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 at times it seems that Christie  has an axe to grind. Many of her articles ,regarding Indigenous Peoples & issues,  are insulting,ignorant,hostile & hopelessly one sided. Some  even bordering 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” ?…

And she considers her self a journalist ? She sounds like a spiteful little  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 @*#& . Wow, and to think that the Globe actually  pays  for such tripe ?

Permit me to  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 .

…the 42-member communities of the Anishinabek Nation endorsed a resolution that characterized the word as “another means of assimilation through the displacement of our First Nations-specific inherent and treaty rights.”The resolution states “there are no Aboriginal bands, aboriginal reserves, or aboriginal chiefs,” and the reference to “Aboriginal rights” referred to in Section 35 of the Constitution Act of Canada “was never meant to assimilate First Nations, Metis, and Inuit into a homogenous group.”…@

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 ?

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”.

Blah,blah, yea I know they’re hero’s…

Don’t mean to be cynic, “a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be” but…

If you really want to help the suffering and the down-trodden, do not join the fucking military, particularly not the infantry. Armies do one thing kill ,soldiers care about two things, interchangeably,the guy(s) next to them & surviving.

Armies are not made up of a bunch of gun toting Mother Teresa’s in search of a group hug, nor are they looking to build schools .

Thing is when you talk to some of the older ex-soldiers who have survived war and have had a bit of time to digest and reflect . Many have similar things to say e.g, war  is  not a solution it foretells nothing but  misery,for both the soldiers and  civilians. Although the burden placed on the civilian population,mostly women & children, is by far the greatest

So who’s fault is it that we as peoples and nations never seem to learn the lessons ?

I do feel for the families who have lost sons and daughters in Afghanistan. Indeed what could be worse than losing a son or daughter.

But I have to say I distrust the motives of the media ,politicians and blogger’s.  Who  feel they must re-print the last letters & words ,seems to be a trend these days,  of  some of the soldiers killed in this pointless war .

I believe those that  do,  do for reasons having more to do with themselves & their particular opinions than any respect they might have for the dead.

Crocodile tears,come to mind…

Notice they never talk about the soldiers or families who publicly come out as being critical of this stupid pointless war.

No those soldiers and families are ignored or their words are  dismissed as being part of the grieving process,particular to them.

Might muddy up all those simplistic ego stroking narratives  of  supposed good wars and the predictable balderdash about freedom &  bringing democracy etc,etc…

In-fact there is nothing quite as repulsive and pathetic as the predictable crowing of the pro-war crowd. Particularly that which emanates from the living rooms of the well off, living lives of total safety & privilege ,here in the so called developed/civilized West.

Confirmed:National Post is written by idiots for idiots

So I decided today to check out what passes for “journalism” these days at the National Post Putz,and came across a real gem.

Indeed this one piece,by  one Charles Lewis touches on many of the standard talking points lunacies we have all come to expect from the Post & its stable of mostly hacks. In fact the article ties many of these talking points loony-tunes together in such a manner, that not only does it boggle the mind it defies all logic.

Even taking into account the lowly “standards” of the Post this particular article stands out.My first thoughts were is this satire or are these guys just nuts ? After reading the entire piece ,along with the comments, I have had to conclude  the  former,their nuts.

Well that and the fact that the hacks at the Post do not know what satire is,I guess that stick up their ass keeps them seeing red.

There are the inevitable references to political correctness (yawn) and how it supposedly taints everything,indeed its all the fault of those “liberals/leftist” ,code for anyone who is not conservative.

Actually I should qualify that…

What they mean by conservative is that peculiar brand of “conservative”  “thinking” that fuels the mean spirited,spiteful & simplistic mindset of big-daddy Harper et al.

I should  pointed out that to be conservative does not imply one is stupid , but there is conservative and then there’s “conservative” . When I think of conservative I am reminded of George Grant & of that  noble thinking tradition called ‘red-toryism’(the key concept being the thinking part),I definitly do not think of the National Post or Harper .

And of course no National Post writer worth his or her salt would/could ever pass up the opportunity to ridicule global warming or environmentalism,blah blah. No matter how absurd or how tenuous the link to the particular subject matter  at hand. So what the hell, a few references to Mao,comrades & the old Soviet Union can’t hurt,particularly when your targeted audience is just as cognitively challenged as one’s self.

Don’t get me wrong criticism(s) of certain aspects of environmental issues and or ,of some of the personalities involved is definitly warranted at time,this is not one of them,eyeball-roll.

So what’s this article about you ask,well shopping bag. Yep that’s right shopping bags,in particular the reusable kind,bags which are obviously part of  a Stalinist/socialist plan aimed at our indoctrination &  stifling.

My gawd the inhumanity of it all,imagine reusable bags and least I forget,recycling. Damn those P.C spouting liberals & leftists.

Seems Mr Lewis has had it with all those people that attempt to take responsibility for their actions and or do what they can to limit the negative impacts on the environment .

He writes…

The bag has become the equivalent of Mao’s Little Red Book. We are schlepping to the same beat and it is not pretty.

Wtf…”Mao’s little red book” ?

Anyway, I thought taking responsibility for one’s action was a good thing ?

Damn… the very idea that some media outfit would pay someone to write such tripe is just as unbelievable as them actually publishing it.

No wonder the  National Post is on the verge of going the way of the dodo bird,or is it the dum-dum bird

Don’t believe me read for yourself

Agreed Jonathan Kay is Weird

Colby Cosh gets it right in God or evolution: Which is it ? while also stating what what many people have stated on many an occasion , Jonathan Kay is one strange “journalist”.

Boy, how about us militant secularists, huh? You may not have heard the news (it’s elsewhere on this page), but according to Jonathan Kay, we “want everyone in society to dogmatically subscribe to [our] views.” Apparently we do not merely hold a set of opinions and wish, like anyone, that others would come to uphold them with us:We insist that they must do so “dogmatically.” Yes, that’s really the term he used.

Read more

Oilsands will never get a fair shake ?

So reads the latest editorial in the business section of the Edmonton Journal…

This in response to the coverage given to the tar-sand’s development by the National Geographic magazine, March 2009 issue.

The Edmonton Journal’s use of the words “fair shake” seems to imply that the National Geographic is somehow being unfair and or is not telling the whole story. Well actually that is exactly what the Journal is trying to imply…

By anchoring the 24-page piece with two eye-catching, foldout aerial shots — one of a glorious, untouched boreal forest under sunny skies, the other of a bleak oilsands open-pit mine in the dim light of sunset — National Geographic hammers home its key message with all the subtlety of a jackhammer. [@]

So let me get this straight,pictures of these ubiquitous & massive  tailing ponds are not relevant, photo’s of these toxic ponds imply bias ?  Which begs the question, exactly how does a magazine convey the magnitude and extent of  the tar-sands,and one of it’s most troublesome aspects,i.e thousands of acres of  toxic  ponds ?

Next the Journal goes on to ridicule the National Geographic  by pointing out that other industries in the U.S and else where, share some of the same traits  …

Clearly, the folks at National Geographic have never soiled their delicate hands by working in say, a coal mine, a foundry, a steel mill, a machine shop, a refinery, a petrochemical plant, or one of those giant open-pit mines that litter the land in Nevada, Peru, Australia, Chile or dozens of other places.

If they did, I’m sure they would be shocked — shocked, I tell you — by all the steam. And smoke. And flames. And toxic goop. And other bad stuff that’s a familiar byproduct of industrial societies the world over.

What a strange bit of writing,” have never soiled their delicate hands” ? The article is about the tar-sands,i.e it is not nor was it intended to be a generalized critique of industrial society.

Further more it’s not like the National Geographic was the first to look at the consequence/full spectrum of the tar-sand development. First Nations peoples & environmental groups ,that is locals, have been speaking out for years in most part to no avail.

Despite the very real consequences ,mostly negative,for First Nations peoples,communities & the environment, .

Perhaps the Journal should be asking what’s up with that and or why did it take an article in a major U.S magazine to elicit a more substantive response ?

Indeed why do First Nations people have to try and appeal to Obama and U.S public opinion,by taking out  full page ad’s in  major U.S publications ?

First Nations people in northern Alberta are trying to turn American opinion against the oilsands because they feel federal and provincial regulators are not listening to their concerns.The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Mikisew Cree First Nation took out a full-page ad in Tuesday’s edition of USA Today, the largest circulation newspaper in the United States. [@]

Where is the Albertan government,what has the Edmonton Journal done to explore this issue from other than a pro-development,pro-business perspective ? What of First Nations peoples & other locals do their concerns matter to the Journal,or the government for that matter ?

So quit whining about fairness or unfairness,it’s really quite unbecoming .

Do the people of Alberta some good and give them a full ,unbiased,and  multi-perspective accounting of the tar-sands,rather than attacking others for doing precisely that.

I believe they call that quaint notion, journalism.

Read National Geographic,’The Canadian Oil Boom“

O Coyne …groan

Seems some one pissed in Andrews Coyne’s cornflakes .

This is Just. So. Embarrassing. If there is anything less attractive than the anti-American streak in our national character— a trait made worse, one suspects, for our neighbours’ sunny indifference to our seething — it is our tendency to prostrate ourselves before American celebrities. And they don’t get any more celebritous than Barack Obama. Okay, I get that he’s a likeable fellow. He avoids excessive partisanship, he comes across as thoughtful and decent, he connects with people — yes to all that.

So on one hand Canadians are supposedly anti-American yet here they are “prostrating” themselves before an American President,so which is it ?

I find all this openly worshipful behaviour more than a little disturbing. I don’t like it when I see it directed to rock stars — What possesses people to chant their names in unison? Is it not enough to be a slave? Why do you have to advertise it? — but I really mistrust it when it slops over into the political arena. And is it not all just a bit more loathsome for being attached to a foreign leader? Could we be more craven? Usually we reserve such spinelessness for Quebec separatists

Could we be more craven ?…Is it not enough to be a slave?…wtf is he talking about ?

What is it people hope to achieve by such behaviour? What do they hope to prove? Is it all just a form of conspicuous consumption — an opportunity to flaunt their taste in political leaders, to bathe, somehow, in his reflected coolness? Do they suppose that Obama is in doubt about the degree of public affection he arouses? That he is insecure, and needs to be reassured? Or is it just blind, unthinking infatuation, a rush of blood to the head (and other parts) such as prompts teenage girls, mysteriously, to scream aloud at the sight of a Jonas brother?

Again what the hell is he trying to say ? Come on Andrew spit it out,don’t let your cynicism and contempt for ordinary people particularly Canadians hold you back.

This need for heroes, this cult of charisma — and we in the media are the worst offenders, though for more explicable motives — is not merely empty and shallow. It is dangerous. At the very least, it is a distraction. At the worst, it is a kind fascism. It appeals to all that is hollow within us, and — worse — within them. Was that not the least attractive thing about Trudeau: the glamour?

“Need for hero’s”….”its a kind fascism”…?

“Unhappy the land that has no heroes,” Brecht wrote. “Unhappier still the land that has need of heroes.” [ @ ]

How ironic that Coyne the conservative, quotes Brecht the communist ,but then on second thought perhaps it is not.After all many conservatives resort to such rhetorical mumbo-jumbo.

That is… taking unconnected bits out of context, lumping them together with other unconnected out of context bits and or concepts,stirring all the bits together with a pinch or two of ahistorical musing ,as a “binder”,then throw the mix against the wall,if it sticks well then it must be right.

Anyway gotta go…off to therapy,self-esteem issues, being Canadian and all.

CanWest is a behemoth that controls a shocking amount of the information that Canadians can access

No shit…

In terms of journalism, when the Asper regime took over the family imposed its own ideology of the role of Canada’s press: examples that do not cover any attempt to assess quality and bias in Asper-owned media outlets include:

• imposing national editorials on its big daily newspapers (an issue that has since faded)
• cutting newsrooms to the bone
• dropping the Canadian Press cooperative to set up its own internal news service
• constant lobbying for less CRTC regulation
• incessant loud opposition to the public broadcasting role of the CBC.

Although I for one hope CanWest will implode & not survive it’s present crisis.

“Leonard Asper is scrambling to secure a financial lifeline for CanWest Global Communications Corp. before the end of the month to prevent his family-run media empire from sliding into bankruptcy protection.”

What comes after is well any ones guess…

What might Canadians lose or gain from a CanWest upheaval? Would control of CanWest by others be worse for Canada’s public information media than control by the Aspers?

The best scenario would be that  a number of Canadian media outlets divide the spoils. So as to bust up this near monopoly control of  a huge slice of Canadian media,by one family.

Anything less would be just to depressing to contemplate,again particularly here in B.C yikes.

In British Columbia the Asper family’s control of newspapers-from major dailies to community weekly’s etc,-is close to one hundred percent. If not for the work of a small but dedicated  band of concerned people & journalists,as exemplified by those behind The Tyee and a few others such as the Georgia Straight.

B.C would be a virtual wasteland as far as relevant & useful journalism is concerned.

Read more about this issue  at the Canadian Journalism Project

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