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’.

Its always about the money ; Dependent-ungrateful-conniving-welfare-addicted-incompetent- Indians”

What’s up with the the Globe & Mail …

Do they do  any homework before publishing ? Indeed is the Globe & Mail on some kind of mission to tell half-truths,confuse or  just insult Indigenous Peoples in general ?

Damn…

First Margret Wente then Christie Blatchford and now Gary Mason, although to be fair the Mason piece is  not quite as bad. None-the-less his piece; ‘It’s always about the money:VANOC & the aboriginal torch relay’ is confused, insulting,predictable  & irritating to read. Particularly given  the Globe’s reach &   influence,being one of Canada’s only national newspaper,yikes.

Mason start off..

Dependency spending doesn’t work,as some native leaders understand

After all everybody knows that Indigenous Peoples are all on welfare, well not all.Why can’t they all be like … (I’ll come back to the who,the predictable who, later)

First the gist of his piece…

From the day organizers of the 2010 Winter Olympics began their planning, the role that Canada’s aboriginal communities would play in the Games was interwoven into virtually every discussion.They would be full partners, VANOC chief John Furlong insisted, not guilty-conscience afterthoughts. The Games were to reflect the rich, cultural influence Canada’s first nations have had on the country.

VANOC would choose the inukshuk, an Inuit landmark, as its symbol. It would make sure that aboriginals got Games-related jobs and positions on Olympic-related committees and boards. The Olympic torch would travel to remote aboriginal communities in the Far North where the flame had never been before. Olympic tickets would be made available to first nations communities.

And those were just a fraction of the efforts VANOC was making to ensure that Canada’s aboriginal communities didn’t feel left out.

So you might have imagined VANOC’s surprise when a group of B.C. native leaders announced last week that they were going to use the Games to protest against their people’s miserable lot in life.

Yes indeed surprise,surprise hey Gary,damn Indians,imagine even after all that good-will they still want more. Imagine, trying to take advantage of VANOC’s  “generosity & obvious respect for First Nations cultures” my,my. Or should that be,’it’s all about the money VANOC‘.

The group represented the B.C. First Nations Forestry Council. At a news conference, its spokesmen said that, since there were going to be 14,000 journalists in Vancouver during the Games, it would be a perfect opportunity to tell the world how horribly treated Canada’s native people were. And, oh yeah, they were upset that the B.C. government hadn’t coughed up $6.2-million in funding to help aboriginal forestry businesses. The insinuation was that if the group got the money, the protests might not happen.

Damn them “dependent-ungrateful-conniving-Indians” .

What the group’s representatives failed to mention was that they hadn’t given the B.C. government any type of business plan that showed how they were going to spend the millions. The government said it wasn’t prepared to hand over the money with no questions asked.

Damn them “dependent-ungrateful-conniving-presumptuous-Indians” . As if  anyone with a clue, would just handover a pile of money without first seeing a plan.

And further more, just when are all those “dependent-ungrateful-conniving-presumptuous-Indians” going to get with the program.

Gary Mason “gets it” , white-people “get it” …

The problem with a certain sector of the aboriginal leadership in B.C. – and much of Canada, for that matter – is that it’s always about money. There’s never enough of it from government to address aboriginals’ many problems. And I don’t say that disrespectfully.

We all know about the horrific situation that exists in too many aboriginal communities. And it persists despite the billions of dollars that have been spent over the decades on a wide array of (mostly failed) programs aimed at addressing the problems.

Let’s face it: Dependency spending doesn’t work. That’s surely been proved by now. And many of the more enlightened native leaders in Canada understand that. The way to halt the cycle of welfare addiction, with the societal and health-related issues it promotes, is through the stability provided by economic independence.

Damn  “dependent-ungrateful-conniving-presumptuous-welfare-addicted-incompetent- Indians”, and I don’t say that disrespectfully,really I don’t.

Thank god for small “miracles” hey Gary i.e…that handful of “enlightened native leaders” who finally understand that “dependency spending” does not work. Unlike all those other “dependent-ungrateful-conniving-presumptuous-welfare-addicted-incompetent Indians”…

There are a growing number of first nations communities, most notably the Osoyoos and Westbank in B.C., that recognize this. Many of these groups, led by young, smart, charismatic leaders, aren’t waiting to sign treaties – an agonizingly slow process. They’re just moving ahead, building wineries and housing developments, and leaving their grievances with the government for the courts to sort out.

Yesiree why bother with them pesky treaties. Like figured it out already geez, the government has no intention of seriously negotiating treaties . One might as well get what one can, while the pickings are good.

Why bother with the fundamental  questions that go to the very core of  one’s very existence and long term survivability as  peoples/nations. Hell there’s “nothing wrong” with  being seen as just another  ethnic minority/hyphenated Canadian ?

Indeed , its much easier to just  assimilate, incorporate  your communal properties &  nation and let the settler government’s courts & laws sort out the important stuff. For example who is and who is not native,who actually owns native lands,now there’s a “mystery”.,etc ,etc…

Hell I say put the white-man’s two favorite Indians- Chief Clarence Louie* & Robert Louis- in charge..

They’ll  show  those ,”dependent-ungrateful-conniving-welfare-addicted-incompetent-its always-about-the-money-Indians” how to do things the “right-way” ,i.e sell off or lease your remaining lands for 99 years to white-people/developers .

Quit whining about the “past”  , develop some of that white-man’s…can do spirit /  pull-your-self-up by-the-boot-straps-claiming-other-peoples-lands.

Imagine you too could have a $400,000 Mercedes Maybach in your garage. Indeed you could be held up as the poster-boy of assimilation.

See it doesn’t always have to be about the money,by the way I have a bridge I am trying to sell,are you interested ?

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* It’s kind of  telling  don’t you think , that when it comes to Chief Clarence Louie , who is also the Band Manager & CEO of the Band’s Economic Development Corporation, not one of his fawning white-admirers  raise any alarm bells about his mixing of politics and business. Indeed this obvious & blatant conflict of interest should be a warning sign that perhaps all is not quite peaches & cream.

Uhhmm for some “strange”reason,the words banana & republic keep dancing in my head.

Indeed why do so many…

… think that structuring band assets and Indigenous nation assets in the individual hands of an Indian Act chief or of Indian Act councillors is a good thing? Why do so many serve to transfer collective assets such as to become de facto private assets of a few who thus no longer even need to be elected by band members? Why would lawyers ever think it correct to be the facilitators?

Jonathan Kay & the infinite monkey theorem…

Has hell frozen over,is Johnathan Kay actually rational ?

Nope and definitly not …

That said,considering the fact that Jonathan Kay writes submits content on a near daily basis I suppose eventually  even he will get something right…

It’s time for the folks at B’nai Brith Canada to close up shop and go home: Their phobic mission to convince us that Canadian society is suffused with Nazi-like hatred has launched into the realm of outright farce.

Every year, B’nai Brith puts out an “audit” of anti-Semitic incidents in Canada. And every year, the document is reported on by the mass media, which uncritically parrots the group’s absurd contention that anti-Semitism is a growing epidemic in this tolerant country. Reporters politely overlook the fact that B’nai Brith’s definition of “incident” is dumbed down: Any web posting, stray comment, or scrap of graffitti fits the bill. This allows B’nai Brith to reel off thousands of examples. @

Thus validating the hypothesis of  the ‘ infinite monkey theorem‘ , i.e …”a million chimps pounding away on a million type-writers eventually producing some meaningful text”.

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