It's (Not) All About Us

 

I've seen this meme before.  Just saw it again the other day.

I have some concerns.

First, there certainly is a problem in Canada with ALL of the things mentioned.  Homelessness, poverty, child poverty, hunger, mental health problems, services for veterans, and so on.

My observation is simply this: We don't fund those things nearly well enough because there isn't the political will to do so.  And the reason there isn't the political will is because Canadians don't elect politicians who say they will DO something about those problems.  Why not?  Because those are problems experienced by "other people".  Not us.  Them.

People are poor, we are told, because they are lazy.  People have mental health issues because they are weak.  And we certainly don't want to address any issues that make us uncomfortable.  And on it goes.

So those "billions" we donate to other countries......

Canada donates approximately 0.31% of Gross National Income to Foreign Aid.  That's not very impressive when compared to many other wealthy countries.  In fact, of about 12 relatively high-income countries (some much smaller than us), only Italy and the US contribute less.

You can read more about Foreign Aid here:

So why should we donate to countries that are so less fortunate than we are?  Because it's the right thing to do?  Yes, but also because it's in our self-interest to do so.  The reality is that when people are impoverished, angry, resentful, potentially violent or crazy and you don't offer them any other options, quite often those are the choices they make.

And many of those other countries?  The reason why so many of them are poor is clearly because of us (the wealthy west) - we exploited their resources when we found it convenient.  We exploited their cheap labour so we could have cheap consumer goods.  We've meddled in their governments.  And when they try to leave the hell-holes they're living in, we build walls to keep them out and whine about immigrants.  Immigrants who know how to work and would contribute to Canada IF they were given half a chance.

You can read more about Immigration here.

Canada.  We can do better.