Fellow Africans
For a very long time I have stressed to the Ayittey's, Chifu Wa Malindi's and
James Ololo's, that the West is actually not out there to help Africa, the west
is in Africa to suck up each and every single sign of resource, I have stated
too that although we have poor leadership in our continent, Africans as a
people can never change leadership as long as the west controls who leads which
country, and Kenya is a good example where Moi's movement from power produced
squat. Now as this argument is still being beaten by the West pleaders, the
agents of the West as Pat Anderson, Caroline and Eddy Cross, lament on how
silly we are for we forget that the donations done to Africa are for the good
of Africans. Eddy even cry's tears for those very poor destitute Zimbabweans
who will starve for the Whites do not hold land in Zimbabwe any more.
I am going to post two articles to show you how a white man can be cruel, these
are natives living only 3 hours maximum from where I live and where I am
sitting right now to post this writing. These are Natives living just 3 or less
hours North of Toronto, a city where I live. These people have died for a long
a time, they have been transferred many times, they have been infected by very
silly diseases, just because they do not have clean drinking water, this is in
Canada and in 2006. And I am not going to go into pregnancy rates, I will not
touch on how AIDS is so rampant, but to some it all up these Canadians live a
worst life than a Somali in a nation with out a government. I am leaving you a
very simple question, if a white man can treat his fellow Canadian this bad,
what makes you think that he is in Africa for he cares about you being alive?
What makes you think that actually women like Pat Anderson are infiltrating
forums like Mwananchi for they care about Africa?
I beg you to kindly read the second article "Running from the shadows of
despair" and wonder if this is Uganda or Canada. That is how cruel a white man
can be.
Wake up fellow Africans and think hard just for once in a life time.
Em
Toronto
=================================================
CRISIS IN KASHECHEWAN
Ottawa's solution: Move town to Timmins
KAREN HOWLETT AND BILL CURRY
TORONTO, OTTAWA -- The 1,550 residents of Kashechewan in Northern Ontario
should walk away from a place they have called home for generations and start
over again 450 kilometres away in Timmins, Ont.
This was the recommendation of Alan Pope, a former Ontario cabinet minister
appointed by the federal government to address Kashechewan's dismal living
conditions. Tainted drinking water has forced many residents to flee the remote
Cree community on James Bay and spend months at a time away from home.
Mr. Pope said at a news conference yesterday that he went door to door,
canvassing the views of residents before coming to the conclusion that
permanently relocating the reserve was the best option.
"We're talking about how to help a community that is in desperate need of help,
with three evacuations in two years and all of the anxiety and unrest that
comes from that, and the fear of the children and the families for more of the
same," he said.
He stressed that moving the reserve to Timmins -- a city with a large
aboriginal community and good schools, hospitals and other amenities that are
sorely lacking in Kashechewan -- was merely his recommendation. The response
from native leaders at the news conference was muted.
Kashechewan Chief Jonathan Solomon said he would not respond to the report
until he talks to community members about the prospect of permanently pulling
up stakes. "Our land is very important to us," he said.
Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice said it would be up to community members
to decide whether they want to move. He praised Mr. Pope for doing a
"marvellous" job. "This is one of the best reports seen in Ottawa in a long
time," he said.
Native leaders and opposition critics said the report has wider implications,
raising questions about the Conservative government's commitment to maintaining
the hundreds of remote native communities across Canada.
Grand Chief Stan Louttit said Mr. Prentice wants a solution that addresses the
long-term sustainability of Kashechewan.
"I think this report is right up the minister's alley. It's what he wants."
Andy Orkin, a human-rights lawyer for aboriginals, said the evacuation would be
part of the federal government's continuing efforts to assimilate aboriginal
people into non-native communities.
"The native people I talk to insist that it's cultural genocide because their
societies are being destroyed," he said.
Mr. Pope acknowledged that his proposal could have implications for other
native communities.
"That's a political debate that might be started out of this report," he said.
His proposal comes one year after reports about Kashechewan's unhealthy living
conditions and poor water quality caused a national scandal. But the sad
reality is that Kashechewan is not alone. Many northern reserves across Canada
are a study in neglect. In Ontario alone, three northern reserves --
Pikangikum, Marten Falls and Attawapiskat -- have a water crisis.
With Kashechewan, Mr. Pope is recommending that residents establish a reserve
within the boundaries of Timmins, which has a population of 45,000, including
7,000 aboriginals. He said he chose Timmins over Smooth Rock Falls or a
location closer to the existing reserve because residents would have easy
access to the city's hospital and schools and there would be more job
opportunities.
Kashechewan residents also would not have to give up their rights to their
ancestral land even though they would no longer live on it.
===========================================
Running from the shadows of despair
JULIUS STRAUSS
The Globe and Mail - October 31, 2005
KASHECHEWAN RESERVE, ONT. - Last Thursday evening, when the federal government
was announcing it would build a new settlement for the people of Kashechewan,
Mathias Wynne was passed out drunk on a fetid mattress in his filthy room.
It was only the next morning when he awoke with a splitting headache, feelings
of nausea and trembling hands that he heard the news.
But at 25, he has already learned not to trust talk of new beginnings.
"I just don't think it will make much difference," he said.
There was a time when he wanted to go south and train to be a doctor. At
school, he said, he was a talented artist and even won a $200 commission to
design a logo for a local company.
But for years now he has been trapped by addiction and despair.
Three times he has been taken to clinics outside the Kashechewan reserve to
treat his addiction, but, each time, boredom and hopelessness led him back to
drink after he returned.
The father of two small children he has never seen, he talks lightly of suicide
-- as if the thought was a constant companion.
Sometimes, when he is drunk, he takes a cigarette and burns his arm in an odd
effort to alleviate the pain of life.
At other times he uses a knife. On his arms he has a mass of burns and cuts.
Some of the cuts make neat straight lines. But others run together to form a
small patch of ugly scar tissue.
The sad truth about Kashechewan is that poor water quality is only one of
myriad problems on this fly-in reserve on James Bay, 400 kilometres north of
Timmins.
Unemployment, boredom, drug and alcohol abuse and a general sense of decay and
despair appear to be even greater curses.
Federal authorities last week committed to spending millions of dollars to
build a new community on a site nearby, which is less prone to flooding.
But the fear is that, as in case of the relocation of the Innu from Davis Inlet
to Natuashish in 2002, this project may do little to help a suffering community.
What is not in dispute is that the Kashechewan reserve more closely resembles a
Third World settlement than a heavily subsidized community in one of the
world's richest countries.
The entire town reeks of poverty and neglect.
In the poorly tended cemetery, the graves of tiny children -- some decorated
with pink and white plastic flowers -- bear testimony to the high mortality
rate among infants and the young.
Geraldine Anne Hughie was 19 when she died. Francine J. Wesley was 17. Autumn
Jayda Beatrice Wesley was only two days old.
On Willow Creek Street, the road Mathias Wynne lives on, some of the houses are
less than 20 years old, but such is the level of indifference that they are
already dilapidated.
Many of the windows are boarded up with plywood -- residents say it is cheaper
than replacing glass, which they know will soon be broken again by drunks.
Inside, there are large holes in the walls, leaking pipes and rusty appliances
jury-rigged to bare electric wires.
Outside, waterlogged ditches are strewn with garbage -- old bicycle wheels, the
rusty carcasses of snowmobiles with engines removed, and dozens of empty
plastic bottles from Russian Prince vodka.
The band council gave up enforcing the dry ban after several young men nearly
died in the winter trying to make it to the nearest big town to buy drink.
Stray dogs fight in the street. The only cars visible are a wrecked new-model
pickup with a shattered windscreen and another up on bricks.
The yellow fire hydrants, which residents say don't work anyway, are broken or
covered. The house next to Mathias's -- many of the homes in this street don't
have numbers --caught fire three years ago and burned to the ground.
Several other houses have suffered similar fates giving the town a postwar feel.
"We just let them burn," Mathias said as he passed by early Saturday morning on
his way to buy drugs from a dealer who lives in a dull brown house on the same
street.
Despite appearances, the federal and provincial governments pour millions of
dollars a year into Kashechewan.
The logistics of operating a community surrounded by bush means everything from
supplies to specialists must be flown in or trucked over the ice during the
short winter transport season.
Health care is provided by a local nursing station employing six nurses, many
sent in from the outside on raised salaries.
Doctors are paid to fly in every few weeks for patients with more severe
problems. In emergencies patients are taken by helicopter to Moose Factory, 100
kilometres to the south.
Law and order in Kashechewan is administered by three native policemen who
cruise the streets in a van.
But they are currently on work-to-rule, which means that they will not respond
to any crimes committed after 2 a.m.
Judges, defence lawyers and prosecutors must also be flown in. They arrive
every two or three months on two separate aircraft -- an attempt to prevent
them from conferring.
The financial logistics of supplying the reserve with services are even more
complex. Many of the grants are funnelled through the local band council, which
is responsible for funding many aspects of life here.
Even supporters of the system say it is open to abuse and some of the residents
of Kashechewan accuse their council of financial mismanagement and patronage.
The band is currently running a deficit.
One of the problems in Kashechewan is that the population has ballooned in
recent years. Chief Leo Friday says that 20 years ago it stood at less than
half its current size of around 1,700.
Judy Stephen, the 48-year-old principal of the local high school, blames Ottawa
for failing to increase funding to keep pace. She said the lack of money has
led to rising crime, increased overcrowding and alcohol abuse.
To keep up with the needs of the community, the number of mental-health
workers, addiction councillors, nurses and police all have to be increased
dramatically, she said.
Married to a Cree ranger, Ms. Stephen, a Métis, is in many ways a model for her
peers. Unlike many parents on the reserve, she keeps a clean and tidy house and
her daughter, 10-year-old Latea, is fed and clothed well.
This weekend she carefully decorated her front room so that Latea could invite
friends for a Halloween party. She made coloured drawings on the windows and
stuck cotton wool on the ceiling. The children bobbed for apples.
"Of course, living on a reserve has some negatives, but it also allows families
to stay close together and for support of the elderly," she said. "The
alternative is assimilation and a loss of native culture.
"People ought to have a choice. If they want to stay on a reserve they should
be allowed to. We're members of Canada, too, and whether we live on a reserve
or not we should have support."
Annie Wynne, whose back garden looks on to Willow Creek Street, also wants to
stay on the reserve. "It's where I was born and raised," she said. "I wouldn't
want to move."
The 42-year-old married in the local Anglican church when she was 16 and has
spent her life raising 11 children. A handsome woman with an easy laugh, she
likes to stand on her stoop and smoke when she is not busy.
Like many other residents, she says her family has had no problem with water
quality and did not want to be flown out. But she welcomed the chance for a new
house on a new reserve nearby.
As she spoke, one of her daughters, Bethany, 16, stood listening and smoking.
The mother of week-old baby girl, Harlem, Bethany said she won't be seeing the
father again because he is a "druggie."
For Annie Wynne and her family the main problem with life in Kashechewan is the
high cost of groceries.
At the Northern Store -- the only major retail outlet in town -- food and other
supplies often cost double or more what they would farther south.
>From her $800-a-month welfare cheque, Ms. Wynne must buy enough to feed her
>entire family. She said she usually has to buy tins or frozen food. "Prices
>are high. Welfare is low. It's simple," she said.
Both her parents died in the past few years. Five months ago she split with
Philemon, her husband of 25 years, because she said he gambles his money away
on cards. "Sometimes when he's broke he comes around and I feed him," she said.
The high price of food is doing more than hurting the pockets of Kashechewan's
residents. It is also slowly ruining their health.
Linda Wynne, 45, a diabetic who lives at the southern end of Willow Creek
Street, near an abandoned white trailer covered in obscene graffiti, is one of
four people living in a three-bedroom house.
Two years ago her right leg was amputated below the knee. Next year she will
probably lose her left leg, pending a decision by specialists in Kingston,
where the government flies her for treatment.
Her vision is foggy due to cataracts, also caused by diabetes, and she is
awaiting an operation on her right eye.
In the back of her house her brother Sidney Goodwin, 58, lies on a bed
listlessly watching television. Both of his legs have been amputated because of
diabetes, one in 2003, the other last month.
The pair are among dozens, possibly hundreds, of inhabitants of Kashechewan
with diabetes.
Experts say the problem is a result of the change of aboriginal diet and
lifestyle in the last 50 years. Many natives have given up living off the land
-- which is increasingly expensive and difficult -- and survive instead on junk
food.
"Almost everyone eats canned food here," Linda Wynne said. "Buying fresh food
is so expensive. Ten pounds of potatoes will cost you $20."
With gas prices in Kashechewan currently at $1.90 a litre even the traditional
hunting season is under threat. Residents use long-freight canoes with outboard
engines that can use several litres an hour.
The sight of a man peddling frozen moose meat door-to-door to try to offset
some of his costs has become a common sight in Kashechewan.
Ken Hughie is one of only a few local residents who still goes out to trap
beaver in the traditional way. After stretching and treating the furs he sells
them to traders from Timmins and other more southerly towns at around $50 a
pelt.
He taught his grandson, 21-year-old Curtis to trap and fish, too. But now, as
Mr. Hughie works outside chopping wood for the winter, his grandson, already a
recovering alcoholic, sits in a football shirt flipping channels on the
television.
Esther, 58, the young man's grandmother, said: "It was so much better in the
old days. We used to spend all our time in the bush.
"Today the young have nothing to do. They all just drink and take drugs and
that makes us elders very sad. I'm not sure a few new houses are going to
change all that."
As for Mathias Wynne, he is as despondent as ever. Early yesterday morning he
stood outside his house smoking a cigarette. "I can't sleep," he said. "I
always get up early even if there is nothing to do.
"I used to make homebrew. But I stopped that. I was afraid that if I made it
wrong and somebody drank it and died I would get into trouble."
The high point of his year, he said, is in January when the winter roads to the
community open up and trucks begin to arrive from outside. Then the price of
boot-leg liquor falls from $100 a bottle to around $40 and people no longer
have to share a bottle because they can buy one each.
"I never had a problem with the water. It's the unemployment and boredom that
are killing me."
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"
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