[2012-Feb-19] We're sorry for taking this awesome land

[smiley_cow]

EDIT 2: On a more positive note, does anyone else have any experience with aboriginal languages? I studied Inuktitut for two semesters and it was quite enjoyable. I got to meet Zacharias Kunuk too which was exceptionally cool. I still need to see The Fast Runner.

Not personally, except the occasional word here and there, but I have a friend who speaks Cree. She's not fluent but she speaks more than most people of Cree descent her age. It's a dying language, here, sadly.

Also yeah, you need to see Fast Runner. You might like it more than I did, apparently the Inuktitut doesn't match the subtitles because they were torn on what to say a few times, so they compromised by getting them to say one thing on screen then used the other version in the translations. So there's a few things I probably completely missed.

[DonRetrasado]

I can't really follow along with spoken Inuktitut unfortunately. I only have a basic vocabulary.

[Kaharz]

There are still people who like to be called Eskimos and Indians, and that's okay.

The handful of people I've met whose ancestors were here before the Europeans prefer "Indigenous" or "Indian."

[DonRetrasado]

As for the Inuit (Inuk singular), a lot of people in Alaska still call themselves Eskimos. "Eskimo" also includes the Yupik, Inupiat and Inuvialut. Inupiat and Inuvialit are related to the Inuit but do not like being called Inuit at all (though they are referred to as "Inuit" in the Nunavut act). Yupik are totally unrelated folk from Russia so it's actually more appropriate to call them Eskimo over Inuit. I'm not sure what the people in Greenland call themselves. Also, none of these people are First Nations.

[ahah]

No one alive took the land, no one alive owned the land. Anyone who even considers putting a redistribution scheme together does so based on ethnic collectivism.

[Sahan]

Or you know, ancestral inheritance.

[smiley_cow]

No one alive took the land, no one alive owned the land. Anyone who even considers putting a redistribution scheme together does so based on ethnic collectivism.

I don't understand why everyone's counter argument is 'We can't just give back the land!' when no one has mentioned that.

[DonRetrasado]

Yes, you can't just give a bunch of people a honk of land and call it a day; look at conditions on reserves. People have needs, like infrastructure and autonomy, and the means to repair their culture and lives. As it stands, all of us who came here or were born here all have to live together. So it wouldn't be unjust to listen to your neighbour's complaints once in a while instead of rebuffing them and saying "not my problem".

[Lethal Interjection]

No one alive took the land, no one alive owned the land. Anyone who even considers putting a redistribution scheme together does so based on ethnic collectivism.

I don't understand why everyone's counter argument is 'We can't just give back the land!' when no one has mentioned that.

What do you mean. Me and the folks at the MJI have be advocating for that for years.

[Jamie]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... erica.html

guess that changes everything huh?

[smiley_cow]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... erica.html

guess that changes everything huh?

No, not really.

[Apocalyptus]

Good god, the comments on that article. If that is any reflection on the quality of that news establishment, I'm not holding my breath.

[Dindong]

And yet the telegraph is taken seriously even thought they are mental. They had two articles on there recently, both to do with voting.

One said that corporations should be given the vote.

Another said that people who pay less than £100 of income tax should not be given the vote.

Actual serious articles. They literally want to live in Pre-Victorian Britain.

[Oldrac the Chitinous]

I am pretty sure those are the worst possible voting reforms.

[Dindong]

What if we had one guy and only he gets the vote? And like, he could pass on this vote to his descendants. And they could live in a special place, just for them for the voting.