Aboriginal Governance Index
UPDATE: Speaking of First Nations, check this one out.
This I did not know. The Frontier Centre for Public Policy, a Winnipeg based think tank, has publish a second annual Aboriginal Governance Index. I didn't know they had published a first one, but what a great idea!! There have been a number of similar reports issued by the United Nations known as the Human Development Index, meant to measure how well different countries provide for the well being of their citizens. (As an aside, Arab countries have fared rather poorly in those reports.)
As the article from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy states, the index is aimed at providing a benchmark for the communities so that they can "measure their progress in achieving responsible self-government" and looks at First Nations in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. This is really going to help First Nations citizens improve the performance of their governments, but believe me, there is a very long, tough road ahead.
As I said earlier today on the blog, Dust My Broom, when they start putting leaders into the upper echelons of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations who think like that, they might get somewhere. The old guard that continues to dominate that organization still blames every instance of irresponsible behavior on the failure of the Feds to provide enough money.
When those two little girls froze to death last winter because of their father's negligence, Lawrence Joseph used it as an excuse to bitch about the lack of money for treatment centers. Took the blame right off of the person who should have shouldered it, providing him with the usual out. Blame it on whitey.
When Harper delivered the apology for residential schools, Joseph issued a statement that more or less told people that forgiveness was optional. Leaving no room for misinterpretation, he was saying you still have a right to wallow in self-pity. We won't blame you. You have no obligation to move on.
It's just like Mugabe still blaming European colonialism more than 50 years after the colonial era ended. It's been like that in Saskatchewan for more than 30 years and it won't change until the old guard and the ideology to which they cling is swept from power.
h/t Darcey at Dust my Broom
This I did not know. The Frontier Centre for Public Policy, a Winnipeg based think tank, has publish a second annual Aboriginal Governance Index. I didn't know they had published a first one, but what a great idea!! There have been a number of similar reports issued by the United Nations known as the Human Development Index, meant to measure how well different countries provide for the well being of their citizens. (As an aside, Arab countries have fared rather poorly in those reports.)
As the article from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy states, the index is aimed at providing a benchmark for the communities so that they can "measure their progress in achieving responsible self-government" and looks at First Nations in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. This is really going to help First Nations citizens improve the performance of their governments, but believe me, there is a very long, tough road ahead.
As I said earlier today on the blog, Dust My Broom, when they start putting leaders into the upper echelons of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations who think like that, they might get somewhere. The old guard that continues to dominate that organization still blames every instance of irresponsible behavior on the failure of the Feds to provide enough money.
When those two little girls froze to death last winter because of their father's negligence, Lawrence Joseph used it as an excuse to bitch about the lack of money for treatment centers. Took the blame right off of the person who should have shouldered it, providing him with the usual out. Blame it on whitey.
When Harper delivered the apology for residential schools, Joseph issued a statement that more or less told people that forgiveness was optional. Leaving no room for misinterpretation, he was saying you still have a right to wallow in self-pity. We won't blame you. You have no obligation to move on.
It's just like Mugabe still blaming European colonialism more than 50 years after the colonial era ended. It's been like that in Saskatchewan for more than 30 years and it won't change until the old guard and the ideology to which they cling is swept from power.
h/t Darcey at Dust my Broom
posted by Louise at 7:02 pm
2 Comments:
Thx for comment on my Cuba post.
I had a bit of an observation last week that I only shared with the sweet woman next to me.
We were watching 10,000 BC and I said, "funny, that's the way aboriginals lived only a little over a hundred years ago."
(I didn't refer only to North American aboriginals.)
Nomadic, following buffalo and caribou (instead of mammoths), subsistence existence, witch doctors, spears and victimized by light skinned people with technology.
Why did some peoples advance their civilization while others did not?
Why?
I subscribe to the theory that necessity is the motherhood of invention. That and just plain luck. Have you ever read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond? Massive tome but an absolutely fascinating explanation of why some advances while others didn't.
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