What're You Doing There?
Good on you, Mr. Prime Minister. Visiting a part of the world where no one in their right mind wants to go to, for who really wants to confront such dreadfully mind-numbing and visible poverty, violence and hopelessness? Yes, there are so many other parts of the world for which comparable levels of all of those descriptives could apply. They're a blight on humanity.
Haiti seems always to have had a miserable tradition of ignorance and violence and poverty. One dictator after another preying on the people, living in magnificence while the people stagnated in their limitless cesspool of poverty and want. But there's Prime Minister Stephen Harper electing to visit that country, to view for himself that which one would really rather not.
With the position of state comes some obligations. With the position of representative of one of the wealthier, comfortable, stable and free countries on this earth, there is the obligation to lend oneself to the furthering of other less stable, certainly less materially endowed countries.
Considered to be the poorest, most unstable, lawless nation in the Western Hemisphere, there is our prime minister, greeting a brace of little girls at a school and medical clinic partially funded by Canada and the U.S. The children attend school, they are given vaccinations and cared for in lieu of parental attention by often HIV-positive or AIDS-stricken mothers.
Situated in the slimy mess of a slum district, giving hope to the residents, and possibly a future to the young who have the grave misfortune of having been born into that world. "You go into a neighbourhood like Cite Soleil, where there has been considerable improvement in security and life, and yet you see how difficult that life is obviously for most people," said Mr. Harper after a meeting with Haitian President Rene Preval.
"I think all of us, as fellow human beings, as people who have our own families, can only begin to understand the true difficulties and the challenges that so many people in this country face on a day-to-day basis" he explained. Haiti is the second largest recipient of Canadian foreign aid, after Afghanistan. And Canada's current Governor-General, Michaelle Jean, was born in Haiti.
People who live in the slum move about glumly, with no real reason to feel elated at the presence of foreign dignitaries in their place of residence. One woman, asked of her opinion of Canada, and whether she felt the world was sufficiently involved in helping her country replied: "I am hungry, and I need money."
Haiti seems always to have had a miserable tradition of ignorance and violence and poverty. One dictator after another preying on the people, living in magnificence while the people stagnated in their limitless cesspool of poverty and want. But there's Prime Minister Stephen Harper electing to visit that country, to view for himself that which one would really rather not.
With the position of state comes some obligations. With the position of representative of one of the wealthier, comfortable, stable and free countries on this earth, there is the obligation to lend oneself to the furthering of other less stable, certainly less materially endowed countries.
Considered to be the poorest, most unstable, lawless nation in the Western Hemisphere, there is our prime minister, greeting a brace of little girls at a school and medical clinic partially funded by Canada and the U.S. The children attend school, they are given vaccinations and cared for in lieu of parental attention by often HIV-positive or AIDS-stricken mothers.
Situated in the slimy mess of a slum district, giving hope to the residents, and possibly a future to the young who have the grave misfortune of having been born into that world. "You go into a neighbourhood like Cite Soleil, where there has been considerable improvement in security and life, and yet you see how difficult that life is obviously for most people," said Mr. Harper after a meeting with Haitian President Rene Preval.
"I think all of us, as fellow human beings, as people who have our own families, can only begin to understand the true difficulties and the challenges that so many people in this country face on a day-to-day basis" he explained. Haiti is the second largest recipient of Canadian foreign aid, after Afghanistan. And Canada's current Governor-General, Michaelle Jean, was born in Haiti.
People who live in the slum move about glumly, with no real reason to feel elated at the presence of foreign dignitaries in their place of residence. One woman, asked of her opinion of Canada, and whether she felt the world was sufficiently involved in helping her country replied: "I am hungry, and I need money."
Labels: Realities
posted by Pieface @ 6:53 PM
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