a politician is someone who promises you a bridge, even when theres no river

"i think the future is like anything else thats important. it has to be earned. if we dont earn it, we dont have a future at all. and if we dont earn it, if we dont deserve it, we have to live in the present, more or less forever. or worse, we have to live in the past" (Shantaram, p. 91).

the banks have too much power. financial institutions all around the world promise to protect our hundreds, thousands, millions of dollars - how ever much we have. they promise easy access, safe transactions and profitable returns. yet how much of that is actually true?

i never really understood why rich people resulted in hiding their money in safes, under the floor boards or in secret overseas accounts. but now i get it. the bank itself is like its own separate society of which only certain people are accepted into (you generally have difficult getting access to their "specialty" accounts with bad credit, no job, properties, etc) - and once you are accepted, they lock their claws into you with small-print clauses in which a person can only escape by the face of death... and sometimes not even then. there are all these rules that bind, not to protect our money, but to protect the bank from their own mistakes so when (not "if") they make them - they can then turn the tables and somehow claim they were unaware of what was going on, or that it is our fault for what they did.

and so that brings me to my own life in this moment. i am STILL without access to my canadian bank account online. what started as a concerned phone call on october 6/09 resulted in me being told that everything was "fixed" and that a new bank card (with the new number) would be sent to my dad within 6-10 buisness days. it is now november 1 (october 31 in calgary, canada) and there is still no card. that is the short story - the long story can be read in a couple blogs previous to this. i am so incredibly peeved at the entire situation that i wish i could just pull out all my money from that bank. but i cant. the logistics of it - the "rules" that bind me... well i simply cant. ESPECIALLY since i am still on the other side of the world. ESPECIALLY since i still need that account in order to chip away at my debt (student loans and otherwise). ESPECIALLY since i already have a big enough headache from the entire situation and i fear that should i try anything drastic it will just make it worse.

so here i sit. no access to my account online. no access to be able to oversea all my debt-paying transactions. no ability to transfer funds into that account should i deem it needing more. no ability to access my secondary account with my emergency money should a drastic emergency happen and i would need it. no ability but to sit and wait. wait for the financial instituation i put my trust in to FINALLY pull through and send that damn new bank card to my dad (though now their "discussing" the option of sending it directly to australia - way to add on another couple weeks to my wait time guys). i wait. and wait. and wait. and all i can do is wait. that and send increasingly more emotional messages to the financial institution representatives.

i hate money.

however. i DO love art. and this past week SCULPTURE BY THE SEA opened up officially for the next two weeks. stretching the coastline from bondi beach to bronte beach - various sculpture of every shape, size, color, inspiration and material are places by purpose for viewers to admire. through the website link i provided you can view the sculptures created from previous years and in the next week or so i will be posting my own pictures through my photo albums for my favorites of this year.

through this wide range of art, many tourists are starting to show up by the bus load (literally) causing the walkways to be crowded by various language-speaking individuals who may or may not understand that the pathway is NOT theirs for the taking. as such, my runs have become increasingly more or less like an obstacle course (even at 6 a.m.) as i weave in and out of dazed tourists carrying camera gear - many times i narrowly escape a complete head on collision. even still, i cant get too frustrated with that as it only brings a new feel to the coastal walk and buisness at work is better with everyone becoming dehydrated and hungry in the heat after their walk and needing some nurishment.

on that note - i shall need to be getting ready for such a shift. a high of 26 degrees and sunny... the day should be good.