The Current

Today's guest host was Neil Macdonald.

Satire

On the heels of NASA's admission that it once allowed intoxicated astronauts to blast off into space, the space agency successfully launched its Phoenix Mars Lander on Saturday. It should land sometime in May, and will look for signs of water on the planet.

Currently, water is critical to the mission, because by the time the Phoenix lands it will be dehydrated, headachey and seriously hungover.

This is the Current.


Sudan Adoption

Six years ago, a former firefighter who is now the Liberal MP for London North Centre traveled to Sudan.Glen Pearson and his wife Jane Roy were looking for a baby girl they'd seen in a photograph. They were strangers in a strange land, trying to deal with a turgid bureaucracy, and the acute dangers of Sudanese battlefields. But they found the girl. And they adopted her.

Now, adopting from conflict zones is not something Canadians typically do, although that is where the need is often the greatest. We'll discuss this further in just a few minutes but first we were joined by Glen Pearson and Jane Roybecause their story didn't end with the adoption of their little girl Abuk. Jane Roy is off soon, today, as a matter of fact, to pick up two more Sudanese children.

Glen Pearson is the Liberal MP for London North Centre. His wife is Jane Roy. Later today Jane will be flying to Nairobi where she will be reunited with their adopted daughter's twin sister and older brother.


Sudan Adoption – Agency

As anyone who has been through it knows, navigating the traditional adoption process can be difficult and challenging and time consuming.

Attempting to adopt a child from a war-torn country far away is just this side of impossible. Reverend Gordon Lewis is the Founder and Director of Mission of Tears Ontario. It's an Adoption Agency licensed by the Ontario Government. Reverend Lewis acted as an advisor for Glen Pearson and Jane Roy in their adoption of their daughter Abuk. He is also one of the authors of Psychology of Orphans. He joined us from Cobourg, Ontario.


SA Doctors Promo

On Wednesday's edition of The Current...There are only 2 doctors for every 1-thousand Canadians in this country, and the health care system just can't pump out enough new doctors to keep up.

One possible cure to the doctor shortage is to get them from another country. But one country's cure is another country's illness and countries like South Africa -- where doctor shortages jeopardize the fight against diseases like malaria and HIV -- are now trying to staunch the loss of their physicians.

Dr. William Mapham is the vice-chairman of the Rural Doctor's Association in South Africa, and he's part of an initiative to attract doctors back to South Africa.