Canadians, Feed Your Own First

by Suzanne Berton © 2004

There is man I know who lives rather a good life with a nice family, a good job, a fantastic house, and a cool car. He is known throughout his community as a person who helps others, but he often fails to provide proper care and attention for his own children and family.

You’d probably be right in saying to him, “Hey, Buddy, There’s nothing wrong with helping other people, but please take care of your own first!”

In turn, there is a country I know that boasts great wealth, enjoys a good life with a family of people of many backgrounds, and is known worldwide as a place of wealth and plenty. Mainly, she is known as a country that helps other countries in need. Sometimes, however, she fails to provide proper care of its own citizens even its own children and families since many still live in poverty today.

Now I may be way off base on this, but I’ve heard people comment, “Why should we bother ourselves feeding people from other countries when Canada has children and families living in poverty right under our very noses?” Even our Prime Minister, Paul Martin, mentioned the plight of the people of Sudan to the UN recently. Agreed, there is nothing wrong with helping people particularly when you hear of such things going on in Sudan. This is a tragedy that goes beyond anything any of us can understand or experience. My goal isn’t to knock down this effort because the tragedy is so great.

Still, we will often hear people say, “Why don’t we take care of our own first.” Can anyone make a good case for helping our own? Should it need to be said when we find ourselves living in a country as rich and as free as Canada. No doubt, we have a world image to uphold, but it seems to me our world image would improve greatly if we took on our own poverty and needs first. First you take care of your family, our Canadian citizens, and then take care of the rest once you’ve handled these needs in the lives of suffering Canadians. It’s a fact, many Canadians feel this way.

Okay, I admit that the suffering seen in such countries as Sudan far outweigh the suffering of Canadians, even our own poor children. When I see those heart-wrenching images on television, I am overwhelmed with guilt, powerlessness, and even anger that a world of plenty would allow this to occur. It is beyond my human understanding why these things happen and always to the same people.

Yet, when I hear of Canadian children going to school without breakfast or living on macaroni and cheese for dinner and peanut butter for desert, it makes me wonder where all the tax money goes. I feel the same guilt, powerlessness and anger that a country of plenty would allow this to happen. We hear of wasted monies in government. I just have to shake my head knowing some kids are doing without dental care, proper footwear, and winter apparel to name a few.

What do I propose? When politicians are making choices about who gets what money, I think they should put Canadians first on their list of people to help. Granted, I am just a person sitting on the lower rung of the ladder of important Canadians. In other words, what do I know? Well, I may not know much about politics and the decisions made behind the scenes, but I do know one thing, let us show the world how we take care of our own people by feeding our own first, by providing them with dental and medical care, by making sure they have everything they need.

When the government is dividing our tax dollars towards humanitarian help, perhaps it should focus its attention on assigning larger amounts to Canadian needs. I don’t believe they should eliminate all funding abroad. Canadians, I don’t think, want to be known as greedy. We want to be known as a people who care about its people first. We want to strive as a country to make this a fair and compassionate country to live in for its own. Better yet, let’s do it, not because this is how we want to be known as, the type of people who take care of their own. Rather, let’s do it because it is the right, just and proper thing to do.

Easy for me to say, I suppose. Easier said than done.