Friday, September 3 2010
My Neighbour
Not out, but upI have a little linguistic quirk that pleases me to indulge. When I meet someone new for the first time I almost always greet them with, "Pleased to meet you, neighbour!" This can sow confusion: "Do you live next to me?" Of course I don't live next to all those people. But it helps me keep perspective that as the world I live in becomes more connected and I'm able to talk to people anywhere on earth, see news of them and where they live, live 24 hours a day and to travel there on a whim at nearly the speed of sound, all people have become my neighbours. And after all, isn't that the way things should work? If I remind myself that strangers are just neighbours I haven't met yet, then I'm more open to learning more about them and making them my friend.
With that, I have a story about some neighbours of mine. They're going through a very bad time right now. Many of them have lost everything, including family members, their homes, their livelihoods and everything they knew before. In fact, things are so bad they can't help themselves right now, and things could get a lot worse.
Like people everywhere, they're good people, but they look different from me, and not all of them speak my language. They've even had conflict and some bad press in the last while--it's complicated, but it doesn't mean much in the scale of the trouble they're facing now.
Because they're my neighbours. When a neighbour is in trouble you have to help.
I'm speaking of Pakistan. Floods have devastated that country. What really struck home for me was a figure I read on the news yesterday: more than 20 million people have been displaced by flood waters. The population of Canada is only 33 million . . . it's impossible to visualise how big this disaster is.
But we can help our neighbours, and it's critical we do so as soon as possible. A bright spot of news came out last month for Canadians willing to donate to the relief efforts. The government of Canada will match all eligible donations to Pakistan flood relief until the 12th of September. From the Canadian International Development Agency:
For every eligible dollar donated by individual Canadians to registered Canadian charities, the Government of Canada will contribute one dollar to the Pakistan Flood Relief Fund. CIDA will allocate these funds to established Canadian and international humanitarian and development organizations for humanitarian assistance, early recovery, and reconstruction efforts that benefit the people in Pakistan most affected by the floods.
If I can help out and there's a program to double up my contribution, I'm in. There are lots of good places to donate, and if you want to know more about the humanitarian effort, you can call the CIDA at 1-800-230-6349. If you're reading this from another country, there are charities and NGO's that you can contact, and the US state department has a great website set up to let you donate on-line, by mail and by text message.
I know this isn't about wine or food or the other stuff I usually write about. But like I said, when a neighbour is in trouble you have to help out. As a hero of mine once said,
"And finally, I believe in my whole race. Yellow, white, black, red, brown. In the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability, and goodness of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere on this planet. I am proud to be a human being. I believe that we have come this far by the skin of our teeth. That we always make it just by the skin of our teeth, but that we will always make it."
Yes, with the help of our neighbours, we'll make it.
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