Beer Or Bombs

Last week Steven Harper's Conservative government in Canada announced the rise of the national retirement age from 65 to 67. Several days later the Canadian Defense Ministry confirmed the purchase of thirty-five F-35 Strike Fighters at $50 million per plane. SHARE THE WORLD RESOURCES calculated the cost of each plane as the following; 128,205,128 Meals For Starving People. 57,525 Clean Water Wells. 1,572,327 Adult Cataract Operations. Restoring sight to the blind. 14,285,714 Blankets for refugees. In emergencies, families often leave home with only the clothes they are wearing. Blankets give essential protection from the chilling cold. 5,347,594 Mosquito Nets. Two million people die every year from malaria, most are children under five. 1,573,317 Child Immunisations. Protect a child from the six childhood killer diseases - diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, polio, tetanus and tuberculosis. A gift of life every child must have. 35,666 Houses for family's currently living in cramped, unsanitary and dangerous conditions. 13,510 Schools Furnished with desks, chairs, tables, blackboards - vital things children need to build a foundation for learning. 2,675,227 Children supplied with school books for a whole year. 50,000 Landmines removed from the ground. 193,836 Adult Literary Classes. 151,515 World Response Medicine Boxes. Each containing essential medicines to treat the most common diseases for a community of one thousand people for approximately three months. 5,347,594 Fruit trees planted. Providing a giant boost to the diet and health of a poor family. 4,456,328 Fishing Nets. Give a man, woman or child a fishing net and they - and their families - will have a source of food. 2,057,613 Nanny Goats. Milk, cheese and kids. Families in places like Bangladesh can earn a living by starting a small goat-herding business. 1,783,167 Chickens. Eggs mean protein - vital for every diet. Three chickens can produce enough eggs to feed a whole family. They'll produce baby chicks too. 4,456,328 Training courses for a health worker. Providing a local health worker basic skills on how to treat, prevent and stop the spread of the most common life-threatening diseases. 1,273,885 Childrens School Desk and School Supplies. For children who have no place to sit, study and read this gives one child a desk with pencils, pens and books. 193,836 Wheelchairs. For a disabled child, a wheelchair can be the ticket to freedom and education. 71,523 Vocational Scholarships. One year programme helps young people learn a trade and gives them the vocational and technical training they need to improve their future. 4,456,328 Water Filters. Poor families in places like Cambodia, have no choice but to drink water full of bacteria and parasites. Water filters saves lives by screening out small but deadly bugs. 764,292 Bicycles for a child to get to school every day. 5,000,000,000 Chlorine Tablets to make water safe to drink. My calculation are more based on happiness. One F-35 Strike Fighter costs the same as two million 24-ounce Modelo Beers. Times thirty-five jets and I could buy enough beer to get the adult and teenage population of Canada drunk for two days. Hawks would disapprove of such a wastrel expenditure of money, but who are the Canadians going to fight. The USA? Greenland? Russia? So bombs or beer? I know my choice is easy; beers for all my Canuck friends. ps to calculate further costs of war please go to the following URL http://www.stwr.org/special-features/cost-of-war-calculator.html