There is a lot of attention focused on Toronto and the surrounding area right now due to the G20 summit. The leaders of the largest and most influential economies in the world are gathered to discuss the major issues of the day. There's a lot to discuss these days. With all the problems we are having in our own countries it might be easy to forget our promises that we made to those less fortunate than ourselves
For centuries we have exploited the developing nations. We have a fantastic standard of living, and it's in large part because we were able to plunder their resources for so long. We still do. The system of "aid" we have in place is an outrage. The majority of aid that Canada gives to the developing world is "tied aid", where we can crow about how many billions in aid we are giving, yet the majority of the money doesn't leave Canada. The staggering debt that is crushing some developing nations has prompted the IMF (Infant Mortality Fund) to force them to cap internal spending on things such as health, education, and programs that would help their citizens, while keeping up their loan payments. I always thought that when giving, the left hand should not know what the right is doing.8.8 million children younger than 5 died in 2008 from mostly preventable health issues such as pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, malnutrition and complications at birth. Another 500,000 moms died in pregnancy, and during or after childbirth. We would not allow this to happen if they were Canadian women and children
The UN’s Millennium Development Goal is to reduce child deaths by two-thirds by 2015. Known, cost-effective solutions could save more than 16,000 lives every day. With the world's leaders congregated in our country right now, it would be a good time to let your member of parliament know that as a nation, we are committed to doing our part in reaching this goal, and not letting it slide into oblivion like so many promises of the past. You can fill out this little form, it will only take a couple of minutes, and let your member of parliament know that this is important to you as a Canadian. Lets speak up for those whose voices can't be heard.
