I was visiting Southeast Alaska this summer, and had a few discussions about the impact of something like a small wind farm in some of the small communities I was in. Kodiak has a few now, and CIRI is developing some over on Fire Island - I've heard of other either in development, being researched, or already up.
This, of course, led to a discussion on other alternative energy solutions for rural Alaska, and why they almost never happen (prohibitive cost to start up that smal communities can't shoulder, intervention by large companies, too much beauracracy to navigate, etc.) I really believe rural Alaska could lead the way in developing energy solutions for the country, even the world - but there are blockades in the way.
I hope this is a small, maybe bigger, chip in the barrier. From the Juneau Empire, Murkowski "welcoming" (I don't really know what that means, as far as her involvement) two grants totalling over $3 million for hydro-electric projects.
Not huge in the grand scheme, maybe, but huge for those communities. I imagine Juneau residents can tell you what it's like having to curtail their power or face steep bills not so long ago after a power shortage, though I imagine most rural Alaska residents would probably welcome their "steep" bills in leiu of their own. I'm no scientist, or energy expert, so it is easy for me to say "other people" should develop innovative solutions in rural Alaska, but there are hundreds of communities out there prime to be energy alternative guinea pigs!
Showing posts with label oil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oil. Show all posts
Monday, August 17, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Palin thinks the youth need to move out of the villages
This post could have easily been titled, "The point at which I lose it."
When I read, and watched, the remarks Sarah Palin made about rural issues to the Kyle Hopkinns of the Anchorage Daily News, I nearly punched the screen. I had to leave my laptop and go fume for many, many hours - talking (venting) with my parents and grandmother and even brother - before I could return and be relatively sure I would not toss my innocent little laptop into the snow for being the bearer of bad news. Even then I couldn't trust myself to post without liberal use of curse words, which I usually try to avoid.
What got me into this murderous, computer-killing rage? Please read Mudflats and The Immoral Minority for more detail, but let me try and summarize some of Ms. Palin's points as she answered questions:
This one is what really infuriated me. The Native people of Alaska have been fighting and fighting for generations to ensure rural communities thrive, thinking up solutions to get especially the young people to stay and contribute to the community. The boarding school times in which young people left "for a short time" were some of the most devastating to these communities. Did we learn nothing about what this kind of thinking leads to? Is there no thought to a real future? Palin shows a lack of the study of Alaskan and American history. So much time and energy trying to salvage these towns and villages from social and economic collapse, and the governor of our state can sweep them aside with one ignorant comment.
What these communities need is infrastructure, jobs in the communities themselves. Ironically, I just got a look at the Indian country provisions in the stimulus bill, and was thinking how forward we've come in our look at what Native communities really need. Maia of Own the Sidewalk forwarded me a link to a National Congress of American Indians page devoted to the Indian country provisions of the stimulus bill. I haven't been talking about the stimulus package becuase the last thing anyone wants is me commenting on anything to do with money. But I was incredibly impressed with the funding set aside for Native country projects.
Basically, it's all about infrastructure in these communities. Energy projects, building projects, roads and weatherization. Things that will not only create jobs and a viable economy in the short term, but ensure a future community exists at all. I don't know about the rest of the stimulus, but in this, they've got it dead on. Why are the only solutions Palin talks about all about getting out of the community? Helping out the oil companies? She throws out something about becoming VPSO's or teachers in your own community - but how can they when the whole youth of the village is now set on leaving? There's no one left to police or teach.
Does she think the village people are trading beads? Seriously, the amount of times Palin talks down to rural people in these remarks is nauseating. Attention Palin: The people of rural Alaska are INCREDIBLY aware that we are living in a cash-based society! My guess is more aware than Palin. What little money is trickling in has not been spent on Neiman Marcus clothing and $60 phone calls. THERE IS NO INFRASTRUCTURE = THERE ARE NO JOBS.
Regardless of the governor's solution to have the youth leave and find jobs, maybe even a better solution is to get the state working on a viable plan of creating jobs in the community. If we had a little leadership, Alaska could be the most forward, technological marvel of how to get both energy solutions and indigenous populations working to better, not only the state, but the nation. The resources out in rural Alaska are incredible, and instead of promoting that, we are currently squandering it and giving it away. In this case, the human resources are being encouraged to leave.
This comes right after she's chastised the leadership of these communities to do a better job of making an example of themselves. The inability of this governor to not practice what she preach continues to astound me. Why invite all these reporters to see you off, handing out food, if it's not to show them how "you" are helping? The only possible wayI can read this is, "I didn't do anything, so don't ask."
I will say it again - this problem did not just spring up six weeks ago. Not only has this been generations in the making, the whole last year Native leaders, state leaders, corporations, people in the communities have been speaking out, warning about this, and even asking for help before it "hit the web." I've posted this before, but I want to reiterate how far in advance the governor had to prepare for this, and did nothing:
In May, the Bristol Bay Times reported on rural residents calling for emergency relief and to declare an energy diaster.
In early August, the Anchorage Daily News reported prominent Native leaders directly talking to Paling about these problems, and the solutions that including building infrasctructure.
In early August, even USA Today noticed the problem and reported on it, referencing data showing just how bad it could get from a study done in May.
In late August, Sen. Murkowksi held a meeting about the crisis, and urged residents to stay in their communities (report by ADN).
In September, Sen. Begich (then Mayor) and Anchorage School Superintendent sent a letter to Palin (from ADN) regarding the migration from villages to the city due to high energy costs. Palin refuted high energy costs had anything to do with it, later.
In October, Native leaders continued their call for an energy emergency declared at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention (reported by the ADN). Of course, Palin was busy campaigning and may not have noticed.
In November, Indian Country Today did a story highlighting the Alaska Federation of Natives resolution to the energy crisis and village migration, as well as the incredibly poor response from Palin.
In late December, Indian Country Today reported on the dismal reaction of the Palin administration energy crisis, focusing on the rural subcabinet formed.
Of course, this is only in recent months. This stuff goes back years, as far as addressing the real problems. Not to mention the other villages that have had true emergencies, including Adak. Once again, I point to the Alaska Native Commission Report done in the 90's that point out both problem and solution. Palin should think about reading it.
After stewing all night, I woke up this morning to a phone call from Celtic Diva. She and Mudflats pointed to an article in the Alaska Dispatch, praising Palin for "speaking from the heart" and being "thoughtful" about solutions for the communities.
You can only be thoughtful if you've met with the people from the communities and listened to them. Palin is calling for a change in leadership - with who? What are these leaders doing wrong? Who are they? When has she talked to them? And she gave NO solutions except to say these youth should think about leaving. So the solution is "leave the village"? She can't be a spark to "real dialogue" when she's never taken part in a dialogue! The dialogue has been going on, but Palin doesn't care to be part of it.
The article was also preemptively defensive about the race card being thrown at Palin. As if Palin needs to be a racist to make ignorant remarks about the state of rural Alaska. Personally, I believe Palin is willing to be pretty racially equal about throwing rural Alaska under the bus. For that matter, she's screwing us all equally in her painfully obvious stab for national attention. I didn't agree with the remarks about Ted Stevens at the time (don't think the guy was racist, just wrong) and it is interesting to note that the only people to bring up racism with Palin's remarks have been the people of the Alaska Dispatch.
To be very clear - Palin's remarks aren't racist. They are ignorant of the real issues, display a willingness to decide what is right having never had the dialogue, and take us back about 50 years in the struggle to maintain thriving rural and cultural communties. But in ignorance, she's being quite equal.
Once again, Palin offered no solutions to these problems. She talks about them getting jobs, but not about training, or the availability of them. Does she think every Native youth has a father on the slope and the governor willing to write a letter of recommendation to get them that job? It's really not that easy. It also displays an incredibly poor grasp of the situation. Some of these families are paying $2,500 a month just for their oil. Getting a job on the slope doesn't fix that problem, and it will continue to be a problem.
Again, she shows us she hasn't really looked at the situation. One of the men who sent a letter from a village just after Nick Tucker's letter was brilliant in displaying what they are trying. From Kongiganak, he talks about three projects that have the potential to help out the community. Yet:
Despite Palin's assertions that this is not the governments problem, this has everything to do with government. Lack of support for energy projects, restrictions on subsistence, laws about fisheries and over-fishing... The short-term problem is hungry kids and no heat. But the short-term problem could have been avoided completely by addressing these long-term solutions that Palin has been unwilling to even look at, much less be part of a dialogue about.
_
When I read, and watched, the remarks Sarah Palin made about rural issues to the Kyle Hopkinns of the Anchorage Daily News, I nearly punched the screen. I had to leave my laptop and go fume for many, many hours - talking (venting) with my parents and grandmother and even brother - before I could return and be relatively sure I would not toss my innocent little laptop into the snow for being the bearer of bad news. Even then I couldn't trust myself to post without liberal use of curse words, which I usually try to avoid.
What got me into this murderous, computer-killing rage? Please read Mudflats and The Immoral Minority for more detail, but let me try and summarize some of Ms. Palin's points as she answered questions:
- Palin thinks youth need to consider leaving the villages.
This one is what really infuriated me. The Native people of Alaska have been fighting and fighting for generations to ensure rural communities thrive, thinking up solutions to get especially the young people to stay and contribute to the community. The boarding school times in which young people left "for a short time" were some of the most devastating to these communities. Did we learn nothing about what this kind of thinking leads to? Is there no thought to a real future? Palin shows a lack of the study of Alaskan and American history. So much time and energy trying to salvage these towns and villages from social and economic collapse, and the governor of our state can sweep them aside with one ignorant comment.
What these communities need is infrastructure, jobs in the communities themselves. Ironically, I just got a look at the Indian country provisions in the stimulus bill, and was thinking how forward we've come in our look at what Native communities really need. Maia of Own the Sidewalk forwarded me a link to a National Congress of American Indians page devoted to the Indian country provisions of the stimulus bill. I haven't been talking about the stimulus package becuase the last thing anyone wants is me commenting on anything to do with money. But I was incredibly impressed with the funding set aside for Native country projects.
Basically, it's all about infrastructure in these communities. Energy projects, building projects, roads and weatherization. Things that will not only create jobs and a viable economy in the short term, but ensure a future community exists at all. I don't know about the rest of the stimulus, but in this, they've got it dead on. Why are the only solutions Palin talks about all about getting out of the community? Helping out the oil companies? She throws out something about becoming VPSO's or teachers in your own community - but how can they when the whole youth of the village is now set on leaving? There's no one left to police or teach.
- Palin's reminder to villages: We're in a cash-based society now.
Does she think the village people are trading beads? Seriously, the amount of times Palin talks down to rural people in these remarks is nauseating. Attention Palin: The people of rural Alaska are INCREDIBLY aware that we are living in a cash-based society! My guess is more aware than Palin. What little money is trickling in has not been spent on Neiman Marcus clothing and $60 phone calls. THERE IS NO INFRASTRUCTURE = THERE ARE NO JOBS.
Regardless of the governor's solution to have the youth leave and find jobs, maybe even a better solution is to get the state working on a viable plan of creating jobs in the community. If we had a little leadership, Alaska could be the most forward, technological marvel of how to get both energy solutions and indigenous populations working to better, not only the state, but the nation. The resources out in rural Alaska are incredible, and instead of promoting that, we are currently squandering it and giving it away. In this case, the human resources are being encouraged to leave.
- As our leader, Palin is not going to make an example of what to do in this situation.
This comes right after she's chastised the leadership of these communities to do a better job of making an example of themselves. The inability of this governor to not practice what she preach continues to astound me. Why invite all these reporters to see you off, handing out food, if it's not to show them how "you" are helping? The only possible wayI can read this is, "I didn't do anything, so don't ask."
- Palin learned about this situation from the media, not from actually listening to the people of her state.
I will say it again - this problem did not just spring up six weeks ago. Not only has this been generations in the making, the whole last year Native leaders, state leaders, corporations, people in the communities have been speaking out, warning about this, and even asking for help before it "hit the web." I've posted this before, but I want to reiterate how far in advance the governor had to prepare for this, and did nothing:
In May, the Bristol Bay Times reported on rural residents calling for emergency relief and to declare an energy diaster.
In early August, the Anchorage Daily News reported prominent Native leaders directly talking to Paling about these problems, and the solutions that including building infrasctructure.
In early August, even USA Today noticed the problem and reported on it, referencing data showing just how bad it could get from a study done in May.
In late August, Sen. Murkowksi held a meeting about the crisis, and urged residents to stay in their communities (report by ADN).
"I urge you not to give up your way of life, your culture and your connection to the land and move into urban areas. We will find a creative way to beat this," she told Bethel residents...
In September, Sen. Begich (then Mayor) and Anchorage School Superintendent sent a letter to Palin (from ADN) regarding the migration from villages to the city due to high energy costs. Palin refuted high energy costs had anything to do with it, later.
In October, Native leaders continued their call for an energy emergency declared at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention (reported by the ADN). Of course, Palin was busy campaigning and may not have noticed.
In November, Indian Country Today did a story highlighting the Alaska Federation of Natives resolution to the energy crisis and village migration, as well as the incredibly poor response from Palin.
In late December, Indian Country Today reported on the dismal reaction of the Palin administration energy crisis, focusing on the rural subcabinet formed.
"The Rural Subcabinet formed by Governor Sarah Palin in response to what many consider a crisis in rural Alaska has reportedly met, but specific information about their activities has been difficult to find..." "The group has no fixed meeting time and the date of their next meeting is unknown." "...As of Dec. 8, the AFN had apparently heard nothing about actions or meetings of the subcabinet..."
Of course, this is only in recent months. This stuff goes back years, as far as addressing the real problems. Not to mention the other villages that have had true emergencies, including Adak. Once again, I point to the Alaska Native Commission Report done in the 90's that point out both problem and solution. Palin should think about reading it.
- Palin blames the villages for the probem, not the policies, restrictions and initiatives she can do anything about. So don't ask.
After stewing all night, I woke up this morning to a phone call from Celtic Diva. She and Mudflats pointed to an article in the Alaska Dispatch, praising Palin for "speaking from the heart" and being "thoughtful" about solutions for the communities.
You can only be thoughtful if you've met with the people from the communities and listened to them. Palin is calling for a change in leadership - with who? What are these leaders doing wrong? Who are they? When has she talked to them? And she gave NO solutions except to say these youth should think about leaving. So the solution is "leave the village"? She can't be a spark to "real dialogue" when she's never taken part in a dialogue! The dialogue has been going on, but Palin doesn't care to be part of it.
The article was also preemptively defensive about the race card being thrown at Palin. As if Palin needs to be a racist to make ignorant remarks about the state of rural Alaska. Personally, I believe Palin is willing to be pretty racially equal about throwing rural Alaska under the bus. For that matter, she's screwing us all equally in her painfully obvious stab for national attention. I didn't agree with the remarks about Ted Stevens at the time (don't think the guy was racist, just wrong) and it is interesting to note that the only people to bring up racism with Palin's remarks have been the people of the Alaska Dispatch.
To be very clear - Palin's remarks aren't racist. They are ignorant of the real issues, display a willingness to decide what is right having never had the dialogue, and take us back about 50 years in the struggle to maintain thriving rural and cultural communties. But in ignorance, she's being quite equal.
Once again, Palin offered no solutions to these problems. She talks about them getting jobs, but not about training, or the availability of them. Does she think every Native youth has a father on the slope and the governor willing to write a letter of recommendation to get them that job? It's really not that easy. It also displays an incredibly poor grasp of the situation. Some of these families are paying $2,500 a month just for their oil. Getting a job on the slope doesn't fix that problem, and it will continue to be a problem.
Again, she shows us she hasn't really looked at the situation. One of the men who sent a letter from a village just after Nick Tucker's letter was brilliant in displaying what they are trying. From Kongiganak, he talks about three projects that have the potential to help out the community. Yet:
The school project, AMI, told us that they will hire only 10 people from our village and the rest will come from the lower 48...about 20 out of state workers. We have many certified carpenters, welders, plumbers, electricians, and equipment operators that only a handful will work in these projects. What is wrong with this? Our legislators say that these projects are supposed to give our villages jobs and the people from Alaska.
Despite Palin's assertions that this is not the governments problem, this has everything to do with government. Lack of support for energy projects, restrictions on subsistence, laws about fisheries and over-fishing... The short-term problem is hungry kids and no heat. But the short-term problem could have been avoided completely by addressing these long-term solutions that Palin has been unwilling to even look at, much less be part of a dialogue about.
_
Friday, January 16, 2009
To address some of the commentary
To see people all around the nation band together to help out a village in Alaska is a wonderful sight. Donations of food are being flown in, cash donations have come from around the world. The media, and blogger, attention has had the effect of poking a stick in the side of the State, and several prominent Alaskan politicians and leaders have spoken out.
(My previous posts about Emmonak, #1, #2... Mudflats on Emmonak... ADN on Emmonak.)
Of course, with the good, must come the less savory. As I watch the story unfold, and try to do what I can, I must also address some that which goes on that doesn't help at all - and in fact can make it more difficult. That is, people spreading around ignorance.
The blatant racism toward Alaska Native people is not new to me, yet I cringe (and I imagine many other Native people as well) when Native issues are brought up in public. Why? Because you get to hear so consistently comments about just how unproductive, deceitful, lazy, greedy, and probably drunk Native people are. Comments like this on ADN, regarding how Native people (in general!) squander all their money:
"In the future the State of Alaska should hold the PFD's for all native households and only issue them out in monthly amounts."
I wish people who made these remarks knew how each one feels like a punch in the stomach.
I don't know why this person feels the government should hold back money from me, and give it to her freely, only handing it to me like an allowance for a child. I admit I've never learnt the lesson my grandma tried to teach, and dismiss such people as ignorant, and move on. I wish I could, but they are EVERYWHERE. On the Internet, much more so.
So here are a few of the more consistent issues I see coming up. Mind you, none of them are new... just revisited for this issue.
The people got themselves into this mess through their own negligence/ ineptitude/ greed/ laziness (etc., etc.) so don't waste your own food/time/money.
I address this first, and I hope it is not taken as me agreeing with it, because there is too much evidence that it certainly is not true. But even if every word of that were true - when your neighbor's house is on fire, you don't go twenty rounds on whether it was their own fault or not. To expland on the metaphor, take the recent fires in Anchorage. I suggest the next fire that happens, the fire department only respond if the owners can prove they didn't cause the fire in any way. A little child might be hurt in the process? No matter. These people need to learn.
As for if it really was Emmonak's fault or not, please, PLEASE look at all the evidence before making this judgement. I can gaurantee there are people in Emmonak who don't handle their finances well, or at all. I gaurantee there are people who have bought things like expensive toys, alcohol, cell phones. But look at the whole region. For that matter, look at Rural Alaska as a whole. It is not thriving, and it has not been for years. There is a reason for this other than every single person in that region sucks at handling their money.
The native corporations should help.
They should, and they are. Most of the social services come from nonprofits, however, and they... you know... DON'T MAKE A PROFIT. And "the corporations should help" is not code for "the government that serves me doesn't have to serve people who belong to Native corporations." Many times this is said by people who have no idea what they really do, other than, "They hand out tens of thousands of dollars to all the Native people." Example: This past year, I finally became a shareholder (not all Native people are - most under 40ish aren't shareholders.) My check this year? Just over $150. No, not a thousand - $150. I do not belittle what I got - but to suggest this is good enough to live on is laughable. It literally did not buy me three tanks of gas for my car. In the village, it would buy much less. Other corporations give out more, but most don't. Look at the landless 13th Regional Corp. - it literally shut its doors and went belly up this year. In other words - you have to know what you're talking about before making this argument.
Didn't these people live off the land for thousands of years? Don't they keep talking about this supposed "subsistence lifestyle"? Why don't they keep doing that, and stop whining about needing money and electricity?
This is really one of the more frustrating for me to hear. First - okay, I'll take you up on your proposal. But you know, to truly live off the land like we did a thousand years ago, we have to have ALL the land. A thousand people absolutely cannot live off of twenty square miles of land. There was a reason people were so spread out, and much of it had to do with needing x amount of land to support x amount of people. Not to mention that to support yourself completely by the land is a full time job, and would require that all those gaming laws and limits be dropped. So yeah - if the state of Alaska, private businesses and citizens, and federal government are willing to give up all land, all laws, I'm willing to start talking about requiring everyone live "like they used to."
But really - WHY DO WE NEED TO DO THAT? I believe the people making this argument are the same people who, depending on the circumstance, also wonder why we can't learn how to just "be American." Get respectable jobs, speak "proper" English, learn to drive a car for Pete's sake. It's either/or. There is a push and pull for Native people of needing to maintain that cultural image, and yet prove you can be a productive citizen in the modern world.
Why don't they band together and help each other out?
Uhh... they are. I honestly don't even understand these comments. Please show me all these people who aren't. Every single family the man interviewed was in pretty rough shape.
They need to move out of the villages.
This is part of that push and pull. The need to stay and maintain the culture of millenia past vs. modernity and "don't stand in the way of progress." As if Native people in the city are faring that much better anyways. There are more opportunties for jobs and schooling, yet so many of the crime rates go higher. Is loss of culture and family, ties that go back, quite literally, to the ice age, an acceptable loss to gain city life?
Rural Alaska needs to stop asking for stuff - they are subsidized like crazy.
Let me say this. Everything worth anything in Alaska comes from Rural Alaska. Please think on that. What are our biggest state moneymakers?
The obvious - oil?
Rural.
Tourism?
Rural (No, folks, the tourists don't save all their lives to see Anchorage. It's just a convenient stopover.)
Fishing?
Rural.
Logging?
Rural.
Mining?
Rural.
My mother pointed out a comment in the ADN addressing this. How true. Rural Alaska gives and gives. The resources are taken over and over - most of them nonrenewable. The people who get the big bucks from these Rural Alaska resources live in Anchorage, live in Texas, live in England. By and large, even most of the jobs created by these industries do not go to Rural Alaskans. They go to people from Outside. I think Rural Alaska has given its share.
I'm not trying to pour cold water over a fire that needs to burn, but it appears to me this is all these kind of comments do in the first place. I certainly don't believe everyone in Emmonak has acted perfectly, but I don't for a second believe everyone else NOT in Emmonak has either.
I just hope that the people that are so hateful about helping don't lose a job, have expensive medical problems, have a house burn down, or have anything remotely tragic happen to them. They might then have to be subjected to scrutiny of everything they've ever bought, why they didn't save more, whether they should have had that many kids in the first place, and a judgement of whether they deserve help at all.
I did a little of what I could for the people in Emmonak. Not because Emmmonak needs help more than the next village. Not because I dug into their finances and deemed them worthy enough. Not because, despite the "obvious" sins of the parents, the children should at least get some food.
They asked for help. They needed help. They are human beings. That is all I need to know.
(My previous posts about Emmonak, #1, #2... Mudflats on Emmonak... ADN on Emmonak.)
Of course, with the good, must come the less savory. As I watch the story unfold, and try to do what I can, I must also address some that which goes on that doesn't help at all - and in fact can make it more difficult. That is, people spreading around ignorance.
The blatant racism toward Alaska Native people is not new to me, yet I cringe (and I imagine many other Native people as well) when Native issues are brought up in public. Why? Because you get to hear so consistently comments about just how unproductive, deceitful, lazy, greedy, and probably drunk Native people are. Comments like this on ADN, regarding how Native people (in general!) squander all their money:
"In the future the State of Alaska should hold the PFD's for all native households and only issue them out in monthly amounts."
I wish people who made these remarks knew how each one feels like a punch in the stomach.
I don't know why this person feels the government should hold back money from me, and give it to her freely, only handing it to me like an allowance for a child. I admit I've never learnt the lesson my grandma tried to teach, and dismiss such people as ignorant, and move on. I wish I could, but they are EVERYWHERE. On the Internet, much more so.
So here are a few of the more consistent issues I see coming up. Mind you, none of them are new... just revisited for this issue.
The people got themselves into this mess through their own negligence/ ineptitude/ greed/ laziness (etc., etc.) so don't waste your own food/time/money.
I address this first, and I hope it is not taken as me agreeing with it, because there is too much evidence that it certainly is not true. But even if every word of that were true - when your neighbor's house is on fire, you don't go twenty rounds on whether it was their own fault or not. To expland on the metaphor, take the recent fires in Anchorage. I suggest the next fire that happens, the fire department only respond if the owners can prove they didn't cause the fire in any way. A little child might be hurt in the process? No matter. These people need to learn.
As for if it really was Emmonak's fault or not, please, PLEASE look at all the evidence before making this judgement. I can gaurantee there are people in Emmonak who don't handle their finances well, or at all. I gaurantee there are people who have bought things like expensive toys, alcohol, cell phones. But look at the whole region. For that matter, look at Rural Alaska as a whole. It is not thriving, and it has not been for years. There is a reason for this other than every single person in that region sucks at handling their money.
The native corporations should help.
They should, and they are. Most of the social services come from nonprofits, however, and they... you know... DON'T MAKE A PROFIT. And "the corporations should help" is not code for "the government that serves me doesn't have to serve people who belong to Native corporations." Many times this is said by people who have no idea what they really do, other than, "They hand out tens of thousands of dollars to all the Native people." Example: This past year, I finally became a shareholder (not all Native people are - most under 40ish aren't shareholders.) My check this year? Just over $150. No, not a thousand - $150. I do not belittle what I got - but to suggest this is good enough to live on is laughable. It literally did not buy me three tanks of gas for my car. In the village, it would buy much less. Other corporations give out more, but most don't. Look at the landless 13th Regional Corp. - it literally shut its doors and went belly up this year. In other words - you have to know what you're talking about before making this argument.
Didn't these people live off the land for thousands of years? Don't they keep talking about this supposed "subsistence lifestyle"? Why don't they keep doing that, and stop whining about needing money and electricity?
This is really one of the more frustrating for me to hear. First - okay, I'll take you up on your proposal. But you know, to truly live off the land like we did a thousand years ago, we have to have ALL the land. A thousand people absolutely cannot live off of twenty square miles of land. There was a reason people were so spread out, and much of it had to do with needing x amount of land to support x amount of people. Not to mention that to support yourself completely by the land is a full time job, and would require that all those gaming laws and limits be dropped. So yeah - if the state of Alaska, private businesses and citizens, and federal government are willing to give up all land, all laws, I'm willing to start talking about requiring everyone live "like they used to."
But really - WHY DO WE NEED TO DO THAT? I believe the people making this argument are the same people who, depending on the circumstance, also wonder why we can't learn how to just "be American." Get respectable jobs, speak "proper" English, learn to drive a car for Pete's sake. It's either/or. There is a push and pull for Native people of needing to maintain that cultural image, and yet prove you can be a productive citizen in the modern world.
Why don't they band together and help each other out?
Uhh... they are. I honestly don't even understand these comments. Please show me all these people who aren't. Every single family the man interviewed was in pretty rough shape.
They need to move out of the villages.
This is part of that push and pull. The need to stay and maintain the culture of millenia past vs. modernity and "don't stand in the way of progress." As if Native people in the city are faring that much better anyways. There are more opportunties for jobs and schooling, yet so many of the crime rates go higher. Is loss of culture and family, ties that go back, quite literally, to the ice age, an acceptable loss to gain city life?
Rural Alaska needs to stop asking for stuff - they are subsidized like crazy.
Let me say this. Everything worth anything in Alaska comes from Rural Alaska. Please think on that. What are our biggest state moneymakers?
The obvious - oil?
Rural.
Tourism?
Rural (No, folks, the tourists don't save all their lives to see Anchorage. It's just a convenient stopover.)
Fishing?
Rural.
Logging?
Rural.
Mining?
Rural.
My mother pointed out a comment in the ADN addressing this. How true. Rural Alaska gives and gives. The resources are taken over and over - most of them nonrenewable. The people who get the big bucks from these Rural Alaska resources live in Anchorage, live in Texas, live in England. By and large, even most of the jobs created by these industries do not go to Rural Alaskans. They go to people from Outside. I think Rural Alaska has given its share.
I'm not trying to pour cold water over a fire that needs to burn, but it appears to me this is all these kind of comments do in the first place. I certainly don't believe everyone in Emmonak has acted perfectly, but I don't for a second believe everyone else NOT in Emmonak has either.
I just hope that the people that are so hateful about helping don't lose a job, have expensive medical problems, have a house burn down, or have anything remotely tragic happen to them. They might then have to be subjected to scrutiny of everything they've ever bought, why they didn't save more, whether they should have had that many kids in the first place, and a judgement of whether they deserve help at all.
I did a little of what I could for the people in Emmonak. Not because Emmmonak needs help more than the next village. Not because I dug into their finances and deemed them worthy enough. Not because, despite the "obvious" sins of the parents, the children should at least get some food.
They asked for help. They needed help. They are human beings. That is all I need to know.
Monday, September 15, 2008
This is happening in Sarah Palin's backyard
The town will have no power. Residents are being asked to leave. One man has already suffered medical problems because he could not get power to his respiratory equipment. Teachers are trying to have classes in their homes with small generators.
This is not some third world country. This is not even Texas or Louisiana, where thousands are facing the aftereffects of a hurricane.
This is a small village in Alaska.
Adak cannot pay its gas bill. They've been struggling with this problem for some time, but they were finally cut off. A combination of problems - as the Anchorage Daily News reports, were the cause, but the obvious - rising fuel prices - is one of the main culprits.
The other is the fishing industry. This tiny village of less than 150 people has been hit hard by the prices. It's a village that has been hit before with so much, historically - first the Russian invasion and "relocation", World War II invasion and forced relocation, and more recently the shut down of the military base.
A quote in the Anchorage Daily News, from an Adak medic:
"It is beyond my comprehension that such a situation like this can occur in an American city," Adams said.
Ironically, the ADN reported on a Senate hearing in August about Rural energy in the paper on the same say. Sen. Murkowski was urging Rural residents to stay in the villages, and a panel of Native leaders and energy experts talked over solutions to the energy crisis in the villages.
I applaud all those at this hearing for working towards solutions. I was not much of a fan of Murkowski, but in things like this, and others, she's on the right track. But mere weeks after she urges villagers to stay in the village for the sake of culture and the connection to the land, residents are asked to leave Adak.
But where is our governor?
I asked this last night, and today I see she's campaigning in Colorado.
Even the Republican delegates took a half day to look after the Hurricane crisis. Why can't she come take a look at this? I don't know that she would do anything - check my earlier post for her veto on another small Rural community that went over on their energy costs last year. They were looking for state funding to help in their costs. Palin line-item vetoed it. Is this what she meants by "reform?"
She only just left - this would have been a good issue to address while she was here in Alaska to take care of ... well, giving interviews about how little she knows about foreign policy I suppose. And rallies. Several rallies.
Palin recently pushed through giving every eligible Alaska resident a $1200 check as an energy rebate - which began distribution this weekend. You can imagine the popularity of that for the public (for any doubters, you need only have gone by Best Buy this weekend and counted the game systems going out the door.)
The ADN reported on lawmakers that were opposed to this plan (you can imagine the cahones it took to oppose giving out free money!) before it was passed, and just WHY they were opposed:
"They said the House plan to simply pay Alaskans a $1,200 rebate and to suspend the state's 8-cent tax on each gallon of gasoline isn't broad enough to cover needs statewide, especially in the costly Bush (Rural Alaska) where $1,200 just won't go as far."
Looks like it only took until the very weekend the checks were being distributed to be proven right.
I have been increasingly frustrated with the coverage - or lack of coverage - on this situation. I posted on this last night (Saturday.) A few hours ago the Anchorage Daily News finally reported on it. There was nothing in the local television news, much less national reports.
WHY IS THIS NOT NEWS?
An entire community of people is without power and being asked to leave their homes because they cannot afford the fuel! The State of Alaska has a MULTI BILLION DOLLAR SURPLUS!
THIS IS PREVENTABLE!
This is not some third world country. This is not even Texas or Louisiana, where thousands are facing the aftereffects of a hurricane.
This is a small village in Alaska.
Adak cannot pay its gas bill. They've been struggling with this problem for some time, but they were finally cut off. A combination of problems - as the Anchorage Daily News reports, were the cause, but the obvious - rising fuel prices - is one of the main culprits.
The other is the fishing industry. This tiny village of less than 150 people has been hit hard by the prices. It's a village that has been hit before with so much, historically - first the Russian invasion and "relocation", World War II invasion and forced relocation, and more recently the shut down of the military base.
A quote in the Anchorage Daily News, from an Adak medic:
"It is beyond my comprehension that such a situation like this can occur in an American city," Adams said.
Ironically, the ADN reported on a Senate hearing in August about Rural energy in the paper on the same say. Sen. Murkowski was urging Rural residents to stay in the villages, and a panel of Native leaders and energy experts talked over solutions to the energy crisis in the villages.
I applaud all those at this hearing for working towards solutions. I was not much of a fan of Murkowski, but in things like this, and others, she's on the right track. But mere weeks after she urges villagers to stay in the village for the sake of culture and the connection to the land, residents are asked to leave Adak.
But where is our governor?
I asked this last night, and today I see she's campaigning in Colorado.
Even the Republican delegates took a half day to look after the Hurricane crisis. Why can't she come take a look at this? I don't know that she would do anything - check my earlier post for her veto on another small Rural community that went over on their energy costs last year. They were looking for state funding to help in their costs. Palin line-item vetoed it. Is this what she meants by "reform?"
She only just left - this would have been a good issue to address while she was here in Alaska to take care of ... well, giving interviews about how little she knows about foreign policy I suppose. And rallies. Several rallies.
Palin recently pushed through giving every eligible Alaska resident a $1200 check as an energy rebate - which began distribution this weekend. You can imagine the popularity of that for the public (for any doubters, you need only have gone by Best Buy this weekend and counted the game systems going out the door.)
The ADN reported on lawmakers that were opposed to this plan (you can imagine the cahones it took to oppose giving out free money!) before it was passed, and just WHY they were opposed:
"They said the House plan to simply pay Alaskans a $1,200 rebate and to suspend the state's 8-cent tax on each gallon of gasoline isn't broad enough to cover needs statewide, especially in the costly Bush (Rural Alaska) where $1,200 just won't go as far."
Looks like it only took until the very weekend the checks were being distributed to be proven right.
I have been increasingly frustrated with the coverage - or lack of coverage - on this situation. I posted on this last night (Saturday.) A few hours ago the Anchorage Daily News finally reported on it. There was nothing in the local television news, much less national reports.
WHY IS THIS NOT NEWS?
An entire community of people is without power and being asked to leave their homes because they cannot afford the fuel! The State of Alaska has a MULTI BILLION DOLLAR SURPLUS!
THIS IS PREVENTABLE!
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