A Sad Admission

Ironically, I was in discussion with some constituents this weekend in my office when I received a call from a Conservative MP from another part of the country - a friend who shares many of my non-partisan views. He wanted to talk Africa, specifically the recent cuts made by his own government to development funds to eight African nations. We had discussed many things over the last two years, but to my knowledge we had never conferred on Africa itself.After excusing myself from the meeting, I listened in surprise as he told me of the sharply negative response he had received from some members of his church concerning the aid cuts. It turns out he's a member of a committee in that congregation that is funding a couple of programs in one of the very countries that just had its long-term funding cut. I listened reflectively, feeling my own anger mount again as I remembered the shock to my own system when I heard of the government's "mean shift" away from Africa.Then a strange request: Would I be willing to be more aggressive in the House concerning the cuts, seeking at least a time of reappraisal of the results of such a decision. Let me get this straight: a member of the government was asking me to be more forceful in opposition? Indeed, we are living in strange times.He said he would try within his own party to seek a second look at the CIDA change and I truly believe he will. But this is a Conservative government that doesn't broker self-criticism. His task is hopeless, and I could tell he knew it just by the tone of his voice. Thus, his call to me.And why aren't the opposition parties, including the Liberals, raising holy hell over what appear to be heartless cuts? The truth is that all of us are preoccupied with the economy. We're so busy caring about the jobless in Canada that we have forgotten about the those without water, food, and now development, in Africa. Soon after you read this, we will all stand in the House  and commemorate the anniversary of the genocide that occurred in Rwanda. We will claim, as we did last year, that we'll never permit it to happen again. I'll look across the aisle at my friend and we'll both feel the hypocrisy of it all - Rwanda is one of the countries cut by CIDA. Sorry to sound so maudlin, but I just might weep. My tears will mix with his and all of us as members of Parliament will have to whisper "never again," because we won't possess the moral resources to claim it from the rooftops and make it come true.