A Global Call For Help
In our increasingly interconnected world, we must acknowledge the millions of people living in a poverty we will never fully comprehend. Yes, there is poverty in Canada but there’s no good reason we can’t address both the poverty here and the poverty abroad.
We are one of the richest countries on the planet, making it even more shameful that, at 0.26 per cent of GNI, we have one of the smallest budgets for Official Development Assistance (ODA) among wealthy donor countries. At over one per cent of GNI, Sweden and Norway, with a fraction of our population, give the most.
Alleviating poverty around the globe benefits us all. Clean water and healthy food results in less conflict and disease and makes children more able to learn. Education for all results in prosperity and the innovation and skills that will be needed to adapt to a rapidly changing world.
In the upcoming federal budget, I expect to see an increase in our Official Development Assistance. If Sweden and Norway can give so much, why can’t Canada give a little more.
Paulie Duhaime
Calgary, Alta.
COWS DESERVE BETTER TREATMENT
Having read that the Okanagan Dairymen’s Association plans to give local politicians a tour and talk this spring on one of the area’s dairy farms, I have an opinion I’d like to share. One of the reasons for the tour is to reassure the politicians that the dairy industry considers the animals’ welfare, as the industry has had some bad publicity lately concerning the treatment of cows.
I think it is long overdue that the dairy industry have a look at itself and stop trying to convince the rest of us that all is well. Over the years I have worked with cows on ranches and on my own farm, and also worked on one of the local dairy farms for several years. From these experiences, this is what I have come away with: generally the cows are treated very well. They are well fed, treated for any illnesses, and calved out carefully. There is only one very big thing lacking. Cows like to be outside and graze, then sit down and rest in the shade, chew their cud and enjoy their environment. Allowing them this would be a small return for all the milk they give us. For a cow it should be a right.
In the 1950s when I was growing up all dairy cows grazed outside. Now it is deemed financially unfeasible. If that is truly the case, perhaps we the consumers need to pay a bit more for a more humane way of treating our cows, as is already the way in the organic sector.
Doug Saba
Grindrod
UNACCEPTABLE ROAD CONDITIONS
I’m new to the Vernon area. I have lived in Manitoba, Alberta, B.C., and Quebec. The Okanagan is the worst place I have lived as far as winter road maintenance goes. One recent Saturday we were returning from a road trip. We drove the entire length of the Okanagan Valley just a couple of hours after the minivan went into the lake. It was a blinding snowstorm and the entire distance between the U.S. border and Vernon we saw only one snowplow plowing snow. One. Our road goes weeks before it gets plowed after a snow storm even though we are only seven minutes from town. Totally unacceptable.
Mark Perry
DEMOCRACY OR IGNORANCE?
My reply to David Derbowka and his mini rant on the FPTP, and his opinion of democracy.
In your many letters to the editor of this paper, you have a habit of talking down to people if they have a difference of opinion other than your own. Of course our democracy that has been with us for a few hundred years and made us what we are today, gives you that right. You use words such as babbling, ignorant, dare you, fringe, and true democracy. Is true democracy somewhat like true ignorance?
Be aware, that your grasp for power does not exceed your reach.
Ken F. Douglas
The whole story
At last! Someone who reads the whole story. It was encouraging to read Korry Zepik’s letter to the editor re; the pipeline, titled Trudeau and Notley, honesty needed in the Feb. 16 edition of The Morning Star. I just wish the letter was published in every paper in the country.
It is the bitumen that is in question here. It sinks to the bottom and stays there, contaminating everything. As yet there is no cleanup plan, hence the hesitation. It will just stay there out of sight out of mind. Is that really OK with you? After reading that I would ask everyone with Internet access to watch The Fifth Estate’s “The Money Pipeline” on YouTube. Please take the time to watch it with your family. The rules of the oil game and politics apply to all pipelines. It is important that you watch/read the whole thing and remember what happened in the Gulf of Mexico. That spill basically destroyed the shrimp industry there. It cost more than $60 billion to clean it up and it is estimated that as much as 50 per cent of the spill is still not accounted for. Also, who do you think pays for the cleanup; we do, at the pump. Spills will happen. Guaranteed. One more thing and most importantly, is this oil for our own domestic use or is it to be shipped abroad for a higher price? Check it out and let us know.
Kinna Edwards
No Liberal legacy, please
So, Andrew Wilkinson is the new leader of the BC Liberal Party, and in his speech after being acclaimed the winner at the recent leadership convention, he promised to carry on the legacy of both Gordon Campbell, and Christy Clark. A promise that I think would probably gag a maggot. (He may not know that most of the Crown Corporations have already been financially desecrated)
Now Andrew is a very educated man, he is a medical doctor, a lawyer and a Rhodes scholar, and I bet he had no idea before his election to leader of the party, that we here in Vernon have our very own “Roads” scholar as our MLA Eric Foster took most of his education at the Stickle Road Academy, an institution that focuses on teaching Practical Solutions, Logic, and Common Sense, he also took a minor in Accounting. I am afraid that having so many courses to study, overwhelmed Mr. Eric Foster to the degree that he failed all four courses miserably, even though he had hundreds, and hundreds of people giving him the right answers during his final exams.
Luckily, the damage he caused has restricted to the local area, (although this one project wasted about $8.5 million taxpayer dollars). Part of the blame must belong to Christy Clark, and her clone, Andrew Wilkinson, because when all of the Liberal MLAs go to Victoria during the Parliamentary sessions, they are given the day off and replaced by Bobblehead Dolls. This allows the leader of the party to pass any and all legislation to ensure we keep our place as the Province with the most children below the poverty line, and to keep the least advantaged BC citizens in a place they feel they belong.
This is the leadership we get with the “First Past the Post” system.
Steve Harrison