• 138 Posts
  • 29 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: April 1st, 2025
  • dwazou@jlai.luBannedBanned from communityOPtoCanada@lemmy.ca•This month, Canadians aged 35-64 can now apply for Government Dental CareEnglish
    21·
    1 year ago

    Thank you so much. This means a lot to me.

    I come from a third world country with tremendous inequality. I was born in the most privileged classes.

    In my country, poor people who don’t pay a lot of money die like DOGS in hospitals. Private hospitals don’t hesitate to overcharge sick people as much as they can. If you are not happy, if you protest, they just let you die. We have mostly free elections. But they are useless. Because most of the time, useless and ignorant politicians get elected. Very few people read investigative journalism. In fact, our newspapers are mostly dead. I’m one of the very few people trying to financially support quality journalism in my country.

    I used to think our problems were specific. We are dumb. We are fools.

    Our problems are actually surprisingly common. I lived in many nations around the world. I noticed that in some countries, some cities, politicians can achieve absolutely amazing things in public health, labor rights, housing. They can really take great decisions. And I noticed that in some rich countries, like the United States, incredibly dumb and corrupt politicians can get massive popular support. And ordinary people always pay the price:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/10/inhaler-cost-death-optum-rx-walgreens/

    My conclusion was simple. At the end of the day, everything stems from the people. In corrupt places, like my country, people don’t pay attention to politics. They don’t educate themselves about policies. They don’t read quality newspapers. Few people get involved in the local community. As a result, they can be easily lied to by oligarchs.

    In democracies that work great, like Denmark, you have ordinary people that educate themselves and actively get involved in their local community. They support strong independent newspapers. They join community organizations pushing for change. They pay close attention to their MPs and their votes.

    If my comment helps people pay closer attention to politics, then I would have achieved my goal.

  • dwazou@jlai.luBannedtoEurope@feddit.org•Green deputy launches leadership bid with UK ‘eco-populism’ visionEnglish
    21·
    1 year ago

    I’m not British. But this is what I think Britain needs :

    1. Campaign finance reform. The United Kingdom is one of the only democracies in the world where corporations are allowed to wire hundreds of thousands of pounds to political parties. Brits often argue their system is better than the US. I’m sorry, but being better than the US is the same as having no standards at all.

    2. Publically owned water companies. The senior management of UK water companies have looted the country. Billions were lost. It’s a complete disaster.

    3. A ban on gambling ads. Gambling ruins the lives of so many people.

    These 3 policies are not extreme in any way. They are not far-left, hard-left, communist, or whatever. They are simply about creating better incentives for a better country. Implementing them would help ordinary people.

    Yet Keir Starmer doesn’t have seem to have the guts to do that. I hope I’m proved wrong.

    Britons deserves better.

  • dwazou@jlai.luBannedtoTechnology@lemmy.world•Court ruling bars Apple from charging 27% commission on purchases outside the App StoreEnglish
    855·
    1 year ago

    Imagine if Microsoft banned Windows users from downloading software outside the Microsoft store.

    Imagine if Microsoft required all Software developers to give them 30% of their income or be banned from Windows

    This is nothing but pure extortion.

    Thank god for the EU, which forced Apple to back down:

    Fortnite, one of the world’s biggest video games, is available as an iPhone app for the first time in four years. However, it will only be available to players in the European Union. This is because EU law requires Apple to allow third-party app stores on its devices - other parts of the world do not have comparable legislation. The game was removed from the App Store in 2020 following a payments row between Apple and Epic.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70j5rx72yvo

    As for canadians/americans, they are in jail.

    Imagine your friend in Europe sends you a phone invite to play .

    -“Oh. I’m sorry but I am not allowed to do that 😢”