on charity

Within hours of the destrucion caused by Katrina hitting the airwaves, the blogosphere was buzzing with suggestions and plans for helping the victims. I've been mulling this a lot.

First, let me say that if you personally know someone affected, of course you should help them as much as you can. And I would stretch 'personally' to 'blogosphere know'. So, yeah, run that e-bay auction with proceeds going to help your friends and family. Put up buttons for the Red Cross and pet charities and whoever else.....Heck do it even if you don't know anyone but simply feel moved to do so. Don't deny your generous softer side - it's a good thing.

Second, I take it as a given that people should support some charity on a regular basis to the extent that they are able. And indeed, studies indicate that American citizens donate a lot of money to charities. more.... (I did note however that religious organizations received the single largest share of donations. Yes, there are some great religious organizations doing wonderful work with the poor and disenfranchised. But there are also many who are collecting funds so that they can pay for air time for whackos, or run weird missionary programs.)

Canadians, on the other hand, are downright miserly, in comparison. more.... I'm going to get back to this in a second because I think there's a very good reason for it.

So, pick your charity/charities of choice, support them regularly based on whatever you decide is a good amount of your income. OK? Have we all established that I'm not a selfish, greedy bitch with no morals? OK.

The particular problem I'm mulling is that the US is the richest nation in the world. Let me just say that again. The richest nation in the world. And you know what? It feels weird to send money to the richest nation in the world.

I can't help but feel that my donation would go a lot farther in Niger and in Darfur for example. Because I'm not seeing the New Orleans refugees huddled in fabric tents for months on end. I'm not seeing these families being issued

55 pounds (25 kg) of enriched flour, 15 liters of oil, 110 lbs (50 kg) of grain, and 110 lbs (50 kg) of beans. This ration helps cover the food needs for a family of eight for one month(MSF Nutritional Emergency in Niger)

Should I send my money where people are starving, where living conditions are so appalling that most Americans can't even fathom them, or should it go to help people struggling with the aftermath of a hurricane in the richest country on earth?

There is a wrinkle of course. The richest country on earth is not doing such a great job in looking after all its people. In fact, the report released by the US Census Bureau on Aug 30, indicated that poverty rates increased for the 4th year in a row. more.....

And it seems to me that the poor always get screwed. Put simply, if you have money, you have options. And insurance. It's the poor that can't get out the place, that worry about all their stuff because it literally IS all they have.

I saw some photos yesterday of an older couple, she with bouffant blond hair, he with no hair & that yachtie look, walking through their damaged beachfront home. Large graceful rooms, crystal chandelier still hanging. How the hell did they get there? The roads are impassable, there's major S&R operations going on. Did they hire a chopper for a couple hours to take them to their house so they could assess the damage? That's what I'm guessing. Meanwhile, people are clinging to rooftops....

Oh, and as to why Canadians give less to charity? It's probably because our public social systems are still limping along. We still expect our governments to pay for things that citizens need. Seems like y'all have given up on that. Oh, and you're way more religious than us and you seem really keen to give to your churches.

Canada will be helping the US of course. We have been asked to prepare an inventory of medications, as health officials prepare to stave off a public health disaster due to the unsanitary conditions affecting the areas. The Canadian Red Cross is sending a team of disaster relief specialists. Our armed forces are prepared to lend some engineers. And the NGO's are kicking in as well. The Mennonite Disaster Service is preparing to head down to rebuild houses. These are all good, neighbourly things to be doing.

You have our support, our sympathy, our best wishes. We'll ship you medicines, teams of trained disaster people, and helping hands to build. But should we be sending you money? I just don't know.