for my part, i turn to sites like freerice (rice donation), kiva (microfinance), and goodsearch (donation per search), as ways to help alleviate poverty online. i also put up their banners on my blog.

saw this post via the blog action day site. it’s great that you’re participating.

You want a raised minimum wage? How does $14/hour sound?

Best of all, no realities of economics were violated in the creation of this program.

“Not only has he demonstrated a lack of empathy in general, but he has demonstrated it specifically as it relates to the poverty issue. A Toronto Star editorial called Harper lagging on poverty agenda points out that “his government dragged its feet on creating more affordable housing or daycare facilities, raising federal minimum wage rates or tackling child poverty across Canada. And on the world stage, Harper has done little to help live up to goals Canada agreed to when it declared its support for the millennium agreement in 2000“. Harper’s lack of leadership in the poverty issue is very evident and likely stems from his empathy deficit. If you can’t feel true compassion for people afflicted by poverty, then it is difficult to champion the cause. Perhaps this is the reason why Harper just didn’t have the words to express what his party planned to do to combat poverty. The Make Poverty History campaign sent a questionnaire to all of the Canadian party leaders and all of them except for Stephen Harper responded to the questionnaire and outlined specifically what their parties planned to do to combat poverty. The CBC article Harper unresponsive to anti-poverty group reported that Harper’s office felt the questions were too specific and Harper would only answer more general questions. That is another way of saying that he hasn’t really thought about the issues in much depth and doesn’t really give a rat’s ass.”

Read more here: http://phdinparenting.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/the-empathy-deficit-blog-action-day/

http://www.blogtogreat.com/2008/10/blog-action-day.html