I do not get angry easily … I have always maintained an objective opinion that in getting angry about something you are either overlooking your part of the fault, or refusing to see the opportunity to learn from something or just plain simple playing into the hands of the entity that has a vested interest in driving you towards anger. I do … for the first time in a long time … have to publicly accept that the almost “50 day” old transit strike in Ottawa is starting to get to me. Without getting into the whole politically correct (or incorrect) domain of siding with one party or the other … it blows my mind that a trivial disagreement - which everyone knew had a humongous public impact - has taken such a long time to resolve … AND THAT TOO IN THE CAPITAL OF CANADA … WHICH … FOR THOSE WHO DONT KNOW IT … IS A G7 COUNTRY. Ok, maybe I have not been to all capital cities of all developed countries … but I would really like to know where else would this be tolerated … 50 days and counting, and our councillors are sleeping a peaceful sleep … we are the capital of Canada for gods sake … and I am not overreacting … IT HAS BEEN 50 DAYS …

What is really making me angry is the obvious total apathy - on part of all parties involved - towards the sufferings of common Ottawa people … yeah, you heard it right, I am saying “Suffering” and I am calling those of us who use the transit “Common”. I am blown away by the lack of “sensitivity” and “sense of urgency” around this whole thing … where now are our PUBLIC officials, elected by us, paid for by our tax money, always in our face during happy time?? Why dont I see our elected officials apologising to us?? Why are we just expected to be “sufferingly” quiet? What kind of a democracy is this? … Who will take a moral responsibility for all the losses, all sufferings and all negativity that I am sure will hang over us for some time to come? … and how come … even as the whole world - and I mean like the whole global world - is coming crashing down … this is the best time to be doing this? Who will take blame for the almost collateral damage this is causing the local economy in already tough times … And I am not even talking about the 9 million dollars the city is losing every day … I am talking about the day to day suffering of common everyday people … classes missed, jobs not reached, hospitals too far away, anxiety attacks, road rage, broken dreams, birthdays skipped, contracts lost … I could go on and on … it’s totally heartbreaking … and no one is speaking out … single moms not able to work their two jobs, students having to drop out of courses, student loans being used to pay a thousand dollars in cab for a month … this is insane … and someone needs to call it. Whatever point the two sides wanted to make have been made … we get it folks … YOU DONT CARE. For gods sake, can we please move on, and do this the Canadian way … with some dignity, understanding for others and some feeling for what kind of pain others are going through …  or should we “common people” seek UN intervention here … I have dwelled on this for the last one hour and considering the insane amount of incompetence (on part of the resolution parties) on display here I suggest that we call it a humanitarian crisis, seek foreign help and just skip over our worthless local politicians, our clueless provincial leaders and our good for nothing federal caretakers … all of whom are standing mute on the side having fun at our expense … I am appaled to say the least … all of whom seem to have forgotten that we are talking about the capital of Canada with over a million people affected … this is not a rant out of my struggles in getting to work … I have received some gladiatoral amount of support on that end … this unforseen crisis has truly opened my eyes to the generosity and kindness of my friends … this comes from hearing, seeing and recognizing on a daily basis that this is hurting common people … and its been going on for almost 50 days … would someone in the government - we did elect you to protect us folks please wake up and do something … before it does indeed become a humanitarian crisis … Ottawa for sure does not feel like a G7 capital these days … and yes … as a proud Ottawa-ite … I would say that loud …

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 3:21 pm and is filed under Abt Canada. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.