings are slimmer here than back home.