I’m guessing it’s because it’s a surname, though I noticed that iOS seems to pick out names in grey when you type them and offer to fix the capitalisation
Oh, we’re in South Africa, indeed.
Here’s a lovely (not) tale from Reddit :
That is an amazingly, staggeringly sucky part of the world you live in. I’m sorry for you anyone around you.
Okay this reads exactly like my experience of Universal Credit in Britain.
The fact that your welfare department acts in the exact same manner as our Department for Work and Pensions is nauseating, the idea that this kind of filth happens elsewhere is enraging in a manner I can’t quite put into words.
That said, the going in like hellfire method works. I’ve started noting on each and every correspondence that a xerox is being sent to the family solicitor, and if they take more than a week to reply I go down the Post Office to use their colour printer to resend that particular letter but with SECOND NOTICE in the top left in red. It’s the same kind of bullshit they would do to me, so I do it to them.
A good phrase to remember whenever confronting government staff is “how do I spell your name, and what is your employee number?” The name ask makes them nervous, but asking for their employee number is like having a magic password to actually get shit done.
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I wish I could say that doesn’t happen here, but it does.
Poor people and small business owners go through hell sometimes. Not so much the poor as a class of people, but people on the express ride down from financially shaky but ok.
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Oh wow, so bureaucracy seems to be the same all over …
I think the current bureaucracy is pretty universal; a beast born of NeoLib and NeoCon compromise and combined hatred for those who are not of the political class. Oh and a desire for money, naturally.
Even our drivers’ license agency is broken, it took three months for them to return my change of address form saying that I need to check the circled area for a mistake. There was no circled area, there was no description of the mistake. I read and reread the form, and the only possible thing that might be wrong is the way I write capital Ys… however my car’s registration form was written the exact same way and that office was totally fine changing the address on the log book.
They’ve finally started a push to making arrests in this Freedom Convoy (#FluTruxKlan) debacle here in Ottawa. The occupation/hostage taking of our downtown core has been ongoing since January 29th.
Making things much more complicated is the presence of many children in the trucks. This means the people responsible for their care have repeatedly ignored the safety of their children (whom they are legally obligated to protect) and the children will immediately go into foster care when arrests are made.
Funding on social platforms has been cut off. The list of donors has been hacked so that the world knows who donated to fund this cause. Some are calling it domestic terrorism because they had actually set up to overthrow the democratically elected government. You know how a government reacts to threats against its existence.
The Emergency Measures Act has been enacted to give the government extraordinary powers to act. They’ve asked all banking institutions (including crypto) to freeze accounts and activity, cancel credit cards of those identified, and not renew mortgages. Insurance companies have been asked to cancel all policies (life, home, vehicles). Professional organizations have been asked to cut ties on memberships. These are extreme measures, for sure. I’m not sure that they are completely warranted, but I don’t completely disagree with them, either. The people involved in this will never work again. Many of them will go to prison. Many, many more will be saddled with financial burdens that will be impossible to get out from under. Some sympathetic causes (those who tried to donate in the first place) will likely be able to help some of them out.
This is just the first blush of what is happening. It’s currently still happening. I imagine that it’ll be EOM before they can get all of those heavy trucks moved out. We’re dealing with professional truck drivers. They know how to disable their own vehicles in many ways.
Thankfully, I don’t have to go anywhere near where this is taking place. I’m able to live my life in relative safety and quiet. I’m grateful for that.
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I had wondered about that - glad you’re safe and out of the thick of it.
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Oh, we also just got 20cm of snow last night, the wind is howling it all around, and somehow it’s 8C. So, it’s going to be a sodden, messy nightmare for anyone involved.
The actions your government are taking to shut down a peaceful protest are kind of horrifying. Especially when juxtaposed against how violent rioters are treated st G20 and similar actions in the past.
Freezing bank accounts of people who donated as if it was to a terrorist organization. And because of a peaceful protest they deserve to lose their homes, pets, and children?
What the hell would they do to a violent protest, carpet bomb their home towns? Holy shit. Nobody is going to protest anything again. So much for the Canadian version of free speech and freedom to assemble.
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They exercised those rights. They were given leeway to protest. They would not leave. It’s been 3 weeks with them bringing a large portion of the city to a grinding halt. Businesses have shut down. People have been threatened and harassed; people who have to live there and have no escape from it.
I’ve said all along that they are welcome to protest. We all encourage a good argument/discussion. Taking hostages isn’t the same thing. If you won’t back down or compromise in any way until you get everything that you want, you aren’t having a discussion: you’re dictating terms. Expecting the government to give up power because they don’t like what is going on in the world is simply a childish tantrum.
The response is a bit over the top, for sure. Each step has been an escalation in order to try to get the people involved to leave of their own accord. They wouldn’t. Each new action was a bit more draconian. Still, they wouldn’t end their occupation. They dug in like ticks on an Alabama hound. Trust me, their voices have been heard. Hundreds of idling trucks in a closely packed area with their air horns blaring NON-STOP for weeks has brought some people to the edge of madness. This is actual torture. Their concerns are plastered all over the downtown core and on the news. There are a few fringe loonies and typical nutjobs joining in, but I discount those as not being typical of the protest group.
Imagine if this was America. Well, you won’t have to imagine because this has been funded by Americans as a dry-run for the next round of protests in the US. Over 50% of donations came from the US. If this WAS America, how long do you think it would have been before the guns came out?
This is an imperfect situation and will have an imperfect result on all sides. Everyone is at fault to some degree. I don’t agree with the reason that this protest started in the first place. I don’t agree with how it was handled. I don’t like how the message was changed and co-opted by outsiders to their cause. I don’t like the government’s response. However, I can understand each side not wanting to back down.
I just don’t see how this is the particular hill for the truckers to die on. It was all set up wrong from the beginning. Sending trucks from all over the country to the federal capital to protest health mandates that are set provincially just doesn’t make one bit of sense.
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Friendship with the person I had feelings for is on hold, We went to dinner with some friends, and they surprised me with “By the way these people are my partner’s”. and i told them how i felt. It has been rough. I basically lost my friend group till I heal. Im going to therapy so i can learn how to handle this better.
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I think as soon as the government called them evil racist bigots they were stuck. The government couldn’t just agree and let them leave, and they couldn’t give up because that would be tantamount to agreeing that it was a racist nationalist push.
If this was America I would expect the government to crack down twice as hard twice as quick. And they would be even more wrong. Like I said on here before, I am sure there are plenty of people that would deal with horns instead of their stores being ransacked, burned down, and employees killed. Yet, there were few if any arrests even with dozens of hours of video.
It is an unfortunate consequence of the people who rely on identity politics to make everything identity politics. And as soon as you use the worst terms you can think of to label someone you get locked into the sort of conflict where neither side can back down.
Birthdays.
Systems that don’t work.
I joined a rewards program called Aeroplan that is linked to Air Canada.
I get an email from them about once/week. It is never relevant to me and I want it to stop.
There is an UNSUBSCRIBE link in each email.
When I press that link, it takes me to the Aeroplan website. I couldn’t unsubscribe from the service until I created an online account in their system.
Okay, I did that and went into the subscription notification options and clicked the link there. I get to a page that says that they will email me a link that I can click to get to the page that will allow me to make changes to my subscription notifications.
I never get the email.
I repeat this several times over a couple of weeks with the same non-result.
So, I decide to do something about it.
I call their help line, which is jammed with calls, and I set about waiting. I wait, on hold, for 2 hours.
Eventually I get someone. The call goes something like this:
SHE: Aeroplan Rewards customer service. How may I help you?
ME: Hi. I’d like to get the subscription emails turned off.
S: Yes, sir. You can do that through your online portal.
M: No, I can’t. I’ve been trying to do that for weeks. The email link never arrives. I’ve checked the spam and junk folders. The email never arrives.
S: I’m sorry to hear that.
M: …
S: …
M: So, how can I manage the subscription emails.
S: You should be able to handle that through your online portal.
M: ARE YOU A ROBOT? A BROKEN ROBOT?
S: No, sir. Is there anything else I can help you with today?
M: Now that you mention it, yes. You can help me to cancel my card.
S: I’m sorry that your card experience wasn’t what you expected. You can cancel your card through the online portal. Is there anything else that I can help you with?
M: You haven’t helped me with anything at all, so I’m going to have to say NO.
S: Okay, well … you have a nice day.
M: Yeah, go fuck yourself.
S: …
M: …
S: Are you still there?
M: Yes. I’m waiting for you to hang up.
S: We cannot disconnect from the line, sir. You have to hang up.
M: Fine.
I put the phone down next to my computer and turn on a heavy metal playlist.
The call lasts for another 20 minutes before I assume that a manager got on the line and cut it off.
I haven’t cancelled the card. I figure I’ll try this a couple more times to see if anything changes.
Drugs.
I was just prescribed a replacement drug by my doctor.
I cancelled the original and filled the new prescription.
When I went to pick it up, I was surprised by the price. Now, these are both covered by my health plan which covers 80% of the cost.
The old drug was around $3 for 200 (2x daily = 100 days) and the new one was $40 for 60 (1x daily = 60 days). It’s literally 20x more expensive.
I know I shouldn’t be complaining about paying $40 for a prescription. In the end, it isn’t that bad. I make a decent wage. I can afford it. It was just a bit shocking.
I called my insurance company and they confirmed that this new drug is really that expensive.
I’m actually looking forward to only having to take one pill/day that doesn’t taste like ass and is supposed to have a side effect of slow weight loss; maybe a pound a month.
I usually swallow any sort of pill so as to avoid asstasting.
Malaria pills are the worst, they really taste like superass.
Oh, my god. Malaria pills were the absolute worst.
The only way I could get them down was to fill my mouth with water, tilt my head back, drop the pill in like a depth charge and then swallow it all at once. Horrid,horrid things.
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