Saturday, January 12, 2013

Idle No More riddled with contradictions

Terry Glavin:
... On the one side, we have Canada, a genocidal, racist, colonial settler state that just wants to rape the land and poison the water. On the other, we have sacred indigenous nations that just want to protect Turtle Island and be spiritual about everything. Now, pick a side.

Thank you, Idle No More. Joining a “revolution” has never been so easy.

...

Sorry, but the choice isn’t between the Folk Devil Stephen Harper and those graceful blue creatures from Avatar. It’s between play-acting in period costume and actual and real political engagement. Unless it’s the latter, Idle No More will collapse under the weight of its own contradictions.
Great read!

More on this by Terry.

[via]

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, like a "Conservative" PM moving a motion to recognize Quebec as a nation, or spending hundreds of millions of dollars on self-mastubatory government ads.

Alain said...

Take a look at any reserve, and you will quickly see what a lie is the claim that they live in harmony with nature, do not rape and pollute the land and poison the water. The romanticised Hollywood Indians do not exist and probably never did.

What is ignored is that traditional Indian culture was self-sufficient and did not tolerate free loaders; they could not afford to do so. They took good care of their possessions and took pride in them even if they were few at the time. There is no similarity between those traditional cultures and what exists today, which has nothing to do with genetics. It has everything to do with a people born generation after generation into dependency. The sooner this state of dependency is ended, the better it will be for them.

JR said...

Anonymous,
Don't change the subject.

Alain, Couldn't agree more!

Jeremy, If what you are saying is this, then I agree:
Minorities have the right to protection from abuse by majorities but they do not have the right to special privileges or entitlements.
Group rights = can of worms. Individual rights = good.
Traitors should be shunned/ prosecuted not mollycoddled.

Joe said...

I have often compared the 'first nations'/Canada spat to the Peanuts cartoon. The native leaders are Lucy and Canada is Charlie Brown. Just as Charlie Brown is about to kick the football Lucy yanks it out of his way. This has led me to the conclusion the 'first nations' don't want a settlement as this would diminish their influence.

JR said...

For sure the Chiefs and Councils don't want a settlement. It would end their gravy train.