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Taken from the CBC...

Life’s Not Fair

By Kate Jones

July 13, 2007

Kate Jones works as a home care physiotherapist in Thunder Bay.

I believe in my heart that every individual around the world is born with inherent value.

I remember growing up, as the eldest of three sisters, hearing the constant refrain of “That’s not fair!” if one of us felt that she was not being treated equally. My father’s reply to this was always “Well, life’s not fair.”

I have come to learn that he was right. Life isn’t fair. But also to believe that the world would be a better place if he had been wrong. I believe that around the world, wherever you go, people are people, with the same hopes and expectations, joys and sorrows, as people anywhere else, and that they should also have the same rights as people anywhere else.

I recently had the opportunity to spend three years volunteering as a physiotherapist at a hospital in rural Tanzania, East Africa. While I was there, I attended weddings and funerals; I sang and danced with my friends; I held a new-born baby, and held the hand of an elderly man who was dying. My friends taught me many lessons about the important things in life, including the value of family and community. But I saw again that life isn’t fair. What did I do to deserve the happy accident of birth that had me born into a relatively well-off family in a prosperous country like Canada, with the ability and opportunity to attend university; which led to a well-paying job and the chance to travel the world? My Tanzanian friends: Edither, Judy, Mambo, Taybebwa, Jenester, Christer, Kandaga, Jeska, Denis will never have these opportunities. Life isn’t fair.

But then I remember back to my sisters, and our insistence that we be treated equally. I believe that all people, no matter where they are in the world, are my brothers and my sisters. I feel the need to insist that we all be treated equally. Here, living in Canada, I can make my voice heard as I speak out about social justice. I do my part to work for a more equitable society here in my community of Thunder Bay. I raise awareness about international development and how each of us can play our part to work towards a more just world.

I believe in my heart that every individual around the world is born with inherent value, and should have the same rights as any other person in this world. I believe that we all have an obligation to do our part to make this world a fairer place for all.

For This I Believe, I’m Kate Jones in Thunder Bay.