Lucky to be alive and yet still complaining

NOTE: This post contains some sweeping generalizations and may offend, so read at your own risk.

I’m disappointed in and saddened by the Canadians (and those who simply have dual Canadian citizenship) coming home from the Middle East right now. Not all of them mind you, but just about every one I have seen on TV so far (and yes, the media are partially to blame here too). I admit our government was slow to start moving with evacuation plans when compared to other countries, especially those in Europe, but let’s not forget that Europe is much closer, and Canada (for whatever reason) had far more people in the area. However, slow to get going or not, I am disgusted to hear nothing but complaining from the rescued.

You’d think that being out of harms way with your life would be somehow uplifting? I can’t imagine I’d have time to complain between kissing the Canadian soil and thanking my lucky stars I was all intact. Evidently that’s not the case for those coming to Canada now. All you hear on the news is how they had to wait for long periods of time (some in camps like the one pictured), and that when they were on the ships, there was no food, people were vomiting, and they were “treated like animals.” What did you expect – a full on buffet on the cruise ship? This wasn’t a vacation, it was an evacuation. Would you have been happier to wait in Lebanon for another week while the government got it’s best chefs, waiters, and gourmet food ready for your trip? I didn’t think so. Oh and you think fourteen hours was too long of a trip? Suck it up. You’re alive. People spend longer periods of time in distress all the time. Heck, I go 24 hours without eating or sleeping all the time.

Now when I first thought about this, I figured that maybe I was being a little unfair. I mean, I’ve never been in an area where there’s an active war being fought, and I hope I never have to be. So maybe I just don’t understand what it’s like. My Grandma would though, having grown up during the Second World War in England, so I asked her. She knew the TV reports I was talking about (trust me, she watches a lot of TV) and her response (paraphrased) was: “It’s ridiculous. They should be happy to be alive. When bombs are falling, all you want to go is get out of the area, not complain about how.” So maybe I wasn’t being unfair.

The thing that really gets me though are the people who hold dual-citizenship, yet spend most of their time in Lebanon. There’s nothing wrong with that, EXCEPT that if you live there for large parts of the year, surely you should understand it comes with some risks. I mean, has the middle east ever been peaceful? Not that I can remember. If you’re living in Lebanon, or anywhere in the middle east, I think you need to understand that bad things could happen. And when they do, don’t pretend you’re a model Canadian citizen and deserve to be treated like a god. I don’t want to imply that they are less Canadian – oh to hell with it, yes I do. If you don’t live here, and you only have Canadian citizenship so that you can be evacuated from times of crisis, I think that totally sucks, and I am pissed that my tax dollars pay for that. If you choose to live in an area that constantly has violence and war, that’s your problem. Instead of paying for you to complain about the ship you’re on to come to Canada, I’d rather help out the guy on the street outside my office who asks me for money every day so he can eat.

I believe in human rights and equality for all, and every other kind of ideal you can put in front of me that has to do with people being treated like people, but when a war happens, and humans behave in ways that bring humanity down a level, I think there needs to be understanding. There needs to be understanding that war zones are difficult places to operate within. There needs to be understanding that every country in the world is trying to lease ships and planes to evacuate their citizens, all at the same time. There needs to be understanding that your country will do everything it can to save your life, and when they do, a simple thanks should suffice.