This powerful comment, by SDA regular Ken Kulak, was read by Charles Adler on his radio program today:
Well said Charles.
Like Charles’s family, both my wife’s and my came here for freedom and never mooched a dime of taxpayers money. Some had enough funds to pay their passage to Canada and some had travel debt owing Canadian Pacific. Some even lived in granaries in the late 1920s and early 1930s with rats running over the bunks, but never took a dime from the taxpayer. They were just grateful to be in a free country. They did not get on their feet until enough children were old enough to work on farms to help provide. They never took a dime from the taxpayer. Some of the children fought in WW II, some of the older ones had rented and then bought farms. Others worked in factories. A few of the real young ones went to university. By the 1950s all children and grandchildren were successful members of society in various occupations or business. None ever took welfare.
Sorry to go on, but I get so sick of the entitlement mentality that is so pervasive these days, especially when it touted by a lying political party whose radical members with veiled values that would put us back to the hell hole that we came from.
I repeat, well said Charles and repeat what John said @ 3:29, God Bless Canada and Canada is the best country in the world.
Bravo, Ken!
Well said Charles Adler for Ken (Kulak) as well!
I wonder if Taliban Jack or Stephen Lewis (closet communists) had ever heard of or had any of their family take part in the “Back to The Land” movement in Manitoba in 1932?
It wasn’t so much a handout, participants had to build their own log house on mosquito infested worthless scrub bush land (at that time) in eastern Manitoba in order to not to become welfare recipients in Winnipeg.
The Peter Molnar (hunky immigrants courtesy of the CPR) built in Woodridge Manitoba, my second home as an infant.
Yes,mud and strw chinked poplar log house!
Thanks Robert.
There’s another aspect to this tale of ‘immigrant self-reliant pioneers’ in Canada. As noted, they relied on themselves and it never occurred to them to do otherwise. Plus, they came to this country to develop it..as a nation.
The immigrant since the 1980’s is very different. A large majority come from countries without democracy and within a socialist mentality. For them, government is a faceless, far-distant authority – which is expected to give them various goods and services – and yet, govt is a power which they have absolutely nothing to do with.
The concept that ‘the people are the government’ is foreign to them; the concept that ‘we vote for our government’ is foreign to them. Government, to them, is a monolithic, almost hereditary, far-off authority..with vast monetary resources (the Magic Cauldron theory of wealth).
Their agenda is to get as much of this Magic Cauldron money as possible – and to pay essentially, no taxes. They don’t relate govt money to taxes; they don’t have the view that ALL the money the govt has, comes from..them, from the people. Again, it’s that Magic Cauldron theory.
So, they will take all kinds of handouts, apply for whatever benefits they can, lie about children age, number, etc etc…without any shame. Because they do not connect themselves..to government.
And – they will twist themselves into every knot possible – and pay no taxes. If caught, they’ll simply retreat back into ‘not understanding English’..and lie about their sources of wealth.
This disconnection between govt and themselves is fundamental. They view govt as simply an authority which must be manipulated and threatened, cajoled, into giving them what they want..for their ‘identity group’.
Multiculturalism, in addition, isolates them from feeling that they have any role in Canada as a nation. They feel no alliance with Canada. Instead, they identify themselves as basically from the ‘home nation’..and consider that they have come to Canada only to ‘make money’. They are not interested in Canada or Canadians. It is simply a geographic location to make money for themselves and their families. They remain Pakistani, or Tamil, or Chinese or…and have no interest in developing Canada.
Right on Ken! I heard Adler read part of your comment and immediately thought it might be yours.
I for one hate moochers, lazy people who blame poverty for their misfortune. Last I heard schooling is free in Canada….don’t they force you to attend.
I grew up with 6 brothers and 2 sisters, Mom and Dad and two grandparents living in a 4 bedroom house in the 50’s. One breadearner who was laid off for a time….never took welfare. I can still see him crossing a river in the winter time pulling a sled that he used to haul back logs he cut in the woods. Couldn’t really afford coal or oil.
We sure didn’t have any luxuries and food was basic…..ate alot of bread and potatoes. I slept with 2 of my 6 brother and there was no heat upstairs…
Our parents raised us to attend church and to do well in school. 6 or us attended university and the other three did well by taking trades, etc…let’s see 6 teachers, one Mountie, one coast gurard and one electician…..
Poverty should not reduce you to crime but make you strive to better yourself. Good morals,religion,good education and a respect for your parents will always make good children….we left a good legacy for our Mom and Dad and owe everything to them for going through hard times to make us great citizens of Canada.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t kulak a retired farmer?
If any demographic epitomizes mooching it’s the entitled to their entitlements, rural conservative welfare bum farmer.
You can put one over on Fat Adler, kulak, but “never took welfare”, c’mon, you made a career of it.
Ken Kulak is a rock. Well done!
Phil is a dink.
I’m a first generation Canadian. Both my parents’ families worked blue collar jobs. Everyone worked.. foundries, sewing leather, etc. I grew up on a grain farm. When I got older my folks told me that at one point the bank (‘farm credit’) was 30 days away from evicting us because we were behind on the farm loan. This was during the 80s when interest rates were silly (unless you were Fidel Castro). A lucky good harvest was all that stood between us and losing our home (which was a hundred years old and about 700 square feet).
I know.. a real sob story. But nobody in my family has ever taken welfare or social assistance. I don’t remember any entitlements on our farm Phil.
Correction. Phil is an illiterate dink. The subject of Ken’s comment is clearly his ancestors who persevered and established themselves by the 1950’s.
Obnoxious and stupid is no way to go through life Phil.
1904 Mom, Dad, 5 children living in a tent at 45 below.
1905 Mom, Dad, 7 Children living in a covered wagon then a soddy.
1928 Mom, Dad 13 Children living in what is now a granary.
Three of my pioneering Grandparents and their introduction to life in Alberta. Their prayer remains my prayer, “God keep our land glorious and free”.
I always enjoy Ken’s comments here on SDA . He is intelligent and articulate and absolutely knows of what he speaks. We need more Kens in this country. I salute him and wish he contines to provide us with thoughtful and educational comments.
I don’t remember any entitlements on our farm, Phil.
You don’t remember Aida, nisa, grip, subsidized crop insurance, subsidized vehicle insurance, preferential tax treatment of every description, Agristability, AgriInvest ,
Whole alphabets of programs that have leeched the lifeblood out of Saskatchewan families for decades and will for decades to come, judging by the mentality of the small dead useful idiots .
Why Phil, your envy is showing!
I’m from Manitoba, maybe it’s different in Saskatchewan. We got a tax break on purple gas in the farm truck, but that’s it. And I remember my mom’s car getting stopped by the cops so they could dip the tank to see if was running farm gas. We were poor and the interactions we had with the government were mainly negative.
Well you’re getting your wish Phil. There are fewer farmers than ever before, and they’re getting older. It’s going corporate ; you can really get your hate on soon.
Phil seems to forget the reason that all those programs are forced onto farmers is that the government, for decades, has maintained a cheap food policy so that welfare bums like him don’t riot in the streets.
As an economically displaced Newfoundlander I can tell you one of the greatest tragedies of Canadian socialism is the hollowing out of the provincial work ethic.
Years ago, when my grandparents were my age and raising a family of eight in outport Newfoundland, people were ashamed to be on “relief.” Today, able-bodied men and women gloat about their ability to game the system for all it’s worth so that they might work the least. Their grandparents would smack them up side of the head and boot them in the arse were they alive.
The majority of Newfoundlanders, mind you, still put in an honest day’s work, and then some. But something is wrong when my father-in-law, who runs multiple businesses in NL and has multiple full-time positions available, finds it incredibly difficult to find people who will work full-time. The men and women are there but they want to work 12 or 20 and go on the “pogey.”
It’s a crying shame.
Congratulations to Ken (Kulak)!
Phil’s smart car must have gotten frightened by a combine on the road again…
Phil seems to forget the reason that all those programs are forced onto farmers is that the government, for decades, has maintained a cheap food policy so that welfare bums like him don’t riot in the streets.
Posted by: gordinkneehill at August 30, 2011 7:13 PM
Oh, my, the old cheap food policy canard rears it’s ugly head. Need I remind gord, etc., that the only food policy extant, supply management, renders food more expensive, not cheaper.
But use that delusion, if it let’s you sleep soundly, and allows
you to continue to game the system without guilt, bludger.
Ahhh, the self reliant right…reading the anecdotes here reminds me of listening to Four Yorkshiremen reminiscing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo
Perhaps, phil, you can explain why you think the govt set up these programs and what you think is wrong with them.
The way I see it, they enable more small scale local farming to continue. Since farming is not, as in so many other industries, a ‘guaranteed production’ and since it can’t be that flexible in marketing prices, it’s a fragile economic mode – and particularly so for small farms.
Certainly, the massive megafarms are more able to deal with weather problems (cold, water, heat) and more able to deal with market competition than the small-scale farmer.
Agristability, for example, is a risk insurance program that kicks in to protect the self-employed small farmer from large losses (at least 15%) in income due to problems in production (ie, drought, wet, cold)..figured over five years.
Could you explain what you have against this program?
And it’s probably a good thing that Kulak’s family moved to Canada because if the stayed in the homecountry, they, like so many of their countrymen, would probably be working with the Einsatzgruppen to round up the Jews in Kiev or some other God forsaken place.
Ken Kulak
Nicely said. Wiah we had thousands more REAL Immigrants like you. This Country was built on them. I could list examples as I did. Had a long post but it seems to have evaporated in cyberspace. We need to go back to a rational imigration system again.Notone based on PC multicult fantasy. Congrats By the way. Your one of the common sense people in my eyes.
Adler (Orgasmo)
Didn’t, they, also have to “walk 5 miles to school barefoot in January” and voted for the CCF’s Tommy Douglas and built the Trans Canada Railroad?, oops.
If your too sensitive, I could stop telling the world he was really just a communist at heart.
Need to fix the abortion problem, before you even begin to fix the socialist problems with immigration in this country.
Right Robert?
snooty noses need Kleenex
wow
“And it’s probably a good thing that Kulak’s family moved to Canada because if the stayed in the homecountry, they, like so many of their countrymen, would probably be working with the Einsatzgruppen to round up the Jews in Kiev or some other God forsaken place.”
Posted by: lberia at August 30, 2011 8:17 PM
So Iberia, you figure Ken and his family would probably have been enthusiastic Nazis if things had gone that way, do you? Thought you’d share that observation just by way of making conversation? Creep.
Otherwise, well done, Ken.
lberia – could you provide some evidence for your conclusion that Ken Kulak’s family “would probably be working with the Einsatzgruppen to round up the Jews in Kiev or some other God forsaken place.”
I know that you are very keen on ensuring that all remarks here, including yours, are substantiated. So – how about doing that? Thanks in advance.
Could you explain what you have against this program?
ET
Yeah, it is wholly funded by the taxpayer. It’s called the free market in a free society. If you can’t make it on the farm, you go out and get a real job.
I thought right whiners were against socialism… Or is it just socialism that benefits someone you don’t like?
Yes, Ken (Kulak) is a treasure.
This man is GROUNDED and all his comments demonstrate it.
Kulak, I believe, referred to very marginally successful farmers in the former Soviet Union, one step up from the peasant. Relatively speaking, with a small plot and an animal or two, he was rich, and therefore a target.
phil – surely you can’t be against it only because it’s ‘paid by the taxpayer’, i.e, by the community.
It’s an insurance policy. The farmers must buy into it. And remember, they are taxpayers. It’s not a welfare program where people get money for NOT working! You have to have a working farm over a number of years and the calculations are on your net income loss – which can be due to many factors other than the free market.
And, could you explain why you consider farming ‘not a real job’? That’s quite a statement.
No, farming is not the same as setting up a coffee shop on the main street, in competition with other coffee shops. Farming is subject to more than market influences, as I’m sure you know. And protecting small scale farming against the takeover by massive megafarms, or having to import our food, seems, to me, to be a worthwhile endeavour of a society.
Local small scale farmers, who produce artisan cheeses, local produce, local meats etc – is all part of a robust economy. Do you really want everything to be mass produced or shipped from California?
As for taxpayers paying for it, as I said, farmers pay taxes as well, and aren’t even eligible without providing their income tax forms.
And, taxpayers pay for other services in a ‘reasonable’ economy, besides encouraging local businesses. I won’t refer to roads and water etc but to old age security, health care – do you want to reject these as well, because they are ‘paid by the taxpayer’?
roads are wholly funded by the taxpayer. And
ET,
Don’t you worry your frazzled little head about any substantiations from me. Infact, I could just echo a response that you like to give: “Do your own research”, but instead I’ll offer you a starting point…considerably more than you ever offer.
http://www.zwoje-scrolls.com/zwoje16/text11.htm
BTW, I notice that you now support government subsidies…have you been drinking?
There is two kind of people in this country. Those like Ken who build and keep this country growing and people like phil who sit on their ass and bitch that they have nothing. Good post Ken.
I encourage SDAers not to allow threads to be hijacked by trolls. Simply do not respond to them. People like Phil, a one-trick pony with his bitching about Canadian farmers. Or Trollex, who pops in with his drive by snipes.
Do not feed them by responding to them. Whole threads get hijacked when they’re fed. If they’re ignored, they’ll go away.
lberia- trying to get out of accountability for what you write???
Opinions aren’t researchable.
I can’t research any data to substantiate YOUR OPINION about Ken Kulak! You’re the one making the claim about him, namely, that his family:
“would probably be working with the Einsatzgruppen to round up the Jews in Kiev or some other God forsaken place.”
You said it. You made the assertion. Now, prove it. Prove that his family would do this.
Remember, how you INSIST that all views on this blog be substantiated!
Or, are you just bloviating? Idle talk, empty mind, lberia, is that your motif?
No ET, YOU are the one who always insists that all views on this blog need to be substantiated. However, you are too obtuse to realize when you are being mocked.
You make generalizations about all kinds of things without providing proof…why should I?
Iberia, you are truly one sick, despicable individual. You make such an accusation about Ken’s family and think that it’s perfectly fine?
I could delete your ugly comment but will leave it up there so all can see how deeply disturbed a troll you actually are.
Ken: But I will remove all of the iHater’s comments if you wish.
Good on you Ken, that a well grounded person can arouse such vitriolic hatred from the diciples of E Jack just shows he didn’t rise for them on day three. They are extremely angry about the fact that every one of their phoney pillars are falling down around them, and they are nothing more that cat scat in the litterbox of life. Farmers feed these chronic bitchers, mommy pays for their computers and the power and they have the nerve to take cheap shots at providers. Somewhere underneath middle earth Turdo is smiling as Jack decends and Peeair knows he can have a break from polishing the devils fork, but not the heat.
Thanks all.
Me No Dhimmi @9:27, actually my grandfather owned in freehold 65 dessiatines or 175.5 acres in an area of Russia developed in the 1890s. His ancestors had been freehold farmers since 1789 when they emigrated to Russia. Many of the former serf peasant farmers there were also freehold landowners. The large estates in the area were collapsing and the former serfs were in the process of buying the land.
He had approximately a half dozen horses, a couple of head of beef cattle, a cow, some hogs and poultry. His two brothers also each had 65 dessiatines. He sold his farm in 1925 and left in 1926 as he knew it was only a matter of time before the Soviets would come for him, as he was educated and had done administrative work in the Moscow Red Cross hospital during WW I.
Some people actually thought that Lenin’s NEP program would be permanent, but he knew better.
His brothers were not so lucky. In the late 1920s their farms and livestock were confiscated and formed part of the local kolchoz. They were tried as kulaks and sentenced to many years in labour camp. Their wives and children were exiled to the Ural foothills where they lived in caves they dug themselves. One brother died working on the White Canal and the other died working in the mines and lumber camps near Perm. Some of their sons and son-in-laws were arrested in the 1930s. A few were shot as “enemies of the people” and the others sentenced to terms in labour camps.
ET has a remarkable grasp of the workings of the various farm programs.
I could say more, but I am already a little embarrassed by all this.
This is a great country and some would reduce it to the level of Cuba or Venezuela.
ET .. your post about immigrants seems to be a generalization … Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said ‘Asians work like dogs.’ … many immigrants are upright folks who give to society …. many people who were born here are chronic leeches … the TTC ticket checker who was asleep while on duty (100k compensation) doesn’t look like an immigrant to me … what’s the point of immigrant-bashing? Do you personally know any immigrants?
‘And – they will twist themselves into every knot possible – and pay no taxes.’
It’s impossible to pay no taxes. Anyone who pays rent is paying the landlord’s property tax. Anyone who buys gas is paying Sales Tax. What about the health premium that was sneaked in by Dalton McGuinty? The list goes on and on and on.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2010/01/22/snoozing-ttc.html
Bravo Ken Kulak.
Canadians are fortunate that you and your family escaped from the Ukraine before you were starved to death or hanged or shot, by the Communist state in Soviet Union. Our gain. My only wish is that more of the Ukrainian people could have managed escape before the terror took their lives.
That terror happened before WWII, the war in which Ken’s family fought with Canada. My Mom told me that Stalin had all of the POW’s and most of the returning Ukranian soldiers, who had served in the Soviet Army during WWII, shot or sent to gulags as soon as they arrived in the Soviet Union after the war. No need to question why some Ukrainian men fought for the German Army, Iberia.
Ken your comments here are read and appreciated by all honest SDAers. I, for one, am happy to share your comments with Charles A. – the more Canadians who hear from you the better, IMO.
Excellent contribution Ken.
My forebearers also felt the booted heel of the Austro-Prussian/Ukraine tyranny.
Then we have Phil… I believe he could be a neutron star!- an entity so dense that no light, let alone rational thought can eminate from this POS!
Atta boy, Ken Kulak.
Ditto Ken! As for Iberia, the whole peninsula is in such a mess, the Muslims can pretty well take it back! Franco was the best thing that ever happened there.
Congratulations Ken. Glad your family made it out. My father lived in Polish occupied Ukraine until he left in July or August of 1939 to go to Croatia. At the time he was a Polish draft dodger and a Ukrainian nationalist. Glad he left at the last minute as I wouldn’t be here now otherwise. 2 of his brothers were killed by the commies as Polish occupied Ukraine became part of the USSR when Poland was divided between the Germans and Russians.
Like all immigrants from that era, the concept of collecting welfare was totally foreign and it took my father a few years of doing all sorts of jobs before he finally got work as an engineer.
lberia – no. You either are your own individual self..or..a robot run by someone else. You can’t claim that you are a robot run by me..i.e., your claim that I make generalizations and therefore, so can you.
What you wrote about Ken’s family was not a generalization.
You chose to make a specific, outrageous accusation about his family.
Prove it. And your attempt to say that your accusation was an act of ‘mocking’ me??? Whew.
You made a choice; you accused someone’s family of reprehensible actions. Are you going to apologize or prove it?
Good stuff Ken, Thanks!
Actually ET, it appears that you’re the robot, since you can’t tell the difference between using an exaggeration to insult someone…and reality. Perhaps it was over the top, but hey, it’s nothinig compared to what I’ve seen around here. When in Rome…
no, lberia, you can’t weasel out of responsibility for your comments. You viciously insulted, for no reason, another individual. Why?
When called to account, you slithered.
First, you refused to substantiate your insult, telling me that I should ‘do my own research’. By this term, you are saying that the images in your comment were real, and open to research. They weren’t just your subjective insults.
With this focus on research, you were actually suggesting that Kulak’s family actually did engage in such reprehensible actions? You are the one obliged to provide the evidence.
Second, you then slithered and tried to say it was a ‘generalization’. Do you know the meaning of generalization? Insulting a specific individual’s family is NOT a generalization.
Third, you’ve finally admitted that you ‘exaggerated’ to ‘insult someone’. Ah, so now we have you admitting your agenda: to insult someone by telling an outrageous lie about their family. But why would you do such a thing? Why?
And then, you tell us ‘why’. You tell us that such behaviour is what you’ve seen around here..and that you are no better than those whom you deride and condemn. Ahh, so now we understand.
I always enjoy Ken’s posts. The Ukrainian farmers are the best thing thatever happened to the Prairies.
My Mother did her thesis on the Uke farmers of Manitoba,most of whom she knew personally. The stories were similar to Ken’s,very inspiring as those folks didn’t have any “quit” in them.
The hardships they faced would daunt any of today’s lucky immigrants, but not that tough and hardy group of European farmers.
Thanks Ken. And thanks to all the Eastern European farmers who settled the West, we couldn’t have had a better group of immigrants in this Country.
If we’re reminiscing, my grandparents left a little village outside Lvov (or Lviv, if you prefer) in 1930 or ’31. My Grandfather fought in WWI (I’m not old, but I have a grandparent born in 1899), albeit not enthusiastically, and his regiment surrendered to the Italians (I know, right?) as fast as they could. Loved Italy, had a great time as a POW, always wanted to go back (never made it). And apparently he rode the trains during the depression, just like in a Johnny Cash song.
They were converted to the Baptist faith at Pier 21 (in Halifax) by a Black man (the first they’d ever seen, I’m sure) who spoke fluent Ukrainian. Baba said that the priests at the village had treated everyone like garbage, and she hated them.
As a child, after the Germans took her mother away, never to be heard from again, she remembered tending cows, trying to keep her little sister alive, being sniped at at one point by German soldiers. She died a year ago at 100.
They weren’t great parents – agonizingly narrow-minded – and I don’t believe they ever learned fluent English. Baba never did, anyway. Always would lapse into Ukrainian and could never grasp that I didn’t understand it. “Baba, ya ne hoveryu po Ukrainske. Baba, ya ne hochu yeeste” – that’s the extent of my Uke.
But they had nothing for free, worked hard (farmers), were essentially illiterate, and got themselves and their kids into the middle class in one generation.
Oh, and my aunt once calculated that they sent maybe a quarter million dollars, over the years, back to Ukraine. Because communism never really worked out so well.