In a Just Society

As you know this (Angels of the Road) blog site has shifted focus to anti-poverty and social justice issues. Nowhere in Canadian society is social injustice more prevalent then when it involves our Native citizens. Last night one of my Tweeties (Twitter People) posted the link to a very articulate article titled, First Nations won’t “get over” your ignorance by Chelsea Vowel a Métis woman from Alberta. The salient points for our discussion are held in the following excerpt. You can link to the full article through the title.

Canadians who do recognize historical injustice seem to understand it in this way:

1.    Bad things happened.

2.    Bad things stopped happening and equality was achieved. (Though I've yet to see someone identify exactly when this happened.)

3.    The low social and political status held by indigenous peoples is now wholly based on the choice to be corrupt, lazy, inefficient, and unsuited to the modern world.

In this view, there is no history of colonialism and systemic racism that informs the modern view of indigenous peoples, because that problem was solved at some point in the past. The real racism is in conflating legitimate dislike for indigenous peoples (based not on race or ethnicity but rather on the bad choices we make) with historic colonialism/racism which is over. In continuing to discuss colonialism and racism as a present-day concern, we are engaging in reverse-racism and oppressing blameless settlers.

Let me begin by saying racism is alive and flourishing in Canada. I visited my home town last year… and the racism was palpable. The Whites believing all Natives are lazy drunks and the Natives believing all Whites are arrogant bullies. I have encountered similar beliefs everywhere I have travelled but more so on an individual basis. In my experience racism (or any other ism for that matter) is far more likely to come from a place of ignorance than from a place of hate. Ignorance can only be eradicated with information / education. When someone makes a statement in front of me that is wrongheaded, I take the time to provide them with the truth related to that misperception. The usual response is, “I didn’t know that”, or “I never thought of it that way”. Maybe I have only influenced that one belief but it is possible that their mind is now a little more open to examining their other beliefs.

The best way to change this is by dialoguing, informally and formally with each other. When my nephew was in grade 4 or 5 his school partnered with the local band to have a Native Awareness program offered after school.  The biggest problem was the program was open only to First Nations students. We can’t legitimately blame people for being ignorant if we refuse to educate them.

The general public thinks equality has been achieved because Apples (fully assimilated Natives) do have equality. I mean no disrespect by that term. An Apple can play golf at any country club in the nation; skin colour is not an issue. If he parks his Lexus in front of the cop-shop to report his 15 year old daughter missing from private school, I am pretty sure the police will be all over that.  The prejudice has less to do with skin and more to do with ignorance about Native culture and the effect the Indian Act has on development for indigenous nations.

Ms Vowel is correct that media carries a large responsibility for the problem. I would suggest that they could be a large part of the solution. When I had television I watched 2 news broadcasts CTV and APTN seldom did significant stories running on APTN get so much as a mention on mainstream media.

Feminism did not make any real strides until we made patriarchy the enemy not men. And in the past 40 years (I know firsthand) much has changed for women. To make those kinds of strides for Native rights we need to stop making the rhetoric Us Against Them. We need to discuss how the Canadian establishments (courts, social agencies, business models etc) were designed from a European perspective and do not fit with Native cultural norms. Many successful, sustainable, environmentally sensitive businesses are built around Native cultural models. And we will be seeing more and more integration of that business model into the Canadian economy over the next generation.   

This blog has gone a little long and the discussion is far from over; so one last thought. Colonialism was bad (not just here, everywhere), we cannot waste our time feeling guilty or angry about a past over which we have no control… we must take responsibility and action to change the future. Learning from and respecting each other, is where we start.

Have a joyous day.

Just a short break.

Just a quick update to let everyone know that the Angels of the Road . com website will be going offline as of the end of this month.  It will be down for about 3 months (or permanently) depending on the status of the domain name 3 months from now. It is the only way for me to sever ties with my old domain provider and that is what I wish to do. Around December 2013 we will have a newly formatted (possibly renamed) Angels of the Road website to support this blog.  

The blog will still be here with all the old journey stories and even new ones appearing from time to time. I would not wish to disappoint any of the wonderfully caring / curious people from all over the world who visit the Angels of the Road blog. Russia visits a couple of times each month with double digit hits.

To summarize website will be gone blog will remain. Anyone wishing a copy of the research report can email me through my other website bonny@spiritofthe8thfire.com

Have a joyous day everyone.

Partnerships for Prosperity

Thanks to my lovely friend, Brenda, I am able to watch video on my computer againJ . So I watched installment 3 of the 8^th FIRE series by CBC, not as uplifting as the previous episode but it was still very informative and positive about the future of Canada. It is titled, “Whose Land is It Anyway”.  It shows us models of good and bad faith economic development as it impacts our Native Brothers and Sisters. I used to be smug about Canada’s diamond industry (no blood diamonds here) but DeBeers is an example of old school bottom-line business practices which no longer fit contemporary models of corporate citizenship. These kinds of businesses will evolve eventually or die out… just as the auto industry is changing and pulp & papermakers moved into recycled products; so too other industries will need to become civically responsible members of the global /local community.

The Native model of custodial responsibility fits very nicely with the emerging corporate consciousness. The documentary shows us very clear examples of how incredibly successful collaborations between established industries and Native bands have actually been. NO GOVERNMENT INTEREFERENCE REQUIRED.  When Natives are taken into the process as a fully participating partner amazing things can happen. The old model of worry only about this quarter’s stock report (or this 4 year term in political office) is being rejected by the current and coming generations. We want to know, “What is your legacy?” By focusing our business activities (as Natives do) on the next 7 generations we can create long-term sustainable prosperity for all.  

This is one of those times when spiritualism meets advocacy, so this post will appear on both of my blog sites today. If you haven’t done so I urge you to watch the whole 8^th FIRE series (don’t let the 1^st one put you off) they are well worth the time.

Have a joyous day.

The Flow of Abundance

          This short note is simply an apology to all my Brothers and Sisters for being away from my blog site for so long; and I hope you will be patient a little longer. My world has been opening up so rapidly over the past few weeks I am having trouble keeping up LOL. Just sorting through this explosion of opportunity with so many options has been a fulltime job. The more we open to the energetic flow the more abundance comes to us. God/ Universe/ Source/ Quantum can be very generous when we are willing to receive.  

          Two weeks ago I release the Report of Finding from Angels of the Road and last week it was a feature in the CanadianSocialResearch.net weekly newsletter thank you Gilles Sequin ;-). The paper has been well received with about 30% response (most academic papers get 3% response. This opens me up to write two books; a human services industry handbook, “OUT  REACHING: A Streetwise Guide to Social Work”. All the things I learned on the street that never made it into the textbooks. Then of course there is the autobiographical account of my experiences during the Angels of the Road journey.

          I decided to moved to a smaller town; found a perfect little apartment and made an appointment to go up island to view it. Then out of the blue (I had applied but thought I had been passed over again) I get a phone call from Our Place to interview for a residential support worker. These people do amazing work and I would be so fortunate to be a part of such a caring team of professionals. This position is so perfect for me because, it would leave time for other pursuits (writing, building my consulting practice and establishing the Spirit of the 8^th Fire Centre) everybody send energy for me on this one. As if that isn’t enough don’t I find just the most darling little bachelor apartment 3 blocks from Our Place.  How great is that… I love this life.

           So my friends please indulge me for just a couple of more weeks… I’m sure things will get back to normal by then. Migwetch 

Have a joyous day.

After the Apocalypse

Our hearts and prayers go out to everyone whose property and lives have been impacted by the Alberta flooding this week… especially those who lost loved ones in the High River flood. A man was on Facebook yesterday seeking word on his father an elderly man in a wheelchair who had refuse to evacuate his home. This presents me with something of a quandary; I support the individual’s right of self determinations up to and including the right to assisted suicide. I suppose that reasonably would include making stupid decisions which put your life at risk (all plummeting sports come to mind). Here comes the, “but” an evacuation is much easier to do then a rescue operation which could actually jeopardize the lives of rescue workers and would unnecessarily divert resources. Also the person refusing evacuation is not acting from a full understanding of the risks, in as much as the Flood of the Century could only be experienced twice by someone well over 100. Guess I’m just saying at times like this it should be illegal to refuse evacuation and anyone who won’t go willingly should be charged with interference and removed by force. Sorry ACLU but they can come home and die on their own time.

The devastation in Calgary effected the city’s richest and the city’s poorest without prejudice.  With everything in downtown Calgary hit by the flood 3000 or more homeless people have been displaced from shelters. Calgary had a unique situation which evolve from the rapid boom and bust economic cycles. The shelter providers operate independently and in competition with each other; a friend from the CHF (Calgary Homeless Foundation) referred to them as empire builders. Perhaps with all the rebuilding which needs to be done we will also see some rethinking on the part of the 3 major providers of shelter services. Perhaps it is time for a merging of the kingdoms. Working in collaboration could provide a much better and more productive system for all the stakeholders in Calgary’s shelter industry.

Working with the downtown homeless for so many years leaves one the impression that Calgarians hated the homeless. This is clearly a misperception as witnessed by my friends who were moved to the DI’s as yet unfinished location on motel row. It seemed like everyone one with means to travel, rushed over to aid our homeless friends; bring food, water, blankets, clothes and man power. Hundreds maybe even thousands of people caring and sharing in this time of crisis.

Bless you all and thank you.

 

 

Get your very own copy of the report of findings for Angels of the Road.

Good morning,

Special thx to Gilles Sequin, you can link onto the summary of my report through here http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/summary.pdf

As you all know, few years ago I set out to observe the Canadian shelter system from the perspective of our clients. I am not going to say the system was failing, but there was missing information. Information that may make our job easier…as I see it our job is to help people move forward with their lives and get out of the shelters. The project was 16 months long, covered all regions of Canada except the far north and Quebec. I lived every minute of every day as a homeless person; ate what they ate, slept where they slept, spent my days with them hanging out and being a part of their world.  Now I share what I have learned with you.

There are two PDF documents which I will be happy to email to you. Just send your request to blcameron51@gmail.com. One is a 28 page report of my findings, a quasi academic style paper with observations, conclusions and recommendations for 8 different parameters of the shelter experience. The other is a 3 page summary of those findings.

Please feel free to forward this information when you get it to anyone in the human services field who has an interest in homelessness or contact with marginalized populations; or anyone studying or teaching in human services. Perhaps one day I will write about the actual experience of being “out there” but, this report is more important to the industry and my client friends; then is regaling the world with personal anecdotes. Thank you for your interest and your help in sharing this knowledge with the world.

Have a joyous day

Bonny

Statistics; Truth and Dare.

Recently I have noticed people misusing and misrepresenting statistical information. This is nothing new and I guess my current awareness is just god’s way of telling me it is time to offer a brief course in statistics for the everyman (or woman). The numbers in and of themselves have very little meaning…it is like a quote taken out of context. So what do you as a reader, need to consider before making an assessment of a given situation from statistics?

a. Who’s interests are being served. The people paying for the study (data collection) have an agenda try to figure out what that is and look at the results with consideration to that. This does not affect the numbers themselves it affects the way the numbers are presented. ex: Agency X offers and addiction recovery program. If the actual numbers are for every 100 people who enter the program… 50 complete the program… 40 stay clean for 1 year, eventually 20 of those relapse. What is their success rate?  They will tell you they have an 80% success rate. How can that be, they started with 100 and only 20 stayed clean isn’t that an 80% failure rate? First they don’t count anyone who doesn’t complete (graduate) the full program.  Then they include anyone who lasts a specified follow-up period, 3 months, 6 months or 1 year. Actually from these numbers our Agency X is having a good deal of success with their recovery program. The dropout rate is lower than average and they are using a longer recovery baseline then most. I would support this program. Unless you are informed about industry standards it is hard to judge what these numbers mean. This is true of any study you are reading for any industry or project. If a study produces results that cannot be spun to favour the desired outcome for the funding parties then it would simply be scrapped and you would never see it. An example of spin is… Labrador’s seal hunt culls 20% of seal population, or Labrador sanctions the slaughter of 1000 baby seals. The statistic may have been provided by an impartial 3^rd party (like the department of fisheries) but the report you are reading carries an agenda. The truth usually falls somewhere in the middle, if you care about the issue, get informed before blindly repeating a statistic like it is written in stone.  

b. The illusory correlation is one of my favourite analytical problems.  The example my professor used was. Babies have no teeth, and babies cannot talk, this is true 100% of the time; therefore we can conclude that without teeth one cannot talk. This is an obvious and easily refuted example but let’s look at a real world statistic.  In my work it shows up as things like, 80% of homeless suffer from mental health disorders. The statistic is not a lie but it is misleading. The illusion is that MH issues cause homelessness. The true statistic is that homelessness will almost certainly cause (situational) depression; a mental health issue.Another good example of the illusory correlation, long ago dispelled by science and statisticians was; Black Americans consistently scored more than 10% below Whites on standardized IQ tests… this statistic was held for a long time as proof that, Blacks were genetically inferior to Whites. But one day someone looked at the actually test questions; a test written by white people for white cultural norms. The test was rewritten from Black cultural references and white people failed miserably. This crosses into the next problem with statistical information.

c. The size and nature of the sample being used for the study. Whether it is people or micro-organisms, a small or narrow sample leads to less reliable results. For example a survey on the desirability of a particular city funded project should reflect the ethnic diversity of that city’s population. A broad sample of 10,000 white people in Thunder Bay is not going to lead to an accurate result of public opinion when 30% of that city’s population is Native. And a small sample of 7 White people and 3 Natives will not truly reflect the community’s position. The larger the sample and the more closely it reflects the population demographic the more accurate the result.

d. Once you have examined the above three factors then, you may still have to question why you want this to be true/false. Using the 80% of homeless are mentally ill stat as an example… it is comforting it makes us feel like homelessness can never happen to us. Statistics can give us scapegoats and absolve us of responsibility…often for our own lives and our own happiness.

e. Lastly we need to consider the issue of falling data or the inability to follow-up with subjects leading to misperceptions. You will find sources that say the vast majority of child abusers were abused themselves as children. This is not saying that the majority of abused children grow-up to be abusers. Just as most Muslims are not terrorists, most middle-aged white males are not pedophiles, most young people are not gang bangers, nor are most abuse survivors, abusers. We as a culture do not collect statistics on what is right, good and working well. So maybe we have to in our own minds ask,“What about the rest?” What went right (but that is another blog)?

The only thing I can do is to urge you to be cautious when reading (or embracing) a statistical fact… and if the issue really matters to you learn more. Find different sources on both sides of the argument. Try looking objectively from outside of the issue and be honest with yourself. Does this feel right to you?…REALLY.

Have a joyous day.