Guelph’s superior to Waterloo

(January 19) - It was interesting to see a report last week ranking Guelph’s attractiveness to immigrants. We came in 13th in a field of 50 Canadian cities. We handily beat Cambridge, Hamilton and Winterpeg, but so what? Anyone should be able to thump those burgs.

Waterloo beat us! They came in on the A list of the top six cities. We were relegated to the 14-city B list.

What does Waterloo have that we don’t? They might have Blackberry’s world headquarters, but we’re the centre of the Linamar universe. Who cares if they have Jim Balsillie? We have Linda Hasenfratz. Waterloo has two universities. We only have one, but it’s a good one.

The Conference Board of Canada ranked the cities on 41 indicators. Obviously music didn’t count. We have the River Run Centre. If they want to see a concert they go next door to Kitchener’s Centre in the Square. Our stage is overflowing with top-drawer bands, ranging from the kramdens to The Speakeasies. Waterloo has lederhosen and polka kings.

We wash our garbage before putting it to the curb. They don’t even sort theirs properly. Waterloo Region will even pay us to compost their kitchen scraps when we get our organics facility up and running. I don’t know what the Conference Board was thinking. I’m an immigrant and I prefer Guelph.

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It is an awful mess down in Haiti. You can’t pick up a newspaper, watch the television news or surf the Internet without coming face to face with the awful tragedy that befell the people of that always sad nation. It was a natural disaster of a colossal nature.

The closest in recent memory would be the Asian tsunami. It killed about 300,000 people. The death toll in Haiti could reach 100,000. Its full impact is much wider than that. News reports say three million people, or one-third of the population, have been affected. They are badly injured. They are bereaved. They are homeless.

It is heartening to see the outpouring of generosity shown by individual Canadian contributions to disaster relief. If you do a little ‘googling,’ you’ll easily find a list of organizations that are helping. Donations can be made online, over the phone or at many financial institutions. Doctors Without Borders got my money. It could just as easily have gone to the Canadian Red Cross, or Oxfam, or UNICEF or several others.

No matter how badly any of us were hit by the recession, no matter how little we have in the bank, we are all better off than the average Haitian. That was true before the earthquake. It is more so today. Choose your relief organization and send them some money.

Be careful about giving money to people who come to your door with a collection bucket. It’s a horrible sign of the times that scam artists will take advantage of any tragedy to make a buck. Think of them as the local face of the global corporations Naomi Klein warns us about in Shock Doctrine. They seize on disasters to extend their control over devastated communities.

When the tsunami hit Asia in 2004, local musicians held a superb fundraising concert at the River Run Centre. It may happen again. Local musician and social activist Sam Turton sent an e-mail around last week. It seems that some local churches and community groups are in the early stages of thinking this through.

There are an incredible number of very talented people in and around Guelph. They give generously of their time and talents when the need arises.

If they come together for Haiti, I’ll stand in line to get tickets.