Indian Affairs
Further to "The Apology," from yesterday's blog, please read Harvey Enchin's op-ed piece in this morning's Sun.
It is just about the clearest and most straight-forward editorial I've read in a long time on the subject of "Indian Affairs."
Enchin points out that with all the money being spent, the results are disastrous: growing poverty, bad housing, criminality, kids on welfare.
He suggest we start by tearing up the Indian Act, an idea that many of us have been insisting for over 40 years now.
He also quotes the great economist de Soto, who has argued world-wide for several years now that OWNERSHIP is everything. Thus, give natives the right and responsibility of owning their own homes on or off reserves.
Finally he quotes Clarence Louie, who is the Osoyoos Band Chief. Louie says what kids need is a job, not some feel good program.
I say, "Forget the healing. Let the going to school and going to work begin."
2 comments:
Where would the aboriginal people be today if they had not been sent to residential schools? Would they be better off or worse?
I suspect many have benefited by the education received from residential schools and have used their smarts to complain about the system to their advantage.
The problem with residential schools is they were run by the church, otherwise they were a good idea.
After all, don't we have residential schools today for overseas students?
You want change--then do away with the caste systems operating on band lands. Drive through Musqueam or Tsawwassen band lands. Why do some folks have big houses and others have shacks?
Somebody gets those millions of dollars, yet there are cries of poverty.
It's time to get over the past and get on with real life.
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