It Pains Me

 "We are still here." This is the sentiment of many Indigenous people out there. The destruction caused by colonialism, Christianity, is immeasurable. Who knows what has been lost due to the greed of White people. It pains me that we live a life of "what if's." The destruction caused by Wendigo is right in front of us and still it continues like it is as a good thing. Whole civilizations have been destroyed, been wiped off the face of the Earth because of White society. It is not a racist statement, just a fact of their way of life; the accumulation of everything. 

“There’s no winning for us. We’re screwed. We were born into a system we don’t agree with, and we got caught. Here, out there, it doesn’t matter. There’s nothing left for us.”

— Richelle Mead

Do You Have Any Currency Left?

Most societies in the World now measure things with price, cost and monetary value. From the Forest to the Oceans, there is a dollar amount assigned to them. It is a weird way of looking at things. I remember entering the off-ramp at Calgary Airport and seeing a poster on the wall; it said "water our valuable resource." We put money value on anything and that is how people can relate to things, "what it costs." 

On BBC television there is a show called Us, I watched a few moments of season one, episode two. The scene was at the food buffet in some hotel. A young Asian Woman was taking a couple of jam spreads when  an older White British man said "the buffet is based on trust and you should just take one jam spread." So she puts one back and goes sit down. He says to his wife, "a bit much with the truth thing?" The episode went on where the Asian Woman was outside the restaurant and says to the Whiteman, "Hey it's me, the thief," and she pulled out a couple of bread roles from her pockets to show off, and then she went on her way. This is interesting little scene. It was meant to be funny but made me think about the Whiteman's audacity.  How can he admonish someone for "theft?"  This is where I think of our own currency. Do we have currency to scold, to begrudge, to critique, to pass judgement? The White British dude had no currency to speak of, and to chastise young woman about taking an extra jar of jam. The guy comes from a society which built unimaginable wealth through theft. So it's really takes some real "nerve" to be the message of the trust virtue. 

We can just about question the value, the currency of most societies, governments and companies. This past week we drove out to Alberta from Manitoba. We went to visit a brother and his family, along with a cousin. The week was to end with us going to Jasper Park and a train ride into the mountains. Turns out Jasper was burning up. Alberta is a province in Canada where the Right political ideology reigns supreme. With the Right thinkers in power, there is no thought to public services and there has been more support to private business. Alberta was ravaged last summer with Forest Fires, and it has not changed much this summer. The Premier of Alberta, Daniel Smith said "we won't always have a $2.9-billion disaster like we did last year."  So you might say that Smith has no legitimacy in what she says, or in other words, she has no currency to share with anyone. How can the government share "thoughts and prayers" to a situation they have helped to occur? 

That is the thing isn't it, who has the currency to be critical of what is happening in the world? Israel has no currency when they speak of democracy, human rights and discrimination. Israel is demonstrating to the world what an absence of moral currency or decency looks like. The United States is another example of the utter lack of human decency. They are actively supporting a Genocide and actively attacking everyone who speaks against the horrors of slaughtering children. So many different places and situations where there are questions as to who "has the right" to be speak. I can understand to a degree why some folk are loud when it comes to issues. For certain, I support Indigenous people and are willing the support for them.  Do we support with every situation? What if, for example, a group of Ojibway people went and slaughtered a 24-pack of Bears. It is a horrible act and should be condemned. But would I condemn it? I would among our group but not publicly to outsiders of our group. 

So I think this is what is happening in the public sphere, people are not willing to voice against things because they want to be supportive, even when children are having their limbs and heads blown off.