ARCHIVED BLOGS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STOP THE WORLD
The month of July I have seen the news of the world that has been troubling. Every day there seemed to be tragedies of enormous proportion that are hard to comprehend. Sometimes I wanted to yell: “Stop the world I want to get off.”
There are gruesome stories and images of the 3.7 million Somalia people who are starving. Hard to go to sleep with images on the CBC Television National News with graphic images of emaciated, holocaust like, women and children walking for days on end in the heat to receive aid.
Hundreds of thousands of starving Somalis have been trying to flee a civil war and the worst drought in sixty years to flee to Kenya and Ethiopia for help. Many women have walked for many weeks and arrive in the camps sometimes caring their dead children.
There is World Vision and Childcare that are on the ground willing and able to help. But, there are Islamic guerillas who control swaths of the country who are banning food aid by foreigners all in the name of religion.
Ella and I wanted to help and sent off our cheque to Childcare to try and help. I am proud that our country has promised to send $72 million dollars in aid and to match the $2.9 million that Canadians have pledged so far.
Friday morning, July 22nd we all awoke to the news that the peace loving people of Oslo Norway had been terrorized by a homegrown terrorist. Anders Behring Brevik who set of explosions in the heart of the city. He then proceeded to make his way to a summer camp where hundreds of young people had gathered in what has been a right of passage to dialogue with government ministers to learn how they could be involved. Anders killed at random seventy-seven innocent youngsters.
It seems that the 32 year old was against Norwegian’s immigrants from Islamic countries.
Saturday morning, July 23rd we were pleasantly surprised to find in our mail box an invitation to celebrate the one year anniversary of the newest Swiss Chalet Restaurant in London on Tuesday July 26th. The restaurant wanted us to know that: “they were pleased to serve a quarter of a chicken meal at no charge.” Donations to the London Children’s Hospital Foundation will be accepted in lieu of payment.
Peter Large, and his dedicate staff wanted to celebrate the first anniversary of the restaurant and pay back little the help his family had received from the Children’s hospital. His son, Graydon who is ten years old has battled Congenital Muscular Dystrophy. The doctors and nurses at the children’s hospitals are his greatest advocate.
Five hundred guests were invited for dinner and close to six hundred patrons were feted to a fine meal at absolutely no cost. Servers asked that any gratuities were be to placed in a large glass jar.
As a result of Peter and his staff’s kind dedication thousands of dollars were raised on behalf of the Children’s Hospital.
Canadians seem to have a psychic scar that enables us to see a need and share our good fortune to make this world a little better place to live. Take a look around and dare to compare. We are most fortunate in my humble opinion to live in Canada.
Len Lesser