So which is it? Ice increasing or ice decreasing?
This article pretty much says the opposite of one that I read recently in Lapresse about how ice is melting so fast, and things are getting worse. This one says ice has been increasing. So who speaks the truth?
Is it just me?
You know what? I don't give diddley anymore.
Ok, I won't promote pollution or anything, I recycle, I re-use (a heck of a lot more than most people - hey, I even wash ziploc bags and reuse'em), and I compost. IN FACT, in spite of the fact that we are supposedly suffocating the poor earth by having kids who are sucking in all its ressources, we STILL manage, with a family of 5 kids, to put out less garbage per week, than people with NO KIDS. Actually, quite often we don't even put out garbage, because the bin is just too empty for it to be worthwhile. WHAT'S MORE, we might even skip a couple of weeks IN A ROW. Not bad eh? I do this because I care about air quality, and water quality, and the quality of a lot of others things. Also, because I dislike the whole disposable mentality thing, and waste and whatnot. Because disposable doesn't stop at things, people become disposable too. And because the old adage "waste not, want not" still rings true.
But OH PEOPLE, get over the end of the world theory already... Ice ages come and go, colder periods come and go, hotter periods come and go. This has been happening since before the dinosaurs. Before there were people to pollute the earth. TIME TO WAKE UP!!! Maybe, JUST MAYBE, something else out there is in control of the climate!!! Like maybe the sun for instance!
Nah,... I bet it's aliens.
Is it just me?
You know what? I don't give diddley anymore.
Ok, I won't promote pollution or anything, I recycle, I re-use (a heck of a lot more than most people - hey, I even wash ziploc bags and reuse'em), and I compost. IN FACT, in spite of the fact that we are supposedly suffocating the poor earth by having kids who are sucking in all its ressources, we STILL manage, with a family of 5 kids, to put out less garbage per week, than people with NO KIDS. Actually, quite often we don't even put out garbage, because the bin is just too empty for it to be worthwhile. WHAT'S MORE, we might even skip a couple of weeks IN A ROW. Not bad eh? I do this because I care about air quality, and water quality, and the quality of a lot of others things. Also, because I dislike the whole disposable mentality thing, and waste and whatnot. Because disposable doesn't stop at things, people become disposable too. And because the old adage "waste not, want not" still rings true.
But OH PEOPLE, get over the end of the world theory already... Ice ages come and go, colder periods come and go, hotter periods come and go. This has been happening since before the dinosaurs. Before there were people to pollute the earth. TIME TO WAKE UP!!! Maybe, JUST MAYBE, something else out there is in control of the climate!!! Like maybe the sun for instance!
Nah,... I bet it's aliens.
Ice comes and ice goes. I could go on and on about this subject (maybe I have since I can't remember all of my rants on blogger). Do you remember in the 70's (I think it was) when we were told that scientists were predicting the next ice age?
ReplyDeleteThey say that when the Berlin Wall came down there was a shift in the language of newspapers. Apocalyptic words such as; war, Communism, nuclear destruction, etc., were replaced by a new set of Apocalyptic words such as; Global Warming, famine, flooding, etc. Someone actually did a count and found that the number of Apocalyptic words didn't change - just the type of words. The conclusion was that governments need a crisis to maintain control over people - and it doesn't matter to governments what the crisis - just as long as the people are held in fear. Anyway - don't get me started - well not on your blog anyway!
As to some of your questions in my blog (and I'm not referencing it here on purpose), in fact I did go to the Gathering of our People. The problem was that we didn't know about it beforehand and fell onto it by chance late on the last day. There wasn't time enough to really participate in any of the activities before having to head back to catch the train. That annoyed me since some of the activities were of interest to me - I recall something about an Elder walk in which I was interested.
As to my time at Moosonee when I was younger - I must admit that as children we had little association with the native people of Moosonee. I recall several native students in our school ( I remember having a crush on one girl who was 2 years my senior) which contained all grade levels from 3 to 8 in one classroom. Henry Hudson was the name of the school and it now has been converted to residences for the current high school. In my second to last year at the base the government constructed a school in Moosonee for the local residents.
While we did have some interaction with the local population, I would say that with minor exceptions the two groups (base kids & locals) did not co-mingle. Local kids were invited to the base for movies on the weekend, we had joint Christmas functions, and others, but in the end - it took an invitation to have local kids come to the base. As kids we were warned never to leave the base without supervision. Every weekend we would take the base bus to the HBC for shopping and often wandered (aimlessly) about town but that was the extent of what we could do unsupervised.
One story - which I'm sure would make most of my blogger commentators happy. I recall one time when myself and two others left the base on our bicycles to sneak to town without our parents knowing. Since we couldn't risk getting caught on the main road we took the back paths and came across a group of much older boys from Moosonee who proceeded to beat the crap out of us and stole our bikes. When I got home and told my Dad, his only response was, "you were told not to leave the base". It was always about following the rules when you were a kid.
I loved my time in Moosonee - as a young kid the lack of TV, the abundance of snow, the ability to play outside for hours upon end with virtually unlimited freedom, were all positives. I recall sitting near every night by the big shortwave radio we had and listening to the world beyond. I could pick up stations in exotic locaations such as London, Rome, Paris, etc,. That experience gave me the desire to see the world and I don't think it would have happened had I been able to come home and turn on a TV.
Anyway - I've rambled too long here . Just wanted to say in closing that I love your blog - your sense of reality and the common sense person you are comes through loud and clear.
Sounds kind of like the typical base in a foreign (and hostile) country. :)
ReplyDeleteI've seen companies who have built virtual towns for their employees overseas in unstable countries, and the employees and their families never mingle with the locals and are told it is too dangerous. Which is kind of too bad. Because then you miss out. On the other hand, your bikes don't get stolen...
Sounds like something that could have easily happened to our family, had we had bikes anyone wanted to steal. I think it was a good thing our parents were pretty poor and couldn't afford to buy us bikes. My dad would go to the dump and pick up old bikes and repair them with pieces from other old bikes. So we certainly didn't have style, but then again, our bikes were never stolen.
Things have changed a lot since I was young. They were already changing by the time I was an adolescent. For example, it used to be really dangerous to roam the streets at night, and a lot of violent crimes happened. Things have changed for the better. The Moose Cree have done such a good job taking themselves in hand and making something of themselves. I'm still amazed at all they have done. Especially compared to some other native peoples I have seen. Already by the time I was a teenager, relations between whites and natives were much better, and since then, a lot of my peers have travelled. More so than their parents, and they understand the outside world better.
Yeah, I do remember the 70's when we were told a second ice-age was coming. Needless to say, I don't believe half the crap people put in newspapers anymore.
Yes - when I was there the base had only been open for about a year so it was a bit like an isolated base in a foreign land. I suspect that the first base people had never experienced the Cree or any other aboriginal lifestyle and it was foreign to them.
ReplyDeleteI have also experienced the other side of the coin. When I went to a public school for the first time in Grade 9, I was in a fight almost every week for the first 4 months. In a public school of 2000 kids (near Sudbury), I was the lone outsider and of course the one to pick on. That all changed later in Grade 10 as I developed relationships with people but hey - it builds character - or so they say.
When I travelled for business I used to try and make a point of staying an extra few days in each country - rent a car and drive around and stay in the smaller towns to get a flavour for the country. Big cities all over the world are pretty much the same in many ways. I suppose people are as well but the different customs were fascinating. I was lucky enough to travel in a time when McDonalds and others hadn't yet imposed the North American lifestyle on the world.
That's something I'd do, if I had the chance. My husband has travelled a fair bit. I've been to Paraguay, that's about it. 6 months. Enough to get to know the people a bit.
ReplyDeleteFunny, from that one unfortunate post, one wouldn't have guessed that about you. "Don't judge a book by its cover", they say...
The "Don't judge a book by its cover" certainly applies to me. Last year there was a parent who was thinking of the school for his daughter and he was given a warning by an existing parent of the school whom he knew very well. The existing parent (who's daughter had gone to our school for 7 years) informed the new parent that I was a wonderful teacher but that he (the new parent) was going to have difficulty with my non-politically correct style.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of last year this new parent came to me and told me of this story and said that if he hadn't of had the warning he wouldn't have made it past the first two weeks of school but that in the end he thought I was one of the best teachers his child has ever had.
I hate the political correctness that dominates our society today. I say what is on my mind and let the chips fall where they may. Often I say what others believe but are too worried to say - it is one of the ways in which I can challenge the kids to prove me wrong. In fact to get them to challenge everything they read or hear. In short - to get them to think.
Anyway - tis time I went to screw with the minds of our youth once more. It's a pleasure to talk with you.