Updated: Polly & the Parrots: the Potlatch Series? Abotech -&- Prosperity

Update 2: Nov. 22, 05

Letter from James Bartleman, Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario -- suggests Laurie Gough's problem might have been her inexperience -- that some schools are thriving and that he is working with some chiefs concerned about literacy -- that "the chiefs have been enthusiastic partners in these ongoing initiatives" Nov. 19, 05, NP

Enthusiasm and $$$ often go together . . . as Canadians will find out soon.

Don't forget: Bill C-54 -- an act to allow First Nations to manage and regulate oil and gas management currently being carried out on their behalf by the federal government.



Update 1: Nov. 22, 05

Laurie Gough: All the lost boys and girls -- As a teacher in Kashechewan, the author's idealized view of native communities was beset by a classroom of uncontrollable children, heirs to generations of neglect and a dying culture National Post, Nov. 18, 05

. . . very little native culture remains today in sub-Arctic Canada. Once, . . . hunting, fishing and gathering. Today, most live in villages year-round in pre-fab houses, unemployed, on welfare and getting their highly processed food at the Hudson's Bay store. The vast quantities of sugar consumed daily by the kids is evident in their rotting teeth. . . . a squalid imitation of the white man's world.

I was astounded by the discipline problems. . . the cause: These children's lives weren't structured in the way of most children's lives in the south. Children are rarely told what to do or not to do. . . . . Meals are rarely eaten together as a family. . . . . what they had for lunch, Mars bars, Coke and potato chips were the usual replies.

Television, . . . the main culprit in destroying what little the people had left of their culture. [. . . . ]

[. . . . ] In one last-ditch effort, I invited the parents into my class to help me, but none of them showed up. [. . . . ]

No longer was I a bright-eyed idealist yearning to live in a teepee and voice the virtues of native culture. I'd lost something essential on the reserve, perhaps faith in humankind.

[. . . . ] In time, they will turn into equally dysfunctional adults, never having had the chance to succeed and thrive in a healthy community.

This is the saddest article, for which Laurie Gough is criticized in letters to the editor (Nov. 21-22, 05, NatPost). Yet, it has the ring of truth; the critical letter writers had the ring of the prop-em-up-or-keep-a-lid-on-it Department of Indian-Affairs or other helping professions justifying their work -- possibly a somewhat unfair assessment of well-meaning people justifying their efforts.

However, there are too many other stories similar to Laurie Gough's to sweep the Kaschetchewan situation under the rug. Think Davis Inlet and the glue-sniffing kids. Think of those whose self is so severely damaged that they end up on alcohol or drugs, on Skid Row or in prostitution.

Like Gough, I do not know where the solution lies but it defies logic to continue throwing money at it, perpetuating it. Some of these communities are dysfunctional--sick--and it is not all whitey's fault. Think recourse to the racism / victimology industry's cry of residential school abuse as the reason for most pathologies. How long ago did those schools close? I find it hard to credit that a whole society is still suffering to an extent that they lead lives like those described. Sex would have to have been the only activity in those schools by the sound of things.

As for the abuse having included loss of language and culture; get over it. All cultures over the ages have been changed and some were effectively lost. Do something for yourselves -- maybe prove that the culture which we do not see had value to show the rest of us. If any natives who gained an education because of whitey's intervention and were successful want to help, it would be better if they got off the racism / destroyed culture soapbox and helped their people to take advantage of the many opportunities they have been offered to better their education and their lives. They should speak out.

Why have some been successful people -- not on drugs, alcohol, or using other props? Why have some raised successful, educated families? Note that those who got an education in Gough's article left the reserve. What have all the successful ones done right? Does free will not enter? Of course, others affect our lives but, in the end, we all make choices which determine the course of our lives.

It would be as productive to also measure statistically the money input versus the dollar productivity, education and other outputs -- probably have to admit the effects of paying people what turns out to be vast amounts of taxpayer money to do little or nothing, simply to sit on remote, not economically sustainable reserves. . . . oh, yes, and does it affect the voting patterns?

Definitely, the present system must change and much starts with the individual helping him/herself to education and a job, not a government propping up pathology. Start with the governance and the disbursement of that taxpayer money and see what happens. Accountability and transparency in finance and governance, along with individual ownership and responsibility for property, are a start. Let the results of profligacy teach economics. Survival -- a native tradition they must re-learn.

If most of the adults are too addled to use what they receive for the good of their children and their communities, then stop politicking about it. All parties get away from the microphones and cameras; then, work together without party affiliation rancour. If children are being raised by drunken or otherwise non-parents, then, as with parents in other parts of Canada, be honest about their inability to parent--parental abuse--and remove the children while they are very young, before they are develop their parents' pathologies.

Be wary of the Liberals' election-driven, desperation-driven conversion to mouthing Conservative ideas on property or governance; read the fine print. The Liberals will never slay the goose that lays the golden votes.

End of Updates

---

Bumped up -- New posts for Nov. 21 have been placed below this post.


The Summit

Ottawa to announce native poverty deal: report -- This could incorporate $$$--"money for private housing and mortgage-lending bodies" and several initiatives -- heavy on "native traditions" CTV.ca News Staff, Nov. 19, 05

Nonsense! The governance will remain the same and with the same result.

For articles which explore the reality and the cause for despair:

Jonathan Kay, National Post, Nov21, 05 "Lessons from Kashechewan" -- Excellent

Pair Kay's article with the account from a teacher who spent a term in Kashetchewan -- despairingly detailed -- in Nov. 19, 05 National Post.

Throw money at it . . . . . . .

It is beyond repair . . . . . . . .

There is no native culture left . . . . . . .

The teacher should have spent more time . . . . . . . .

Perhaps, had she stayed, this teacher could have caught the show in rerun -- another student throwing feces around the classroom. I read it; it's in her article. Look it up, for her idealism rapidly turned to despair at the reality. She saw the the system in operation, as it is, no rose-coloured platitudes.

The comment just above concerning the teacher's article was in the letter to the editor from Ontario's Lieutenant Governor -- probably well-meaning but mouthing the same old mantras -- approaches--words--that have NOT worked -- wrong, gov. -- NP, Nov. 21, 05.

Until the system is changed, nothing will change; until natives join Canadian society instead of being paid to do little or nothing sitting on reserves, particularly in the North; until there is real change with a strong reality check about their own pathologies and making efforts to change this; until everyone stops mouthing lies and meaningless words along with throwing $$$ at it; the system will continue perpetuating itself. Watch for the buzz words this week and during the election.

PM & Team's Approach?


$
$$
$$$
$$$$$$
$$$
$$
$

Iniatives! Photo ops! Bafflegab! . . . . . . .!!!!!

Get a handing out money to the natives to buy votes photo op.

A multi-billion-dollar package is expected to be announced next week . . .

[. . . . ] The summit will be attended by Prime Minister Paul Martin, the 10 provincial leaders, three territorial leaders and five aboriginal groups.

The native groups include the Assembly of First Nations, the Metis National Council, the Inuit Tapirit Kanatami, the Native Women's Association of Canada and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.

Watch for news on this Nov. 24-25 in Kelowna, B.C.

No wonder the natives are saying: Don't derail B.C. meeting, aboriginal leaders urge

Now, of course, for mentioning the obvious, Canadians are treated to the usual by government and MSM . . . scary, anti-aboriginal, right wing . . . ad nauseam. Not at all! We want the best for aboriginals: openness and transparency so they may determine their own lives, not be subject to the vagaries of politicians and aboriginal governance--meaning corruption and the system as it is.

Are you voting for more of the same from a used and desperate to buy votes government?

I'm expecting something resembling a giant potlatch -- using taxpayers' money . . . Am I wrong?



AngryGWN: "Abotech has been caught up in a KPMG audit at PWGSC."

Suggestion: Just look at Angry in the Great White North, November 18, 2005

Excerpts: The Abotech Affair: Smokescreen Angry in the Great White North / AngryGWN

[. . . . ] As you recall, Liberal MP David Smith, who sits in Parliament for the riding of Pontiac and claims to be an aboriginal, ran a company called Abotech, a computer consultancy firm, out of his home. Now the company is run by his wife, a nurse. Smith insists he has no idea what is going in Abotech.

Abotech has been caught up in a KPMG audit at PWGSC. [. . . . ]

Check his Abotech archive here .

Abotech appears somehow involved in millions of dollars of bogus expenses charged to the RCMP pension fund while Abotech was involved in the management of that fund.

[. . . . ] In June 2005, the RCMP gets a report from the investigation into the bogus expenses, a problem that happened when David Smith was running the company in 2003. The report does not recommend criminal charges, but administrative changes are forthcoming. Some weeks later, Abotech starts losing contracts, under the guise of a bureaucratic problem. [. . . . ]

Search: trying to avoid one more multi-million dollar scandal , my theory about aboriginal set-asides being diverted , Frank Brazeau



Prosperity! . . . For Whom?

GM cuts 3,900 jobs in Ontario

---