A Different Political View

For a minute let's look at the most powerful economies on earth. As it is my blog, and I am Canadian, I will make it a top-eleven list.

These are, (GDP)
1 USA $15.68 trillion
2 China $8.36 trillion
3 Japan $5.96 trillion
4 Germany $3.4 trillion
5 France $2.61 trillion
6 UK $2.44 trillion
7 Brazil $2,25 trillion
8 Russia $2.01 trillion
9 Italy $2.01 trillion
10 India $2.01 trillion
11 Canada $1.82 trillion

How does that work out on a per-capita basis? Of course, I am only talking about the countries on the list of economic big players.

1 Canada $52.218
2 USA $49,965
3 Japan $46,720
4 Germany $41,514
5 France $39,771
6 UK $38,514
7 Italy $33,048
8 Russia $14,037
9 Brazil $11,339
10 China $6,188
11 India $1,489

What these two tables tell us is interesting. The gross GDP list tells us who the big players seem to be, and the second tells us which ones are too poor to really present a powerful competitive threat to anybody else on the list.

For example, India makes the tally of economic giants only if the first list is considered. They have an impressive $2.01 trillion dollar GDP, but that only works out to $1,489 per person.

Should the number one country on list one (the USA) need to worry about the economic threat posed by India. I wouldn't think so. Should they worry about China as a competitor, or Brazil, or Russia?

These countries really don't fill the same kind of niche that the USA does, or that the USA wants to fill.

Who then, are the competitive economic super power?

Let's drop the poor nations off. This leaves;

1 USA
2 Japan
3 Germany
4 France
5 UK
6 Italy
7 Canada

The idea should be competition between these nations.

Right-wing people in North America (Canada and the USA) think the way to compete is to cut social programs. This is quite ridiculous.

All except the USA have universal health care, and by not having it has not allowed the USA to pull ahead.

Let's say one of these countries decides to ditch all social programs. For argument, let's make that country be Canada.

We would become a nation of unprotected workers, old people needing to work until they drop, no consumer protection, or environmental programs, or job security. It doesn't sound like a very pleasant place to live or to work. Countries without social programs do not exist on the top 7 list at all. They are all much, much farther down the list, and are relatively insignificant.

I took both of my lists from nationmaster.com, which gets all of their information from the CIA World Fact-book.

You can keep going down the list of top GDP countries, and match that with the list for GDP per capita. You will not find any country that is both significant overall, and on a per-person basis without strong social programs.

Perhaps both left and right-leaning people should adopt some sort of level-playing-field view of social programs.

Let's say one of those countries decides to give every citizen a summer home in the tropics, they should say to themselves, "this is out of line with what our competitors are doing, and will likely hurt us." A country resisting universal health care should also say, "this is out of line, and will hurt our people, and hurt our ability to compete as result."

Welfare? Same test. Giving the needy $1,000,000 a year is out of line and is too much, just as providing the poor with nothing is also out of line, and too little.

Don't Wanna Suck

You are not supposed to chase the rank. You should be training for its own sake. The rank doesn't matter.

This kind of thinking is inaccurate. Especially within the Gracie promotion system.

To go up a stripe, you must have put in 8 months of training, and attended at least 90 advanced classes, and received your instructor's OK.

Training 3 times a week will get your attendance tally filled up almost exactly when your 8 months is up. This is also the maximum that most people train in a week.

Interestingly, it almost never seems to work out that way. Viruses happen, as do minor injuries, and other time commitments. It is rare that anybody gets their quota filled up at the 8-month mark, and so they train on for 9 months, or 10, or a year.

This makes sense, as with all things being equal, a person who has attended 90 classes will have learned more than one who has only made it to, say, 77.

I like getting promoted on time; call me crazy.

To guarantee this as much as I can, I have kicked my program into a higher gear. My weekly goal includes the 3 advanced classes that we have at my home Training Centre. In addition, I have started visiting the city for an extra 2 classes at a neighbouring school.

Around the time that I would normally have hit the 90-class mark, I will have made it to something around 150.

Rank chasing? Maybe, but I'll also be better at Jiu-Jitsu than if I weren't doing it.

Especially as I won't just back off once I make it to the attendance goal, but will soldier on.

I find the very best form of training is found in private lessons. The Gracie's recognize this, and count them as double towards attendance totals.

I also want a private lesson in my weekly tally, and it looks like this will become possible on a regular basis soon. That means that my weekly tally will become 7, instead of a normal full load of 3.

I will complete my quota in under half the time of a regular, good student. By the time a 3-class-a-week person reaches the mandated 90, I will be at 210.

If I were really chasing rank, wouldn't I stop at 90, or at least slow down?

The entire rank-slash-quota-slash-tally thing is supposed to be a motivator, and it does help. The real result is more training. More training equals better progress. Attaining rank quickly means you've met or exceeded the minimum requirements. Not doing so indicates that you haven't met the minimum standard. I intend exceeding the standard greatly.

My current 8-month period will end on July 29^th. My tally will have finished in May.

Actually, that's just the classes that count. I also attend 3 beginner classes per week to help out, and 2 open-mat free-training times, and meet up a time or two with friends for extra work. In reality, my weeks hold more than 12 sessions each. My “real” tally in 8 months is more like 360. Clearly, this isn't just about chasing the rank.

So why do I do it?

I just don't want to suck.

Old Car

I like new cars. Old vehicles cost money in nasty little piles.

Our primary car is a delightful Toyota Prius. It is 9 years old, which for me is one year short of retirement time.

Today, it just happens to be service day for oil and filters and such, and getting the summer tires put back on. It also has two lug studs on one of the wheels that need actual repair work. There goes a fistful of cash.

It turns out that the brakes need work, and our summer tires are worn out, and on and on. The total reached $1900.

The good news is that when we drive away it will be on a repaired and serviced car with great brakes and tires on an otherwise old car. What will go next?

It isn't even really about the cost of the work, although I'm not nuts about it. My concern is the reliability. We do big-drive holidays, and having a breakdown in the middle of can't-get-parts-land can be a nightmare.

For me, next year should be new Prius time.

My wife has a different mindset.

It is a fact that even while paying increasing repair costs on an old car, it is a less expensive option than buying a new one. She would prefer to keep our present car until it has to go to the bone yard.

How to reconcile these two opposing views? It's actually quite simple.

We have a second car of a type unsuitable for long-range travel. When our Prius hits 10 years of age next year, this car will only be half as old. It will still be an attractive trade-in that can be applied on a new Prius.

That would give us two of them; one new and reliable, and the other to keep until it goes to the wrecker.

Two Sides as One

There are two roads to freedom. The obvious one is the power of the vote.

The problem with relying on this is that sometimes mistakes happen, and need to be corrected. The only fear that politicians have is the next election. That, normally, is years in the future. They can do a lot of damage in that kind of time.

Let's take the current, new US administration. They are greatly feared, and the potential is certainly there for a lot of grief. Not only is the President suspect, the same party controls the Senate, and the House, and soon will dominate the Supreme Court as well.

Let's say that they do what everybody is scared they will do; eliminate all wealth and corporate taxes, and all government regulation, as well as bringing in new draconian laws, and destroying all public services; health, education, veterans affairs...and everything else.

Clearly the people would be appalled, and in two years the scoundrels would lose control of both the House and Senate, and two years after that, the Presidency.

So what? In those years the people would have had to suffer immensely, all because the people in power wanted to pillage all they could before their clock ran out.

And what if we are not talking about a democratic country at all. How do they remove the problem?

There is always the possibility of an actual civil war, but that can take a very long time and be a bloodbath. In the case of a berserk US administration, it would take longer than would the democratic process, and so is unlikely to be deemed worthwhile by the citizenry.

Interestingly, the solution is two-fold, and together these two components make up another road to freedom.

There needs to be a citizenry willing to protest in numbers sufficient to be terrifying to the government in power, and a military that is unwilling to intervene in favour of that government.

Let's look at a few examples of how the will of the people can shine right through a military intervention.

At the start of the French Revolution, everyone was scared to death of the mighty French army crushing the desperate people of Paris. The King was unwilling to bend to the masses, and brought more and more troops into the simmering city, confident in their power. Then that whole Bastille thing erupted, with people facing off against the guns of the prison garrison. In the middle of it all, the Army showed up......

...and joined the people, forcing the prison authorities to surrender.

In Eastern Europe, several of the Communist regimes, desperate to retain power, ordered their troops to open fire on the assembled mass of their protesting citizenry. The soldiers refused.

In both of these examples, the soldiers knew that they were part of the people. The protesters were the families, friends, and neighbours of the soldiers lined up before them. In effect, they were the soldiers, and the soldiers were them.

More recently, well over three million Americans joined the Women's protest march against their new, suspect government. There was no violence, and the police lined up to control them were in good humour and friendly. They joked with the women, and swapped hats. Likely, many of them had spouses, friends, and neighbours out marching. The police were the protestors, and the protestors were them. No riot gear, or water cannons, or tear gas.

This is remarkable occurrence for the USA, as normally the military and police are willing to see protestors as some kind of “other.” Currently in North Dakota, this is precisely what is happening. The protestors are being regularly gasses, and hosed in sub-zero temperatures, being labelled as a bunch of native troublemakers and hippy environmentalists.

Imagine the reaction if over 3 million African Americans came out to peacefully protest Trump's election. Do you think they would be met by happy, joking policemen? There would be lines of men in riot gear, and armoured vehicles, and swat teams. Even if there were not a single incident, the day-long event would be tense from the first moment until the last.

It isn't that there are no Black or Native police and soldiers, as of course there are. It is what the mass of the police and soldiers can be made to feel. If the protestors can be made into an “other,” then the people in uniform will willingly stand against them.

Consider the anti-war situation during the Vietnam War. At Kent State University in Ohio, members of the National Guard were called out in reaction to violent protest by students. These solders were literally the same people as the students. They were the same age, and clearly anti-war. In the 1960s if a young person joined the National Guard they were most likely doing it to avoid being sent to Viet Nam.

On May 5th, 1970 the soldiers spontaneously opened fire on the crowd for 13 seconds, killing 4 and wounding 9 others. Officers immediately ordered a cease fire. If the troops had been actually ordered to open fire, it would seem that these young soldiers would have been happy to comply. This is by far the more usual reaction of American soldiers and police when facing protestors.

This is not unique to them.

In 1989, after prolonged pro-democracy protest, the Chinese government had had enough. Troops were ordered to move violently against the protestors. Thousands were killed, and thousands more arrested. The soldiers were made to believe that the students were out to destroy the Chinese state.

In countries such as modern France, citizens and government understand this relationship. Cut pensions to old people, and the grey-haired citizens will march with fire in their eyes. The government knows that they are at the mercy of their citizenry. They also know that they cannot count on anybody in uniform acting as armed muscle for protection.

Should the French government do something that the people would refuse to accept then the masses will march. The army will not intervene to stop them. The soldiers are the protestors and the protestors are them. Anger the people enough, and it won't be chanting, signs, and songs. Make the people mad enough and they will remove you. They will not wait for some future election.

Let's say that the current US government were to do something unacceptable to the American people. Let's say a few hundred thousand citizens of more show up in Washington, marching towards the White House. Lines of armed men await them with orders to use deadly force. The uniformed men instead choose to step aside, and the crown surges across the White House lawn, and into the building. Of course, Trump would have fled earlier, but the image of angry citizens swarming through the White House would make quite an impression.

That's what the women marching did. Trump won't hear them, and nor will his cronies. Some of that party will be concerned about future elections, but not enough. What the millions of women did was to draw a line in the sand, and show that they had millions who would move together. They planned and did this before the new administration even had time to do anything that the women feared. They did it preemptively.

It also looked as if the authorities would be unwilling to turn water cannons on them, or to use tear gas, or machine guns.

Not a Sprint

New people in Jiu-Jitsu are funny, and all the same.

They get their early lessons to gain some basic skills, and then eventually join the advanced group. This is where free-rolling happens.

There is a Billy Joel song called Goodnight Saigon, where a soldier describes rookies entering their first combat with the words, “We came in spastic, like tameless horses.” All new rollers in Jiu-Jitsu do the same thing. They are hyper, and terrified, and unpredictable. None of these characteristics do them any good at all. They gallop around in a panic, incredibly tense, and grabbing everything in sight.

Let's look at two guys from last night.

The first is a kickboxing guy with some experience of grappling as it is done by mma guys. He was trying a few tricks he knew, and with a lot of power. At one point he was on top of me, but I had him in half-guard. He was pushing hard to get an arm triangle going, which can't work from inside of the half-guard. For fun, I let him out, and he cranked his muscle tension up to about 100% to complete the submission. I countered, and let him yank away to no effect at all. There we were, all tangled up, with him exerting every ounce of force he could produce, and with me quietly holding out effectively using no exertion whatsoever; leverage totally on my side of the encounter.

Then there's Tawha. She's half my size, and gives me fits when we roll. She is always totally relaxed, and never tries to power through anything. Although I am more experienced, she knows enough principals and technique to be dangerous.

This is one of the beauties of non-sport Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu over other grappling arts. In a real fight there are no time limits or weight categories or points.

Let's say you are the strongest guy at your mma school, and are able to beat your buddies using force, and then you end up facing somebody bigger, and a heck of a lot stronger than you are. What have you got? You'll be like the biggest, baddest kindergarten kid facing the biggest, baddest kid in grade seven.

Competition rules also screw people up. You'd think that Collegiate wrestlers would be the top of the grappling food chain, what with their intensive training programs. The truth is, they are not. They train for years with the expectation of time limits, and size categories. One of the truths that is the most deeply engrained in their DNA is to never, ever be on their back, or to even let their back touch the mat for a second. Flip a wrestler on their back, and they will explode to get off. Fake an attempt to flip them on their back, and they will do anything to stop you.

In non-sport grappling, you need to know how to fight on your back. Do it for a while, and you won't care much if you are on top of your opponent, or underneath. It doesn't matter even a tiny bit if it seems like your opponent is dominating and defeating you. What matters is the technique that ends everything in your favour.

Burning energy is a big part of this, or rather not burning it. Most people fight like they are running a sprint. It shouldn't be that way, but that seems to be human nature. I've beaten people without really doing anything at all. They attack with maximum effort, and defend the same way. Their muscles are tense, and they go, go, go. This burns a lot of energy, and the muscle tension actually restricts their breathing, making things a great deal worse for them. It isn't unusual for this type of effort to cut oxygen intake by half.

So they are sprinting, while their Jiu-Jitsu opponent is not. The Jiu-Jitsu guy is mostly defending, and doing just enough to keep the other person's level of exertion up. The occasional choke threat is great for this, or even a random grab.

How long can you sprint? Not very long, I'll bet. Let's say it's a minute before you notice that you're about to exhaust yourself and you'd better stop before you poop out altogether. The problem is that you can't just stop like you can with running. The other guy isn't about to stop just because you want to. Let's say you are blown, and try and gear down to 50% to try and rest while still fighting. A great idea, except you are already tired. Your body is unable to behave the same at 50% as it would if you were still fresh. You will be quite inefficient, and clumsy, and slow, and weak, and more prone to increased fatigue.

That's when the fresh guy will make his move. You will be to slow, and weak and clumsy to stop him.

This is what I mean when I've beaten people without submitting them. They've gone like it's a sprint until totally exhausted, and have actually quit rather than try and continue. Their faces are normally either bright red at this point, or sometimes very pale. It varies.

It sounds easy to do, but like most unnatural learned skills, it isn't.

Consider swimming lessons. Tell a non-swimmer that they need to relax in order to swim well, then throw them into deep water. They will find relaxation to be totally impossible.

It takes practice to master.

Commute

Monday I decided to do things the hard way, and go to the city using transit.

Helen has her own car, which meant I didn't have to use the coast bus system getting to the ferry. I used my car and parked it at the terminal for a bargain rate of $2.25 for the day.

That all means that I got to the ferry in 30 minutes, instead of over an hour-and-a-quarter of busing.

The ferry ride has no charge when headed to the city; they get you on the ride back. Foot passengers load on before the cars, so I was easily able to be the very first in line at the cafeteria. Grabbed a meal of bacon and eggs and toast and potatoes. No need to do a transit adventure on an empty stomach.

The boat ride is about 45 minutes either way. When they opened the floodgate for the foot passengers, I scooted out quickly. It wasn't really a fair race, as I needed a stop next to the bus stop at the machine that sells fares. I was ahead at the machine, but it put me well back in the line for actual bus loading. In future I will simply use the fare card I purchased this time out and will be one of the first to the bus.

The bus is extremely long, and is in three sections. Being one of the last bodies aboard, I had to stand. My spot was right on the hinge between two bus sections. Whenever there was a turn, my spot became very similar to surfing. No place to put my bag either, so had to carry it strapped on the entire way, and it was heavy.

Got off at Park Royal mall. Found where my next bus would pick me up, expecting a 15 minute wait. My handy dandy transit app said one of my buses had left one minute earlier. However, a bus promptly turned up with my number on it. The bus I'd “missed” was slightly late, and so I got an early pickup.

My bus riding ended at Lonsdale Quay, which is a transit hub, as well as a shopping and eating venue in North Vancouver. The total bus fare is $2.75 going in either direction. I scouted out where to catch my return ride, and then headed off to a Starbucks which was on my walking route.

After my coffee break, it was about a ten minute walk to the North Vancouver Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy. I received a lovely welcome from the Black Belt instructor, Marc Marins.

The noon classes are always small, and this time there were about 7 or 8 of us. My partner was a friend who moved to the city a year-and-a-half ago. When sparring time started, she was my first partner.

After Elizabeth, I rolled with two big, young guys. They were both pretty good, and will kick my butt when they pick up a little more technique. My final partner was Marc, the instructor. He dumbed his skill level down to around my own, and found a few pointers for me in the middle of the roll. I liked that.

After class, Elizabeth and I walked together back to Lonsdale Quay. She is likewise a transit rider, but her ride was heading the opposite direction from mine. We chatted. She wants me to “make” other members of my school come train in the city, too. I agreed to mention it to them.

Ate a nice plate of pad thai at the Quay, then caught my bus homeward. For some reason traffic was insane. Arrival at Park Place mall was late, but the big issue was that the bus to the ferry terminal was extremely late.

Most of the passengers looked nervous, and did a lot of watch glancing. We ran from the bus to the ferry ticket booth, but it didn't help. Loading was already finished, and the ferry pulling out.

Now, with plenty of time before the next boat home, I strolled off to pick up my second Starbucks coffee of the day. Got my boarding pass, which was $13, and waddled to the appropriate waiting room. Only a couple of people were there ahead of me, and the room was all nice and warm. My wait was 2 hours. An annoyance, but I really had nothing to rush about. Sat all comfy with my drink, and my phone, and did a bit of people watching.

Boarded on time, and sat in another warm spot. Sometimes seats can be shockingly cold on the boat as there are places exposed to the outside air. Did the 45 minute ride comfortably, and then picked up my waiting car.

Being right in the middle of ferry traffic, the drive was slow, but nothing shocking.

To get my hour of Jiu-Jitsu instruction, along with a half-hour of rolling, I had first hit the road at just after 7am, and got home at about 7:15pm.

Next time, I won't go to eat after class. My pad thai added two hours to my adventure that I could quite happily have done without.

The total travel bill worked out to $20.75. Coffee and food was more at $33. If I'd taken the car, the food and coffee would likely have been the same, but the transportation costs higher at $54.50.

I wouldn't have missed the ferry if I'd been driving, but in the future having a car could have an opposite effect. Foot passengers normally get on if they arrive on time. Cars sometimes get left behind if there are too many of them trying to fit on.

Comparing perfect transit versus automobile trips would see me on the exact same ferries regardless of transport method. No time savings either way.

There is even a third option. I could ride the same ferries, and ride my bike. This is more of a fine-weather option, but quite viable. Google Maps says that the ride each way on the city side will take 90 minutes. That would be fine. As my bike will soon be electrified, it will take even less time. On this side, the bike would easily ride in the car to the ferry terminal, as it is a folding one.

Is this all worth it? If I were still a working Joe, the idea of giving up what is effectively an entire day-off to gain 1.5 hour of Jiu-Jitsu would look like madness, even if the financial cost were irrelevant. Most people only have two such days in a week. Being a retired gentleman of leisure, this isn't really a consideration. I have seven free days each week.

Marc Marins teaches 3 noon classes per week. The Saturday one is good, but very crowded. The two weekday classes are much smaller, and students receive more attention.

I think I'll try and attend the two weekday classes unless something else pops up. This week, for example, I cannot make it to both, and so will be content with only one.

Before the commuting starts to feel like too much, which it likely will eventually, I'll shift down to once per week. If even that starts to drag, I can cut it back even further. Once in two weeks, or perhaps once per month.

This is my take on the ins-and-outs of training in the city from here.

Three Friend Saturday

One of my pet peeves struck again.

I was in the city on Saturday to train at the North Vancouver Bazilian Jiu-Jitsu school. The class was excellent, and there was a generous amount of sparring at the end. One of the people I got to roll with was an old friend who moved to the city about a year-and-a half ago.

She didn't train at all for the first year after her move, and then started up at the North Vancouver school. During the roll, she apologized for not having improved.

At the time, she was giving me all sorts of trouble.

If she had not progressed at all, I could have run rough-shod over her.

I was better than her back then, and I've improved a lot in the meantime. I have trained for hundreds and hundreds of hours since her move. I know a lot of stuff now that I had no clue about a year-and-a-half ago.

The version of Elizabeth that I rolled with on Saturday would have been able to easily dominate and submit the version of her from the middle of 2015. She has gotten better, even if she can't see it. Sure she could have progressed more with more consistent training, but she has still improved over what she had back then.

Another friend of mine, Tobias, was also there, dropping in. He often feels himself getting stuck in a plateau situation, and not progressing. We rolled, and it was vastly fun. He has it all over me in athleticism, and our skill sets are pretty close. He hasn't brought the topic up lately, which is good, as I've never seen his progress stagnate.

It would have been wonderful enough to be able to train with two friends, but it was a very good Saturday indeed. There were actually three of them there. I got to train with Koko, as well. She never complains about lack of progress. She has been living in the city for a few years while attending university. During breaks back home, she practices like a crazy person (almost like me), and when at school she trains with the SFU Judo club. Some things get rusty and away from her. It has to happen in her situation. She just accepts that, and keeps her basics solid as stone, and then works some of the fun stuff when she's home.

By chance, all three of my friends wear three stripes on their Blue Belts. Their very next promotion is the last that they will receive before making the transition to Purple Belt.

They do not award Purple Belts to people who are not up to standard.

When the time comes, all three will be seriously able to kick that test's butt.