Billions of dollars to fight poverty in Africa. Millions of dollars in sponsorship scandal money. Hundreds of thousands of dollars for Quebec's Canada Day celebrations. But still people in this country go hungry. People in this country are homeless. People in this country can't make it on their own.

Canada has always been viewed as a helpful nation. That's a step up from our neighbours down south. We are not known for bombing and killing people. And I think we can agree that we would like to keep it that way. But through these generous financial contributions from our federal government, perhaps it is their way of trying to make us forget about the problems in our own neighbourhoods and seem as though we really are the good guy in the face of poverty and despair.

However we have despair in our own country. Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have all recently been (and still are) submerged in water because of summer flooding across the three provinces. Some people have lost their homes and been devastated that they now have to start over with nothing. In many instances, it literally is nothing. Farmers who used to travel on their farms by tractor are now using a boat to get around the land. The government seems to be taking a while to dish out the cash to assist these farmers who have had a year's worth of work literally washed away. This isn't the first year that it has happened to many of them. Farmers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba are saying the situation gets worse every year and that they are thinking of giving up farming and learning a new skill they can use for work. "Being a farmer is too stressful nowadays," one said.

Very soon these farmers may go hungry, in a twisted irony where their job is to grow crops for people to consume. But in the big cities of this country we see people sleeping out in the streets, sometimes freezing to death in the winter. Living in abandoned buildings and trying to keep warm by lighting garbage on fire. In this country those people are often called "bums" and disregarded and left in the cold. In fact, during the Juno awards in Winnipeg this past spring there was a huge effort to "get these people off the streets" so that the city's downtown wouldn't be shown to the country as it really is. Usually on the main strip you can't walk a block without someone sitting with a hat out for spare change or a drunk sleeping in a big flower pot. But not when the musical celebrities and TV cameras come to town.

It is in Africa there is so much poverty that we have been urged by musical celebrities to give more to that continent. Strangely the prime minister delivered for that charitable cause. But does Paul Martin feel that threatened by a celebrity that he acts as a puppet and does whatever is said? So we may not get a concert or two if we don't participate, big deal. If that is in fact what happened it is sad that the PM won't even listen to the cries from people needing assistance in his own country but is willing to give a hefty donation in front of the cameras to support countries half way around the globe. I'm not saying we shouldn't do what we can to help out other countries, but we should also be doing everything we can to help out our own communities.

On July 1 we celebrated the birthday of our great nation. One would think that this would be a day the government would pull out all the stops and let loose in an effort to show the public that even though we may have been divided in parliament, we stuck together and got through it. While other provinces had to watch the spending of every dime of funding for the Canada Day festivities, Quebec was once again given a great budget to work with to honour and celebrate a country that it wants no part of. Two provinces celebrating a centennial this year were not even provided with the same amount combined as Quebec did. Is this a bribe to say that the rest of us are good people and we want them to stay? We don't see this in other provinces when university graduates threaten to move elsewhere to begin a new life with a better paying career. Perhaps if the governments would take such steps to urge residents to stay in these provinces we wouldn't have overcrowded hospital emergency rooms where once you are treated you lay on a makeshift bed in a hallway or are rushed out to make room for someone else. That is of course after you've waited a few hours to see a doctor. Or we wouldn't have classrooms in elementary schools where 40 children are taught by one person. There are many fifth grade students who are only now beginning to learn how to spell "apple" and "tiger".

Why? Because the schools in Canada "don't have" enough of a budget to finance the hiring of more staff. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the kids in African schools are already further ahead than some Canadian students.

I won't say that we are worse off than any Third World country, but when we have a government that will throw away hundreds of thousands of dollars for scandals or billions to other countries, it is hard to justify the claim that we don't have enough money to support our own people.

We can once again take pride in knowing our country has helped those less fortunate no matter how many thousands of kilometres away. We've made rock stars happy so that they may or may not honour our country with one concert in a city that most of us won't see. We've left our own people high and... well, quite wet. And we've supported a province that believes it is superior to the rest of the country by giving them one hell of a Canada Day celebration.

A great land -- and her name is Canada.

That's my point. What's yours? Tell me at SpeakFree.