Dear Christie Blatchford and Globe & Mail

And others who are respect challenged.

When is the Globe & Mail going to employ someone who actually  understands  Indigenous issues  and can write about the issues in an intelligent and informative manner ?

Christie Blatchford is definitly not that person,nor is Jeffrey Simpson ,Gary Mason or Margret Wente. In fact it is obvious Christie  has some sort of axe to grind. Everything she writes about Indigenous issues is stupid,insulting,hopelessly one sided, and some  even borders on  outright bigotry.

Take this  (line), from her most recent screed.

The truth is, as with many native (there, I’ve used all the terms now – aboriginal, first nation, native) issues, they are not single-ministry matters, but multi-ministry and multi-government ones.

Wtf… “there I’ve used all the terms now” ?

She considers her self a journalist ? She sounds more like a spiteful spoiled  child.

Let’s make it real simple for ya Christie.

When one refers to a people/peoples one always uses the term that people self identify as. Its just common courtesy,i.e it’s about respect,you ignorant @*#&.

It has nothing to do with being “political correct” as your snide/mocking  bracketed jab seems to imply,you ignorant @*#& . By the way does the Globe actually  pay you  to write  such tripe ?

Let me help you do your job,you are obviously in need …

When one is referring to natives in general one should use the words Indigenous Peoples,capitalized, you know proper grammar ,respect and all…yeah right I forgot you don’t do respect. Peoples, because Indigenous Peoples are not one homogeneous mass with one distinctive  culture, language, art or  music.

Aboriginal Peoples is also “acceptable”, I suppose. Personally I dislike the word, more importantly so do many Indigenous Peoples . Indeed what is an Aboriginal I know of no nation or people who call themselves Aboriginal ?

When one is referring to  a specific people/community the appropriate term would be the term that said people self-identify as. For example : Nisga’a, St’at’imc, Lil’wat, Cree, Mohawk, Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, Blackfoot, Micmac, Algonkin,Tsimshian, Nootka, Seechelt, Chippewa,Haida, Huron, Montagnais-Naskapi, Cowichan, Dogrib, Anishinabek, Inuu , Gitxan, Sarcee, Dene ,Ehattesaht, Mowachaht/Muchalaht,  Hesquiaht, Ahousaht,  Tla-o-qui-aht , Sikanni ,Dane-Zaa …its all very simple.

In fact there are over 600 Indigenous communities/bands, combined they total 1.2 million accounting for 4% of the population residing on this the northern half of Turtle Island.

It should also be comforting for you to know Christie, that Indigenous Peoples are the fastest growing segment of the population. Imagine  Christie even more, ” natives,aboriginal,first nations or what ever you’re suppose to call em “.

O  by the way Christie, do feel free to pass this on to your fellow “journalist” at the Globe,seems to me you all need a few lessons in manners and common decency.

Further reading ; What’s in a name ?

“Frogs,Chugs and Heebs”

Apparently Francophone Quebecers and Indigenous peoples are the least liked peoples in English Canada.

Indigenous peoples being the least liked of the two.

Also..

English Canadians have a more favourable view of immigrants and Jews than they do of Francophone Quebecers.

Yet despite this reality, members of the Conservative government ,assorted academics & the self-righteous , chose to raise fears and express concern over a non- issue,at least in the Canadian context…

Like as if antisemitism is a problem in Canada,yawn.

Canada’s 350,000 Jews are one of the most privileged segments of the Cnd population,economically,culturally and politically. Hardly oppressed,hardly victims,hardly living with intolerance or racism.

Unlike the  racism & intolerance directed at Canada’s 1.2 million Indigenous peoples (4% of pop*) by a troubling & high percentage of whites ,whether Anglo  or Francophone.

Sadly… nothing new ,having many native friends some  like family I have heard many,many stories over the years. In fact have witnessed it myself when hanging with my friends.

That said I am still shocked & saddened by just how blatant and in your face this racism can be.

So while the media and government make political hay using antisemitism as cover. The one issue that needs to be forcible brought  into the light of day is ignored and allowed to fester.

Indeed it is something hardly ever discussed. Then again according to the common narrative it’s just part of that supposed greater problem,i.e “the Indian problem”.

From where I sit,it’s more like… the white problem !

….let us not befuddle the underlying cause of the unique and serious position in which Native people find themselves today. The underlying cause is racism, and as Richard C. Powless states in the opening article, “Canada’s history and systems of government and behaviour have institutionalized this racism into current reality. [ @ ]

The more things change the more they stay the same.

———————————————————————————————————————————–

…[*] 4% and fast growing, Indigenous peoples being the fastest growing segment of the Cnd population. What white people refuse to do now ,even though it is the right thing to do,they will be induced to do in the near future. The days of sidelining native peoples are fast coming to an end. Hopefully this time Canada will get it right.Acceptance of diversity & other ways of  being/living is a beautiful thing.

Do-gooders ; “Saving” the Haitian children

When I first heard about the ten American “missionaries” ,who were arrested (Sat Jan 31st) as they tried to improperly remove 33 Haitian “orphans” from the country. My first reaction was to shake my head, geez the arrogance of these people…

The misplaced missionary impulse to save the heathen children and impart “civilization” by loading a bunch of Haitian kids in a bus and heading for a resort with a swimming pool, to share the “good news” and be adopted, is simply ludicrous. No reputable missions organization works that way.

My second though was ,well perhaps, but… their intentions were  good.  A sentiment ,in all likelihood,shared  by many others.

Still, despite the group’s irresponsible and crude behavior, I suspect that many in America thought that the missionaries would be on a transport home by now.

But upon reflection and further reading etc I believe these people must be held to account,  in Haiti not in America.

Stupidity, well meaning or otherwise is not an excuse…

To let these people off or try them in America would be to add insult to injury,indeed just another slap to the face of the Haitian people. God knows the Haitian people have been slapped down enough by the supposed well-meaning “developed/western” world.

If altruism is an attempt to grab a busload of kids by showing them pictures of a luxury hotel with a pool, I’ve got some swampland to sell the SBC. All I have to say to Mr. Chapman is, 19th-century Baptist missionary Lottie Moon would have known better. She lived among the people she served, and did not offer them hotel and a pool in exchange for Jesus.

The real crux of the issue is this: these ten do-gooders walked into the trap many well-meaning white evangelical Christians fall into: those poor brown/black/yellow/red people need My help. Jesus wants Me to help them. To much of white American Evangelical Christianity, the We often means Me. It’s what God Called Me to do. It’s what God would want Me to do. The problem with the Me mentality of much of conservative Evangelical Christianity is that they often can’t see the We—the people of Haiti—who love their kids so much they’re willing to let some white people who claim to be “Christians” take them away to what they promise will be “a better life.”

The focus on Me takes away from the real ways that people in disasters can be helped without the insertion of well-meaning, clueless interlopers into their story. The New Life group is now finding out what living in an impoverished and earthquake-ravaged country is like. Perhaps now they will begin to understand what it means to live alongside the poor, as opposed to swooping into a disaster for a quick “feel-good Christian moment” designed to make them feel better about themselves. Hopefully, other groups will rally to do the real work that is still so urgently needed, and make a long-term commitment to bring life and stability to Haiti and its children who are in desperate need of it.

Read ;  Missionary Imposition:Idaho Baptists Charged with Kidnapping 33 Haitian Children

The shadow of politics

I asked my self the same question every so often ,indeed as do some of my family & friends. Why do I spend so much time talking about politics ?  Particularly when the by-product is more often than not, irritation and or frustration.

I usually reply, well how can you not be interested in politics,its everything, its why the world is, the way it is ?

The inevitable retort goes something like this,yeah perhaps,but what can you do about it,how can one person change anything ? Why waste your time ?

Anyway to make a short story shorter. I happened across the following quote by  John Dewey ;American social philosopher (1859-1952). He states : politics will remain…

the shadow cast on society by big business[and] the attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance

Wow so true…shit am I just piss’n in the wind ?

Even worse,  am I  a mere reflection of the very people for whom I have little respect or patience ?  That is,  corporate media pundits,assorted lackeys and hangers on. In short modern day courtiers.

Yikes…

Look at the tyranny of party — at what is called party allegiance, party loyalty — a snare invented by designing men for selfish purposes — and which turns voters into chattles, slaves, rabbits, and all the while their masters, and they themselves are shouting rubbish about liberty, independence, freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, honestly unconscious of the fantastic contradiction; and forgetting or ignoring that their fathers and the churches shouted the same blasphemies a generation earlier when they were closing their doors against the hunted slave, beating his handful of humane defenders with Bible texts and billies, and pocketing the insults and licking the shoes of his Southern master.
- “The Character of Man,” Mark Twain’s Autobiography

Injun Olympians;Some people just never get it…

I had to do a double take when the above picture, of Russian world champions Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin,first  came to my attention. In fact they will be bringing their ”Aboriginal dance” to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics . Should go over good with the local “aboriginals”…lol

But then again after VANOC’s public display of cultural “respect” its  fitting in a kinda, some-white-people-will-just-never-get -it, way.  Yes indeed VANOC just oozes respect .

Bizarrely enough ,Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin are not the only Russians performing such an act. An act that is sure to remind folks,although evidently not everybody, of the infamous blackface acts of 19th century America.

Below we have Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov ,stereotype of the month award winners,doing their bizarre routine  “Last of the Mohicans”.

And so it goes…’the more things change, the more they stay the same’.

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