Unfortunately Bill C-293 is a perfect example of "too little, too late" and 7 years from now the fact that we are still not on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals, an international obligation we have to meet, will be as obvious as the nose on your face.I'm not so impressed with our slipping international reputation. We say one thing but we rarely follow through. The bill started out with some lofty goals most of which got purged in the Senate but at least we have a law on Canada's aid spending. It's only 2008. Fricking hell, it was Pearson who went to the UN in the 60's and set the 0.7% goal and we are still pretending we are a country that cares about the poorest of the poor. Clearly our actions would indicate we don't, and we haven't for a long time. More tied aid and broken promises make Canada look bad. And we can barely seem to find an agreement about even the very purpose of aid.
This year, Harper's Conservatives will provide 0.3% of GNI for development assistance. That means Canada now ranks 15th among all advanced industrial states in terms of its aid contributions - and our rank continues to slide. 15th!
I'm tired of the image we try to present to the world because it's a total fake. Parts of the world know it and yet I think most Canadians have no idea because there is no news of this in the media. Canadians have sent the message that Canada is no longer an international good guy because a lot of them support Conservative and Liberal roll backs on international aid. I read a report some time back....I wonder if anything has changed since 2004? We seem to want to look good but not if we have to put our money in to it, or as that report puts it, "Canadians do not appear to be prepared to sacrifice domestic priorities for the greater international good." Simply put, we lack the will to change and our clever disguise is starting to slip.
Song Du Jour: The Con by Tegan and Sara
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