Raija Kasten's blog from Sri Lanka is amazing!
The Mayor is part of a group of Kamloopsians who are right now in Tangalle Sri Lanka continuing our community's effort to help that part of the world rebuild after the Tsunami.
Through Developing World Connections, Kamloopsians have regularly visited Tangalle over the past few years. This is the first time, to my knowledge, anybody can follow along online.
Here's a photo of Mayor Terry Lake turning sod:
This is terrible. How many homeless in Kamloops could have been helped with the money that this photo-op cost?
Posted by: Guy N Cognito | January 19, 2008 at 12:25 PM
Could Mr. Cognito be driving a cheaper car or living in more modest accomodation? Why doesn't he do that and use the money he saves to help the less fortunate? There are thousands of worthy charitable causes. That fact that one is supported by somebody does not belittle the others. Spend your efforts and money doing something selfless instead of criticizing the selflessness of others.
Posted by: Jake | January 22, 2008 at 08:15 AM
Hey dude, my car is very fuel efficient. I live in a small home and I don't think I have a lot of stuff (though my wife probably disagrees). I also give more than my fair share to local charities. When I go to buy groceries I also like to donate to food banks.
I don't disagree with mayor Lake trying to help others, I just don't care for how he is doing it. Use a staged looking photo in the paper to get everyone feeling warm and fuzzy so they look kindly on the mayor and forget the fact that our great city is slowly suffocating under the burden of bureaucratic inaction.
Council has a very red mindset, spending their time creating rules and delegating tasks to govern the lives of the humanoids. They pretend to be concerned about our health and safety but they were an integral part of a major blunder that will continue to greatly harm both the health of the public and the image of this city provincially, nationally and internationally for YEARS to come.
Stay tuned for part 3...
Posted by: Guy N Cognito | January 23, 2008 at 09:27 PM
So, this has nothing to do with charitable action and everything to do with the person undertaking the charitble action. Drawing attention to a worthy cause through photo ops is pretty standard. February is Heart month, April is Cancer month, the bike tour for M.S. or Community Living day are all staged events to draw attention towards worthy causes. Basically, you seem to state that if you don't like the politics of a person doing something selfless then the selfless act is somehow marginalized.
Posted by: Jake | January 25, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Years ago when I ran four-day intensive programs that prepared volunteers for overseas assignments, it was very important that participants internatized this message, "Your job is to go and watch, listen and learn. Then do the work that local people ask you to do."
People came from all walks of life, retired, on leave from jobs and students.
When they came back to Canada, it was another four-day retreat. The focus there was two questions,(1)"What did you learn?" and (2)"How will you use what you learned to change CANADIAN society with a hands-on project in your own hometown?"
Sounds like mayor Terry Lake did some good things in Sri Lanka. We wonder, what is his answer to the above two questions? What will he do with his newfound knowledge?
Posted by: voter | January 31, 2008 at 01:25 PM