Wow. What a long way I have already come in 2010. I have a couple of pieces of news to report.
First, as most of you know I started to look for a job when I came back to Canada to at least hold me over until I finished my thesis. I am happy to say that I have been taken on as an intern at the Halifax Refugee Clinic for 10 hours a week and I am also up for a 5 hour a week job on campus. This should work out nicely with the continuation of my thesis as I will continue to have time to transcribe and read and since the position is in Halifax I will have access to the University library. Also I am taking some steps to make my stay in Halifax a bit nicer than the last time. I have found a beautiful apartment with three room mates who seem eager to make friends with me, I am developing some old connections and I will be taking both a theatre and swing dancing course (fun fact, I have always wanted to learn how to swing dance).
On the darker side of things I found out last week that my credit card was compromised while I was in Durban with the person who copied it trying to make over $7000.00 worth of transactions on it in a one month period. Fortunately my credit card company was quick to react after the first transaction was $3000.00 which is three times my credit limit. Ha. So I have to say that I am a little bit disappointed about this, feeling quite smug having escaped any crime in SA after being mugged at gun point in the Netherlands. Oh well, the fact of the matter is, they didn't succeed and really much worse things could have hapened. However, I would be curious to know which of the vendors I used my card at copied it as there weren't that many.
A Comment On Hati
With my life business out of the way I thought I would make a comment on the earthquake in Hati. Two weeks ago disaster struck Hati when a 7.0 earthquake flattened the city of Port au Prince, killing and injuring many more than most of us would care to think about. In the days following the earthquake we saw non-stop media coverage of the disaster which prompted many Canadians, including myself, to donate money to various agencies (I donated to Humanitarian Action which is an NGO comprised of Oxfam, Care and Save the Children, given my history with Care and knowing that one of their project managers is Hatian). Our donations have sent millions of dollars in relief to the country.
When we look at these donations at face value it seems to exhibit a high degree of compassion and generocity. Of course the media has played a major part in provoking this response by continually broadcasting images of the destruction (The CBC has been mainly focussing on how the earthquake has effected Canada which somehow seems to miss the point but never mind). However, I can't help but think that since 1998 Congo has experienced many of the same problems Haiti is experiencing now; a lack of access to food, water, shelter and security and while the Hatian death toll continues to climb into the hundred of thousands, in 2009 the death toll in the DRC surpassed 5 million. Yet there have been no benefit concerts or telethons to help the victims of the conflict in the Congo, there is very little media coverage and the Canadian government along with many others continues to support business and continue other practices which continue to feed the conflict (resource exploitation being the main problem). As a result there is a significant lack of awareness about the disaster in Congo and so very little is being done about it. To be honest if we had been meeting our milennium development goals and providing assistance to Haiti all along I can't help but think that the earthquake would not have had such disasterous consequences.
I strongly feel that more awareness does need to be created about the situation in Congo and other war and natural disaster affected countries. It shouldn't take a media storm for us to take action to end global sufferring.
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