Just for the record: Stephen Harper, the prime minister of Canada, doesn’t know me. And I don’t know him personally, either. The reason I am writing this post is because I watched his TV interview last night on CTV and I read this morning about his Christmas card in the Winnipeg Free Press. You might not like him or his party but you have to admit - he stands up for what he believes in.
There was a section of the interview about the Middle East. According to the transcript:
Harper said he’s prepared to help Palestinians through channels like non-governmental organizations [... and] “But I think all of the civilized world is agreed — and it’s not just Canada — we can’t deal with organizations whose principle and only objective is the eradication of the other side.”
Now I have been on both ends of humanitarian aid. First, while living under a Communist dictatorship we got food and medicine to be able to survive and, information. Yes, information, like books, magazine - to keep our sanity. I can’t be grateful enough for all that was done for us by unknown people and organizations. Everything was brought (read: smuggled) and distributed to individuals, churches, nothing through the government. Reminder: for me, a dictatorship is just that, regardless of its colour: be it on the left or right or established by religious fanatics!