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Friday, July 22, 2005
Aboriginal Population & Violent Crime
If you rank the provinces and territories by the violent crime rate per 100,000 residents (2005), as posted by Kate, and then rank the provinces and territories by the percentage of aboriginals living in them (2001), you come up with the table below. This is by no means solid statistical inference. A proper statistical analysis would co-relate the percentage of aboriginals in a jurisdiction with the violent crime rate of that jurisdiction directly. Still, there seems to be a fairly clear trend, fewer aboriginals as a percentage of the population the lower the crime rate of the province or territory.
I put this out there in hopes that someone with a stronger background in stats examines these figures more closely and to bring up a political point. If what I am suggesting is true, then the problems of our aboriginal population are now spilling over into wider society in a significant way. To many this post may seem like little more than race baiting. My hope is that it if my guess, and that's all it is at the moment, is correct it is a powerful argument for focusing public attention far more seriously on aboriginal issues. The Third World ghettoes in our midst that are called reserves cannot be forever ignored. If justice and compassion will not call attention then perhaps some naked self-interest will.
Jurisdiction Rank Crime Rank Aboriginal
Quebec 13 12
Ontario 12 11
P.E.I. 11 13
NWFD 10 8
N.B. 9 9
AB 8 6
N.S. 7 10
B.C. 6 7
Manitoba 5 4
Sask. 4 5
Yukon 3 3
NWT 2 2
Nunavut 1 1
UPDATE: Darcey and Kate both comment on the above. Again, it's intended solely to stimulate debate. This is a very simple chart and a very broad observation. Darcey also comments on this posts' comments section.
Posted by PUBLIUS on July 22, 2005 at 12:50 AM | Permalink
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» Time for some statistical analysis from Le blog de Polyscopique
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Tracked on Jul 26, 2005 9:06:15 PM
Comments
Say there, Publius, you're an egghead of a satiric bent, maybe you can help.
I just finished watching I Heart Huckabees and I figured it trying so hard to be clever it never got around to the satire part.
Or am I too thick to get it?
How say you?
Posted by: pascal | Jul 22, 2005 3:30:53 AM
Just curious since you are all fired up about wanting to "do something" to help Aboriginal peoples improve their lives.
Aside from cheap blogging... what exactly have you done? Did you write a letter to the Minister of Indian Affairs about the Poundmaker Cree situation? Did you pick up the phone and call the Prime Minister's Office, or even your MP? Did you write to CBC and ask them why there weren't interested in covering the story?
See... I don't get you "do-gooder" conservatives. All you want to do is bitch about Aboriginal issues... but actually lift a finger... (not just throwing money at people and then ignorning the problem and hoping it all goes away)... no.. you never do a damn thing.
Of course.. I don't find you personally responsible for this issue? Just as I am personally not responsible for the crimes comitted by Aboriginal people cited above.. you and the white christian conservatives aren't to blame for say Ted Bundy, or the BTK serial muder, or Charles Manson... or Jeffrey Dahmer...
I'm suggesting practical and real world things that some of you yo-yos could do, to actually assist Aboriginal peoples... by helping them in their demands for improved accountability from their governments and the DIA.
Here... want a blogging alliance project. Why not have every single blogging tory write emails to the DIA asking why it is that the DIA does not enforce the Accountability Framework portions of the Comprehensive Funding Agreements of Indian Bands.
Then record the answers you get... find Aboriginal people who have been demanding that the DIA actually enforce these CFA transparency, disclosure and redress regulations... and write on their behalf.. and again record the responses you get.
You might just learn something...
Instead of merely bitching about the problems.
DO something. Document your efforts. Create a paper trail that shows what's actually going on.
THAT might actually have an impact and help people.
Posted by: MWw | Jul 22, 2005 6:23:09 AM
I'm terribly disappointed in both of you. Not a single Publius is a Racist or even Publius is a Bigot. A request to start a letter writing campaign, to organizations professionally immune to public opinion, and a request for a bit of light satire. If I don't get denounced as an enemy of the people at some point in the next 48 hours I'm going to get very cross. Indeed I may even write a letter to my MP and see if he can get a private members bill introduced for relief. After it dies on the order papers I'll probably get even more cross. Then I can do some more cheap blogging.
Posted by: Publius | Jul 22, 2005 9:03:52 AM
One wrinkler in here are the high values for Nunavut and NWT. If you have 100% of two groups it is uncomparable to high/low such as in Quebec so you proportions get overskewed or out of control.
This means that it wouldn't pass any confidence tests but it might look like something. You see these in newspapers all the time. A third variable is required, and in this case probably something socio-economic such unemployment. Another way to go would be to review groups in cities where the dispersion would be much less.
Unfortunately we know the answer. A similar study has been done. Also unfortunate is it is so well defined that these groups stats are used as a predictor.
Posted by: Darcey | Jul 22, 2005 9:37:53 AM
Publius, you seem to have two very particular interests: Toronto's gay population and Canada's Indian population. I'm getting very tired of this blog.
Posted by: Cassius | Jul 22, 2005 10:33:19 AM
"A request to start a letter writing campaign, to organizations professionally immune to public opinion, and a request for a bit of light satire."
I didn't say *just write letters*. I said keep a running documentary of the impact of those letters and what responses you get if any from the Government Officials responsible for overseeing the Indian Affairs portfolio.
Over time, and with enough people involved that actually could have an impact.
I see that your good friend "Lock Up The Indians" Kate has slithered out from under the rock to mock the idea.
Question... have any of you ever actually called the DIA on behalf of your concerns about Aboriginal Issues? Have any of you ever done more than engage in cheap blogging in your "efforts" to expose what's going on?
No... you complain about what's happened and is happening with Aboriginal Affairs in the country and yet you do nothing about it.
That's why your comments are nothing but cheap rhetoric and easily dismissed as such.
What's more... people like you and "Lock Up the Indians" Kate just USE aboriginal issues to score cheap political points.
I for one see right through it.
Get back to me when you have actually done something about Aboriginal issues, written a letter or two, called your MP, called the CPC Shadow Minister of Indian Affairs, or the Auditor General, or your MP and demanded that the DIA actually enforce the Comprehensive Funding Agreements on reserve which would mean that Aboriginal Peoples themselves would be able to get access to the information about the millions of dollars that is supposed to be being spent on their behalf.
I spent years trying to get the Federal Government to simply FORCE the Cowichan Tribes Indian Band, the Chemainus Indian Band, the Nanaimo Indian Band, the Sliammon Indian Band and half a dozen others... enforce the simplest aspect of the CFA... which was that the CFA itself be made available to band members upon request.
I didn't see any of your "conserned" conservatives helping out... I did however see a lot of Canadian Alliance people who seemed to almost take delight in the gory little details of Indian Act Band Corruption as proof that Indians weren't capable of managing their own affairs.
Quick question on that.... The Liberals are a thousand times as corrupt as any Indian Act Chief and Council... I don't see any of you camped out in Ottawa demanding that the crooks be thrown out.... I don't see any of you engaged in hunger strikes or protests to demand an end to the corruption in the Federal Government.
I do know of dozens of cases across Canada where Indian People HAVE taken to the street AND forced more accountability from their governments.
In fact.. you do-nothing losers could learn a lot from that example.
But you won't. You just keep letting the corruption happen in your government.
Losers.
Posted by: MWW | Jul 22, 2005 7:21:27 PM
"Canada needs institutions to lock up the Indian Activists and Apologists" - Kate McMillan, The ShotGun
"Canada needs to recreate residential schools for Indian Children" - Kate McMillan, Small Dead Animals.
GOOGLE IT PEOPLE.
Try "Kate McMillan" Monte
or "Kate McMillan" Aboriginal
Or "Kate McMillan" racist
Have fun!
Posted by: MWW | Jul 22, 2005 7:25:42 PM
"Why not have every single blogging tory write emails to the DIA asking why it is that the DIA does not enforce the Accountability Framework portions of the Comprehensive Funding Agreements of Indian Bands."
I'm not a Blogging Tory, but here's an idea for you. How about individual Indians go out and get jobs and support themselves like the rest of us? I know it's a radical idea, but perhaps it's one whose time has come.
THAT'S why I'm not interested in funding agreements or accountability. I would just be helping the government prop up the dependency trap so many of Canada's Indians are ensnared in.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm back to working for my living. Some of us do that.
Posted by: Sean | Jul 22, 2005 8:21:00 PM
I'm not in a position to comment about Aboriginal crime and issues nationwide, but I can give you the view from Saskatoon and Regina, which are, by the way, the crime capitals of Canada.
Most perps in these cities are aboriginal, but most victims are aboriginal as well. Although large numbers of aboriginal people are moving to these two cities, one needs to understand that only certian areas are afforable to the unemployed of this group. Employed aboriginal people do not live in the "slum" areas where the vast majority of crime takes place. Furthermore, by far the greatest contributors are young offenders who belong to gangs. The gang problem is now big enough that it is spilling out into the cities at large. There are many aboriginal people who move out of these areas as soon as they get employment. Frankly, I'd hate to be an aboriginal person trying to raise a family in these areas. Both Saskatoon and Regina are putting more and more resources into trying to depress crime, but I think they're losing the battle.
Here's my "educated" opinion, from my personal experience working with the system: There is a group of aboriginal leaders who've been completely bought by the Libranos and they are as corrupt as anyone. Huge sums of money, intended for the average aboriginal person, never make it down the feeding chain. I am sickened sometimes at the incredibly inflated pricing and redirection of funds that takes place.
As far as the reserves go, they are all different. Go to one, and you find a vibrant community making enormous strides and using its vast resources for its people. Go down the road, and you'll find a reserve full of poverty, with the chief and his family in firm control, living like Latin American dictators.
As MWW says, there are processes in place, but the top leadership, in my opinion (and that includes the Liberal masters), do not want change. They've found a personal cash cow paid for by taxes, and they're not giving it up. In the mean time, the average native person just wants their kids to grow up safe, get an education, and move ahead in life. The corruption though, is creating an ever growing disinfranchised group of thugs, and a growing group of older people who are so physically and mentally sick that they can barely subsist. In between all of this, there is a growing number of up and coming people though, who will save the day if the corrupt leadership can be pushed aside.
My work is in family and relationship violence, and I can tell you that the salvation of the Aboriginal people I work with is going to come from females. I know this sounds sexist, but for every one male I come across who is working for change, there are ten women.
Posted by: Debris Trail | Jul 22, 2005 9:17:35 PM
"I'm not a Blogging Tory, but here's an idea for you. How about individual Indians go out and get jobs and support themselves like the rest of us? I know it's a radical idea, but perhaps it's one whose time has come."
Who says that there are not Aboriginal People who aren't doing just that? Or you mean to say Sean that you think that no individual Indians are actually doing this?
That's pretty racist of you.
Again... I ask this question... If you care so much about the corruption in Indian Affairs... why aren't you doing something about it?
The truth is, you don't care. You just want to express impotent cheap faux outrage about something that you yourselves haven't lifted a finger to stop.
Talk is cheap... blogging is cheap.
And that's all you losers ever do.
My family and dozens of other people on Indian Reserves across Canada have made concerted efforts to clean up corruption in our Indian Band Governments.
We have staged protests, we have occupied our government buildings, we have written letters and we have created a documentary trail that proves that the DIA is well aware of the corruption in Indian Act government and not only do they not care... they actively, consciously and wilfully collude with those corrupt Indian Act leaders.
It's hilarious to me actually watching people like Kate and others start to delve into this... because I know for a fact exactly at what stage of their awareness they are at on this issue. It's about where I was back in 1998 when I started raising the alarm about the corruption.
You people are pretty slow on the uptake. Me and my relatives have been trying to stop the corruption, pro-actively demonstrating and forcing our leaders to be responsive to our demands for "transparency disclosure and redress" that the Canadian Government's own regulations demand should be readily available to every individual band member with grievances about our band government officials actions.
You people are "Johnny Come Lately's to the field. You are wilfully ignorant of the reality, and in a bizare bit of irony, you actually support racist pigs like Kate who calls for those of us who HAVE actually spent years of our lives fighting the corruption to be LOCKED UP.
To hell with you bigots trying to score cheap political points.
Kates complaints about me are nothing by the most amazing case of psychological projection that I have ever witnessed.
But... as I have written before... I am glad to see it. I am glad to watch it being passively accepted and in some cases, like yours Sean, cheered on.
Just adding it to the list of various right-wing bloggers who have openly condoned her racism and hatespeech.
It proves my point every single time Kate makes a post about me.
I actually hope that Kate actually does achieve a whole lot more prominence within the Canadian popular culture in the next few months.
She is a public relations nightmare for the Conservatives ready to happen!
And so are all the people in the right-wing who rigourously defend her bigotry. Keep it up! You just keep giving more and more evidence that the Conservatives are engaged in actively supporting and sanctioning this kind of bigotry.
Please please keep it up! Don't stop.
This is going to be so much fun in the next election!
Posted by: MWW | Jul 22, 2005 10:28:30 PM
"There is a group of aboriginal leaders who've been completely bought by the Libranos and they are as corrupt as anyone. Huge sums of money, intended for the average aboriginal person, never make it down the feeding chain. I am sickened sometimes at the incredibly inflated pricing and redirection of funds that takes place."
Debris Trail is 100% correct on this. And that's part of what grassroots people have figured out. The Puppet Chiefs of the Indian Act government and the DUMA of the AFN does not actually exist to serve Aboriginal peoples themselves. They exist only to enrich themselves and to force the Liberals policy thru under the auspices of having it done by bought-and-paid-for whores.. (Indian Act Chiefs)
So.. what's the only way to stop it?
As Sean suggested... get as many Aboriginal people employed by private industry as possible so that the wicked Chiefs and Councilors aren't able to bribe, intimidate and coerce people into supporting them.
Only when Aboriginal Peoples are gainfully employed by private enterprise will they be able to most effectively stop these puppet chiefs from abusing them.
That's where the freezone idea comes in. Creating an environment whereby work on Indian reserves is extemely easy to come by, and non-natives have a good reason to partner with Aboriginals.
I really have to laugh at the complaints that I am trying to encourage the dependency upon welfare by the Indian Act industry. It's hilarious actually in the context of my work on all this.
I'm actually working very hard to create profitable businesses to take back to the reserve and hire people.
I'm actually DOING something about the problem.
None of you are.
You are just complaining and wringing your hands.
And.. bizarrely enough... the one person whom you have encountered on line who has taken these kinds of pro-active steps you consider it reasonable for your racist pig bitch friend to call for to be "LOCKED UP"
Hilarious... it really is.
It just proves my point.
With friends like you assholes.. Indians don't need THE LIBRANOS.
Posted by: MWw | Jul 22, 2005 10:36:08 PM
Publius: Thanks for the great topic. To bad people can't keep it calm and topical, but the issue is very timely. The solutions are very complex. For instance, some criminologist in Saskatchewan suggest that fully 80% of Aboriginal inmates are fetal Alcohol Syndrome victims. In otherwords, if alcoholism can be controlled, theoretically the incarceration rate will fall.
My evolution in thinking went as follows. When I had little to do with native people, I was very sympathetic to Aboriginal issues and perspectives. Then, I began working with native people and became disgusted with the wanton waste of moneys and corruption on reserves. Then, when I became acquainted with the big-boys club, my disgust turned to general racism. But, through teaching children, watching them become adults, and now even working with adults, I've come to appreciate the great number of genuine native people who just need to be freed up to make a difference. MWW's concept of free enterprise is novel, and has potential, but it's just one part of the solution.
About 4 years ago I sold a large property to an Aboriginal man. He stood in the recreation area of the lodge and planted his foot down and said. "I've always wanted something I can call mine. On the reserve, it belongs to everyone and it can be taken from me; now I have something that I can build on for myself and my kids, and the politics won't take it away!" It was a defining moment for me, as well as for him.
Posted by: Debris Trail | Jul 22, 2005 11:37:24 PM
"Talk is cheap... blogging is cheap.
And that's all you losers ever do."
So is sitting around the fire smoking a peace pipe. Get a job.
Posted by: Cassius | Jul 22, 2005 11:44:00 PM
"So is sitting around the fire smoking a peacepipe. Get a job"
www.ontimeprocessservice.com
My husband and own that company. Not only do I own the company, I have employees and about 100 subcontractors (process servers, translators and private investigators) across america that work for me.
I probably earn more money at it than any of you pathetic losers.
Thanks for another example of right-wing bigotry.
Can we see some more?
Please.
This just keeps getting better and better and better!
Posted by: MWW | Jul 22, 2005 11:47:18 PM
MWW,
Perhaps your understanding of Indian Affairs is more "on-the-ground" than any of the writers here at the blog (Im a urban Torontonian and it will take a good job or some use of force to get me out of here). Arguably, I cannot speak for our commentors. Still, the insulting manner in which you have presented yourself shows your lack of understanding over the division of labour. We write because that is what we do. We engage in the intellectual realm. That is our responsibility and our work. As an analogy, while I support America's military incursions into the middle east in an attempt to root out the foundations of the Islamic Fascists, I have no intention of joining the American (or Canadian) military. I am not a soldier, I am a student of the sciences and history. As we have seen throughout the ages, the proper understanding of history or the sciences is as if not more significant to resolving social problems as any foul-mouthed activist.
In other words (if it has not yet penetrated your sodden brain) - while I am disgusted by the general calamities experienced by those living in the Third World, I don't plan to go over there and dig ditches for them, or assassinate their dictatorial leaders. Their problems are not a claim on my life, and moreover it would not be of much use. The first action would simply be used by the dictators for some form of self-enrichment, the latter would just mean the power-hungry underlings taking power. I am happy to report though that even the CBC is recognizing (if only in passing) the claim made all along: That the problem with the Third World is third World governments, not lack of ever-increasing foreign aid. These battles are essentially intellectual.
Finally, I have a question. Is your attempt to get native Canadians hired by private firms similar in nature to J. F. Kennedy's various reforms to forcefully get blacks hired by private firms in the United States? These programs and attitudes were the precursors to the the Affirmative Action movemnet - and we all know how well that worked out.
Posted by: Brutus | Jul 22, 2005 11:56:47 PM
MWw
You seem to be good at pointing the finger at everybody else but people ON the reserves, when instead you should be pointing the finger at those people precisly.
What makes you think 9.1 Billion Canadian dollars is not enough for the national native commitity.
You guys want self-rule, and that is what you got. When people want accountabillity regarding the giant ? that IS native affairs, not one person gets answers.
And the same people that actually PAY the FUCKING tax money you guys just love keeping "all secret" from us...
Are supposed to care when the money is pissed away and the reserve goes to SHIT because of a few corrupt assholes?
It's time for a little self-accountabillity on the part of Native Canadians...
Posted by: The Knight of Good Mr. Iron Man | Jul 23, 2005 12:02:08 AM
MWW,
As if there is no accuracy to the "get a job" claim? One would think that after years of government handouts and the general intellectual trend of numerous "First Nations" Chiefs proclaiming that they want to preserve their "ancient way of life" (Some conglomeration of pre-technological, pre-writing barbarity and more government handouts), there would be a dwindling incentive to got out and get a job in the world of technology and begin to "act white" (as post-modern blacks are wont to say). Perhaps the situation has changed, but as I recall, ideas, culture and the incentive not to work provided by our welfare state were always a strong force. It is not in vain that Walter Williams (or Thomas Sowell, since I keep getting the two confused - must be the famed Classical Liberal racist in me) argues that Blacks were better off in terms of economics, culture and education prior to the Civil Rights movement reforms, despite the higher levels of racism in American culture.
As for us here at the Gods blog - we can't hire natives since there is nothing to hire them with. Unlike your own profit-driven venture, we here at Gods do what we do voluntarily and without those nasty profits.
Obviously, not a single person here has a problem with profits (in fact, our only problem is that we arent making any), but its very easy to turn all of your statements about "cheap blogging" on their heads. If you can accuse us of empty rhetoric, we can easily accuse you of profiteering off the lives of poor natives. Neither claim would be accurate, so perhaps next time you'll give such comments a moment of thought.
Posted by: Brutus | Jul 23, 2005 12:22:24 AM
"Is your attempt to get native Canadians hired by private firms similar in nature to J. F. Kennedy's various reforms to forcefully get blacks hired by private firms in the United States? These programs and attitudes were the precursors to the the Affirmative Action movemnet - and we all know how well that worked out."
No... my suggestion has nothing to do with "affirmative action". It has to do with Aboriginal Peoples simply practicing economic freedoms on their reserves, and allowing non-natives to enjoy the same freedom if they wish to come and shop and work on the reserves with us.
Laissez-Fair = Laissez Faire.
I am sorry, but I personally think that Canada is too far gone when it comes to it's economic policy. It will not change in your lifetime or mine... and there is next to now way that 70% of the population is going to reject the premises of socialism.
Since Canada is not going to change, I think the best hope for Aboriginal Peoples is to take charge of their own destinies and demand the right to engage in true free-markets on their reserve lands. In this fashion, we wouldn't want or need another goddamn dime of extorted tax-dollars from already heavily burdened taxpayers.
As I have pointed out at Angry's site, look at the practical and real-world example of Hong Kong, The Jebal Ali Freezone, as well as the Bahamian Free Port.
These are all succesful economic experiments that have proven over time, will increase the standards of living, and prosperity of people within these free-zones and the people who live and work close by.
Hong Kong for example brought peace, prosperity and uplift to MILLIONS of people in a relatively short period of time. The same thing could happen with Aboriginal Peoples and our non-native neighbors if we were simply allowed to excercise economic freedoms, the kind of which all of the conservatives have tried for years to lobby the Canadian government to allow in the entire country.
I'm sorry.. but what the CPC hopes for the rest of the country... it's never going to happen. Canada's economic policy.. all of it, is based on the premise that It's Ok to rob Peter to pay Paul. Most of the culture agrees with that idea.
It's got to stop. The theft of your taxdollars to pay corrupt chiefs and councilors across the country to keep their people oppressed is not just NOT helping Aboriginal Peoples... it's actually KILLING US.
My project demands that the THEFT stop. ALL OF IT.
Look... because I am Indian... the government has it's hands in your pocket on my behalf. I am NOT the one who put it there.
My proposal demands that they extract their hand from your pockets and wallets, and let us be free to empower ourselves.
The largest irony of course is the so-called conservatives who want economic freedoms for ALL of Canada are so caught up in "The politics of Envy" that even though they spend years writing about how Canada is an economic socialist Hell Hole, the solutions they propose for aboriginal peoples is to "assimilate" into that system.
My question for you people is... if Canada really sucks that bad... then why do you want to force other people to be part of it? If it doesn't suck that bad, then what are you complaining about all the time?
I am totally willing to take you seriously about how corrupt the Liberal government is. What very few of you realize is that it's not exactly the party in power that is running the show. It's the insanely large and powerful Government Bureacracies that don't change, regardless of who is sitting in 24 Sussex Avenue.
Why don't you conservatives who want economic freedom want Aboriginals to be able to enjoy the same economic freedoms that you demand for yourselves?
That makes no sense to me. The huge irony in all of this is that if the Conservatives were willing to drop their "Politics of Envy" for just a few minutes and look objectively about the situation... they would realize that they have FAR more in common with Aboriginals than any of us ever had with the crooked assholes in Ottawa.
You don't trust the Liberals. Indian people don't trust the Liberals. You don't like insane levels of taxations... Aboriginals don't like them either. You don't want to give up your rights to own guns... or trust the Federal Gun Registry...Aboriginals don't trust the Federal Gun registry etc...
If you want Canada to actually become more free, your best hope at this moment in time lays in encouraging Aboriginal Peoples to advance their economic freedoms because they will ultimately be able to extend those freedoms for you.... AND they will.
As for divisions of labour... I'm telling you right now.. you can spend the rest of your life blogging about these issues... and simply writing about them... and you can devote decades to tearing your hair out in frustration about Aboriginal issues. It won't have an impact. It won't solve anything.
However... if you DO want to have an impact... (and this is a good issue for conservatives) then take my advice... FOCUS intently on the fact that the Federal Government of Canada COLLUDES with the CORRUPT chiefs and councilors. This is not some vague statement about the reality of what's occuring. There is PROOF! You just have to dig a little bit to find it.
I have 5 BOXES of materials that I collected over the years that PROVED this conscious complicity and collusion on the part of DIA officials and the Liberal Government with the crooked chiefs and councilors on our reserve.
But NO newspaper or reporter in the country was willing to make this case... publish it... or take up the cause.
In fact... I was silenced by a SLAP suit by my Indian Band because I wrote articles that were beginning to get VERY embarrasing to the Federal Government's Department of Indian Affairs and the Chief and Councilors of the Cowichan Tribes Indian Band.
I caught these assholes red-handed in missappopriating $350,000 from money recieved by the province and the feds for Treaty Related Measures. The Money was supposed to set up forrestry programs and training for Cowichan Peoples. Instead it had been siphoned into the unaudited accounts of the housing program on the reserve.
We caught them... we reported it to the police. We reported it to the Auditor General... we reported it to the SG.
The band then got permission to spend a couple hundred thousand dollars if needed to sue myself, my editor and the newspaper I wrote for and the CANWEST media chain.
CanWest said they would fight it... but when the proposal was made that everybody could save a few hundred thousand dollars by the Indian Band dropping it's suit, and CANWEST agreeing not to publish anymore of my columns... that was it.
If you want proof of all this.. Call Brian Wilford of the Cowichan Valley Citizen Newspaper. He was my editor for 2 years.
Oh.. one more fun thing to note about all that... The Regional Director of the DIA during the time that this was all going down was John Watson. Mr.Watson's reward for colluding with Crooked Chiefs and Councils was that he was appointed by Paul Martin to serve as the new "Aboriginal Affairs Secretariat" right out of the PMO.
If the CPC really wanted to make hay with these things... they could. But they don't. And... what's more... they seem to encourage the kind of bigotry that we've all witnessed here on this thread or in others.
Take it from somebody who actually HAS done the groundwork on this...I know exactly what's going on with the Indian Affairs portfolio. I've got proof of the crimes, duplicity and lies of the Liberals. I'd be more than happy to give the CPC this information, work with them on it... and indeed I did give my files to Tanis Fiss and Reed Elley, way back when.
But what I learned was that the CPC didn't actually want to solve accountability issues. All they wanted (just like the Liberals) was another goddamn puppet to stand up and speak THEIR agenda on Aboriginal affairs.
Until I see that attitude erradicated, I've got very little interest in helping the CPC. I'm telling you right now, that if you really want to help Aboriginal People erradicate the corruption in the DIA and Indian Act government... what I've outlined above should give you all sorts of good ideas and specific concrete actions to take, that could have an impact and change things.
If conservatives really want to help... and not just engage in grousing and spewing bigotry... you could do a lot to turn this thing around.
When an Indian calls the DIA and demands financial documents from their BAND that they have been denied... despite the CFA regulations stipulating that this information be made available upon request... their complaints are round-filed. The DIA knows that people don't listen to the complaints of Aboriginal Peoples in this capacity.
But if non-natives start making those phonecalls... non-natives who have the means to provide greater exposure and get MORE Canadians aware of what's going on... the DIA will be forced to actually deal with these complaints instead of continuing to sweep them under the rug.
THE DIA banks on the fact that nobody gives a shit about Aboriginal issues. They depend upon that... And their way of dealing with these issues is to ignore them... for as long as they possible can, in the hopes that the Indians will get tired of complaining and just go away.
However... if non-natives... people who vote.. people who have campaign contributions to make... people who pay the salary of the DIA via taxdollars complain... and keep complaining... and keep making demands that Aboriginal people be given all the financial details that the CFA says we are entitled to see upon request... they can't ignore it.
You, in Canada have the Auditor General to do extensive scrutiny of the finances of the Government's spending. There is NOTHING like that for Aboriginal Government financing... NOTHING at all. The people who ARE supposed to be responsible for auditing and accounting... ARE the one's who are engaged in the same corruption and collusion as the people we make complaints about.
If Aboriginal Peoples can't get this very BASIC information from their band governments, which the CFA regulations declare MUST be available upon request.. it's impossible for them to challenge the crooks. We need the hardcopy black and white facts...
Typically what happens each year at the Band's AGMs (which there actually is no requirement by law for them to have)... is the membership shows up (often no proper notice is given)... they arrive at the door, and then, and only then are they given the budget... they don't even have time to review the damn document before we are allowed to ask questions about spending.
We were fortunate in that we had insiders in the Band Office who would smuggle us out the documents that were supposed to be available upon request. So we would have a week or a couple of days to go over the budget's with a fine tooth comb and ask questions....
But the only reason we got those documents smuggled out was because we had spent years shouting loudly about being denied this information and some of our shouting paid off in that people who worked for the band were willing to risk their jobs and other kinds of retribution to get the information to us.
Do you know that just one clause of the CFA stipulates that the CFA itself is supposed to be made available to band members upon request? Do you know how long it took for us to GET a hole of the 2000 CFA? 3 years!
It took us 3 years to get ahold of the document that tells us WHAT financial information that we are entitled to see. And even then... they didn't hand it out. They chained it to a wall in the front of reception of the Band Office.. so if anybody wanted to go take a look at it.. or review it.. they had to sit in front of the Chief and Councils office and try and read this document... that was chained to the wall.
And if we did have people go in to do that.. the Chief and Council would walk back and forth... watching us... never saying anything.. but making it clear that they knew who the "troublemakers" were.
And woe unto any band member or their family if they were dependent upon the band for anything... health care... education dollaras.. welfare... If those people showed up to review these documents chained to the wall... they might just discover that their, or somebody else's welfare check in their family was going to be a little late this month.
AND... this goes on EVERY SINGLE DAY in hundreds of Band Offices across the country. What's worse is most of those band members across the country don't even know about the existence of the CFA... so they don't even know what information they are entitled to see....
If I can think of anything that could improve accountability on reserves across the country... it would be...
1) CFA's be delivered to every single band member every single year after they are signed.
2) The Budget for the band, and the audited financials should be available to every band member at least 30 days before the AGM
3) The band members in an AGM should have the ability to make proper Band Council Resolutions and motions.. including the ability to impeach Band Government officials who are refusing to answer questions about financial accountability.
4)Band communities should have the means to hire their own indepedent auditors to review the finances of ALL of the Band's enterprises and the review of these auditors opinions should be made to all band members 30 days before AGMs
5)Indian Bands should have an arms-length ombudsman available to deal with their complaints about corruption, and the lack of "transparency disclosure and redress". The Ombudsman should be in a position to call for the impeachment of Chiefs and Councilors who are caught in ethical problems, conflicts of interest and shady dealings.
That's the 5 point plan that could do much to stop the corruption... because it would empower Aboriginal peoples to force their governments to listen to them, and provide them with information about finances in a timely fashion.
Want to help Aboriginals.. then call, write and demand that these kinds of things happen... and be able to show as proof that it is needed... your letter writing campaigns about the lack of compliances with the CFA regulations.
But that's if you are really interested.
Otherwise, thanks for your opinins... but they ain't helping much... and we've got better things to do with our time and efforts.
Posted by: MWW | Jul 23, 2005 1:08:33 AM
"As if there is no accuracy to the "get a job" claim?"
There isn't when it comes to me. Or when it comes specifically to my relatives in Cowichan. Thats the problem with collectivist racist smears. They don't accomplish much, and they are generally appallingly innacurate.
"Still, the insulting manner in which you have presented yourself"
Oh... not to worry... I'm just a "parasite" a "ignorant" an "illiterate", "smoking a peacepipe", "unglued" a sexual deviant with my children, a neglectful parent, "inhalent abuser", "drunk" and "lazy", "mentally ill"
You want to talk about "insulting"?
Those are all comments that have come from somebody who suggested that I be "Locked up" and her racist bigot friends... like *you* and various people on this thread.
Log Mote Eye etc.
You get your bigot friends to stop using nasty rhetoric, and I'll be happy to stop being nasty in return.
Or you can do the thing that most conservative bloggers do which is to incessantly complain about the mean-spiritedness of the "left" while ignorning the hate-filled screeds and bitter insanely twisted rantings of your own fellow conservatives.
"Foul-Mouthed"
Coming from Conservatives... that's a laugh and a half.
And as for this comment
"Unlike your own profit-driven venture, we here at Gods do what we do voluntarily and without those nasty profits."
Loser.
"Obviously, not a single person here has a problem with profits (in fact, our only problem is that we arent making any), but its very easy to turn all of your statements about "cheap blogging" on their heads. If you can accuse us of empty rhetoric, we can easily accuse you of profiteering off the lives of poor natives. Neither claim would be accurate, so perhaps next time you'll give such comments a moment of thought."
Go ahead and accuse away.
All it would do is prove that you are a communist/leftist/socialist.
See... thank you for demonstrating why Canada will never be an economically free country. Even the right-wingers are goddamn commies.
I am profit-driven.
I am a capitalist.
You sir are clearly not....
Hell... the fact that you even use "profit-driven" as some sort of an insult or smear tells me everything I need to know about YOUR ethics and philosophy.
I would hope and assume that it's beneath you to pick up the leftists insults.. what's next... in addition to the above smears and insults that conservatives have used with me in the past 7 months... lemme guess.. I'm a Robber Baron Capitalist Running Dog Lackey...
You know.. it wouldn't surprise me in the least if you did go off on that kind of tangent. It's unfortunatley too bloody typical with right-wingers in Canada these days. They mouth empty platitudes about freedom, and capitalism and liberty... but they don't have a clue about what those principles are.. they don't derive their philosophy from these principles, and neither are they capable of defending such principles without resorting to leftist smears like you have just done.
"Profit making".... as an insult?
ROFL.
You people really do take the cake!
Ya.. I'm "exploiting" my relatives by creating businesses that will hire them!
ROFL
Pull my other finger!
Posted by: MWW | Jul 23, 2005 1:39:55 AM
Chiefs proclaiming that they want to preserve their "ancient way of life"
Would that be anything like Christians in Canada proclaiming that they want to preserve "their religious beliefs, practices and ideas and way of life"?
Just wondering...
Why can't the Christians "evolve" and progress along with the rest of the world?
The Bible is so OLD, and it's so out of date... why would any thinking person want to preserve that way of life? And wish to remain stuck in ancient beliefs and practices?
Posted by: MWW | Jul 23, 2005 1:54:45 AM
MWW,
You'll be happy to know that I agree with your statements in so far as they are true (that is something I have not ascertained, but the whiff of "Yes, Minister" style bureaucracy certainly makes me lean heavily in that direction) - the only problem is that youre asking the wrong people for help. Firstly, we are not Conservatives, have no connections to the Party, and only one member of the blog actually votes for the CPC. This is a small-time blog that appeals to some reasonable Conservatives. Really though, knowing our stand on Religion (not necessary for morality), Abortion and Stem Cell Research (not immoral or illegal on both accounts) and numerous other Conservative-related issues, it is a surprise some people link to us at all.
The entire point of this blog is that we have a certain set of ideas about government (minimal), economics (lassaize faire for all), religion (separation of church and state), human nature (capable of reason and independence from State or God), and we are attempting to make arguments in favour of those ideas. The pen is indeed mightier than the sword in the sense that ideas come first. Our job is to promote certain ideas. We think that political activism (though still essential)is a far, far second to cultural change - which is what we in our little way, are trying to bring about.
In other words, while your task is daunting, we can only offer intellectual and moral support. May you win your battles and your wars.
-B.
Posted by: Brutus | Jul 23, 2005 1:59:18 AM
MWW,
Read what I write. Not what you imagine that I write.
This blog is pro-profit. This blog is not Christian.
Take a valium.
-B.
Posted by: Brutus | Jul 23, 2005 2:01:26 AM
"That's pretty racist of you."
Yeah, believing that people with white, red, yellow, black, brown, and other assorted skin colours should be treated equitably makes me into a racist of the worst kind, you know.
Perhaps you'd like me better if, instead of asking for equal opportunity for all, I concentrated my efforts on demanding equal results (regardless of the effort expended) for the more disadvantaged groups in society at the expense of the other groups? That's what you're asking of me.
"Again... I ask this question... If you care so much about the corruption in Indian Affairs... why aren't you doing something about it?"
I am. I'm doing what I can to separate Alberta from Canada (or more precisely, from Ottawa).
The rest of your comments are not worth addressing. Seek help. Seriously.
Posted by: Sean | Jul 23, 2005 2:05:15 AM
Sean... aren't you the one who actually does suffer from diagnoses on-going mental illness? Thanks for the diagnoses Sigmund. I'll keep the opinion in mind, and it's source.
"Perhaps you'd like me better if, instead of asking for equal opportunity for all, I concentrated my efforts on demanding equal results (regardless of the effort expended) for the more disadvantaged groups in society at the expense of the other groups? That's what you're asking of me."
That's not ever what I have advocated Sean... which you would know.. if you had ever bothered to read anything I've written about economics, laissez-fair capitalism, the creation of a Hong Kong in Canada for ALL Canadians to enjoy...
In short... Sean, why don't you get off your "protect bigot kate at all costs" mentality, and do some actually reading of what I've proposed.
Good luck with your whole Alberta Separation thing. I wish you luck. And you are going to need it, if you think that you can get Alberta out of the claws of the Federal Government without the help/sanction and support of the Aboriginal peoples there.
And you know what Sean... because of idiots like you.. that's probably never going to happen.
The minute Alberta's population starts to swing in that direction of separation, all the Federal Government has to do is say "We've changed our minds about Aboriginal Title... Alberta is mostly Aboriginal Lands... and so you've got nothing to take with you"
And if you don't think that's what's going to happen, then you are frankly pretty damn delusional.
Seek help *yourself*
Posted by: MWW | Jul 23, 2005 3:24:27 AM
"Our job is to promote certain ideas. We think that political activism (though still essential)is a far, far second to cultural change - which is what we in our little way, are trying to bring about."
I'm assuming by your statements above that most of you are actually objectivists or students of objectivism?
I thinK Rand was wrong about that. I actually think that the essence of the problem lays in the Comprachicos approach to education. The State is currently pumping out millions of young people who have been trained to not be capable of thinking, reasoning....
While Rand encouraged the creation of entities like the ARI... I actually view the problem to be much deeper than that. In my view... the real damage is not done at the university level... but in pre-schools and elementary schools, as children would naturally be developing rational thinking.
If you don't reach these people by the time they are in university... it's almost too late.
Put it this way.. I know only 1 person who managed to change their thinking completely after the age of 21..
Elizabeth Nickson. Nickson was from the left for most of her adult life. She got mugged by reality about a decade ago... and she has the intellectual honesty and the capacity of reason developed sufficiently to be able to tackle the years of false assumptions and messy thinking that she had been spoonfed by the intelligentsia of the left.
While I do understand the efforts of the Gods here... I think they are futile. The culture is too far gone. And for every person that you do reach, the state schools are churning out hundreds of others with mangled minds...
I don't know what's to be done about it really... So the best solution I have come up with is to try and create a place where me and my relatives and free-market friends can be free. I don't know if it can happen. I suspect that it is possible...
But believe me.. one of the most important aspects of properly developing the Free Zone, will be the groundwork laid by the creation of a Sudbury Valley type school for all of the young people in our region (regardless of their ethnic background) to be free from the indocrinations of the public school systems
M
Posted by: MWW | Jul 23, 2005 3:50:57 AM
I can just see a business owner and employer of 100 people sitting on a blog writing rants longer than the original post.
Get a life... and a job.
Posted by: Cassius | Jul 23, 2005 8:49:36 AM
Speaking of hiding under rocks - MWW has been using those three letters to hide from the very google search engines she directs others to - where if you google those words, youll discover MWW and her other "split personalities" have been libeling myself and others, often with completely fabricated "quotes", sometimes issuing veiled threats towards those who disagree with her.
Her name is Meaghan Walker-Williams (Sometimes Meaghan Champion Williams).
While she would like to give the impression that she struggled out of the "white man's system" on her own, the truth is that she grew up in Vancouver, in a life of relative privilage.
Posted by: Kate | Jul 23, 2005 10:25:30 AM
"Sean... aren't you the one who actually does suffer from diagnoses on-going mental illness? Thanks for the diagnoses Sigmund. I'll keep the opinion in mind, and it's source."
If you're referring to the fact that I am a diagnosed schizophrenic (a fact about myself that I have never bothered to hide), you are correct. I see a doctor occasionally about my condition and take medications for it as necessary. The day I start ranting about Alien Overlords, aliens inhabiting reanimated human corpses, and the Tthii'thian Order, then you'll know I'm off my meds.
What's your excuse?
(Incidentally, I regard Freud as a pervie who was fixated on his momma. I'm more partial to Jung's work.)
"That's not ever what I have advocated Sean... which you would know.. if you had ever bothered to read anything I've written about economics, laissez-fair capitalism, the creation of a Hong Kong in Canada for ALL Canadians to enjoy..."
I agree with your view of capitalism insofar as it is beneficial to the populations who engage with/in it. I disagree with you when it comes to government involvement in promoting capitalism (e.g. Bombardier and Power Corp.) or any attempts to honour current treaties with the aboriginal population.
"The minute Alberta's population starts to swing in that direction of separation, all the Federal Government has to do is say "We've changed our minds about Aboriginal Title... Alberta is mostly Aboriginal Lands... and so you've got nothing to take with you""
All the federal government has offered Natives for the past fifty years is heartbreak, misery, and dependency. I'm betting it won't be so hard to push a corrupt leadership out of the way and make rank and file natives a much more appealing offer. You see, I think most of them are decent people who would welcome a chance to own property and realize their dreams.
We want a better Alberta for everyone, including the aboriginal populations, and we would be proud to have them standing alongside us in our new endeavour.
I'm curious, how do you justify lecturing me about being a bad/disaffected Canadian when you live in Florida? There's considerably irony in that, you know. At least I didn't flee the scene of battle.
Posted by: Sean | Jul 23, 2005 11:49:58 AM
"The Liberals are a thousand times as corrupt as any Indian Act Chief and Council... I don't see any of you camped out in Ottawa demanding that the crooks be thrown out.... I don't see any of you engaged in hunger strikes or protests to demand an end to the corruption in the Federal Government."
MWW...How true! Canadians are notorious for complaining from their armchairs or spewing angst on their blogs; all decrying the Libranos and their skullduggery. But, at election time, they walk like obedient, subservient sheeples to their polling station, and put an "X" by their local Librano candidate. How pathetic and hypocritical!!
I agree entirely with you MWW. You walk the talk and have courage in your convictions Aboriginals are fortunate to have someone as driven, articulate and pasisonate about the fate of their people as you. Becoming educated, self-suffficient and developing free enterprise on the reserves, appears to be the only way to overcome the endemic corruption found at the Band level and higher. Financial and other resources actually reaching aboriginal families will bring immediate improvement in their opportunities and standard of living. The resultant benefits will also be realized by non-aboriginals. In the long run, it will be a win-win situation for all. Is this not what all Canadians should want?
As for detractors from your cause MWW, all I will say is "ignorance is bliss". Maybe they whould "walk a mile" in an aboriginals shoes before they have the right to cast judgment!
Posted by: Old Mother | Jul 23, 2005 2:07:01 PM
Food for thought:
Canada and Canadians will expend all types of aid in foreign countries. Canada forgave Africa its debt owed us. We participate with activists such as Bono, Geldof etc. for world-wide humanitarian causes. We denounce the corrupt dictators in Africa who are impoverishing and killing their citizens, while pocketing for themselves, the monetary aid sent them.
Why are Canadians so taken with world-wide causes, and ignore the plight of some of our own citizens? We have corruption right here at home, that if rooted out and prosecuted, would bring immeasurable relief to those victimized. Why are we not supporting those who fight for the same causes in Canada, if the end result will benefit all Canadians?
Might be the start of the solution to the observations Publius raises in his post.
Posted by: Old Mother | Jul 23, 2005 2:57:53 PM
"What's your excuse?"
Sean, if you are going to make posts where you attempt to imply that other people are mentally ill... it really won't do to start whinging about it's "no fair" that somebody calls *you* on the fact that you are in fact somebody who suffers from mental illness.
Or... what? Only the mentally ill are allowed to make jokes about mental ill-ness? How very "Politically corect" of you Sean?
Don't like being made of fun of because of your medical condition... well spend a few decades listening to jokers make constant refferences to "Tonto" and "chief" and "Smoke a peace-pipe" and that's just the tame stuff. Then the really charming stuff comes from bigots who even though I don't drink or do drugs at all, make jokes about my obviously being a "drunk", or recently "addicted to inhalents" or "unglued".
Sorry Sean.. Not much sympathy for you getting as good as you gave on the whole "mentally ill" thing. Sorry.
You shoudl really be careful about using that particular little ad-hominem, if you are going to be a cry-baby about it being turned back on you.
Posted by: MWW | Jul 23, 2005 7:01:17 PM
Old Mother,
This has been my experience with most right-wingers. They get absolutely livid if anybody who actually knows what's going on in Aboriginal issues actually dares to correct them on their ignorance.
They don't want to be *correct* about their position. They want to spew any kind of rank nonsense that they want even if the facts or reality are at direct variance from what they are saying.
And if you continue to challenge them, they then turn vicious and obnoxious with the most flimsy of excuses... for instance.. I just love watching people like Sean get worked up about Kate's "Freedom of Speech". What Sean and various others over on Angry's blog are talking about when they say "Freedom of Speech" is... they want the "freedom" to be as obnoxious as they want without having to deal with any of the consequences.. ie.. JUDGEMENT by others... or boycotts, or shunning, or ostracism.
Holy smokes... did you see the conflagration over at Angry's blog about the renter being denied the use of his landlords property to post a sign that is insulting to gay people? They are all atwitter over this... because they suggest his free speech has been violated.
Nobody violated his free speech. He's still free to go spew his anti-homosexual messages or put up his homophobic signs on his OWN property. He is not however 'free' to use his landlords property to post anti-gay mesaages. Why? Because it's NOT his property.
I am constantly amazed at how many people on the "right" in Canada are seemingly incapable of articulating just about ANY principle of clasical liberalism or true-conservative thought.
I also just laugh at how when they engage in vicious and nasty rhetoric about their intellectual enemies *all the goddamn time*... they turn into net crybabies the minute anybody turns the table and gives them a taste of their own medicine.
I've been a student of objectivism and libertarianism for over a decade. I'll tell you what... I've never had a right-winger in the United States act like most of the right-wingers online do about Aboriginal issues. I guess I can thank my friend Russel Means for that, at least when it comes to Libertarians. That, and that the libertarian movement in the US has a lot more people who work very hard to ensure that collectivist premises (like the kinds proposed all the time by every political faction in Canada) are rejected and repudiated within the party.
The only conclusion that I can come to when I consider many of the right-wing in Canada, is that most of these people don't know the first thing about clasical liberalism or TRUE conservativsm. They mouth empthy platitudes, but damn few have ever actually integrated these concepts.
The one's who have understand immediately what I am talking about when I say "Canada's Aboriginal People Should Strive For Economic Freedom and create a Hong Kong on their reserves".
People who are actually clasical liberals don't want to enslave everybody to socialist Canada. They want as many people to be as free as possible and they don't care which people get to be free... it's all good the more of them that are.
Posted by: MWW | Jul 23, 2005 7:19:54 PM
The Meaghan Walker Williams "Saving My People" Comments Thread Drinking Game!
For every time she writes "I", take a drink.
If the word "I" occurs at the beginning of a paragraph, take two drinks.
For every time she writes the word "me", take a drink.
***WARNING***
Although Meaghan Walker Williams is likely to be busy "saving her people" on multiple blogs at the same time, play only one comments thread at a time. Safety first!
Posted by: Kate | Jul 23, 2005 9:54:29 PM
"For every time she writes "I", take a drink. If the word "I" occurs at the beginning of a paragraph, take two drinks. For every time she writes the word "me", take a drink."
Gods of the Copybook folks pay attention to this.
Kate McMillan has just demonstrated her collectivist premises. In her world the use of the word "I" is somehow an offensive thing.
I guess, despite the fact that she claims to be deeply influenced by Ayn Rand, she's not bothered to slog her way thru Anthem yet.
Oh yes... I have comitted a cardinal sin indeed. I use the word "I" to preface my remarks.
"Their son will be taught the word “I” and will learn reverence for his own spirit. He will learn what pride there is in being a human individual. When Prometheus’s work is accomplished—when he has read the books, fortified their home, and tilled the soil—he intends to stealthily venture for the last time into the city of his birth. There he will call to him all those of independent spirit who remain—his friend International 4-8818 and all those like him. He will seek out Fraternity 2-5503, who cries without reason, and Solidarity 9-6347, who screams in the night. He will reach out to any of the men and women whose heads are still unbowed, who retain the slightest spark of autonomy and who yearn in some form for freedom. These individuals will flock to him, and they will return to his fortress. Prometheus says that here, in the uncharted wilderness, they will build their city and write a new chapter in the history of human freedom." - Anthem, By Ayn Rand
Thank you Kate, or should I say "Solidarity 6-6666" for demonstrating the obvious lack of integration of clasical liberal, or individualist ethics.
Want to try again?
Posted by: MWW | Jul 24, 2005 12:57:51 AM
"Sean, if you are going to make posts where you attempt to imply that other people are mentally ill... it really won't do to start whinging about it's "no fair" that somebody calls *you* on the fact that you are in fact somebody who suffers from mental illness."
I'm not whining, I'm mocking you. Your reading comprehension is about on par with your mental health.
Posted by: Sean | Jul 24, 2005 1:08:11 AM
Sean,
Why are you here? Is the heat getting too intense for Field Marshall McMillan?
*snicker*
Posted by: MWW | Jul 24, 2005 2:36:17 AM
MWW,
(Old Mother in part as well),
Please refrain from insulting the people this blog associates without any significant proof. In fact, this applies to all those you have insulted in general. If you cannot keep a civil tongue in your head, or read what others are actually putting down (you've accused the staff here at Gods, all students of Objectivism, of being anti-profit), then regardless of your pro-capitalism/-reason, etc ideas, you will be removed from this blog like any other brute.
If you wish to discuss the state of the culture, the state of the education system, the influence of ideas on society, and what Ayn Rand had to say about it - you are welcome to do so. But do so without the breathless meanspiritedness, blatant assumptions and lack of attention to detail that you have displayed so far.
As far as things go - no, society is not yet doomed and not too far gone. As long as Freedom of Speech is recognized in some form or another as politically and intellectually essential, there is always the possibility of change. Intellectual strides have been made, and it will only take a cataclysm (hopefully a small one) to push them forward into the culture. Already some significant proportion of the American population has read Ayn Rand. Whether they agreed in whole, in part or not at all, the ideas are seeping in through. Even the CBC mentions Ayn Rand every once in a Blue Moon. Ideas take an extraordinarily long time to take full effect even with the sort of push that the ARI has been making. Ultimately it rests on the choices of, as Alexander Hamilton called them, "That Great Beast" - the populace.
As regards Universitites - please consider the historical context Miss Rand was largely writing in. At that period (1950s/60s), the "K-12" system was still mostly reasonable. The rot started in the Universities. This is not the case now, and if you read any Objectivist thinker of the day, they will deplore the entire school system from ground-up as being irrational, collectivist, and intellectually corrupt.
Our work is not futile as long as there are men alive in this world. All are able to think, to reason, to make decisions.
-B
Posted by: Brutus | Jul 25, 2005 1:20:42 AM
Brutus,
Have you studied the history of the development of the Public School system in the United States? I personally think Rand's essay on the Comprachicos is perhaps the single most important thing that objectivist movement developed.. (and yes I am counting FTNI, AS, VOR, OPAR and The Ominous parallels)
The public school system paradigm was adopted from the Prussian model of the 18th century. There is an awful lot to be gleaned by seeing that influence and how it is playing out in the popular culture.
The public schools are as Beck writes fully engaged in manufacturing of malignant "Eloi" on a scale that seems next to impossible to combat.
Public Schools butcher the minds of children... exactly as Rand described. Not only do they not encourage children from developing their rational faculty, they actually prevent children from doing so.
Public schools are not about education at all. They exist to produce compliant and obedient serfs for the state... Those premises were explicitly and proudly stated in the foundation of the Prussian schools way back when. But very few people see the connection to it now.
"The rot started in the Universities" I agree. The Fabian approach started there... but the groundwork for the collectivization and "socialization" of children was laid by the creation of the public schools far before the Fabian commies got their dirty paws on Academia land.
"Our work is not futile as long as there are men alive in this world."
You know Brutus... I wish I could have as much hope as you do. I really do. But it's very hard when the people who parrot some bits and pieces of objectivist or libertarian thought (not you or publius... others...who shall remain nameless in this post) but they don't integrate any of it... and as a consequence they actually combine the worst things about Bill Buckley Conservativism, and Leftist methodology... seeming unaware that that's what they are doing.
I look at the comment above... by you know who. Wherein somebody who is seen as some kind of Hero of the conservative movement is so far gone in commie-thought that they actually made the smear that the use of the word "I" was somehow a bad thing.
I look at that... and I can't help but think... if that's what we've got to look forward to from the right-of-center taking over...
Well, I'm certainly not looking forward to it.
I actually enjoy the left-of-center bloggers because they are pretty straight-forward. They worship the state, and they are collectivists thru and thru, and they don't try to hide it. There is an honesty to that, which I admire. I know where I stand with them. I don't agree with them... but I know exactly what to expect from them.
What really frosts my chaps however are right-of-center people, or those claiming to be right of center who at the drop of a hat will abandon every single laissez-fair premise because that's what the polls say is the way to achieve power.
I am just endlessly P/Od by watching what seems like endless posts from right-of-center people who aren't actually from the right at all. They are somewhere far far to the left of John Freakin' Kerry. They have the means to do what you at Copybook are trying to do.. influence the culture by introducing reason and capitalism and individualism into the marketplace of ideas.
But they don't do it.
I find that to be nearly completely unforgiveable.
Posted by: MWW | Jul 25, 2005 3:53:56 AM
MWW,
I agree with you on the current state of the public school system (I get numerous horror stories from my girlfriend, who is attempting to become a school teacher at this moment), although whether it was the increasing acceptance of collectivism in late 19th century academia (John Dewey was only adopted in early 20th century) which would influence the grade school system or something inherent in the grade school system program which would have corrupted all thought from the ground up is difficult to say. In any case, I don't have the information to even make an informed guess.
As for today's Conservatives (South or North of the border) - they are broadly pro-free market but also highly pragmatic. This is why Messers. Buckley and Bush endorse statism on levels often similar to those of the left. My only question to you is this: Is the mindset of the left any less unforgivable? After all of the icons of socialism have fallen by their own hands, the great social experiments have failed, statism has shown itself to be bloody, incompetent and incompatible with progress... why do these men cling so stoically to their worship of the state? It is consistent - but could that really be considered honest? They are men consistent in their dishonesty, and I do not see that as being any more admirable than pragmatism. Besides, in the realm of values, the Conservatives are the absolutists (mostly Christian), while the left are the subjectivists and pragmatists ("Values are what your whims say they are" or "Values are what society's whims say they are"). In this latter sense they are currently on the losing end - wildly flailing for any out of context support to their socialist notions while loudly proclaiming that there are no absolutes.
Besides, I do not view Conservatives as a whole to be in this particular state of affairs. Some are far more principled in their defence of freedom and the free market, and it is these people that we can count on to eventually recognize the importance of thinking in and living by principles. These are the "ace-in-the-hole".
Besides this, I could easily argue that even the Founding Fathers did not completely understand the free market system. Look at Hamilton's "The American System" - creation of a national bank with 50% of the shares owned by the government, high import tariffs, protection of the manufacturing industry and so forth. Arguably while there were other factors involved, the system of capitalism still held for some 200 years.
-B.
Posted by: Brutus | Jul 25, 2005 10:01:18 PM
Brutus:
Yes, I do have more philosophically in common with the right-of-center than the left.
The problem for me is that I've never seen a liberal, NDPer or even outright communist seriously propose that myself and other aboriginal people need to be "locked up".
I also don't see anybody from the left seriously proposing that what would be best for indian children is for Federal Government run Residential Schools.
This has not only been proposed by a right-winger... it has been sanctioned, endorsed, defended and promoted by fellow conservatives.
There have been a few right-wingers who have now, after many months said they are disgusted by such remarks and proposals. But they are not in the majority. They are in the most slim of minorities in the right-wing echo-chamber.
The right makes absolutley no sense on Aboriginal issues. They decry the socialist hell-hole that Canada is turning into. And yet they demand that Aboriginal peoples be "equally enslaved" to it.
The right is just as infected with the "culture and politics of envy" as the left. The only difference being how far these respective factions are willing to push their sick little social engineering ideas on the rest of the country.
As for this:
"Look at Hamilton's "The American System" - creation of a national bank with 50% of the shares owned by the government, high import tariffs, protection of the manufacturing industry and so forth. Arguably while there were other factors involved, the system of capitalism still held for some 200 years."
That's debatable. I think the Civil war puts the lie to that pretense, and the incredibly awful violations of the Constitution by everybody's favourite President, the so-called "honest Abe". My Southerner husband would be delighted to share his thoughts on more probable dates of the crumbling of capitalism in America's origins even further back than that.
And you have to understand... I am certainly not a Hamilton Federalist. If anything my sympathies lay entirely with the Jeffersonian Republicans. As in... I understand why it is that you have adopted the pen-name Brutus.
In any event. That is perhaps beyond the scope of this discussion. Being highly influenced by Mises, the project that my particular Aboriginal Nation is pursuing is on-going. We have a few businesses and are aquiring capital. We hope to be able to start issuing gold-backed currency by 2006, and we've declared ourselves totally separate from the Indian Act band and Treaty Group that falsely claims to represent our interests.
We dropped our declaration of independence on the lap of the Federal Government and BC Treaty Commission a couple of years ago, and our latest immediate project is delivering notice to various Embassy offices outside of Canada of our intent to negotiate trade agreements with other Nations, as well as formally asking for affiliation with http://www.unpo.org/
We have also demanded that the Federal Government STOP giving the Cowichan Indian Band or any native organization, any funds on our behalf. We don't want any government money. We don't need any government money.
My family and the allied families in our Nation all work for a living.
So... that's what's up with me. Curiously, I never get any hassel from the left for this... In fact, the left are warmly receptive to this kind of thinking. They have abandoned the pervasive "paternalism" that the right continues to clutch to.
I constantly see ignorant blatherings from the so-called 'right' who claim that they know better for Aboriginal Peoples like our Nation, than we know for ourselves.
The concept of "Consent of the Governed" never enters their pretty muddled heads.
BTW, Brutus... have you ever read Spooner? And what do you make of Rothbard or Friedman?
Posted by: MWW | Jul 27, 2005 2:47:15 AM
