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Friday, August 4, 2006
A work in progress

After many years of planning, fundraising and hoping, members of Yellowknife's arts community have put together a festival of their own.

Wisely, festival organizers have not attempted to create an event of epic proportions. Instead they have started small, testing the waters with a manageable showcase for Yellowknife's many unique artists.

They've also chosen the best time of year to hold the festival.

August is traditionally a slow part of the summer season and, if done right, the festival could become a perfect filler, providing an activity for residents and becoming a tourist attraction.

The one problem we see is festival organizers have failed to create an event that will fully involve the community.

Unlike Folk on the Rocks, the arts festival is spread out and many of the workshops have a participation cost.

We realize that it is important to cover costs. But, $20 for a puppet making workshop and $35 for a stained glass workshop could turn people away or, at the very least, force them to choose one workshop over another.

It may have been better to rent a large space, such as one of the arenas, and put everything under one roof with a single admission fee.

We hope this year's festival is a success, which brings notice to the many fine artists Yellowknife has to offer and provides a foundation to build bigger and better for 2007.


Real life beats 'sim world'

A good game of Monopoly could last three, maybe four hours. Today's online computer games, linking players around the world, can last for days, even weeks on end.

Last week, Yellowknifer reported on the attraction of online games like World of Warcraft and Everquest. One gamer said he spends about four hours a day online and even stays up until 3 a.m. despite having to work the next day.

This week, Statistics Canada reported a price is paid by heavy Internet users over and above sleepless nights: getting less done around the home, less time spent with family and friends, including about two hours spent alone each day.

While gamers can chat while playing, it's no substitute for real human interaction.

Fun is fun, but there comes a time when you should put down the mouse, unplug the headphones and power down the computer. Get out your fishing pole, jump on a bike, or simply sit down and talk with your friends and family. You'll find real life is much more rewarding that a simulation.


Southern perception turning ugly

Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News


Well, valued readers, it certainly is good to be back at the helm of the Kivalliq News and home again in Rankin Inlet.

One disconcerting factor about my time away from Nunavut was the change in the type of questions I was bombarded with this summer from curious southerners.

Since I arrived in Rankin in 1998, the line of questioning I received every time I ventured south remained fairly constant.

I was asked about the temperatures, weather, storm severity, fishing conditions, what I did for fun away from work and a million hockey-related questions I won't bore you with the details of.

And, of course, there was always that one person who would ask me how many Inuit still live in iglus.

Hello? It's 2006!

But, I can honestly say, the questions thrown at me this summer had me longing for the days of, "You pay eight dollars for two litres of Pepsi?"

The questions I was asked this year illustrate the downside of a territory whose government and organizations gain most of their national media coverage by blasting away at the feds.

I was actually taken back by the anger I detected in some of the questions.

In fact, I was more than a little astounded by the number of people who asked me if anything good ever happens in Nunavut.

With my curiosity peaked and my feelings more than a little hurt, I started panning the Internet for Nunavut-related news articles and, I must confess, the vast majority of what turned up wasn't pretty, Northern-based media aside.

Now, keep in mind, most of the people who read/hear/watch these reports have little or no understanding of our territory other than what they come across in the media.

I quickly understood why many of them now have tainted views of Nunavut.

Most of what turned up revolved around sexual misconduct, violence, financial wrongdoing and an endless stream of we're not happy and/or we'll sue type of articles.

I'm sure many of you are reading this and wondering why I'm so surprised the evil media paints such a dark picture of Nunavut?

If it bleeds, it leads. Right?

Sometimes, yes. But there's more to it than that.

Yes, we have more than our share of challenges in the North with housing, health, education - the list goes on.

And, yes, we need our leaders to continue lobbying for improvements.

But, it's reached the point where somebody in our organizations is simply not doing their job.

A lot of great things have happened since division, but more is required to get that news out than simply inserting a press release and hitting the send button at 4:50 p.m. on a Friday afternoon.

The onus falls on us to show the rest of the country we're much more than their poor, misbehaving cousins.

Maybe it's time some of our well paid media-relations types spend a little less time shopping for traditional clothing to look the part, and start putting in the same level of effort to get the good news out that southern journalists do to obtain the bad.

Maybe then we can all go back to counting the antennas on top of iglus in preparation for the questions we face on our summer breaks.


The loss of a legacy

Editorial Comment
Dez Loreen
Inuvik Drum


The way I see things, there are two types of people in our region: the haves and the have nots.

When I say that, I mean there are people who have their sense of culture and tradition and those who don't. You can tell which group these people fall into by the way they act, the way they present themselves, or their mannerisms.

Normally, those people who strongly identify with their traditions tend to be older, and were products of an older society. Granted, there are younger people who also are aware of who they are, and what is important when it comes to their heritage.

These people can be found at whaling camps, out at old-time dances, and can be seen around town sporting their traditional wear.

I saw a lot of people like that this past weekend at the Gwich'in gathering. People were talking and laughing in their language, and eating soup and sharing stories of past gatherings.

For every person who is still in touch with their past, there might be two or three people who just don't get it. Maybe they passed up the chance to go out on the land because they got a promotion in their job, or maybe a Caribbean cruise sounded more appealing.

I can totally relate with the people who have strayed from the pack of cultural do-gooders, because I am a product of a different culture. I'm like one of those brown eggs who was put in a different carton, and was raised, well, white.

I know that I have family in the outlying communities, and I know that there are about 40 people in Tuktoyaktuk who would be glad to spend time sharing their stories with me about the first time they saw a ship pull into the bay.

As a kid, I was always around a group of people who preferred to stay in town, and play soccer, rent video games and watch television.

I've never reached out to my cultural roots, and I see more and more people around me who have done the same. You know who you are, wearing a du-rag and blasting the new 50 Cent song from your car stereo.

I cannot say that my culture was stolen from me, or that some bureaucratic fat cats came and bought me out for an I-pod. I willingly gave up my rights to being traditional when I bleached my hair for the first time.

Some people were taken from their homes many years ago, faced many hardships and maybe forgot their language in the process of assimilation.

Those people are now parents, or even grandparents. I'm speaking of the younger generation that chose the cartoon heroes Thundercats over Super Shamou.

As a young person who has not embraced every aspect of his culture, I have to admit that I had fun at the Gwich'in gathering this weekend.

I was tapping my toes to the beats of the drum, and I had some traditional eats too. (Yes, they were just donuts.) I guess I'm thanking the co-ordinators for showing close-minded people like me that everyone is treated the same at these gatherings, and fun can be had by anyone.


In the public eye

Editorial Comment
Roxanna Thompson
Deh Cho Drum


Stepping into public office is much like willingly stepping under a microscope.

In smaller communities, like those in the Deh Cho, it's hard to keep anything private for very long. And for public officials, that scrutiny gets turned up a notch higher. They become like the ant under the magnifying glass, but instead of a child holding the handle, every member of the community has a hand on it. And just like an ant when the sun comes out sometimes it can get hot under the lens.

People in positions of authority are always under the scrutiny of the public eye. Details of their private lives are more readily known than those of the average person and their decisions are analyzed and criticised. They are also often held to higher standards of accountability.

This level of scrutiny extends across a wide variety of positions from chiefs to band councillors, and even to teachers and RCMP officers.Are these higher standards fair?Arguably, yes they are.

These jobs and others like them are positions of trust and come with heavy responsibility. Members of the general public need to feel comfortable that those they look to for help, leadership and guidance are reliable to give that assistance.

It's human nature to view someone differently and look at their competency in a different manner after you learn something about them that you find questionable.

Activities that may be shrugged off as common occurrences in the general public take on a whole different light when the person in question holds an important office. The poster case for this is, of course, the former president of the U.S., Bill Clinton.

While extra-marital affairs are probably a daily occurrence for many in his country, the case of Clinton showed us that if you try it as a president you are bound to be held accountable. The Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal also showed that the public will make up its own mind while the courts may reach a different conclusion. In all cases in Canada, people are innocent until proven guilty. This, however, will not erase the stain that is caused the moment charges are laid against a person. Guilty or innocent, it never makes a good impression. These higher standards are, however, there for a reason -- even if they often prove to be hard to follow.

When something happens and someone falls short, important decisions need to be made about how serious the incident was and the degree to which it will alter their effectiveness as a leader. Appropriate steps must be taken from there.

But while we stand around holding the magnifying glass we should all remember that no one is perfect. While much time is spent looking at the faults of others, the attention should also occasionally be reversed.