Will Canada aid China’s earthquake victims?

I have a few quick questions for this government of ours:

1)Where is the love? 2) Where do we find even some semblance of compassionate action?, and 3) Where is Canada?

Colin,

You made a funny!

Stephen Harper has ignored the feelings of Chinese Canadians. I’ve been voting for his Party consistently. But I won’t do that at the next election.

Period.

To Alphabet:

Regarding “China requested $10 million to which, Stephen Harper refused.”, could you tell me where you got the news from?

In China’s mainstream media, they have reported many countries which offered sympathy over the earthquake in China. To my surprise, Canada is not on the list.

I don’t think that Chinese government regard current Canadian government as its friend after Mr. Harper claimed his support for DaLai Lama. So, there is no way that China will ask for aids from Canadian government if Canada does not take the initiative to offer aids.

Recently, I have been worried about the estranged relationship between Canada and China. This earthquake has provided a great opportunity for Canada to normalize its relationship with China. Yet, I’m very disappointed by belated action of our government.

I am a Chinese Canadian, and I am very very disappointed by Stephen Harper, his party, and his government. Actually, for some reason I am not sure, I don’t like him at all since the very beginning when this guy became a prime minister, now I am clear why.

The whole world knows what is happening in China, with people suffering and dying under the ruins, with people’s hope of survival diminishing second by second. Once again I want to ask, WHERE IS CANADA?

The excuse some guy out there found for not helping China, ie., China is rich, is totally nonsensical and bullshit. Where’s your conscience? How can you be categorized as a human-being? I don’t even want to bother talking about such idiots.

CANADA SHALL DO SOMETHING.
CANADA SHALL HELP IN THE EARTHQUAKE RELIEF IN CHINA.

I swear, if Stephen Harper and his government keep ignoring what is happening in China, I am not going to ignore him. I will NEVER vote for his party, and I already know that most of the Chinese Canadians are on the same page with me.

Canada, shame on you!

“China is a wealthy nation and needs no financial help. They have endless resources and don’t need our rescue workers.”….

I have to say the above statement did not make much sense.

Just because China is now stronger than before, their government is more open and smart than before, we have the reason not to care the people who suffer from the earthquake?

If any aid/given will be evaluated by wheather the receiver is rich enough or not, why we exchange Xmas gift. Why we send flowers to our friends in the hospital?

Keep in mind, the victims in the disaster have nothing to do with politics. Canada, as a nation famous in kindness and openminded, shall give those people warm hands.

We only have one earth, one world, we are not only donating the money but pass the love to another side of the world.

God bless Chinese people!

Canada is always promoting “democracy, human rights” around the world, but only for the separatist like Dalai Lama and spent millions of tax payer’s money for a serial killer like Rob Pickten on human rights. Canada is not going to care about these “Goons and Thugs”.

Dear Stacy:
Sorry, i misinterpreted this article and thought that China has requested $10 million.

But personally, i think it does not make a difference who requested it
.
What i tried to focus on was the fact that the refusal has led to wide media coverage and outraged certain (if not all) Chinese community even though China did not need the financial support.

To Charlotte:
You can say that donating money to the Chinese shows initiatives. However, that’s just another way of saying that the money accomplished nothing.

While u say that we should send love to another side of the world, do you realize that billions of ppl are affected by disasters each year and not just Chinese? I get this feeling that u do not have much initiatives or awareness for the well being of groups that are not Chinese (I mean you literally said “god bless Chinese people” lol…). So let me ask you this, if you do not care about none Chinese people, how can you expect none Chinese people to care about you and how you feel?

Anyways, seems like Harper is donating a some sum of money to Sichuan. I’m not sure exactly how much.

BTW and can u guys please stop saying stuff like “where is Canada?”. I have no idea why u percept Harper’s action as Canadians’ attitude toward Sichuan.

I tried to approach this from a neutral perspective. Sry in advance if i offended anyone.

I don’t think you can still be so cool that, after your nice neighbor’s house is burn-down by a blaze, and you don’t come over to ask is there anything that you can do to help. The only reason I can think of when you are just holding your arms watching, is that you just don’t care, or even you and your neighbor are foes so you just feel great to see their house is ruined.

I think a country’s assistance under such a circumstance is not a matter of money or something, it’s a matter of showing its sympathy and good-will. Offering nothing to help only means that the two countries’ relationship is totally broken, which I don’t think would do anything good to both of the countries.

I am glad to see that finally the government of Canada did something, which is a good move.

1 million to a big country as Canada is nothing, it is symbolic and it served the purpose well.

The aid for China/Burma is just a pair of warm hands for the people who are suffered.Can human nature be changed totally? If a person doesn’t love widely, will he love his family properly?A cold blood mother will bring deep darkness for the family.It is disaster in mind for the family.

Mr. Harper’s narrow mind makes me worry about Canada’s future.

I don’t know if “requesting 10 million” is from a reliable source as I don’t think the Chinese government is so shameless. To be honest, finacially, 10m won’t make much difference as the total donation domestically and from oversea Chinese is now close to 900m and still rising. Hong Kong government alone contributed 38.4m. However, it does show that Canadian government cares about the very basic human rights in China. In fact, I just took my written test to becoming a Canadian citizen and I’m eager to see some real examples of “high moral ground” described in “A look at Canada” booklet.

I still think the Chinese government has a lot of wealth and cash and the Canadian government should not donate to an already rich government. It is just like a wealthy man with 20 or 30 houses but one unfortunately was burnt down. Is it fair to request a donation to have this burnt house to be rebuilt?

On the other hand, I could understand the argument of donation be made to Burmese and this is a relatively poor country.

This comes to a more important question: why is the Canadian government always being pushed around by the minority groups or special interest groups. The public in general should stand firm on this kind of issues because these donations come out of the taxpayers’ money. Our society has many unfulfilled needs, for example, more funding on the security in view of rising crimes.

The second question is the issue of reverse discrimination. Why would the general public allow this to happen? Then, the third issue is the issue of loyalty and patriotism. The Chinese Canadians are not alone in this; there are immigrants from other parts of the world as well. It is interesting to determine which countries are these people loyal to, Canada or their country of origins? It is time for government to consider seriously what kind of immigrants we are attracting.

I tried to find any news thread regarding the ‘10 million’ financial aid that ‘Chinese government requested’ and I found nothing. What I can find is that after the earthquake, Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis (Agincourt, Toronto, Ontario) urged the federal government to: Commit $10 million immediately for rescue recovery and relief effort, etc. I do think the rumor started because of this report.

Another point I want to share with you: From what I perceive, when such a tragedy happens, China would tend to be self-reliant, and asking for out-side world’s help would be the last thing do do. However, China is so friendly, that when similar tragedy happens in some other parts of the world, she would offer generous help without thinking twice. For example, after Katrina hit the US, China sent the US US$5 million in cash, plus a Boeing-747 charter freighter plane full of relief stuff such as things from tents, small-size petroleum generators, bed sheets to children garment, to help. I mean she was really trying to help. (And, FYI., the US just send China USD 500,000 this time, even when the earthquake is the most severe natural disaster that’d happen on earth.)

And to rick:

Personally, I don’t care whether you or the other Canadians donate or not donate to the earthquake relief efforts in China. And, if I am not a Canadian, I don’t care if the government of Canada would give China a single penny. However, Canada is my country, I do think it’s the government’s responsibility for all Canadians to show it’s kind side to a great and friendly nation like China when she is under such a stress.

Sure I agree that the Burmese need help, and I did donated for them as well. (However it is a real pain to see the Burmese military government is more indifferent than the helping outsiders - after 17 days, are you aware of any substantial progress in the relief efforts in Burma? )

Now to share with you my thoughts on some of your ‘more important’ questions.

First, as a conglomerate of politicians, a government is always ‘being pushed around’ by different groups. Why do you think a ‘minority group’ or a ’special interest group’ is not part of the public? Why do you think the government is always YOUR (ie., of your ethnic group, or of the interest group that you belong to) government? It is also MY government. And every one in this country with a right to vote do has a say on what the government shall do.

And by you care about ‘taxpayer’s money’ and would like to see it’s spent on ‘unfulfilled needs’, what do you think of the $40K spent on the new washroom in the office suite of William Baker, Canada’s top tax man? And don’t forget that everyone in this country has to pay tax, not just YOU and maybe YOUR ‘majority group’.

Second, still back to the first question, why do you think all the ‘minority groups’ and ’special interest groups’ shall be excluded from the category of ‘general public’? (to rephrase, why do you think only YOU represents the ‘general public’?)

And, Third, to me this is also an interesting topic. If a lifelong commitment as becoming a citizen of a new home country, (which means giving up citizenship of original mother country for good, as in the case of Chinese-Canadians), still can not be deemed as a will to be loyal to the new home country, what the hell on earth do you expect? And how can you, if you stand in these people’s shoes, totally forget about everything back in your motherland that you lived for a substantial part of your life?

And why do you think our (I mean My, You, His and Her) government shall consider what kind of people that YOU are interested in attracting? So said, I do think you have your say to the government in this regard, however I don think I have mine too.

After having written my comment and posted, I read carefully the comments from other Canadians. I have the following added comments/replies.
1. To help (any kind, even just to pray for the souls of the victims, to comfort the next kin living, to send a condolence to the victims’ related living persons) people in need is a true love and kind. What did Stephen Harper do????nothing nothing?????
2. Stephen Harper claims himself as a christian. isn’t he????? A christian must have LOVE, HOPE and FAITH. Does he gave any??????
3. A leader is called a leader because he/she always lead the way to help the people around him/her. Did Stephen Harper do that ????????No, that is why he is not a leader, not a leader for Canada, not even a leader of his family.

I think it was a great move for Canada to have donated that 1 million. And yea, it really wasn’t any big deal to the Canadian government or taxpayers. I mean seriously, if people are so stingy about how Harper spends their tax money that they wouldn’t even show a little empathy and aid the disaster-struck countries, I’m sure Harper using that money to treat himself and his fellow politicians a 1 million dollar dinner would’ve caused a riot. But it didn’t. And now people are going on about using taxpayer’s money to help out our fellow neighbors in need? People are saying that China’s a rather rich country, so they can take care of the financial issues themselves. But it isn’t about the the financial issue. It’s about showing that we truly care and empathize with their loss. Why don’t you put yourself in their place; you’re just working on a normal day, and suddenly, everything just starts shaking and crashes on top of you. Your in excruciating pain, but fortunately, you survived under the ruins. But you don’t have food or water, and you can’t even sleep, because if you do, you wont hear the rescuers when they come and search for people. To make it more clear, rescuers don’t just go to a random spot and think “Oh! I think there’s a person under there! I’ll get my group and start digging there, hopefully I’m right and we will find someone!” What they do is that they knock and shout to see if they get a reply to see if anybody is buried there. So after you get dug up and receive medical treatment, you learn that many of your closest family members are either dead, or still missing. They can be either your siblings, parents, or children. Something like this is but one of many sides and stories people have. So, what’s so hard in empathizing with them? What’s so hard in giving aid to the victims? Canada is a peacekeeping nation, and a nation involved with foreign aid, isn’t it? I’m pretty sure “peace” doesn’t mean massive amounts of lives lost like this.

@ Rick:
How can you compare “People” to a rich man with “Houses”? Let me differentiate the two:
Houses: A thing, that is not alive, is replaceable, does not have feelings.
People: A living, feeling, human being, that CANNOT be replaced, who are those of YOUR OWN SPECIES.
Personally, I couldn’t care less what ethnicity you are, you can come from the South Pole for all I care. It doesn’t matter, because we’re all human. Last time I checked, it was a HUMANE thing to help out people in need, whether YOU THINK they need it or not.
One other thing about your comment. Basically what you think is that China doesn’t need help, because it’s a wealthy country. Burma does, because it’s a poor country. So, the Canadian government should give aid to Burma, not China. I don’t agree with this. Why do people always like putting two disastrous events on scales and comparing them, as if it’s some kind of contest? It makes it seem like it’s better to be more disastrous. Isn’t it the oppposite? Isn’t that why we should help BOTH of them in their losses? I mean, this isn’t some kind of random thing your putting on line, it’s people’s lives. People like you, or your friend, or someone you know.
Well, if you’ve read this far, thanks, and congrats xD
Just to say, allanallan, I strongly agree with you

Thank you fellow Canadians for your care and support for China quake victims. According to Canada Red Cross, as of midday May 20 more than $3.7 million donated by generous Canadians to China earthquake relief funds. (http://www.redcross.ca/china.html) And I hope that Mr. Harper keep his promise to match the private donations to Canada Red Cross, the organization able to work in Burma.

For the time being, shelters, tents, blankets, medicine and medical instruments are urgently needed in the disaster areas. It is very important that Canada Red Cross transfer some relief funds or dispatch relief materials to China in a timely and efficient manner.

fukprc I wouldn’t have went that far but i guess i agree with u. The money u donated will go to a million things, helping Sichuan is not one of them. All you have done is free up their cash flow so that they could spend more in issues mentioned by fukprc.

to someone:
I’m sure we all do sympathize with them. But the fact is the money accomplish nothing… If i was in the shoe of a person trapped under the building, how is $1,000,000 going to help me in anyway?

about ur comment directed at rick. The money is not saving people already trapped. In the best case scenario it will be used to rebuild Sichuan. Since the money will be (at best) used to rebuild Sichuan, I don’t see how it can not be compared to giving money to rich man to rebuild his 1 burnt down house.

to sanson:
Give me one example where u cannot talk about politics without religion.

To fukprc,

You can be pissed as hell that I could care less. I wish that you could raise $3.7 million private donations to support your noble Free Tibetan cause when needed.

Before you fingerpoint at the corruption in China, I guess you may already know that 5-15% admin fee of the donated funds will be taken by Canada Red Cross at the first place before they transfer the left to China.

Also, would you mind citing the source of “…the number one donor of aid for earthquake victims is Taiwan. More than the Chinese government’s own direct aid for victims.” Today exchange rate is 4.39508 Taiwan New Dollars = 1 China Yuan Renminbi. Please do the math before you jump into conclusion. Thank you!