Woeful Repatriation

I have always considered myself to be a socially conscious and politically active individual. It is something that I take a lot of pride in. I believe that compassion is best expressed by taking an active interest in the world and taking appropriate steps to make improvements: to be a thoughtful participant in the world you live in and depend on.

For the past year, I have had the good fortune to be surrounded by people that are diligently contributing their time and efforts to make the world a better place. People who reject the status quo and are often doing a lot of really interesting work in their home communities: alternative building, permaculture, aquaponics, poverty reduction, sustainability, gender relations, community building, the list goes on. It has been absolutely brilliant to perpetually be around such interesting people.

I'd forgotten how apathetic the Canadian population is.

I have been working on the KW by-election for the past week. I am working on behalf of one of the candidates attempting to gauge and garner support. I'm knocking on doors and talking to folks face to face. I've met a lot of people in really difficult circumstances: OW and ODSP recipients, new-citizens whose education doesn't transfer to Canada (and therefore are un- or underemployed), elderly folks that can't keep enough food in their cupboards, and returning students who after working all summer are wondering how they're going to afford books for the year. 

It broke my heart to know that there is little that I can do to help these individuals in the immediate future. It is worse that many feel incapacitated and accept their situation as just the way it is. Canada should be able to look after its population, but it doesn't. It is sickening that poverty like that exists in a country as rich as this.

Half way through my second day I was inundated with a sense of futility and sat down on the side of the road and cried, uncontrollably. 

One of my favourite things about being in Guatemala was that nobody argued with me that something needed to change; Guatemalans and Canadians alike freely admit that there is a lot of work to be done. Here, however, I have always found it challenging for people to admit that things are far from perfect. There's a prevalence of the pull up your boot-straps mentality that is hard to break. People have a certain type of pride that somehow makes it difficult to admit challenges and act with compassion. Opinions seem to be changing, but only slightly.