AID TO AFRICA PATRONIZING, RACIST
So Canada is pledging $2.6 billion in aid to Africa. When will it stop? The answer is never.
Aid in such large amounts simply begets aid in even larger amounts. Yes, I am in favour of aid to help when there are natural disasters, but not as an ongoing program, which induces dependence on aid for daily life.
Bono and Bob Geldof say that we, "the fortunate," must help those "less fortunate," as if someone gave us all that we have. The truth is that we, our parents, grandparents and those before them worked for the standard of living we now enjoy.
By giving these nations the means to survive without changing their circumstances themselves, we are perpetuating their cycle of poverty. There is no impetus or stimulus for them to do anything other than ask for more aid.
Are we saying that they cannot take care of themselves without our help? That is, at best, patronizing, at worst, racist.
Robert Fuller, Port Rowan
My reply to the editor
When in Ghana this past spring I remarked to a cab driver how hard people in Ghana work. His reply was that there was no other choice. Letter writer Robert Fuller implies that if we stopped giving aid all of these people would go out and get jobs.
He tells us how hard his family has worked to achieve a certain standard of living, but neglects to acknowledge that people around the world are being exploited so that his standard of living may be maintained, and they were exploited so it could be built. He is trying to dress up his own self interest as some anti racist crusade. If thats not patronizing, I don't know what is.
Greg Stock
All of this recalls a beautiful warm spring evening in Vancouver some twenty odd year ago. I was walking home with my brother, and our path home gave us a magnificent view of the city and its inherent beauty.
For some reason our talk turned to politics and I gestured to the magnificent city below us and had a revelation. I pointed out that the vista and lifestyle that we enjoyed was partly built by hardworking fellow citizens, but it was also built by conquering the land forcefully and exploiting other people around the world for the materials to build it.
This is far more true and apparent today than it was twenty five years ago. The Western world has run on exploiting our own resources and now that our own cupboard is bare, we turn exponentially to the resources of the Third World. The thing that most of us have yet to accept is that there is no Fourth World. The wall is quickly approaching.
Infinite Consumption vs. Finite Resources
Think about it.
Thats my story and I'm stickin' to it.
http://www.goyestoeverything.com
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