Wow, I missed a lot of discussion last night. There are so many different trains of thought going on right now that I'm not sure what to address first.

Perhaps the issues of my 15 year old Canadian beliefs: First of all, they were partly a joking example to show the 15 year olds that views change as you age.

In case you didn't notice though I said that the laws should be changed, not that I should be exempt from them.

And Qatari, Canadian children do break the law, children in every country break the law. The point is that when these kids are caught they are punished. The police do not only choose to punish the children who aren't citizens. In my country I used to speed, till I was caught, pulled over on the highway by a cop, yelled at for 10 minutes, given a hefty fine and sent on my way. I haven't sped since.

Can you imagine a cop here pulling over a Qatari and yelling at them for 10 minutes before giving them a fine? No, it would never happen. For that matter can you imagine a cop here doing that to anyone??? No that would require them getting out of the car.

Also, in regards to our smoking laws, NOONE is allowed to smoke in public places, when someone tries to the establishment tells them to put it out or get out, because they are afraid of being fined and shut down (it did happen in the early days of the law). So if you go to Canada now you will find noone smoking in a public place, regardless of whether they are citizens or expats. You would not go to the Starbucks at City Center and see people (mostly locals) smoking right next to the no smoking sign. Starbucks would tell them to put it out, so would just about every Canadian that passed by. And if they didn't the RCMP would be called and the person fined.

Here the law appears to be just for show. It isn't enforced by the establishment, the police or the locals. Why the Hell would anyone listen to it.

Laws are all about ENFORCEMENT. If you do not punish people for breaking them than people won't follow them, it would be the same anywhere. Some people will never respect the laws anywhere, regardless of punishment, but in Canada most people do respect the laws, because they are afraid of punishment.

Here noone respects the laws because noone is punished.