Hi everyone this will be the first blog attempted in
Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and if I can't resist the urge to edit as I go, I may have to do this job blind folded. So welcome to the wonderful world of visual
aids. Just shy of 400 words and I give up…for now.
There is an arrogance in North Americans that gets
me incredibly frustrated (even angry). When the western delegation went to North
Korea a few weeks ago, some of our leaders suggested it was wrong for the North
Korean government to be putting money into a space launch when people in their
country are going hungry. Canada has its own poverty and hunger problems
that are not being properly dealt with, yet we're asking other countries to put
human rights first. The audacity! Call your local food bank if you want to know
how many kids are going hungry in Canada while our government spends money
sending our politicians overseas to criticize others.
Then yesterday as I watched my television I saw an ad from an aide agency... they want your money and volunteers to go around the world to create clean water systems in poor third world villages. This made me angry… not that I begrudge third world villages clean water systems, but because there are villages in this country where people are living without clean water. Is it simply that the good people of these agencies are unaware of the need here in Canada? These are Native reserves which are remote and difficult to access... but it can't be any more difficult than accessing a remote village in South America or Africa.
I'm trying to understand why we overlook our own people. It can't be racism,,, South Americans are brown, Africans are black; I can't imagine drawing the compassion line at Red. It seems much more likely that we fail to take action locally because we do not want to believe such a thing can happen in Canada. Perhaps it is because we expect our government to take care of it. Under the Indian Act, isn’t the federal government mandated to care for the Native reservations? I don't know enough about the Indian act venture an opinion but, even within the Native communities there are mixed feelings about the efficacy of that particular legislation. The important thing to note is that these villages have been waiting decades and will wait decades more before the government takes action. Why don't they fix it themselves? A lack of expertise and money , is my guess. It would be easy to say, “If conditions on the reserve suck so bad, why don’t they just move?” For the same reason the poor in those third world villages don’t fix it themselves or move… or why the poor didn’t evacuate New Orleans before Katrina hit… no place to go and no money to get there. Altruism doesn’t judge or ask why… it just does what needs to be done to make the world a better place.
Today I just want to ask those aide agencies how do our third world villages get on your recipient list? Where do we apply? Or are you like the CIA, only mandated to serve outside your homeland? Perhaps there is an aide agency in Kenya that will fly a crew over to help our struggling villages.
Before we smugly go flying around the world fixing everyone else's problems, let’s make it a priority to heal our own country. Take your drills and your volunteers and your hammers and whatever the hell else you are using; and go up north to one of these villages and spend your summer doing what you do, for our people, in our country. That's a project I'd volunteer for.
Then yesterday as I watched my television I saw an ad from an aide agency... they want your money and volunteers to go around the world to create clean water systems in poor third world villages. This made me angry… not that I begrudge third world villages clean water systems, but because there are villages in this country where people are living without clean water. Is it simply that the good people of these agencies are unaware of the need here in Canada? These are Native reserves which are remote and difficult to access... but it can't be any more difficult than accessing a remote village in South America or Africa.
I'm trying to understand why we overlook our own people. It can't be racism,,, South Americans are brown, Africans are black; I can't imagine drawing the compassion line at Red. It seems much more likely that we fail to take action locally because we do not want to believe such a thing can happen in Canada. Perhaps it is because we expect our government to take care of it. Under the Indian Act, isn’t the federal government mandated to care for the Native reservations? I don't know enough about the Indian act venture an opinion but, even within the Native communities there are mixed feelings about the efficacy of that particular legislation. The important thing to note is that these villages have been waiting decades and will wait decades more before the government takes action. Why don't they fix it themselves? A lack of expertise and money , is my guess. It would be easy to say, “If conditions on the reserve suck so bad, why don’t they just move?” For the same reason the poor in those third world villages don’t fix it themselves or move… or why the poor didn’t evacuate New Orleans before Katrina hit… no place to go and no money to get there. Altruism doesn’t judge or ask why… it just does what needs to be done to make the world a better place.
Today I just want to ask those aide agencies how do our third world villages get on your recipient list? Where do we apply? Or are you like the CIA, only mandated to serve outside your homeland? Perhaps there is an aide agency in Kenya that will fly a crew over to help our struggling villages.
Before we smugly go flying around the world fixing everyone else's problems, let’s make it a priority to heal our own country. Take your drills and your volunteers and your hammers and whatever the hell else you are using; and go up north to one of these villages and spend your summer doing what you do, for our people, in our country. That's a project I'd volunteer for.
