Hands In Our Pockets.

I work hard to support my family, as I am sure you all do. So why is it acceptable for the government to take my hard earned dollars and throw them away to dictators? Who gave government the right to spend my money to support failed states? I am sick of it. If I want to donate money to Haiti or Afghanistan, I will, I don't need the government to do it for me.

MONTREAL — Twenty-four hours after being skewered by a coalition of non-government organizations for not doing more to help ordinary Haitians in the wake of last year’s devastating earthquake, International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda has announced more than $90-million worth of projects focusing on health, education and agriculture in the impoverished island nation.

If those non-government organizations want more help, let them raise the money themselves instead of blaming the government. They are blood-suckers, and they will never be happy no matter what level of funding the government gives them. Enough of non-profits expecting the government (taxpayers) to pay for every pet project they want funded.

procarver

7:17 PM on January 11, 2011

An absolute waste of money. This corrupt country has decayed in every sense beyond repair and no amount of aid will ever change that. I would much prefer to see this countries aid dollars go where they will have a positive affect.

bowprohoyt

7:19 PM on January 11, 2011

I think canada needs to look at some of its own issues as well and put money where it is needed in its own country,

Blownaway

7:45 PM on January 11, 2011

I don't know about the rest of you but arent you sick and tired of paying your taxes only to have so much of it leave the country and end up in the pockets of " who the fk knows".

Sailfish Brian

7:47 PM on January 11, 2011

SOUNDS CALILOUS, BUT I DON'T GIVE A DAM ABOUT HAITI. I DO CARE ABOUT CANADA AND THOSE LESS FORTUNATE IN MY COUNTRY. IF WE HAVE TO HAVE WEALTH RE-DISTRIBUTION THEN I WANT CHARTIY BEGINS AT HOME, NOT IN SOME FOREVER CORRUPT THIRD WORLD COUNTRY.

Maybe it's just too many people with their hands out who refuse to help themselves, maybe it's too many corrupt governments, maybe it's looking at our children and trying to get them through school, but it appears that Canadians are getting tired of being stepped on and bullied by every misfit organization or government who feel it is their right to have their hands in our pockets without doing anything to earn that right. Stop the aid to corrupt foreign governments. Get their hands out of our pockets.

So, Where's Iggy??

It appears that the Liberal leader is in Vancouver enjoying the Olympics. Shouldn't he be in Ottawa holding fake meetings with Liberal supporters disguised as experts?

Like the CEO of TD Canada Trust? Maybe if us little peons started emailing the bank and withdrawing our meager little savings we might have an impact. We transferred our mortgage a few years ago to a Credit Union and we couldn't be happier. They actually know our names and are happy to have our business.

Meanwhile our Prime Minister is in Haiti seeing what Canada can do to help.



Rabid lefties just can't give our Prime Minister any credit, and frankly the MSM are looking like fools by continuing with this "not working" BS when Iggy is in Vancouver, "not working".

Welcome To Our New Canadians!

Very good news for 24 orphans from Haiti, they now have families of their own. I pray that their new lives will be full of love, joy and happiness, something they have had little of to date.

Kudos to Air Canada, the aid organizations and both governments!

Air Canada mission brings 24 Haitian children to Ottawa

Four hours later, the toddler and 23 other tiny immigrants -- several of them needing hospital care -- arrived in Ottawa aboard an Air Canada "relief mission" jet.

I also agree with Jason Kenney that we have to go slow and make sure the adoptive families are qualified and that the children do not have any relatives that will take them in Haiti.

I also like the idea that planning is taking place for long term help for Haiti.


Haiti thanks Canada for ‘marvellous’ support, ahead of reconstruction talks

OTTAWA -- A sombre Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive thanked Canadians Sunday for their "marvellous" support beginning within minutes of the earthquake that has shattered his country and brought him to Canada for an international conference on relief and reconstruction efforts.

He expressed gratitude and hope during a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who assured him of Canadian support in weeks, months and years ahead.

"The task ahead of you is unimaginable," Mr. Harper said, as the pair shook hands before settling into discussions in the prime minister's office about the international conference Monday in Montreal. "I say to you Jean-Max as a fellow prime minister, I just can't imagine."

Maybe we can adopt a country, like we did the Haitian children, and work with that government until they are mature enough to help themselves. We need to be in this for the long term, not just a few weeks. I am very proud of how well the government is handling this crisis. Maybe Michelle Jean can become our special reconstruction envoy to Haiti after she is done being the GG, it would be perfect for her.

Four Legged Heroes

They do it without question, without attitude, without a hint of being scared, they search for people who are trapped and can't alert anyone to where they are, the search dogs are heroes.

At 1:15pm local time, an SDF Search Team in Port-au-Prince located three girls, trapped alive since Tuesday in the rubble of Haiti’s devastating earthquake.

Bill Monahan and his Border Collie, Hunter, were searching a neighborhood near the Presidential Palace, concentrating on a large bowl-shaped area of rubble which was all that remained of a 4-story building.

After criss-crossing the area, Hunter pin-pointed the survivors’ scent under 4 feet of broken concrete and did his “bark alert” to let Bill know where the victims were. Bill spoke with the survivors, then passed them bottles of water tied to the end of a stick. As they reached for the water one of the girls said, “Thank you.” Highly trained rescue crews from California Task Force 2 are now working to extricate the girls from the wreckage and provide first aid.

Bill and Hunter continue to search, as do the 6 other SDF teams on the ground in Haiti:

(I seem to have some special connection to this team, not sure why. HA!)

These dogs are heroes. They ask for only a chew toy as a reward. I suspect that they fully understand that they are saving lives, why else would they get depressed when they don't find anyone alive.

Here's a glimpse of what these dogs do.



Dogs can be heroes in other ways as well:



As you all know, my family fosters service dogs. Right now our house is dogless. A few months ago we had Elliott, he has now gone to a 5 year old autistic boy. Good boy Elliott! While we had him, he needed to be dropped off everyday to the training center, we hooked up with two other foster families and formed a "dog pool" so every morning I would drive all three dogs to the training center. Thank goodness I have a Jimmy, because 2 kids and three dogs would not fit into a Smart car.



Those three dogs are going to make a huge difference to three families. Elliott is the black one. Most importantly they love what they do. They are the true heroes!

Adopt A Third World Country!

This post by Maria at Dodo Can Spell, got me thinking.

Making Haiti a part of Canada would not only benefit Haitians, it would benefit Canadians as well, as we would be able to either holiday or even retire to our own little sunny island and keep our money on Canadian soil.

It's an interesting proposition, but I wonder if Haitians would be interested. They might be poor, but Haiti is their country and they might want to keep their independence. Maybe we could trade Quebec for Haiti! I'm just not sure who would want Quebec. HA!

We don't need to adopt Haiti, but I think Canada is moving in the right direction by choosing one or two countries to concentrate the aid on. Afghanistan and Haiti are the two poorest countries on the planet, they deserve our support. If the members of the G20 would each choose 2 or 3 countries to concentrate on, we might actually see improvements in those countries.

If Canada only has say 1 Billion for foreign aid, should we divide it amongst 50 countries, or concentrate it on 2? If you spread the funds too thin, you accomplish nothing.

Haiti is now like a clean slate, the world can rebuild it much better than it was before, if they have the will to stay the course. Remember the tsunami? Aid pored in, and countries pledged billions to rebuild, then they left, and forgot all about the pledges. The money went into the government coffers, and everyone turned their backs.

Haiti can be different. One committed country like Canada, can stick with it, and make real changes. If we are going to adopt a country, a warm one like Haiti would be nice.