"Idle no More" concerns

[AKDuc]

Originally Posted by GP640

I think the money issue is not really part of what Idle No More is about.
More like the right trying to discredit the cause. Idle No More is not directly linked to Chief Spence.
The point I totally side with is the BS that has been included in the "budget".
Our waters need protection and our resources need managing. This isn't just a First Nations issue.
The Red Deer River saw an oil pipeline rupture this past summer.Current regulations required an "extensive" clean up.
If the Federal gov't guts its protection legislation, my city and towns hundreds of km East of me will not have drinking water. What then?
Sure, the economy runs on oil, but water is life (at the risk of being granola) and Stevie and his buddies don't seem to care.

The above is what we've heard Idle No More is mainly about with some aboriginal rights, sovereignty, and solidarity thrown in.

I'll be at the rally in downtown Anchorage tomorrow at high noon. My ancestors on my dad's side are 1st Nations Tsimshean out of BC.

Wish me luck. Mark H.

[G-Mac]

Originally Posted by the kaz

I think we should pay all natives $500 000 each and then thats IT ..... NO MORE!!!!! Plus by accepting the ONE TIME payment they become normal Canadian citizens who pay taxes buy fishing licences etc .....

I am pretty tired of people in modern society blameing someone else for their own problems. In my line of work we have many native bands as customers. Most of them are great to work with and are extremely well managed. The funny thing is the Native bands we work with dont seem to be represented in the current affairs. Maybe someone forgot to tell these other native bands that they are suppossed to be upset and screaming at the goverment ?

My two cents is, When will people (That's ALL of us living in this great country) take responsibility for our selfs. Seriously. It's the old saying teach a man to fish..........If we keep throwing money what the F@$k would you do. We are all inherently lazy so.........
500k is a little much but the direction is what I would call a good start.
The original sentiment Take responsiblity for your self, that goes for the lazy people on welfare ( not directed at the ones that are truly in need) I'm sick and F@$king tired of paying for the Canadians and new to Canada people that abuse the system, and yes I have extended family members (Slugs) that fall into this category one that's to fat and lazy at 23 to do anything and his sister at 25 with three kids from three different dads!!! As well she has signed up for and got osap for school and never went.
Ok I'm done before I give myself an aneurism!

[Mercenary]

Originally Posted by nick949eldo

i have been to Attawapiskat many times. There is NO fancy living going on there. There is not a single dwelling that would look at home in a typical BC suburb (or anywhere else in suburban Canada).

Much of the money that flows through reserves such as Attawapiskat goes in air fares ($1100+ round trip), food costs (typically 3-5 times what it is in the south) and the difficulties of maintaining even the most basic services in a remote location.

Whining about First Nations communities and individuals getting rich from government handouts just betrays woeful ignorance of the real conditions. .

Nick

So why in the HELL would you want to live up there to begin with? I've seen my fair share of reserves around BC and elsewhere and I wouldn't ever want to live in such conditions. Heck..even the ones that are close to major centers all seem to be shit holes.....

Before anyone goes off about me being racist or any crap like that....I'm part native so don't even go there....

[mayday]

Some interesting reading - no real answers, but fairly illuminating

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/a-dream-palace-built-on-gas-and-gold-wont-solve-aboriginal-poverty/article7158684/

[JayDee24ca]

Originally Posted by mayday

Some interesting reading - no real answers, but fairly illuminating

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/a-dream-palace-built-on-gas-and-gold-wont-solve-aboriginal-poverty/article7158684/

Excellant editorial. Well done. Agree with all of it.
JD

[MitchG]

Originally Posted by JayDee24ca

Excellant editorial. Well done. Agree with all of it.
JD

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/comme...rticle7158684/

Very, very sad but true, very true! Trust me.....

[BackRoader]

Just to add a little more to this discussion
Quote:
Subject: The "We Want More" Movement (Idle No More)


My Thoughts on the We Want More Movement
How can all those first nations protesters afford to take time off work to attend the marches and roadblocks across Canada? They must be using up all their vacation time, earned overtime, and sick days. How can Canada’s fragile economy withstand such a devastating blow? I would imagine all commerce and industry within a hundred miles of any first nation community would be crippled or shut down completely by the absence of all these employees. Who’s running the affairs of their band office while they are blocking trains and hunger striking? Seems like every one of them is a “Chief” except some of them are “Grand Chief”. How come Chief Spence hasn’t lost any weight during her “hunger strike”? I think someone is smuggling KFC into her teepee after dark. Quote:

[Moving Pictures]

Sigh.

From my column Friday.

"Visits to reserves in Northern Saskatchewan in the three years I lived there revealed a multitude of stark contrasts: a new school and new houses were often located 500 metres away from rundown homes, abject squalor and evident poverty. Despite continued federal assistance, unemployment is staggering on many reserves. Drug use, alcoholism and suicide are major issues, and First Nations are drastically over-represented in jails and penitentiaries.
Montreal Lake, SK, for example is isolated, like many reserves in this country. The nearest major town, and thus source of jobs, is 100 km away in Prince Albert. Without access to reliable transportation, commuting is impossible – but entry level jobs don’t make such a commute financially viable. Because there are no nearby, accessible, full-time jobs,
many in such communities are dependent on welfare or EI.
A memorable man named Joseph used to hang out near my office at the Prince Albert Daily Herald. One of the last victims of the residential school catastrophe, he was constantly battling alcoholism - he wanted to buy a home with his 2007 lump sum residential school settlement, but drank it all. He tried to find work in the city, but kept going back to the reserve - “rez,” as many First Nations term their home turf. Why?
One of the contractual guarantees of First Nations treaties is housing. On reserve, housing is free. Yet those who grow up on reserve don’t learn how to rent or own: necessary skills to live off reservation. Moving to the city is an often overwhelming shock.
Further, First Nations people have a deep respect, if not reliance, on family – just as many in this area do. (Likewise, there’s a stigma on “going away” and a stigma on success.) It’s tough for many aboriginals to break free from guaranteed housing and family on reserve, just as it’s tough for many of our young graduates to break free of family and stick with a two-year college or four-year university program.
With certainty, corruption is a major issue. Chiefs hold too much power, too much money, and folks like Joseph, who aren’t related to the power-brokers and chief-makers, see little, if any, of the millions paid out to First Nations groups every year. But Idle No More isn’t - or wasn’t - about chiefs. It’s about folks like Joseph, and his children, who are upset at the establishment of both sides.
On that note, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is supposed to meet with First Nations groups to tackle major issues today, but most assuredly, nothing substantive will take place. That’s partly a certainty because of the ideological slant of the current government, but more a function of neither Canada nor First Nations addressing the need to abolish or rewrite the Indian Act. Our nation’s wretched example of legislated, Apartheid-style racial segregation is flawed, reprehensible and encourages crippling dependency that is killing First Nations.
The current solution to almost every First Nations problem is, invariably, to ask Ottawa for more money: but that just exacerbates existing dependency.
To that end, First Nations author, speaker and business owner Calvin Helin told a Vancouver radio audience this week that he expected a lot of backlash with his first book on exactly this issue, “Dances With Dependency,” published in 2006. Instead, it became a seven-time best seller.
The surest way to kill a man,” writes Helin, “is to pay him to do nothing.”

[yamalama]

The (white guy) ethnocentricity displayed within this thread is truly dismaying.
People living in abject squalor, and whitey worried about having his commute to work disrupted.
More or less.

[Mercenary]

Originally Posted by yamalama

The (white guy) ethnocentricity displayed within this thread is truly dismaying.
People living in abject squalor, and whitey worried about having his commute to work disrupted.
More or less.

Basically it comes down to taking RESPONSIBILITY for their own situation. The enemy certainly isn't 'whitey' as you so elequently present it. The 'enemy' is their own corruption within their own band structure.

The native population in this country seems to thrive on the us against them mentality. The government...and by extension....the non-native population in this country funnels money into these reserves with little to no oversight. These payments would be more than adequate to bring each and every household up to livable standards. Yet we find many living in squalor while precious few live far beyond their means.

So what is the answer? It certainly isn't more autonomy and less oversight. Its integration into today's society. Give a man a fish....or teach him to fish?

[MitchG]

Originally Posted by yamalama

The (white guy) ethnocentricity displayed within this thread is truly dismaying.
People living in abject squalor, and whitey worried about having his commute to work disrupted.
More or less.

Brother,

I haven't really noticed that being displayed in this thread. I'm actually a bit surprised and proud at the level of understanding regarding the current situation(if not the root cause), that the inmates have shown so far.

[Deuce]

Originally Posted by BackRoader

How come Chief Spence hasn’t lost any weight during her “hunger strike”? I think someone is smuggling KFC into her teepee after dark. Quote:

She is drinking fish broth, which is loaded with protein & fat.

[mayday]

Originally Posted by yamalama

The (white guy) ethnocentricity displayed within this thread is truly dismaying.

Uhm, on a site geared towards adventure motorcycling - i.e people with jobs, vacation time and discretionary spending - not really the typical "Idle no more" stereotype

[Timo Explorer]

Originally Posted by Mercenary

Basically it comes down to taking RESPONSIBILITY for their own situation. The enemy certainly isn't 'whitey' as you so elequently present it. The 'enemy' is their own corruption within their own band structure.

The native population in this country seems to thrive on the us against them mentality. The government...and by extension....the non-native population in this country funnels money into these reserves with little to no oversight. These payments would be more than adequate to bring each and every household up to livable standards. Yet we find many living in squalor while precious few live far beyond their means.

So what is the answer? It certainly isn't more autonomy and less oversight. Its integration into today's society. Give a man a fish....or teach him to fish?

I really thought that "Idle No More", meant that the participants were finally getting off their tax-sucking asses and going out to get real jobs and contributing to the country's (and their own) economy. Obviously not what they had in mind.

[sherpaguy]

I have had opportunity to go abroad and do some humanitarian work (a year in Jordan, a couple of weeks in Mexico and Grenada etc.). Through that experience I have learned that disaster and famine and poverty are trad-able commodities.I am wondering if that is what is happening here in our country. Thanks to all for your opinions and insights. I will continue to volunteer my limited expertise in disaster situations as I see the ones suffering are most often the result of some else's greed for money or power or both. I also worked as a cowboy in the Alberta foothills and saw firsthand that money does not reduce (of it's own accord) deplorable living conditions or ignorance or poverty.