azkhan said:
Hello Everyone,
I’m back and was quite surprised to see all the negative reaction to my posting. I realize that my comments sounded a little harsh and should qualify that I was speaking in general terms. Not at all Canadians are [………]. You have nice people and you have not so nice people everywhere. I met some nice, decent Canadians too as I mentioned.
You were surprised to see a negative reaction when you called our entire nation parasitic and wished a special place in hell for us? Is there a word for the type of stupidity that would require?
azkhan said:
I note that several respondents have not read my comments properly and rushed to post their scornful answers which were rather insulting too. Please note that:
(1) I can afford the cost of living in Toronto. Actually, I came over with 18,000 Canadian Dollars in cash. This amount would have been sufficient to pay all my expenses (accommodation, food, transport, miscellaneous etc.) for one year. This was my plan – to come to Toronto, stay for one year and, if things worked out for me, good enough, and, if not, leave Canada. So money (or lack thereof) was not the issue.
Uh- no. $18, 000 is considered below the poverty line in Canada, for taxation purposes. You'd need at least twice that to live decently in the city of Toronto because it's probably the most expensive city in the country, so again, you obviously don't know what you're talking about. And whose fault is it that you were ill-informed about the place you wanted to move to? Why us, right?! Be a man and take some responsibility for your own actions. :roll:
azkhan said:
(2) I DO NOT want to exploit your Canadian social net. I have never taken social assistance in my life and don’t intend to either. As a matter of fact, I don’t owe a single penny to anyone in this world and I have never asked any person, other than my closest family members, for a small and short-term loan if the circumstances dictated. Also, the last time I needed treatment in a hospital was, when as child I got food poisoning. That was some 30+ years ago.
Well, I'm glad that was settled. What with your amazing knowledge of Canada, and your overall good faith and good intentions with how you've dealt with the members on this forum, I have no reason not to believe you!!! :roll:
The fact that you came with less money than the poverty line in Canada, though, makes me think twice.
azkhan said:
By the way, I hear your Canadian social net is anyway in tatters. Incidentally, one of the newspaper headlines I saw last September in relation to your famous Canadian health system was “We’re Dying to Get Better”. I'm also told that terminally ill patients have to bear long waiting periods to get the necessary treatment in Canada. Says a lot about your supposedly legendary health services doesn’t it. By comparison, German health system, is excellent.
You hear the social net is in tatters? Was that also like how you heard $18, 000 was good enough for a whole
year in Toronto? Really, you should be looking into your information sources and bitching at them instead of going on with this idiotic diatribe against us.
azkhan said:
(3) I stand by my story about opening up a bank account. This is no “hogwash” story as some one from the USA rudely put it. This was the first thing I did on the next day after my arrival in Toronto, which was in the late afternoon. It is quite logical too, when you have a thick bundle of banknotes on you and don’t want to carry it all over town. In the morning I walked from Days Inn Hotel on Carlton Street to the downtown banking area where all these tall buildings are clustered. The first bank I walked into was, if I recall correctly, Nova Scotia Bank. I politely introduced myself as a landed immigrant to the official concerned and asked for an account to be opened. The silly bitch (she looked like a South Asian immigrant herself) there gave me a long list of requirements, including the necessity of having a local address and landline number. I told her that I can’t give her this because I have just arrived in Toronto and don’t know anyone in the city. She was unconcerned and said these are requirements which must be met. I then asked if I could first have the account on temporary basis, find accommodation and then settle these formalities. She did not agree. I told her that it appears to be very difficult to do banking in your Canada and that in Germany, I have opened up accounts just by walking into the bank, showing my identification and signing the form. “Oh really!” she responded. She then gave me some talk about former Canadian clients who moved to England and had problems opening up accounts there.
And what- we're supposed to take your word on this after all your previous information has proven to be so stellar?
azkhan said:
Anyway, after failing to open up my account at the Nova Scotia bank I visited some other big banks in the vicinity and was told the same thing more or less. I responded by saying OK, if doing banking is so complicated in Canada, can I give my parents foreign address and the account be opened as a foreign account. That’s against Canadian banking regulations I was told. This was in three places. Now they can’t all be misinformed! I wonder what kind of a stupid country is it where foreigners, who come with two legitimate pieces of identification (landed immigrant card, foreign passport) and armed with not one but several references from their former foreign banks, issued on the banks’ respective letterheads and signed and stamped and all positive in content, are being treated like this. I know for a fact that setting up a bank account in Germany is an easy process. I have done it on at least six occasions. Incidentally, my last bank manager there told me he had several foreign deposit holders (including Canadians and Americans).
Assuming there's any truth to your story, you're the one who didn't look into any of the rules before you got here. Don't you think knowing proper information about basic matters like this is a requirement before you move to a foreign nation? Why does anyone bear responsibility for your mistake other than you? What kind of an idiot moves to a foreign country completely ignorant of the most basic matters expecting everything to be exactly like back home?
azkhan said:
(5) I have proper educational qualifications. As a matter of fact, I have two master-level degrees (in business and public administration) from GERMAN universities – not from Pakistani or Indian or Iranian universities. I would say that the academic standard in German universities is at least as high as your Canadian universities, if not a notch or two higher. Furthermore, I am fluent in German (you must be to graduate there at University) and I have a good working knowledge of Urdu too. And I have about 6 years of sound professional work experience.
And you would say that German universities are superior to Canadian ones based on your overall great information on Canada, right?
azkhan said:
(6) I live in Pakistan now and have a good job here in the federal capital Islamabad. I work in the educational field. My students are happy that, after living so many years in Germany and Britain, I have come to this country and am trying to make a difference by improving the quality of education. So much can be done in Asian countries like Pakistan. You may say the Asian continent has, in a sense, become the “New World” of the 21st century. If a person is qualified and experienced, there are incredible opportunities here and good prospects for earning money and gaining a respectful position in society. They go all out to encourage you here, not to discourage and humiliate you like in Canada.
Yeah, well I'm sure they work hard to retain any educated people they can get- they don't exactly have tonnes of people immigrating there that they can afford to be picky. If anything, Pakistan has horrible brain drain because the living conditions are so horrible for the average person that nobody wants to stay there. Military dictatorship, corrupt 'democracy', military dictatorship...one after the other. Oh, and let's not forget those lovely Hudood laws that convict raped women of sexual immorality (zina) because they didn't have four pious male Muslim witnesses to prove there was a rape (Pakistan is such a hateful country to women that it's created an impossible threshold to ever prove rape- ask Mukhtaran Mai). Officials who can be paid off to do anything you want to anyone, provided the person you're attacking doesn't have connections... Why, that's exactly why we have such a large Pakistani diaspora here in Canada.
azkhan said:
True, as someone pointed out with graphic examples, there is LOTS of poverty here in Pakistan. It disturbs me as well. The ruling elites (federal and provincial governments, politicians, bureaucrats, agrarian feudals etc.) are thoroughly corrupt, decadent and really rotten to the core, and they are indeed largely responsible for the many social and economic ills plaguing this country, but then again, who is directly and indirectly helping these evil people keep their influence and grip on power? Why, the western countries off course – your champion-of-human-rights Canada included!
And how do you drag Canada into that? It's the U.S. that supports Pakistan. Canada has no relations of import with Pakistan.
azkhan said:
By the way, I personally am quite generous when it comes to giving money to people who genuinely need it here, for example, for unaffordable medical treatment. I almost always give money to crippled beggars and little children who I often see at traffic lights and in local markets. And, by the way, here in the federal capital there is a lot less poverty then you would find in other places. The city has a comparatively high standard of living and you can find many nice things in the shops to buy which I haven’t seen selling in Toronto. The restaraunts here are a lot better (and cheaper) than those in Toronto too.
Well, one should hope there's less poverty in Islamabad, na! It is afterall the capital city! I'm skeptical, though, as to how much of that poverty is merely swept aside because it's distasteful to look at, and how much is a matter of high employment.
Oh, and while the restaurants there may be cheaper, that's because there is no enforceable minimum wage or worker's rights. In Canada, you pay the real and fair cost of a person's services.
And while there is no doubt you can get very many nice, high quality goods in South Asian nations, it's also true that it's because the craftsmen who make them receive a fraction of the real value of what they've earned. You can get all the nice goods you see in Pakistan in Canada, but here, they'd be out of your price range. But perhaps you don't care about whether those nice things come from sweat shops or not, hmm?
azkhan said:
(7) It’s sad to read how many people claim that I am not a nice or happy person or that I am obnoxious and rude. You don’t know me so you shouldn’t rush to pass judgment like that. Actually, whether you believe it or not, I’m really quite a nice person and most of the people who have dealt with me are very satisfied with their experience. At the same time, I’m also a very open and direct person and if I don’t like something, someone or some state of affairs I also say so openly and directly without beating about the bush. I don’t wear masks like so many other people do for each situation they find themselves in and for each person they deal with.
You see, this is why you're such an asshole. You come on and wish us all a special place in hell and call us parasites and then protest innocently that you couldn't imagine why people dislike you. If that isn't two-faced what is? Or are we to believe you're so incredibly stupid that you had no idea that wishing we all rot in Hell and calling us parasites would be offensive?
azkhan said:
What I don’t appreciate at all is coming as a newcomer to a country like Canada and being subjected to such indignities vis-a-vis opening bank accounts and finding accommodation. I came to your country in good faith and with a positive attitude, with legitimate documentation (and after waiting at least 5 years for permission to emigrate) and with my own money which I intended to invest in YOUR economy and country. I certainly did not come to exploit your lousy, overhyped social net (which, by the way, is quite inferior to that of the European social net to which I am entitled to) or “live off your backs” as someone rudely put it. It takes a lot of effort and perseverance to get two master-level degrees in Germany, and if I can do that, I believe you can do just about anything, including surviving in your Canadian work and social environment.
Oh, cry me a river. You had a bad experience, but it's about time you acted like a man and take some responsibility for the fact that you didn't inform yourself as you should have about the most
basic requirements for living here. There's no one to blame but yourself.
azkhan said:
The bottom line is that, if you Canadians don’t won’t immigrants to come to your country, then DON’T go out all over the world and scream for them to come. Your Canadian government is the one who started this whole pathetic affair by opening the floodgates to immigration in the 1990s.
Again, facts wrong- Canada's had mass immigration throughout its entire history.
azkhan said:
I know of no other country is following such an irresponsible callous policy like Canada.
Letting in a mere one percent of your population per year actually puts us at levels lower than many other nations, including European nations. The Canadian government is allowing you to come here- that doesn't mean it's the Canadian government's responsibility to look after you. If you want to come here, take some responsibility for yourself and find out what is required. You whine like a child.
azkhan said:
If you feel your Canadian graduates or workers are endangered by the competition of immigrants, then you shouldn’t let immigrants in for a start. Mind you, would-be immigrants have to undergo quite a number of background checks to get permission to emigrate, including scrutinization of their their academic qualifications, professional work experience, financial status, medical condition and linguistic ability. I underwent all of these and I didn't complain one bit. I understand that unemployment is high in Canada and obviously your own people must come first. That’s totally understandable and that’s how it should be. I have no dispute whatsoever with that. But if you do let immigrants in, then you must treat them with the respect, dignity and courtesy all newcomers to a foreign land deserve and not humiliate them in your banks, rental offices, workplaces or wherever else. Ask yourselves seriously, would any of you like to undergo all that I underwent in your Toronto after having gone through all these many formalities and having invested so much time and effort in getting permission to emigrate? I’ll bet you all that, if you all answer this question honestly, NONE of you would!
Yes, you're right- I'd never have gone through that. I would have ensured I had factual information about a country before I moved there, including how to handle financial matters and finding accomodation. It's the most basic thing you need to know, and I wouldn't be so foolish to move abroad without taking that into account before the actual move.
azkhan said:
Lastly, I am not a “fanatic” in the true sense of the word and certainly don’t intend to blow anyone up :=), so you don’t have to be afraid, even though I still think our world would be better off if Canada and the Canadian people wouldn’t be in it.
Ah, there's that hatred for Canada again that caused you to be so popular in the first place. I think this says a lot about your moral fibre- after admitting that Pakistan's gov't and bureaucracy is corrupt to the core and self-serving, you'd still rather they exist than a nation that is good to its own people.
azkhan said:
When I have time, I shall compile a much more detailed, publishable article on my experience in Canada, including my good experiences, and excluding the more personalized attacks.
Oh God. If you think you're threatening us, think again. Just be sure to run it past the Pakistani censors, though- you claim we're such an ally to Pakistan, and we know the General doesn't like it when you make his life uncomfortable by stirring up political controversies.
azkhan said:
I shall mail it to all newspapers, magazines, TV newscasters and documentary producers worldwide, especially in countries where Canada draws most of its immigrants. I think it is important that people are educated about Canada and the Canadian people, and what frauds they are, and don’t waste their money and time on such a second-rate country. The time and money would be better spent on developing their own countries or emigrating to some decent country in Europe.
Do you think you're the first whiny person to say something negative about a nation, that suddenly you can single handedly stop immigration here based on your experience? People who don't share your hatred of Canada and Canadians are going to look at you and laugh that you were so stupid that you thought half the amount of money necessary for a year was sufficient, that you had no clue about the banking system of the country you moved to, and that you had no clue about how to get proper residence, and that you were biased about an entire nation based on your experience in
one of its cities!
Also, I shall write to the EU, European Parliament, lobby groups etc. and raise the issue of banking in Canada. I find it simply unfair that Canadian people can come to Europe and open up bank accounts etc. there whereas EU-citizens evidently cannot do likewise in Canada. I’m told that foreign nationals are prohibited by law from purchasing property in Canada! Imagine that!
Again, your information sources are superb. :roll: If you see
this Canadian immigration lawyer's website, you'll see there's no problem with foreign nationals buying property in Canada, though they have to be aware of certain tax issues. They also make mention in relation to tax issues as to how many
bank accounts a foreign national has- which means you don't even have to be a landed immigrant to have a bank account here. Your ignorance of all things Canadian is truly astounding!