BESTSELF™ ICEBREAKER | Dreams 11

WHAT PART DO YOU WANT TO PLAY IN SOLVING A GLOBAL PROBLEM?

I don’t need a global problem as my issues are closer to home. I’m a firm believer in cleaning up my own backyard before going and telling someone else what to do with theirs.

If I were to choose an issue that triggers me, the first that comes to mind is my desire to participate in solving the issue of our Canadian Indigenous communities not having access to clean drinking water. I am well aware that it is a political hot potato and I do NOT want to be perceived as the privileged and entitled white woman with a saviour complex going in and fixing all that which my forebearers broke in the first place.

I live in a town that is just down the road from Saugeen First Nation. They have been on a boil water order for 28 years. YEARS. That reality enrages me. I hope through the summer I can engage in conversation with the elders to seek guidance from those who know first hand about the issues. I’ll leave it to them to tell me how best they will accept my help, if at all.

The part I‘ve played in solving the GLOBAL problem is by giving birth and every advantage to four engaged, knowledgable, and empathetic young people. They are politically aware and have their own grand ideas. My part is to support them.

(They’ve also grown up with a mother who has boycotted Nestlé products since she was in middle school for the atrocities they inflicted in Africa - and their complete and utter lack of accountability or restitution. Oh, and the stealing … ahem, water … from my province of Ontario (which to my great shame, our government did absolutely nothing to correct). There is very little else I can do to deal with a corrupt conglomerate, so I “vote with my wallet”.)