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sabotabbyThe thing with reading anything about indigenous news or history is that the second it's viewed objectively (as opposed to through the lens of the colonizer), it becomes laughably absurd. And yet.
For example, if you asked a white Canadian if it's okay to kidnap people to be abused and tortured, I think most would say that it is not okay to kidnap people to be abused and tortured. If you asked if it's okay to kidnap children to be abused and tortured, the answer would probably stay the same. Probably anyone who answered in the affirmative is a sociopath.
And yet. Fact: The Canadian state kidnapped 16,000 children to be abused, tortured, and in many cases, raped. The survivors are suing. Now a court has ruled that they have to pay their own legal costs. Absurd, right?
Or this story, out of Attawapiskat. Let's say you own a house. Someone goes digging around in your backyard and finds a diamond mine. They get rich off of it—toss you the odd coin, to be fair, but dude, that diamond mine is in your backyard, and they already have shit-tons of money. Meanwhile, your house is falling apart, the water and heat have been shut off, and you're about to be evicted onto the street. We already knew De Beers was evil, but they're reaping tremendous profits off the backs of indigenous people.
(Don't read the comments.)
Lest I be accused of singling out Canada (I live here, okay?) Aboriginal activists in Australia have cost the Prime Minister a shoe. Heh. The Australian state owes a lot more than that.
For example, if you asked a white Canadian if it's okay to kidnap people to be abused and tortured, I think most would say that it is not okay to kidnap people to be abused and tortured. If you asked if it's okay to kidnap children to be abused and tortured, the answer would probably stay the same. Probably anyone who answered in the affirmative is a sociopath.
And yet. Fact: The Canadian state kidnapped 16,000 children to be abused, tortured, and in many cases, raped. The survivors are suing. Now a court has ruled that they have to pay their own legal costs. Absurd, right?
Or this story, out of Attawapiskat. Let's say you own a house. Someone goes digging around in your backyard and finds a diamond mine. They get rich off of it—toss you the odd coin, to be fair, but dude, that diamond mine is in your backyard, and they already have shit-tons of money. Meanwhile, your house is falling apart, the water and heat have been shut off, and you're about to be evicted onto the street. We already knew De Beers was evil, but they're reaping tremendous profits off the backs of indigenous people.
(Don't read the comments.)
Lest I be accused of singling out Canada (I live here, okay?) Aboriginal activists in Australia have cost the Prime Minister a shoe. Heh. The Australian state owes a lot more than that.
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 02:17 pm (UTC)You just have to claim they are terrorists and then it's just fine by most people. Sadly.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 03:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 03:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 03:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 05:13 pm (UTC)The more I read about diamonds the less I understand.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 05:33 pm (UTC)They are useless.
Their value is entirely manufactured—by a single company, no less.
They are dripping with the blood of people of colour.
Everyone knows this but many people buy them anyway.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 06:06 pm (UTC)But you can make fake ones that do the same thing.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 06:07 pm (UTC)I want fake diamonds for everyone.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 06:28 pm (UTC)However, I am not actually curious enough about it at this time to do any research, seeing as I don't have the money to support the gemstone market at this time, even if I had an inclination to do so.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 11:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 05:37 pm (UTC)I have no one to blame but myself
no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-28 10:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-29 12:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-29 11:36 pm (UTC)"What amount of set-for-generations-money-and-land will it take to serve as a reasonable approximation of the evil done by the crown and cause you to agree that we're no longer trying to screw you? Or barring that, would you like large swaths of heretofore Canadian-held Territory in which you can build an independent state with or without our participation? Really this lease-in-perpetuity isn't working for either of us."
But first we'd have to directly take on the large portion of the Canadian electorate that thinks we owe nothing what with the dispossession and the squatting and the attempts at kinder-gentler-genocide, and such.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-29 11:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-29 11:43 pm (UTC)