Provocations

Canadaville - Did Stronach's generosity foster independence or dependence?

When, with little fanfare,  Canadaville (officially "Magnaville") was launched, I wrote about it, impressed with the simple practicality and generosity involved.

As Amber Hildebrandt describes in her CBC article:

Tucked in bucolic central Louisiana, a small group of Katrina victims is getting ready for another possible uprooting. The 63 former New Orleanians are citizens of a temporary community dubbed Canadaville, which Canadian auto magnate Frank Stronach, the Magna International founder, set up about 230 kilometres northwest of New Orleans.

A successful experiment? Even the five years didn't turn out as planned.

But dreams of farm profitability were not realized. Farm equipment tangled with grass sits alongside fallow fields. Cinder blocks once used to delineate each household's garden plot are now piled neatly on the edge of a field. Goats purchased in Magnaville's early stages have become pets, with no revenue-generating purpose.

Now is when we find out to what extent the vision of a hand-up was realized. Frank Stronach provided some real and realistic help at a time of desperation for many displaced residents of New Orleans. From the beginning, though, it was temporary - an opportunity for individuals and families to get back on their feet. Did it foster independence or dependence?

Another take on the Canadaville experience: Welcome to Canadaville USA

Canadaville officials will tell you they’ve seen as many triumphs among residents as times when some have fallen short. In fact, they believe the world should be proud that those who’ve had so little, have been able to come so far.

The implications of charity - an animation by Slavoj Zizek

This development of charity as a "built-in" feature of our politico-economic system has been grinding away in my mind for a while. It's a relief to have it articulated so well. 

In this country, at least, the food bank was intended as emergency relief.  Now, as corporate government treats hunger as a food bank responsibility, the food banks are running out of food and calling on the people to give more, many of them the same ones who now need the food bank themselves.

A quote for family and community in a challenging season

My wish with Outliers is that it makes us understand how much of a group project success is. When outliers become outliers it is not just because of their own efforts. It's because of the contributions of lots of different people and lots of different circumstances— and that means that we, as a society, have more control about who succeeds—and how many of us succeed—than we think. That's an amazingly hopeful and uplifting idea. - Malcom Gladwell

According to Gladwell, it's the extreme that tells us most about the middle.

• See also: Provocative quotes

Gian Gomeshi interviews Margaret Atwood on her new book: The Year of the Flood

Margaret Atwood keeps Gian Gomeshi in line. She's the adult here. I hardly ever read books but this one tempts me. And she gets her facts straight - and current too.

Find out where this fits in: "St. Robert Burns of Mice"!

Just one more quote. "Politicians: 90% of their brain space is occupied with 'How do I get elected next time?'"

Enjoy the interview - the 21 minutes just zip by.

• Margaret Atwood
• The Year of the Flood - her new book

An igloo in your back yard? The classic how-to video

In this hemisphere, winter is arriving - and here in BC, lots of snow with it. What better way to feel good than to build your own house from the white stuff? Here's a classic how-to video from the archives of Canada's National Film Board.

Survival International's 'Top 3 Places Not to Go on Holiday'

Some good advice from the people who walk the talk.  -  JN

SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE    3 August 2009

TOP 3 PLACES NOT TO GO ON HOLIDAY

Tourism to tribal communities can easily become exploitative if not sensitively managed.
© Adrian Arbib/Survival

As the holiday season enters full swing, Survival International today names three destinations holidaymakers should avoid:

•    Barefoot Resort, South Andaman Island, India
•    Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana
•    ‘First contact’ expeditions, West Papua

Barefoot India has established a tourist resort near the edge of the reserve created to protect the Jarawa tribe. The resort puts one of the world’s most recently-contacted tribes at risk from swine flu and other diseases to which they are likely to have little immunity.

The Botswana government is promoting the Central Kalahari Game Reserve as a tourist destination, and is allowing a safari company to build a lodge that will use large amounts of water. But it refuses to allow the Bushmen to use a single water borehole inside the reserve.

Treks to meet isolated tribes in West Papua, Indonesia – including one offered by American ‘adventurer’ Kelly Woolford to an area where tribes supposedly ‘have had no contact with the outside world’ – could, if true, have catastrophic consequences.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Responsible tourists should keep well away from areas where uncontacted or recently-contacted tribes live. There are numerous cases where at least half of a tribe has died from disease soon after their first contact with outsiders.

‘Many of the Kalahari Bushmen would welcome tourism on their own terms. But promoting tourism while the Bushmen go thirsty is a slap in the face. Visitors will be sipping cocktails in the bar while the Bushmen living nearby are forced to travel hundreds of kilometres to access water.

‘There’s nothing wrong with tourists visiting tribal peoples who have been in routine contact with outsiders for some time, but only if the tribal people want them to, have proper control over where they go and what they do, and get a fair share of the profit. Unfortunately, this hardly ever happens.’

• Download Survival’s tourism advice leaflet
• Read this story online

Michael Jackson and Rabbi Schmuley Boteach

I'm so saturated with this MJ stuff, irritated and concerned that the fascinated repetition of every detail is obscuring matters that really do need our attention. I realize also that the sheer weight of never-ending information - where a hiccup receives equal analysis with a heart-stop - is obscuring the real lessons that this man's life contains, beyond the talent and the music.

Michael Jackson, from an interview with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach:

I am going to say something I have never said before and this is the truth. I have no reason to lie to you and God knows I am telling the truth. I think all my success and fame, and I have wanted it, I have wanted it because I wanted to be loved. That's all. That's the real truth. I wanted people to love me, truly love me, because I never really felt loved. I said I know I have an ability. Maybe if I sharpened my craft, maybe people will love me more. I just wanted to be loved, because I think it is very important to be loved and to tell people that you love them and to look in their eyes and say it.

Rabbi Shmuley’s statement on the passing of Michael Jackson

My family and I have just heard that Michael Jackson has passed away. Our thoughts and prayers are with his children and the Jackson family. Michael Jackson’s death is not just a terrible tragedy for three young children who will now be orphaned. It is also an American tragedy that affects us all. Our culture, in which fortune and fame readily eclipse family and life nurturing-values, is claiming an increasing number of casualties. There was a great beauty and gentility in Michael’s soul. His talents far surpassed those of his contemporaries and he yearned deeply to make the world a better place. I am saddened that the emotional pain he lived with prevented him from finding the meaning and connectedness which he longed for. The saddest aspect to this tragedy is that so many watched it happen and few did anything to stop it. I pray that Michael’s death will not be in vain and that we see a return, even among Hollywood celebrities, to the spiritual and family values that are life sustaining.

A Blueprint for Restoring Fragile Ecosystems

By piecing together a complex ecological puzzle, biologist Willie Smits has found a way to re-grow clearcut rainforest in Borneo, saving local orangutans - and creating a thrilling blueprint for restoring fragile ecosystems.

About Willie Smits
Willie Smits has devoted his life to saving the forest habitat of orangutans, the "thinkers of the jungle." As towns, farms and wars encroach on native forests, Smits works to save what is left.

Watch this remarkable and inspiring 20-minute video.

Supreme Court in Brazil Upholds Land Rights of Indigenous People

Some good news (via Survival International):

Indians across Brazil are celebrating today as the majority of judges in the Supreme Court ruled to uphold indigenous land rights in a key case. Indian representatives have called the decision, made yesterday on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a ‘great victory’.

The ruling concerns the indigenous territory Raposa-Serra do Sol (‘Land of the Fox and Mountain of the Sun’) in the Amazon state of Roraima. A small group of powerful farmers, who want the Indians’ land and are supported by local politicians, had petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the Brazilian government’s legal recognition of the territory. President Lula signed the territory into law in 2005.

Yesterday eight out of eleven Supreme Court judges affirmed the Indians’ rights to the land, saying it had been demarcated according to the constitution. They affirmed the importance of maintaining indigenous territories as single, continuous areas and stated that territories on Brazil’s borders do not pose a risk to national sovereignty.

Read on

Miriam Makeba is gone . . .

Miriam Makeba, "first lady of South African song" (Nelson Mandela), died today.  Her music was banned under the apartheid regime but we (I grew up there) still found ways to listen to her. Hard to believe now that The Click Song was forbidden.  Here she is: