Dear Editor:
Nobody is more deserving of our attention and help than the 10 or 12 million people who are suffering from a drought for two years running.
My favourite Somali author, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, has describedtheir plight well, when under normal circumstances all they get is four inches of rain all year. Imagine what happens without any rain.
The UN has asked for $100 million. I am sure the people of Canada will contribute their share, as they have with the tsunami in Southeast Asia or the earthquake in Haiti. $100 million will make a huge difference, even to that amount of people, provided the food gets there on time.
As usual, most of the aid will flow from so-called Western countries and people who think with their heart. Few Islamist countries are on record to rise to such occasions and contribute as well.
Regardless of what we and the Canadian government will do for them, we can be sure the delegations of the five countries involved will vote against Canada's position at the UN this fall.
They will grudgingly accept our help to keep their unfortunate countrymen alive, miserable as their existence may be, but they will not grant the right to exist to the people of Israel. They do not think that Jews are entitled to their own country. They care little how it happens, but they want Jews to be gone.
Some people in the West still do not understand that it will not stop there. Yet Islamic leaders, such as Mr.Ahmadinejad, have not been shy telling us who big Satan is.
Saudi Arabia has made enormous amounts of cash available to build mosques in North America or elsewhere and provided funds for proper religious instructions. Syria and Iran will spare no effort or cost to provide those willing to attack Israel with weapons and training. Yet, their record to provide pure humanitarian aid is non-existent. We all see how Mr. Kadafi likes to deal with those who do not tow the line. Any time Hezbollah in Lebanon provides assistance, they make sure that they get something in return...
The poor tribal herdsmen involved in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, to name three, are hardly aware who their political masters are, let alone who speaks on their behalf at the UN or what the UN is.
Regardless of what we will do for them, it will make little difference to their way of life. Women will have few rights, as before, and their daughters are sold to the highest bidder.Ironically, the most likely country to help them turn desert land into sustainable soil is the state of Israel: the very country they wish to eliminate. If not the starving tribesmen, their self-appointed guardians.
It is in us to help. However, should Mr. Harper take a page out of the Hezbollah book and mix in a bit of old-fashioned Calgarian horse trading? Probably not now. They need the food! But, is there ever a good time for Israel to take a turn?
Ziggy Eckardt, Burnaby
