Worst Mother of the Year award goes to...

[patrickt]

IMO people should not have to live there.

They don't have to live there any more than people have to live in Detroit. But, when you're on the dole it's hard to make the break to independence. Historians estimate that in the struggle against England one-third of the colonists wanted independence--and responsibility--one-third wanted to stay with the King and one-third didn't care.

I have a friend who is a Zapotec and lives in a Zapotec village here in Mexico. His dream is that nothing will change, ever. He fought hard against allowing his granddaughter to go to school and learn to speak Spanish. He told me that since he grows corn his family will never be hungry. I said, "That's true and you'll never get that pickup truck you dream about." He agreed he won't.

One year where there was no corn crop I asked why he didn't irrigate. "Because my parents didn't irrigate, my grandparents didn't irrigate, and I won't irrigate.

We've drifted from evil mothers to the government-created plight of Native Americans. When I was growing up I knew some Indians but it was in the East and they weren't living on reservations. They had finished high school, had normal jobs, and, gasp, normal lives. I moved out West and a friend of mine had adopted five Sioux siblings, all suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome. Let's hear it for government solution to problems.

Seriously. If I wanted to punish the Indians for all time I'd put them on land that's unproductive, give them independence but not really, provide them with welfare that would guarantee a life of poverty, poor education, and plenty of alcohol. If I wanted to destroy all black people I'd give them an inadequate education, destroy the family, and give them welfare to keep them in the cancerous cities killing each other and doing drugs. Basically, the plan our government has been following since President Lyndon B. Johnson. And, it's working.

[Adelaide]

The Inuit people are not the same people as they were in the past. They feel that they have to live there. There are mixed messagess as between the elders and the government. They have been changed by the media and many other influences. Yes they have televisions and radios in the north. The elders are not so much changed, but the youth have been changed. They are not happy. They express that hopelessness by hurting themselves. It is called being a fish out of water. Life simply does not stop in place. Is it preferable that the Inuit simply become extinct, because they either kill themselves deliberately or develop such inimical lifestyles that they die out at increasing regularity, until none are left?
As you are researching the North, look up the number of Inuit children who were sexually abused by pedophiles sent there as teachers. There are more than a few class action suits in that regard. The north provided a great deal of latitude and protection to pedophiles. The children in their charge viewed them with ultimate respect and allowed themselves to be horribly abused.

It is interesting that the only way to get qualified teachers to go teach in the territories is to pay them $100,000+/year and to target teachers who can't jobs in the industry in their own provinces due to a massive amount of teachers and a small amount of positions. I can believe that some of the people who take those jobs are possibly not the greatest choice.

[Adelaide]

Excuse me?

These are indigenous people. They have lived on those lands long before "Europeans" were invented.

No one forces them to live there, in fact we are pouring money into them so they can maintain their heritage, a late attempt to preserve an unwritten language, and culture.

I know some of these people. The city kills them. The south kills them, they cannot deal with a land where it does not get dark in the winter.

Please, at least Wikipedia 'Inuit' before uttering such stupidity.

It is important to maintain and encourage their cultural and linguistic history. But that doesn't make it any less sad that they're often living in poverty and dying of causes that are preventable, (childbirth and diabetes being two examples). I agree with the importance of embracing their culture, but really it does seem hard to swallow what comes along with that.

[Dr. Who]

It is important to maintain and encourage their cultural and linguistic history. But that doesn't make it any less sad that they're often living in poverty and dying of causes that are preventable, (childbirth and diabetes being two examples). I agree with the importance of embracing their culture, but really it does seem hard to swallow what comes along with that.

It would be better for the populations of the Inuit to at least move to places like Iqaliut. The entire Canadian population of Inuit is barely 50,000. Surely one larger town in Nunavut would provide more opportunities for education and employment. If anything, that should enhance the teaching of Inuit culture. The fact is with the shrinkage of the polar ice caps some of the areas currently home to the Inuit may soon either disappear or become uninhabitable.

[Captain Obvious]

My dad said to me one time when I was in high school "you know what I want to see the next time I open the fridge? your face on a milk carton".

[Dr. Who]

My dad said to me one time when I was in high school "you know what I want to see the next time I open the fridge? your face on a milk carton".

Nice guy your dad. Hope you left home early.

[Captain Obvious]

Nice guy your dad. Hope you left home early.

He is actually, great guy. It was a joke.

I did leave home early actually though, at 17. Not because I was unhappy at home, I was pretty independent as a kid. Still am.

[Dr. Who]

He is actually, great guy. It was a joke.

I did leave home early actually though, at 17. Not because I was unhappy at home, I was pretty independent as a kid. Still am.

Good, I'm glad he's a good guy. I left home at 18 to go to school in another city. Have been independent ever since.

[Adelaide]

It would be better for the populations of the Inuit to at least move to places like Iqaliut. The entire Canadian population of Inuit is barely 50,000. Surely one larger town in Nunavut would provide more opportunities for education and employment. If anything, that should enhance the teaching of Inuit culture. The fact is with the shrinkage of the polar ice caps some of the areas currently home to the Inuit may soon either disappear or become uninhabitable.

I think this is a dangerous line to toe. Almost as though we want to convert them to our ways. Makes me think of residential schools, unfortunately. I just do not think there is much to be done with the Inuit, other than respecting their beliefs, culture and language.

[Dr. Who]

I think this is a dangerous line to toe. Almost as though we want to convert them to our ways. Makes me think of residential schools, unfortunately. I just do not think there is much to be done with the Inuit, other than respecting their beliefs, culture and language.

I'm not suggesting converting them in any way, but in larger numbers it would be much easier to provide the proper necessities of life and a culture that involves more than a handful of people at a time. Certainly it would be easier to build decent schools, have decent sanitation etc. Let's face it, not that many of the young Inuit are actively pursuing the seal and whale hunting lifestyle anymore. Without that, what is the point of living in a tiny enclave in Rankin Inlet? I think that was the intent of creating Nunavut, as a way to save the Inuit people from dying out.