Social Issues

North Iceland knitters make 17-kilometer long scarf   

(Iceland Review, 22 August 2010) -- A new tunnel between Ólafsfjördur and Siglufjördur will be opened shortly and to mark the occasion keen knitters in the region are making a 17-kilometer long scarf to connect the towns through the tunnel in a warm manner. The initiative was launched by Frída Björk Gylfadóttir. So far 500 knitters have joined her and she is expecting even more. “New people keep signing up,” she told Morgunbladid. “We have 7.4 kilometers and both women and men are knitting. The youngest knitter, Haukur Orri Kristinsson, is ten years old and the oldest knitter is 94-year-old Nanna Franklínsdóttir,” Gylfadóttir added. Once the scarf has been completed and the tunnel inaugurated, the plan is to cut the scarf up into appropriate lengths and sell them in support of charities. When asked where all the yarn comes from, Gylfadóttir explained that wool producer Ístex has given them a generous discount but people are also efficient in using scrap yarn. “I have also received financial contributions from here and there,” she said, adding that yarn has also been sent to her from all around Iceland and even from abroad, from countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the US, Estonia and Germany. Those who are interested in monitoring the knitters’ progress can find further information on Gylfadóttir’s website, frida.is.

Posted 22 August 2010; 12:52:33 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: August 2010, Circumpolar News, Communities, Iceland, Social Issues, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction

Iceland's volcano site rises from the ashes   

(Matt Cole/BBC News, 22 August 2010) -- It has been a long hard year for those living beneath the crater of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland. When the volcano erupted in March, air passengers faced chaos as their planes were grounded amid fears that the ash, thrown high into the atmosphere, would damage aircraft. But after little more than two weeks, and a safety all-clear, life started returning to normal for airlines and their customers. The people of Iceland living near the eruption site were not so lucky. The region of south Iceland where Eyjafjallajokull is situated has a significant farming industry. Floods, caused by lava melting glacial ice, swept down the side of the volcano and ruined farmland. Sixty hectares of the property Poula Kristin Buch farms with her husband was wiped away by the water. "When the flood came over our land, 10 years of our work just went away in a second. "Our crops were destroyed and it will take two years to get our fields ploughed properly again and ready for planting," she added. ... On her return, Poula and her husband, Sigurdur Thorhallsson, found their whole property covered in ash. They were not alone: all life in the region was smothered by a thick grey and black carpet of choking, clogging dust. Weeks of hard work has cleared most of the ash, but the dust has left a legacy, Ms Bush says. All her cattle have had to spend the summer in a barn. Sharp ash particles, harmful to cows' teeth, lie hidden in the grass, making it impossible to put the animals out to pasture. Iceland's government is giving financial help to farmers. But the emotional cost of the damage to farms, where some have toiled their whole lives, is not something on which a price can be put. ... But now, quite literally from the ashes, there is hope of a dramatic reversal of fortune for the tourism industry. After scaring them away, Eyjafjallajokull is now drawing growing numbers of tourists to its still-settling landscape. Mr Hauksson says that the volcano has become an "attraction".

Posted 22 August 2010; 11:55:23 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: August 2010, Circumpolar News, Environment and Landscape, Iceland, Social Issues

Ottawa apologizes to Inuit for using them as 'human flagpoles' in 1950s   

(Canadian Press via Winnipeg Free Press, 18 August 2010) -- INUKJUAK, Que. - Larry Audlalak wasn't quite three years old when his family finally gave in to the insistent promises of the RCMP officer and left their comfortable lands along Hudson Bay's northern coast for the frigid unknown of the High Arctic. The memory is with him yet. "It was very bad," said Audlalak, one of the surviving "High Arctic Exiles" to whom the federal government finally apologized Wednesday. "It was very cold, we had no shelter. We had to fend for ourselves for the first two years living in tents. "The RCMP were able to give us some old buffalo hides and some reindeer hides for insulation." Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs John Duncan travelled to Inukjuak in northern Quebec to say 'sorry' to Audlalak and others like him for a policy some say was a move to reduce welfare costs and reinforce Canadian sovereignty. "We would like to express our deepest sorrow for the extreme hardship and suffering caused by the relocation," reads the text of his speech. "The Government of Canada deeply regrets the mistakes and broken promises of this dark chapter of our history and apologizes for the High Arctic relocation having taken place." In 1953 and 1956, 87 Inuit from 19 families were moved 2,000 kilometres from the relatively warm and lush environs of Inukjuak to what is now Resolute and Grise Fiord, the two most northerly communities in Canada.

Posted 21 August 2010; 10:05:40 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: August 2010, Canada, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Indigenous Issues, North America, Social Issues

Northern Pomors: living off the sea   

(Voice of Russia, 21 August 2010) -- A thousand kilometers north of Moscow on the White Sea coast lies an ancient land belonging to a sea-conquering people – the Pomors. The so-called “traditional Pomor way of life” is certainly not just something out of a history book. They still construct wooden boats using old techniques, make their own fish nets and braid the ropes used for those fish nets with their own hands. “This is a karbass, a coastal kind of boat,” explains boat builder Viktor Zamyatin. “It's very stable on seas, rising and falling smoothly with the waves.” In the village of Patrekeevaka the houses are unique, dating back 300 years, and are very well preserved. All of them have a big fireplace which they use not only for cooking and baking. On top of it there is a warm bed – something you cannot do without in during the harsh winter conditions. For the Pomors, adapting to whatever Mother Nature throws at them has become second nature. This resilience is also what has kept their culture alive throughout the centuries. “I have been singing my whole life. My mother still sings. We collect old rituals and songs and revive them,” says local resident Maria Gorobtsova. She is wearing a traditional costume. It is certainly not an everyday outfit, but she says it helps her keep her ties with her people. “This dress belonged to my grandmother. When I put on this dress, I feel very good and have this desire to sing old songs.” A desire she hopes to pass on to her young grandson.

Posted 21 August 2010; 8:19:58 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: August 2010, Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Northwest Russia, Social Issues

Pizza delivery considered for Arctic troops   

(Jerome Lessard/QMI Agency, The Sudbury Star, 19 August 2010) --CFS ALERT, Nunavut - A family-run pizza business based in eastern Ontario is considering delivering pizzas to Canadian troops based in the Arctic. As impossible as it may sound, the Tomasso's Casual Dining is considering flying dozens of extra-large pizzas to Canadian Forces Station Alert in Nunavut. The station is the world's most northern permanently inhabited settlement. Mike Kotsovos, one of the three brothers who run the Trenton, Ont., restaurant, is a cousin of the northern station's current supply officer Sgt. Tim Lidster. "Everybody up here has been to CFB Trenton at some point during their career in the air force I think," said Lidster. "The CO and I think that would be great to set up something where we could get a dozen pizzas flown to Alert. We think it would be a great way to boost the morale of the troops during the long and dark months of winter," he said. If the idea goes ahead, the pizzas would likely be flown up as part of a re-supply operation. "The only catch is to know whether they would have to be pre-cooked or frozen," said Lidster, who is serving a six-month posting at the station. CFS Alert's current commanding officer Maj. Brent Hoddinott thinks the idea of getting the Tomasso's pizza "delivered" to the Nunavut station would be "a great happening. "And it would make a lot of people happy here in Alert, me the first," said Hoddinott.

Posted 21 August 2010; 12:33:02 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: August 2010, Canada, Circumpolar News, People, Social Issues

Exhibit focuses on exodus from and resilience in northern Russian communities   

(Jamie Hanlon/University of Alberta ExpressNews, 23 July 2010) -- (Edmonton) Abandoned houses strewn across a once-populated northern region, the victim of shifting political and economic conditions, left by many of the North’s former inhabitants who have migrated to more prosperous regions. While the narrative would seem to fit parts of northern Canada, the scene is also descriptive of Magadan, a city in northeast Russia. Magadan is the focus of a project being conducted by Elena Khlinovskaya-Rockhill of the University of Alberta’s Canadian Circumpolar Institute. ... Khlinovskaya-Rockhill also worked in collaboration with two Magadan photographers, Pavel Zhdanov and Andrei Osipov, along with Lawrence Khlinovski-Rockhill, a visiting scholar at CCI, to capture photos of the devastation, but also the resilience and determination of the region’s remaining inhabitants. Images from this collaboration are now on at the Rutherford Library until July 31. This exhibit is part of the Canadian Circumpolar Institute’s 50th anniversary celebration. In October 2010, the display will be moved to Cameron Library. A thriving town during the Soviet era, Magadan’s population once grew due to state-funded migration and settlement allowances, said Khlinovskaya-Rockhill. The Soviet Union used a variety of monetary and non-monetary incentives to attract people to the region, she notes. ... However, she explained, in post-Soviet times, state funding cuts resulted in an unprecedented outmigration towards western Russia. ... Yet, an interesting phenomenon that is part of Khlinovskaya-Rockhill’s research, and is evident in the photo exhibit itself, is the spirit and resilience of the people of Magadan, indigenous and non-native, who have remained. Many prosper, despite the lack of any substantial state support or economic stimulation. The transplanted citizens have developed a level of attachment to the area, and their desire to remain is no longer influenced by state-induced incentives, monetary or ideological. “This is not where they were born, it’s not where they thought they would retire. But for a whole set of reasons, they still remain,” she said. “Some of them consider that place to be their home.”

Posted 27 July 2010; 3:34:36 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Far East Russia, July 2010, Research, Social Issues

Melting permafrost threatens Arctic housing projects   

(The Canadian Press via CTV, 20 June 2010) -- MONTREAL — An Arctic community that has seen its fire hall sink and roads buckle in the melting permafrost is now shifting future building projects away from town. The effect of vanishing permafrost -- soil normally frozen year round -- is now being felt across Canada's North, and the Quebec village of Salluit is just one of many Arctic towns trying to adapt to an increasingly warmer climate. Rising temperatures are being blamed for natural disturbances in the North, such as the rapidly eroding coastline of Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., and unprecedented floods that knocked out two bridges in Pangnirtung, Nunavut. Salluit even considered relocating the whole town. One of Quebec's northernmost communities, Salluit saw its local fire station sink into the softening ground a year after it opened. Across town, paved roads have crumpled, foundations of buildings have cracked and now even summertime grave-digging isn't what it used to be. A few years ago, it took considerable effort just to dig a foot into what was once ice-solid earth, says one resident of the Nunavik village. "We used to need hammers and all that because it was frozen solid all the way through," said Noah Tayara, a local representative for Makivik Corp., northern Quebec's governing body. "(Today), we don't need those. We can shovel to six feet without having to go through the permafrost." For years, the people of Salluit, shielded by a bunker-like valley on Sugluk Inlet off the Hudson Strait, faced the prospect of uprooting their town to move away from the defrosting turf. Following two years of scientific studies, experts have concluded the village can stay put. But the community's much-needed expansion will have to go elsewhere and follow specific construction guidelines. "We can safely say that there's no relocation of houses that are sitting permanently right now," said Michael Cameron, a Salluit municipal councillor. Instead, he said the village hopes to secure government funding to build up to 500 two-bedroom homes at several chosen sites within a few kilometres of the community. Cameron noted the shift to outlying areas is partly due to a lack of space in the town of 1,100. The new housing developments, which aim to ease overcrowding that often sees three generations living under one roof, will be constructed in sturdier areas that feature a mix of bedrock, clay, sand, gravel and permafrost. The plans were presented at a public meeting two weeks ago, helping calm fears the town was under the threat of mudslides. "There is permafrost beneath us and it's changing, but they said it's not so big a problem that we would . . . suffer a landslide into the sea," said Paul Okituk, general manager of Qaqqalik Landholding Corp. in Salluit.

Posted 22 June 2010; 7:54:39 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Climate change response, Communities, Nunavik, Social Issues, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction

EU promises more cash for Greenland education   

(IceNews, 21 June 2010) -- Greenland’s government is to receive a cash injection from the European Union to help support training efforts. The subsidy of 200 million kroner (USD 33 million) will be given to the country every year until 2013 to help boost Greenland’s educational facilities. Greenland must produce reports explaining how the money is being used and the results of training in exchange for a cut of the cash. The current EU-Greenland partnership is to be evaluated and renegotiated next year, when a new agreement for the period of 2014 to 2020 will be reached. Last year, the country achieved 97 percent of stated objectives and received almost 100 percent of the 200 million kroner kitty. The money makes a big different to Greenland and its annual budget, according to Siku News. Along with the fisheries agreement, the EU assistance sees around 320 million kroner (USD 52 million) pumped into to Greenland each year. This amounts to around 5.3 percent of the government’s total revenues for 2010. A spokesperson for the EU said the money was offered “to support Greenland’s exceptional education efforts.”

Posted 22 June 2010; 7:47:56 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic issues, Education and Civil Society, Greenland, June10, Social Issues

Arctic seismic tests opposed by eco group   

(CBC News, 18 June 2010) -- A national group is urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper to protect Nunavut's Lancaster Sound from any oil and gas activity, including federal scientists' plans to conduct seismic testing there. The Pew Environment Group's Oceans North Canada says 6,500 concerned Canadians have signed a letter opposing the seismic testing plans, which Natural Resources Canada wants to begin this summer. The letter was delivered Friday, Oceans North said in a release. The seismic tests, which federal scientists hope to start in August, would be an attempt to map out underwater geographical features and see what hydrocarbon resources exist there. As part of the project, a research vessel would send sound waves though several Arctic waterways, including Lancaster Sound. The federal government is also thinking of designating Lancaster Sound — which is home to whales, seabirds and other animals — as a national marine conservation area. Parks Canada is working with the Qikiqtani Inuit Association and the Nunavut government on a feasibility study. Last month, the Nunavut Impact Review Board, a regulatory body, recommended that the seismic testing project proceed without a detailed environmental review. But Nunavut Environment Minister Daniel Shewchuk, in his role as the minister responsible for the Nunavut Research Institute, has not confirmed whether he will give the project a research licence. Inuit in communities near Lancaster Sound expressed concerns about the seismic tests' impacts on marine wildlife during a series of community consultations that Natural Resources Canada held earlier this month. "Inuit who live near Lancaster Sound told federal officials they are opposed to the seismic testing because it poses risks to bowhead whales, narwhal and other marine mammals," Oceans North said in a release. "Seismic blasts can damage the hearing of marine mammals and disrupt their migration patterns," it added. Some Inuit have also raised fears that seismic tests could uncover oil and gas resources in Lancaster Sound, which could motivate exploration companies to drill there. Federal scientists stressed that the seismic testing will not harm marine animals, nor will it be exploring for oil and gas.

Posted 22 June 2010; 7:11:38 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, June10, Social Issues

Indigenous people of Russia battered by hardships   

(Jane George/Nunatsiaq News, 20 May 2010) -- QUEBEC CITY - Many of the 280,000 indigenous peoples of Russia’s north are watching their communities and cultures teeter on the brink of extinction as economic hardships force them to leave their homelands and migrate in droves to the city. Many of those who remain behind have abandoned traditional values and become “profit-driven in their search for compensation for their traditional lands,” Larissa Abryutina of the Russian Association of the Indigenous People of the North said May 18 in a presentation to a conference at Laval University on sustainable development and sovereignty in the Arctic. Like other speakers, Abryutina revealed a striking irony: that it’s much easier to find bad examples of development and self-determination in the Arctic than good ones. Abryutina, a Chukchi, is herself a casualty of the desperate choices facing northern Russian indigenous people: a doctor of radiology, she left her home region of Chukotka due to its declining standard of living. Since the 1990s, and the fall of the Soviet Union’s Communist government, things have gone from bad to worse for northern indigenous people in Russia, Abryutina said. And their life expectancy has fallen to between 40 and 45 years due to the environmental pollution, alcoholism and poor health care.

Posted 21 May 2010; 1:52:29 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conferences, Health and wellness, Indigenous Issues, May10, Russia, Social Issues

Canada announces Nutrition North Canada to support healthy eating   

(Indian and Northern Affairs Canada press release, 21 May 2010) -- A new northern food retail subsidy program called Nutrition North Canada will make healthy food more accessible and affordable to Canadians living in isolated Northern communities, thanks to the Government of Canada.  Nutrition North Canada, which replaces the Food Mail Program, was announced today by the Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians, and Minister for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency and the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health and Minister Responsible for the North. Under the new program, the most nutritious perishable foods such as fruits, vegetables, bread, fresh meats, milk and eggs will receive the highest rate of subsidy. The revised list of eligible items also includes a provision to improve access to commercially-produced traditional, Northern foods. Nutrition North Canada, which will benefit people living in eligible communities in the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador, will be implemented in phases. The transition to the new program begins with the release today of a revised eligibility list, which will come into effect on October 3, 2010. Full implementation will occur on April 1, 2011. ... The new program is now a cost-effective, market-driven model to ensure greater efficiency and transparency. The Government of Canada will directly subsidize retailers and wholesalers who already ship large volumes of food and goods to the North. Individuals and institutions will still be able to place personal orders and benefit from the subsidy. This is particularly important for those with special dietary needs, and preserves a measure of competition for Northern retailers. An Advisory Board is being established to give Northerners a direct voice in the program and provide advice related to its management and effectiveness.

Posted 21 May 2010; 11:23:52 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Communities, May10, Social Issues, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction

Most students stay in Northern Norway   

(Barents Observer, 20 May 2010) -- Two out of three students at the University of Tromsø stay in Northern Norway after graduation, a poll shows. "It is both surprising and joyous that so many find work in the northern parts of the country," says Rector Jarle Aarbakke, according to NRK.no. A poll amongst graduates from the University of Tromsø shows that nine of ten students were in work six months after graduation. Half of the students with Bachelor, Master or Doctoral degrees from 2007 and 2008 are now working in Troms County. 8.5 percent of the students are working in Nordland County and 7.3 percent in Finnmark County. Other studies have showed that eight of ten psychologist and doctors educated at the University in Tromsø are working in one of the country’s three northernmost counties. The main argument for the need to establish a university in Northern Norway was precisely to supply Northern Norway with highly educated workers. The University was founded in 1968 and opened four years later. The University of Tromsø offers studies in medicine, law, psychology, pharmaceutics, dentistry.

Posted 21 May 2010; 11:13:40 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Education and Civil Society, May10, Norway, Social Issues, Youth

Sheep moved away from Iceland eruption site   

(Iceland Review News, 17 May 2010) -- Due to constant ash fall on their farm site, Ármann Fannar Magnússon and Berglind Bjarnadóttir, farmers at Hrútafell in the Eyjafjöll countryside, moved more than 100 sheep yesterday to a farm near Mosfellsbaer where their relatives live. Other farmers from the region south of the eruption site are considering doing the same, Fréttabladid reports. “It doesn’t appear as if we can let our sheep go outside in the near future and to keep ewes and their lambs inside for a long time creates problems such as sickness and death,” Magnússon told Stöd 2. It is currently lambing season in Iceland and the conditions inside the sheepfold have become rather tight. Magnússon and Bjarnadóttir have lost two lambs and two ewes, possibly because of fluorine poisoning. Magnússon said he is certain that he made the right decision by relocating his sheep. He doesn’t believe it will be possible to practice sheep farming on his farm in the next year or two. “I’m moving the sheep across the risk border so I will have to take them to the slaughterhouse in the fall. I will have to buy new sheep when the land has recovered and the situation improved,” Magnússon said. There are regulations limiting the transport of livestock in Iceland to prevent the spreading of diseases. Safe areas are marked with so-called varnarlína, or risk borders. There are also approximately 100 cattle at Hrútafell but the farmers have yet to decide what to do with them. They might have to relocate their cattle as well. A task force from the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture met last night to discuss the volcanic eruption and its effect on farming in the Eyjafjöll region. Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Jón Bjarnason said regulations on risk borders might be relaxed in light of the circumstances created by ash fall.

Posted 19 May 2010; 10:32:07 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Iceland, May10, Social Issues

Northern Manitoba doctors get funding boost   

(CBC News, 10 May 2010) -- The federal government is spending $6.9 million to expand a program that trains family doctors for remote northern communities in Manitoba. The money will allow the medical residency program at the University of Manitoba to grow to 25 positions from 10. Medical students in training have to spend eight months in remote communities and commit to at least two years of remote practice after graduation. The expanded program will help address a shortage of northern doctors, said federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, who made the announcement in Winnipeg on Monday as part of National Nursing Week.

Posted 11 May 2010; 9:43:05 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Education and Civil Society, Health and wellness, May10, North America, Social Issues

Recovery still incomplete after Valdez spill   

(William Yardley, 5 May 2010) -- CORDOVA, Alaska - As the oil spill spreads ominously in the Gulf of Mexico, its impact uncertain, communities here beside Prince William Sound are still confronting the consequences of March 24, 1989, the day of the wreck of the Exxon Valdez. The tanker Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil, staining 1,500 miles of coastline, killing hundreds of thousands of seabirds, otters, seals and whales, and devastating local communities. The spill stopped after just a few days. Recovery may not have an end date. Fishing here is far from what it was. Suicides and bankruptcies and bitterness surged. Many people left even as a few became “spillionaires,” getting paid to clean up. A new industry took hold: environmental groups, scientific organizations, experts in the psychological trauma of oil spills. A network of fishermen is now trained and paid by the oil industry to respond if another disaster strikes. Lawyers, fishermen and environmentalists in the gulf are now calling, looking for guidance in areas like how to harness political anger over the spill and the most effective ecological triage. National news crews are chartering planes to nearby islands to see how oil still coats rocks just below the surface all these years later. Fishermen recount once again their complicated journeys from the spill to the payments they received just last year from a punitive damages judgment of about $500 million against Exxon in 1994. People here say they want to move on.

Posted 10 May 2010; 11:48:07 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Economic issues, May10, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Social Issues

Alaskans mourn death of former Gov. Walter Hickel   

(Becky Bohrer/The Washington Post, 8 May 2010) -- SITKA, Alaska -- Alaskans on Saturday mourned the loss of former Gov. Walter J. Hickel and remembered him as a visionary and a maverick. Alaska Democrats, meeting for their convention in Sitka, had a moment of silence in honor of Hickel, who served as Interior secretary under President Richard Nixon until Hickel was dismissed for objecting to the treatment of Vietnam War protesters. A ripple of "Oh!" and "Oh, my God" rippled through the audience as word of his death, at age 90, was announced Saturday morning. Hickel, a two-time Alaska governor, died Friday of natural causes at an Anchorage assisted living facility, said his longtime assistant, Malcolm Roberts. Gov. Sean Parnell ordered state flags flown at half-staff in Hickel's honor. "He taught us to dream big and to stand up for Alaska," Parnell said. "Gov. Hickel will be remembered for many things — or his wit, for telling it like it is, and for always reminding us that our resources belong to Alaskans." Alaska's congressional delegation eulogized Hickel for his vision, courage and for putting Alaska's interests first. Ethan Berkowitz, a former state legislator and Democrat running for governor, recounted how, when he was being sworn in as a young assistant district attorney, a copy of the Bible couldn't be found — so a copy of Hickel's 1971 book, Who Owns America, was used instead. Hickel said "If it's good for Alaska, do it, and if it isn't, screw it," Berkowitz said. He said he considers Hickel a mentor. Hickel's political career started in the early 1950s as a crusader for Alaska statehood, both at home and in Washington. He also was involved in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which helped pave the way for the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. [See also, Sean Cockerham, "Wally Hickel, Aug. 18, 1919 - May 7, 2010," Anchorage Daily News, 9 May 2010.]

Posted 9 May 2010; 10:55:05 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, May10, People, Social Issues

Oulu becomes that much larger   

(YLE via Siku Circumpolar News, 27 April 2010) -- The city of Oulu is about to get bigger, YLE reports. Oulu, Haukipudas, Oulunsalo, Kiiminki and Yli-Ii decided this week to consolidate into one municipality. The nearby town of Muhos, however, did not join. Representatives from the six towns meet on Tuesday in Yli-Ii to discuss future plans. The new municipality will have over 180,000 residents. It will surpass Turku to become Finland's fifth largest city.

Posted 27 April 2010; 3:24:52 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: April10, Communities, Finland, Social Issues

Three tweets on Arctic relocation   

NunatsiaqOnline 2010-04-05: NEWS: What the High Arctic exiles signed in 1996 http://bit.ly/9HAOac
NunatsiaqOnline 2010-04-05: NEWS: Background: What’s proposed for the High Arctic exiles fund http://bit.ly/94NtsM
NunatsiaqOnline 2010-04-05: NEWS: Quebec court to ponder big changes to High Arctic exiles’ ailing trust fund http://bit.ly/aS1EKk

Posted 5 April 2010; 12:07:40 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: April10, Canada, Circumpolar News, Indigenous Issues, Social Issues

Inuit leader wants apology for dog deaths   

(CBC News, 23 March 2010) -- A Quebec Inuit leader wants the provincial and federal governments to apologize for the slaughter of more than 1,000 sled dogs more than half a century ago. Makivik Corp. president Pita Aatami made the remark after the release of a report from retired Quebec judge Jean-Jacques Croteau, who said Ottawa and Quebec owe the Inuit of northern Quebec — a territory now known as Nunavik — an apology and compensation for turning a blind eye to the mass dog deaths. Croteau's final report, released last week, found that Quebec provincial police shot or gassed more than 1,000 sled dogs in most of Nunavik's 14 communities between 1950 and 1970, without considering their essential role in traditional Inuit lives. Aatami told CBC News he will meet with federal Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl this week to discuss the report. As well, Makivik officials are making plans with the Quebec government to discuss Croteau's recommendations. "What I've been searching for all these years is an apology," Aatami said Monday. "I hope we're a step closer to getting that apology from the Quebec government, and hopefully the federal government, for the wrong that was done to the Inuit."

Posted 23 March 2010; 11:54:58 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, March10, Nunavik, Provinces, Social Issues

Big meat giveaway has Kitikmeot munching on muskox   

(Jane George/Nunatsiaq News, 23 March 2010) -- Muskox spaghetti, meatballs, burgers and casseroles are on the menu in many Kitikmeot households this week thanks to a giveaway in the region. Cambridge Bay’s Kitikmeot Food Ltd. gave 350 one-pound packages of federally-inspected ground muskox meat to the Ikaluktutiak wellness centre. And 250 similar packages went to each of the other communities in the Kitikmeot via Canadian North — which picked up the tab for the cargo. A community feast March 20 at the Luke Novoligak centre in Cambridge Bay also featured muskox meatballs with spaghetti sauce and pasta donated by Northbest Distributors in Yellowknife. Students in the cooking program at Nunavut Arctic College cooked and served up the feast. The muskox meat feast and distribution is Kitikmeot Foods’ way of celebrating a successful harvest, said co-manager Monique Giroux. This year from Feb. 22 to March 11, hunters took 158 muskox. That’s about 20 fewer muskox than last year, due to the stormy weather.

Posted 23 March 2010; 11:51:05 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, March10, Nunavut, Social Issues

Nunavut to hand out 500 emergency satellite trackers   

(Jane George/Nunatsiaq News, 14 March 2010) -- Blackberries and GPS satellite messengers will help keep track of hunters on the land and assist search and rescue teams in Nunavut, said Lorne Kusugak, the minister of community and government services, who announced that all communities will receive 20 Spot satellite GPS messengers each. If a hunter gets into trouble, they can press a button on one of devices, and it will send a message saying if they need help or if they’re okay, Kusugak said in the Nunavut legislature. Spot messengers can also send an SOS message or customized message, and allow contacts to track a user’s location. Messages sent from Spot locations will go to three emergency services officials with Blackberries in Iqaluit, Kusugak said. The messages received on the Blackberries, which combine cell phone and internet technology, will allow officials to contact search and rescue parties to let them know exactly where a message is coming from and what it says, Kusugak said. There will be somebody always assigned to at least one of the Blackberries at any given time, Kusugak said. ... Spot messengers will made available through local search and rescue committees, at their office or the hamlet office, Kusugak said. Hunters will be able sign out Spot messengers and must return them after completion of their hunt so somebody else can use them, Kusugak said.

Posted 15 March 2010; 2:53:10 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, March10, Nunavut, Social Issues

Column: Why the traditional meat diet makes sense for the Inuit   

(Stephen Hume/The Vancouver Sun, 15 March 2010) -- In a landscape where the only plants are tundra lichens, a traditional Inuit diet of seal meat, caribou and fish makes more sense than one based on imported fresh fruit and vegetables. But a column arguing as much earned sarcastic scoffing from some vegetarians. I have no quarrel with vegetarians — I happily live with one — and I share the view of many that most arguments supporting the commercial seal hunt in Atlantic Canada are largely bogus. Unless you live in the Arctic, the only reason for wearing sealskin is cosmetic. On that the animal-rights advocates have a strong point — a gruesome slaughter of seals just to provide for fashion elites does seem ethically untenable. However, the consumption of seal meat in the traditional Inuit diet and the sale of pelts from that subsistence hunting is another matter and deserves defending. Among the points made in my original column was an observation that wild meat offered a nutritious bargain to Inuit families. Furthermore, I wrote, a diet rich in sea mammals and fish was healthier than many foods imported from the urban south with their attendant carbon footprint.

Posted 15 March 2010; 2:15:50 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, Cultural Matters, Health and wellness, March10, Social Issues

Greenland moves to formalize Arctic-apartheid system in gemstone exploration   

(True North Gems Apartheid press release via PRWeb, 5 March 2010) -- Nuuk, Greenland - Niels Madsen, a small scale mining activist and one of the founders of the 16th August Union, a Greenlandic association of small scale miners, has issued a call to the international community to block the Greenland Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum’s (BMP) continuing attempt to disenfranchise Greenlanders from their mineral resources. The BMP has recently revoked communal ownership of the land and its resources, which were formerly guaranteed under Article 32 of the Greenlandic Constitution. On March 8th, Greenland’s Manager of the BMP, Jorn Skov Nielsen will present in Toronto to the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada http://www.pdac.ca/ with the clear aim of offering Greenland’s vast mineral wealth to large-scale mining companies. “Any company that collaborates with the BMP is not only in violation of the UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights,” said Madsen, “they are also supporting what has clearly become an apartheid system.” True North Gems, Inc., (TNG), a junior Canadian mining company prospecting for ruby on Greenland since 2004 was recently granted rights to an enormous exploration license near the village of Fiskenaesset. On Tuesday 9 March 2010, TNG is scheduled to give a 20 minute presentation to the Canadian diamond community. Until the documentation of valuable gem deposits in Greenland, Inuits were allowed to gather, polish and sell gem material. Once exceptionally valuable ruby was documented by TNG, the BMP issued completely new mining laws. “Once an applications is filed to mine, the BMP delays or outright refuses to issue licenses,” said Madsen. “We also want to benefit from the ruby we already collected and legally own and pay fair taxes, but at present that is not possible.” “Even though True North Gems is very unpopular in our country, we respect large scale mining. But we cannot tolerate being thrown out of the many big exploration areas which will soon be covering the entire land which is our commons,” said Madsen, who gathered four thousand signatures in support of Inuit small scale mining rights for ruby on Greenland. ...  “The BMP is guilty of marginalizing the Inuit from their own wealth and inheritance,” said Valerio. “Not only do their new small-scale mining laws discredit the BMP in the eyes of the international gemstone community, they also humiliate and discriminate against very people they claim to represent.” [See the protest web site.]

Posted 8 March 2010; 1:55:00 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic issues, Greenland, March10, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Resource Issues, Social Issues

Alaska village embraces Native dances banned by church   

(Rachel D'Oro/Anchorage Daily News, 22 February 2010) -- NOORVIK -- Bobby Wells has lived all his life in this remote Alaska village, where the Eskimo dancing of his ancestors was banned by Quaker missionaries a century ago as primitive idolatry. Now Wells, 53, and other residents of Noorvik have wholeheartedly embraced the ancient practice outlawed in the Inupiat settlement, which was established in 1914. "This is the way God made us, to express our thankfulness to him with dancing," Wells said. The belief of traditional dancing as somehow evil, however, remains deeply ingrained in scores of Native villages around the state. But some communities have broken away from that ideology in recent decades. One by one, they have resurrected the old dances and songs of the long ago past, along with culture camps and language immersion programs. Mike Ulroan can't imagine life without dance. It was already revived in the Cup'ik village of Chevak when he was born 21 years ago, long after the practice was prohibited by Russian Catholic missionaries. Dancing has always been a constant for Ulroan, even after he left four years ago to attend the University of Alaska Anchorage. In Alaska's largest city, he dances with several groups. "It's just a way to make me feel happy," he said. "With the movements we do, we push away bad spirits and keep away sickness." Noorvik's decision to lift the ban last fall came after residents learned they would be the first in the nation to be counted in the 2010 U.S. Census. The idea had been kicked around before, but this time locals wanted to make it a reality for a celebration with visiting census representatives and other officials. Tribal leaders formally approved the proposal after it received the blessing of the Noorvik Friends Church, despite opposition from a few elders. It's a huge change because dancing had never been done in the current location of Noorvik, which means "a place that is moved to" in Inupiaq. "I don't speak for the church, but in my own view we're going to come to a place in the afterlife where we sing and dance to the Lord," said church pastor Aurora Sampson. "While we are on this earth we might as well practice."

Posted 22 February 2010; 3:37:52 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, February10, Indigenous Issues, Social Issues

Critical shortage of Sami language teachers   

(YLE, 18 February 2010) -- A severe lack of teachers could threaten the future of the languages of the indigenous Sami people in Finland. The critical nature of the shortage of teachers came to light in a study carried out for the Giellagas Institute at the University of Oulu which surveyed the educational needs in Finland related to Sami language and culture. The Sami are an indigenous people that live traditionally in Finnish Lapland, the Kola peninsula and central and northern parts of Sweden and Norway. About 6,400 Sami live in Finland. The report notes that an investment is needed in training Sami language teachers and other educators who speak the language. It suggests that teacher training be organized at one of the universities in the north of the country and in Sami-speaking areas. It calls for special attention to be given to the future of the languages spoken by the Inari Sami and the Skolt Sami.

Posted 21 February 2010; 7:04:56 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, February10, Indigenous Issues, Language, Nordic Region, Social Issues, Sweden

Population growth in northern Norway   

(BarentsObserver, 19 February 2010) -- In 2009 northern Norway experienced the highest population growth since 1974. For thirty-five years northern Norway has had a steady decline in population, but last year the population grew by 2,196. It is the three northernmost counties of Norway, Nordland, Troms and Finmark that is defined as northern Norway. This is the most scarcely populated area of Norway, and there has been a steady decline in population through since the mid-70s. The latest population countings from Statistics Norway states that the negative demographic trend is beginning to turn. With the 2,196 new northern citizens, there were a total of 465,621 people living in the three northernmost counties on 1 January 2010. The largest county is Nordland with 236,271 inhabitants, while there are 156,494 inhabitants in Troms and 72,.856 inhabitants in Finnmark. All three counties had a population growth in 2009, and an important part of the growth is that the birth rate is also growing considerably. However, it is the most populated municipalities and the city centers which count for most of the population growth. Still the smaller remote communities suffer from depopulation.

Posted 21 February 2010; 6:59:21 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, February10, Norway, Social Issues

Bush schools wait years for upgrades, facilities   

(Lisa Demer/Anchorage Daily News, 20 February 2010) -- JUNEAU - More than a decade after a state judge ruled that Alaska's system of funding for new and renovated schools was unconstitutional, the system remains unchanged and the backlog of projects in the Bush amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars. Rural lawmakers are railing and legislators from both parties say the issue has festered for far too long. Gov. Sean Parnell says he's working on a solution. The state now operates a two-pronged system to pay for costly new schools and renovations that Bush legislators say gives unfair advantage to urban districts like Anchorage. Building the first ten projects on the state-ranked construction priority list — four new schools and six expansions — would cost the state $332 million. All are in the Bush; many are located in villages within the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge. "If we could tax lichen and moss, we could probably pay for our schools," said state Rep. Bob Herron, a Democrat from Bethel who's on the House budget panel for education. "There is no resource to tax." Most of the Bush schools that need repair or replacement are seriously overcrowded, with double the students they are meant for, according to state education officials, a situation that the governor and four Bush legislators including Herron saw first-hand during a Feb. 11 trip. "I saw children being taught under conditions that make it extremely difficult to learn," Gov. Parnell said in an interview. "Extremely crowded classrooms. Lack of facilities, space and equipment. Safety hazards." He added, "At least for those three schools, I am satisfied the need is there for some change to improve education delivery for young people."

Posted 21 February 2010; 1:01:32 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, Education and Civil Society, February10, Social Issues, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction, Youth

Alaska Native fetal alcohol syndrome rates drop sharply   

(Dutch Harbor Fisherman, 18 February 2010) -- Alaska Native babies were born with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) half as often around the year 2000 as they were five to seven years earlier, Department of Health and Social Services researchers found in an analysis of Alaska Birth Defects Registry data. That change brought the state's overall rate from 1996 to 2002 down by a third, researchers reported in the State of Alaska Epidemiology Bulletin released yesterday. "This reduction is what we've been striving for, and continue to strive for," said Health and Social Services Commissioner Bill Hogan. "FAS and other conditions collectively known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are one of the most common causes of developmental disabilities and the only cause that is entirely preventable." In 1998, Alaska and three other states with high rates of maternal alcohol consumption were selected for a four-year project through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The project developed a system to track birth defects caused by maternal drinking, and established by 2002 that Alaska's rate was far higher than the other three states; the highest in the nation. The analysis found the rate among Alaska Native births decreased to 32.4 children with FAS per 10,000 live births from 63.1 (down 49 percent); the rate increased from 3.7 to 6.1 among non-Native births (not a statistically significant change.) Alaska's overall rate dropped to 13.5 from 20.0. The analysis ends with births in 2002 in order to incorporate doctors' reports of suspected birth defects caused by maternal drinking. Doctors have until children are 6 to make that mandatory report. A major joint federal-state prevention and education effort ran from 1991 to 1996, with a second running from 1998 to 2006, said L. Diane Casto, manager of Prevention and Early Intervention Services for the Division of Behavioral Health.

Posted 21 February 2010; 11:40:42 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, February10, North America, Social Issues

Emigration damaging Greenland’s hopes for independence   

(IceSave, 21 February 2010) -- The Greenlandic finance minister Palle Christiansen has declared the steady exodus of manpower from the country as the biggest hurdle facing Greenland’s ongoing quest for independence. While acknowledging that other factors have hindered short-term prospects, Christiansen suggested that emigration trends would seriously undermine long-term hopes for the autonomous country. According to figures published in Sermitsiaq, 2008 saw 638 people depart the country on a permanent basis. This is consistent with the record level reached in 2006, when 644 out of a total population of around 50,000 emigrated abroad. Christiansen expressed a desire to instigate a range of measures designed to lure Greenlanders back home, predominantly those young people who leave to study in Denmark. At present, a mere half return home at the conclusion of their education but student groups have confirmed that the prospect of greater autonomy has resulted in a forecasted increase in returns. Employment inside Greenland remains the biggest hurdle to repatriation. Christiansen has also identified housing as an additional barrier, but hopes to address the issue by constructing several new estates. Greenlandic Students Association in Denmark head, Anne Berit Nielsen, has claimed that childcare and family issues also compounded the reluctance to return for many Greenlandic youths. Herself a medical student, Nielsen said simply that “there are just a lot more opportunities in the Danish health service.” Nielsen advised against adopting the proposals of her homeland’s lawmakers to make émigrés repay education subsidies. Christiansen empathised with those students in Denmark but hoped future decisions would be encouraged by a sense of national identity. “If you’re settling down in Denmark, you can’t be a part of building our country. To them, I say: I hear what you are saying but you need to come home and help us.”

Posted 21 February 2010; 11:19:13 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, February10, Greenland, North Atlantic, Social Issues

Russian Barents population decrease   

(BarentsObserver, 5 February 2010) -- The North of Russia is under the threat of depopulation. Since the year 2000 the population in the Russian part of the Barents region decreased by 462,000, or by almost 11 percent. According to the yearly demographic report of the State Statistical Committee the Russian territories of the Barents region in the beginning of 2009 had 31 thousand inhabitants less than one year ago. That is 0.8 percent less than in 2008. In the three-year period from 2006 to 2008 the total population of the Russian Federation decreased by 317,000 people. This is approximately as much as the population of the biggest city in the Barents region; Arkhangelsk. During the ten-year period from 2000 to 2010, the population of the Russian Federation was reduced by almost 5 million citizens, or -3.4 %. At the same time the population in the Russian part of the Barents region declined by 54,000 people from 2006 to 2008, or by 1.4 per cent, according to the 2009 edition of the Demographic Yearbook of Russia. The biggest population decline in the ten-year period since 2000 was observed in Murmansk Oblast (by 10.4 percent), in Komi Republic (by 9.3 percent), and in Arkhangelsk Oblast (by 9.2 percent). The population of Karelia decreased 6.5 percent. One year ago, in the beginning of 2009, the total population of Barents Russia was 3,793,000 people. Today, according to the preliminary data of the State Statistical Committee the population in these five territories decreased again by 24,000. The greatest declines occured in Murmansk oblast and the Republic of Komi.

Posted 6 February 2010; 11:10:04 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, February10, Northwest Russia, Research, Russia, Social Issues

Alaska Natives support chemical management reform for health of their communities and the Arctic   

(Alaska Community Action on Toxics press release via PR Newswire, 4 February 2010) -- WASHINGTON - Today, the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health will examine public exposures to toxic chemicals. Alaska Native leaders call on Congress to include circumpolar atmospheric pollution in their hearing. "Indigenous Arctic communities are suffering the most from chemicals emitted in the lower 48 states," said Vi Waghiyi, St. Lawrence Island Yupik and ACAT Environmental Health & Justice Program Director. "Because many industrial and commercial chemicals are long lasting and persistent in the atmosphere, they drift North on wind and water currents from where they are applied in Southern latitudes; they are in our traditional foods and affecting our health and the health of our children. We are calling on Congress and the Obama Administration to affect policy to regulate chemicals to end the 'contamination without consent' on our people from distant sources." The Yupik people of St. Lawrence Island, and rural communities across the state of Alaska, are concerned about health problems that are associated with persistent organic pollutants present in their air, water, and food. This past fall a delegation of local leaders and elders from the island communities of Savoonga and Gambell traveled over 3,000 miles to Washington, D.C. to raise awareness of the dire health effects in their communities. "While we are not physically near the action in Washington, D.C., Congress has a responsibility to address the needs of tribal governments throughout the United States, especially remote Alaska," said Jane Kava, Mayor and St. Lawrence Island Community Health Researcher from Savoonga, Alaska.

Posted 4 February 2010; 9:33:41 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, February10, North America, Social Issues

Arctic marine health focus of circumpolar meeting   

(CBC News, 27 January 2010) -- Scientists want to bring together people from Canada and other circumpolar nations in Iqaluit next year to talk about the health of the Arctic marine environment and the North's fisheries. The annual Ocean Innovation Conference, to be held in the Nunavut capital in October 2011, is being organized amid concerns about the effects of climate change in the North. Conference organizers from the Fisheries and Marine Institute at Memorial University in St. John's, N.L., are in Nunavut this week to meet with government officials and Inuit hunters. Randy Gillespie, the institute's director of applied research, said organizers will work closely with partners in Nunavut to hold a conference that will include representatives from Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Russia and the United States. "We want to explore the relationships between science and technology and traditional knowledge, recognizing that all three have something to contribute to a sustainable understanding of the marine environment," Gillespie told CBC News. Conference delegates will discuss everything from pollution to ship traffic, Gillespie said. Arctic fisheries will also be discussed, as Nunavut works to expand both its offshore and inshore fishing industries.

Posted 28 January 2010; 8:23:21 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Conferences, Health and wellness, International, January10, North America, Nunavut, Resource Issues, Social Issues

Population in Severodvinsk shrinks and ages   

(BarentsObserver, 22 January 2010) -- Nearly one quarter of the population has moved from Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk Oblast in course of the last 16 years. Every sixth inhabitant is now over 60 years. The latest demographic statistics for Severodvinsk are worth some reflection, local newspaper Northwestern Worker writes. The town’s population is constantly shrinking, and the average age of the remaining people is increasing. The population has shrunk from 258.600 people in 1991 to 188.000 in 2009. Severodvinsk has always been regarded as a young town. In the Soviet period this was an industrial center where the best specialists from all over the country came to work. Severodvinsk is the second largest city in Arkhangelsk Oblast. Its main industry remains defense related - Russia’s largest shipbuilding company Sevmash is located here, as well as the major ship repair yard Zvezdochka. Nearly 70 percent of the working population is employed in the ship building or ship repair industry. The main factor in the population decline is migration. The number of people moving from Severodvinsk exceeds the number of people moving to the town by 2-3 times. Only in 2008, 2583 people moved from Severodvinsk, while 431 decided to settle there. Many of the people leaving Severodvinsk are young people who decide not to come back after having finished university or college. The situation got somewhat better in 2009, Northwestern Worker writes. The economic crisis did not have such a big impact on Severodvinsk as on many other Russian towns, and many young people found it more profitable to stay home. At the same time, the remaining population is getting older. For every 1000 persons in active working age, there are 450 children, juveniles and pensioners. The number of pensioners is growing every year, and now every sixth person in Severodvinsk is 60 years or older. Most of the elderly people in Severodvinsk are women, as the average life expectancy for men is only 59 years, while it is 73 years for women.

Posted 23 January 2010; 10:44:55 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, January10, Northwest Russia, Russia, Social Issues

Digital scribes transfer ancient words into bits and bytes   

(Chris Windeyer/Nunatsiaq News, 20 January 2010) -- IGLOOLIK — In the corner of a quiet government office building, Leah Otak spends her work days in front of a computer and a cassette deck, poring over hundreds of hours of recorded interviews dating back as far as 1986. The interviews contain a massive trove of quickly-disappearing information: the traditional knowledge of elders from the Igloolik area covering everything from shamanism and kinship to traditional navigation methods and hunting and sewing techniques. “It’s not boring,” Otak says. “I think I have the best job in Nunavut.” Otak, manager of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangiit and oral history research at the Igloolik Research Centre, and assistant William Qamukaq are organizing the interviews by subject, with the long-term goal of getting the information into books and learning materials. The process is vital to preserve traditional knowledge that’s threatened by everything from social ills and modern — mostly English — media to the universal tendency of young people to shun advice from their parents and elders. And while the advent of southern-style education brought new kinds of learning to Nunavut, it also disrupted traditional ways of passing along knowledge. “It was the elders who had the desire to pass on the knowledge that they noticed is not being carried on,” Otak says. “When kids started going to school they didn’t spend time with their parents anymore, didn’t go hunting anymore, so all of the knowledge was being lost.” The knowledge is also subject to the ravages of time itself. Of the 31 elders who contributed to the project, only two are still alive and are now in their 70s and 80s, Otak says. But the wisdom is preserved on tape and in the process of being digitized, a process that should be finished this spring. It’s also a vital source of Inuktitut vocabulary, preserving words and ideas that have faded from regular use. Plans call for a dictionary, and Otak hopes to see more classroom materials, with a simplified vocabulary for younger students and a more traditional form of Inuktitut for high school. “I don’t think we’ll ever speak this language again, because we’re already speaking a translated version of English, rather than a real Inuktitut language,” Otak says.

Posted 22 January 2010; 10:37:41 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Communities, January10, North America, Nunavut, People, Research, Social Issues

Russian musical to open Tromsø International Film Festival   

(BarentsObserver, 8 January 2010) -- The Russian rock musical “Hipsters” (Stilyagi) will be the opening movie at the 2010 Tromsø International Film Festival. The Hollywood reporter calls Hipsters “a visually stunning and energetic musical satirizing repression in the Soviet Union”. The movie won the 2009 Nika Award (Russia’s answer to the Oscar) for best film, best cinematography, costume design and sound editing. Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF) has had an incredible growth since it first commenced in 1991 and is now the largest film festival in Norway. The total of admissions in 1991 was 5,200 — in 2009 it was 48 258. TIFF 2010 includes more than 100 movies on 12 screens. A popular sidebar at the festival is Films from the North – a special program for shorts and documentaries from the Barents region and other circumpolar areas. Tromsø International Film Festival is set in the dark polar nights, which give's TIFF the unique possibility to screen films outdoor. The outdoor cinema is located at the main square in the heart of Tromsø. TIFF 2010 takes place January 18-24. [Read the program for TIFF 2010. See trailer for “Hipsters” on YouTube.]

Posted 10 January 2010; 11:50:56 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Arts and Artists, Circumpolar News, Conferences, January10, Norway, Social Issues

Hope floats, and rolls   

(David Holthouse/Alaska Dispatch, 8 January 2010) -- Vester Eyland, a small island off the west coast of Greenland, near the mouth of Disko Bay, has long been known for producing some of the best sea kayakers in the world. "The island draws big waves, so it's not easy to paddle and hunt, compared to other places off the coast of the main country, where the water is calm and flat," says famed sea kayaker Maligiaq Johnsen Padilla (pronounced muh-LIG-ee-ahk YOON-sen pa-DEE-uh), 27, whose mother's ancestors are from Vester Eyland. Padilla grew up in Sisimiut, a town on the edge of the Arctic Circle, just south of Disko Bay. He learned to subsistence hunt and sea kayak from his Vester Eyland relatives, for whom knowing how to right, or "roll" a capsized kayak is more survival skill than sport. They hunt in seas where the wind and waves batter kayaks like unruly children slapping at bathtub toys. Padilla's great-grandfather was killed near Vester Eyland in 1929 when a harpooned seal yanked his kayak with enough force in rough water to snap his spine. Though he still hunts for seals, fish and Auks (diving birds related to sea puffins), Padilla is better known outside the Sisimiut area for his prowess in world-class sea kayaking competitions. He's the only person in history to win the Greenland National Kayaking Championships four times, beginning in 1998 at the age of 16, when he became the youngest Greenland kayak champion ever. Last month, Padilla traveled to Alaska to participate in Generation I, a touring series of workshops, demonstrations and community discussions in Northwest Alaska that took place Dec. 28 through Jan. 8 in Kotzebue, Kiana and Selawik. (Here's a slideshow from the event.) Generation I — a play on "I" representing both personal identity and Inuit culture — was inspired by a recent "Hope and Resilience in Suicide Prevention" seminar, in Nuuk, Greenland, that was organized and funded by the Inuit Circumpolar Conference [now Council] in conjunction with the government of Greenland. Suicides among Inuit, and especially Inuit youth, in both Alaska and Greenland are tragically high. But in Greenland, they're decreasing. The "Hope and Resilience" seminar attributed the positive shift in large part to three factors: affirming the self-worth of Inuit teenagers, promoting a deeper sense of Inupiat cultural identity, and putting youths in contact with positive role models. [See the YouTube video]

Posted 10 January 2010; 11:19:40 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, Greenland, Health and wellness, International, January10, People, Social Issues, United States, Youth

Education part of explanation for falling population   

(Sermitsiaq, 5 January 2010) -- The country’s population is declining, but statisticians expect most of those who leave Greenland will return someday – not just older, but also wise. Greenland’s high emigration rate is due mostly to the large number of young people attending post-secondary schools in Denmark, according to Statistics Greenland. “What we can see is that a third of emigrants name education as the reason,” said Lars Petersen of Statistics Greenland. He pointed out that concern about a brain drain were over exaggerated. “Normally they come back within five years.” The statistics show that Greenland waves good-bye to far more people each year than it welcomes as new residents. The trend has accelerated during the past decade, and has seen the largest numbers emigrants in the 15-25 year-old bracket. “If we look at the group emigrants who were born in Greenland, we can see that much of the net population loss is due to people leaving to study,” Petersen said. In 2008, the net emigration amongst native Greenlanders was 653, the highest level in ten years. In addition to being young, most were women. Statistics Greenland figures also show that the population as a whole fell for the fourth year in a row last year. On 1 January 2005, there were 56,969 people living in Greenland. On 1 January 2010, there were 56,194.

Posted 8 January 2010; 8:02:28 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Education and Civil Society, Greenland, January10, North Atlantic, Social Issues

The electronification of Russian regions   

(BarentsObserver, 4 January 2010) -- All state services in the Russian regions are to be made available electronically by 2015, President Dmitry Medvedev underlined in a recent State Council session. The meeting, which was devoted to the development of information technologies, was attended by the governors and a number of cabinet ministers and high-ranking officials. It took place on 23 December. The governors who do not cope with the mission will be dismissed, the president threatened in his speech, newspaper Kommersant reports. According to Minister of Communication Igor Shchegolev, Russian small businesses today spend ten percent of their turnover on overcoming red tape and the Russian population altogether spend up to 25 million days per year on getting public services. There are a total of about 1,500 public services which will be made electronic by 2015, newspaper Kommersant writes.

Posted 3 January 2010; 10:13:00 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communications and media, Internet Resources, January10, Russia, Social Issues

Bethel council lays groundwork to define alcohol limits   

(Alex Demarban/Arctic Sounder, 29 December 2009) -- At a special meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 29, the Bethel City Council introduced a proposed municipal ordinance that defines which types of businesses, if any, can sell alcohol in the community. The council did not vote on the ordinance but introduced it so the public would have a chance to comment on it at the next regularly scheduled council meeting on Jan. 12, said Mayor Joe Klejka. The council is struggling to deal with the aftermath of voters' decision in November to remove Bethel's 32-year-old status as a "damp" community. Restaurants are applying for liquor licenses and other businesses, such as stores, are taking steps to apply to open liquor stores. The council set an advisory vote for Jan. 19 so people can provide feedback on just how "wet" Bethel should be. Do residents want bars, liquor stores, restaurants or any other establishments selling alcohol? The council won't vote on the municipal ordinance banning sales until after that date, said Klejka. That way, if voters say they want some businesses to sell alcohol, such as restaurants, then the council can remove restaurants from the prohibited list. The council is also expected to decide at the next meeting whether it will protest Osaka Restaurant's liquor license application, said Klejka. Kilsuh Park, Osaka's owner, submitted the first application to the state alcohol control board since Bethel went wet.

Posted 31 December 2009; 11:15:56 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, December09, Laws and legal, North America, Social Issues, United States

Looking for a few good lawyers   

(Jørgen Chemnitz/Sermitsiaq, 30 December 2009) -- When Thomas Trier assumes his new position as judge and head of the Court of Greenland tomorrow, he will be the first to head the legal body established as part of the increasing autonomy granted the country this summer as part of the Self-Rule Act. The court will have 40 employees, including another judge and four legal aides. But Trier has expressed his disappointment over the lack of qualified Greenlandic candidates for the aide positions. “It’s due to the fact that there aren’t a lot of Greenlandic lawyers,” he said. “This is an important social institution, and lawyers themselves, as well as the administration, need to encourage people to study law.” He suggested expanding the legal studies programme at the University of Greenland. Currently law students must take at least some of their courses in Denmark. “Something needs to happen,” Trier said. “The need is enormous, and we need to remember that the judiciary is the third pillar of the separation of powers.” Taking over responsibility for the judiciary is hoped to lead to an increased professionalism amongst the country’s legal professionals. All judges and public defenders are to be hired full-time, and will receive additional training. ... In addition to personnel issues, one of the basic issues facing the new court is office space, especially for circuit courts. “The courthouse in Qaqortoq is too small to house two judges, so it’s a real logistical challenge, and I don’t think a new structure will be in place until 2012. We need to build, we need to procure funds, and there are personnel that need to relocate – as well as those who can’t relocate. We need to cover all our bases.” As the new court finds its feet in the coming weeks, circuit court judges will also be preparing for qualifying exams. “The exams are in March, and hopefully they will nominated by June. Then they need to be approved, so I hope we can have them in place by July. At that point the circuit courts should be operating full-time."

Posted 31 December 2009; 10:52:35 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Governance, Greenland, Laws and legal, Social Issues

Northwest Alaska relief   

(Stephen Nowers/Alaska Dispatch, 29 December 2009) --Just about 20,000 pounds of fish came off a Coast Guard C-130 during an Arctic sunrise on Monday afternoon, destined for more than 800 needy families in Kotzebue and the surrounding villages. Inside the terminal at Kotzebue Airport, members of the community greeted the Kodiak-based flight crew with a prayer of thanks and a brief performance from the Northern Lights Dancers. Brenda Erlich, a personal banker with Wells Fargo, began planning for this day last February. She was inspired by last winter's relief effort for communities in the Yukon-Kustokwim Delta and wanted to be ahead of any potential shortages. "We didn't want to wait until it got to that point where people were having to choose between buying fuel or buying food," she said. Along with the fish, which was caught in Sitka and dontated by the Seattle-based hunger relief organization SeaShare, the community is expecting 30,000 pounds of dry food as part of the Wells Fargo-NANA Regional Corp. Inc. relief effort. Erlich said getting the fish to Kotzebue as the hardest part. "We were lucky enough for the Coast Guard to volunteer to bring it," she said It's more about economics than a subsistance shortfall, said Northwest Arctic Borough major Siikauraq Whiting. She said the price of milk has reached $18 a gallon in some places in the area. "We have the highest cost of living in our region and anything helps," Whiting said.

Posted 30 December 2009; 10:26:47 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, Education and Civil Society, Social Issues

Bethel council meets at noon: might protest liquor license application   

(Alex Demarban/Arctic Sounder, 29 December 2009) -- In the ongoing struggle to set limits on its newly "wet" town, the Bethel City Council will hold a special meeting at noon today to consider protesting the city's first liquor license application in decades. Council members also might consider an ordinance banning alcohol sales in Bethel or at least limiting where it's sold. A resolution on the agenda would protest an effort by Kilsuh Park of Osaka Restaurant to sell wine and beer. Park applied to the state alcohol control board for a liquor license after voters agreed to remove the city's 32-year-old "damp" status in October. The status prohibited alcohol sales. If passed, the council's resolution will be forwarded to the alcohol control board, which is expected to consider Park's application on Feb. 26. The council has received letters and comments from people who oppose liquor licenses in Bethel, the ordinance says. Three other businesses are also applying for liquor licenses.

Posted 29 December 2009; 1:09:33 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Autonomy, Sovereignty and Politics, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, Social Issues

Smaller communities can't draw doctors   

(CBC News, 23 December 2009) -- Despite lucrative financial incentives, new physicians still appear reluctant to locate in smaller northern communities. While the overall number of doctors practising in Canada has gone up at a faster rate than the population, that is not the case in parts of the north. Smaller centres especially are having a hard time drawing permanent doctors. A recent 176-page study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information looked at the supply, migration and distribution of physicians across Canada in the last five years. Between 2004 and 2008, the number of active physicians in Canada grew from 60,612 to 65,440 — an eight per cent increase. Over the same time, the country's overall population grew by just 4.3 per cent. Yukon was among those regions of Canada that saw a rapid rise the number of doctors — according to the report, there were 76 physicians in the Yukon in 2008 compared to 61 in 2004. But elsewhere in the north, the story is much different. While Yellowknife has more than 20 permanent doctors and there are four permanent physicians in Inuvik — residents in places such as Fort Smith N.W.T. and Hay River N.W.T. must rely on fly-in doctors. "Finding permanent physicians — that's a challenge," said Donna Allen, director of population health the N.W.T. government. "Whatever the complement we would have for Fort Smith and Hay River they don't have any of them filled," she said. Yellowknife, with its many amenities, can be a draw for doctors, even for those who at one time swore they wouldn't move north. ...  Dr. Ewan Affleck said part of the problem small centres have luring doctors, lies in the fact that fewer doctors are training in family medicine. They just are not well prepared to work in a remote northern setting, especially a smaller community. "Certainly my training at McGill didn't fully prepare me to be a physician in a remote place ... so there was a bit of an adjustment that had to occur. That, I think in some cases, scares people away."

Posted 25 December 2009; 12:32:11 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, Health and wellness, North America, Social Issues

With Bethel wet, officers from nearby villages say crime is up   

(Alex Demarban/The Arctic Sounder, 23 December 2009) -- Village police in communities around Bethel say alcohol-fueled crimes are on the rise following Bethel's recent decision to go wet. They're working overtime to keep up with the increase in alcohol-related assaults, drunken driving and public inebriation cases, said Alvin Jimmie, coordinator for Village Public Safety Officers in the Bethel region. Somebody seems to be ordering large amounts of alcohol and selling it in the dry villages, said Jimmie, who oversees officers in about twenty villages. It started happening when Bethel voters changed the law, he said. Lt. Craig Macdonald, head of the Alaska State Trooper Post in Bethel, said the troopers are looking into the reports. It's too early to know if the new law in Bethel led to increased crime, he said. More crime could also be related to people cashing their $1,300 Permanent Fund Dividend checks in October and November, he said. Alcohol-related crimes traditionally increase when the annual state checks arrive. "There are a lot of variables," he said. Roman Daniel, a village officer in Nunapitchuk, a dry village of 540 an hour's snowmachine ride from Bethel, said alcohol-related assaults in his villages and nearby Kasigluk have increased noticeably the past month. "Everybody that couldn't get alcohol before has it," said Daniel. "I mean, it's everywhere."

Posted 23 December 2009; 4:48:10 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, Crime, December09, Social Issues

Village of Revda to be closed   

(Barents Observer, 23 December 2009) -- The village of Revda in Murmansk Oblast will probably be closed and its inhabitants moved. The reason for this is the collapse of the mining industry in the area. The company Lovozersky Mining and Processing Plant has struggled for several years, and the only department still in operation is the souvenir shop, Vedomosti reports. The Russian Government plans to initiate a program for relocation of the 9500 inhabitants. The Russian Government’s anti-crisis commission has put together a list of 27 one-company towns that need state financial support. 20 of these can count on federal allocations already in 2010. 10 billion RUB will be transferred to the towns as budget subsidies, while another 10 billion RUB will be given as three years credits. Revda is the only town on this list that is planned to be shut down.

Posted 23 December 2009; 2:57:51 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, December09, Economic issues, Northwest Russia, Social Issues

Bringing circus – and new hope – to a remote Arctic village   

(Linda Matchan/Christian Science Monitor, 22 December 2009) -- Four years ago, acrobat Guillaume Saladin had an enviable job as a circus performer. He was a member of the acclaimed Cirque Éloize, an innovative Montreal-based troupe combining circus arts with music, dance, and theater. Specializing in gravity-defying hand-to-hand routines – a cross between handstands and dance – Mr. Saladin toured the world, visiting Europe, China, and the Middle East. But when it was time to renew his circus contract, Saladin found himself wavering. The one place he couldn’t get out of his mind was a remote Inuit community called Igloolik, 200 miles above the Arctic Circle in Canada. ... But now he was at a crossroads. “Do I tour the world with the same show,” he thought, “or [go] to Igloolik?” He chose Igloolik, arriving on Halloween 2005 with his suitcases and juggling pins. He knew immediately he’d made the right choice. “Everyone was costumed and masked and playing around ... craziness everywhere around town,” says Saladin, whose accented English reveals his French Canadian heritage. “Very similar to circus.” Then he turned his attention to Artcirq, the Arctic circus he’d helped launch seven years earlier. Artcirq is a unique artistic hybrid, a collective of young performers who blend techniques of modern circus with elements of Inuit culture, such as throat singing, music, drum dancing, and juggling. In a short time it’s gone from amateurs balancing shakily on homemade teeterboards to proficient jugglers and acrobats who balance atop each other’s shoulders, perform aggressive back flips, and somersault while leaping through hoops. ... The circus is credited with bringing hope and pride to many dispirited young people. “My life got brighter when I joined the circus because I had stuff to do,” says Reena Qulittalik, an Igloolik high school student. “Before that, I didn’t know what to do.”

Posted 23 December 2009; 11:49:48 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Arts and Artists, Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, People, Social Issues

Sami Nurash established!   

(Indigenous Peoples of the Barents Region, 15 December 2009) -- On November 23rd 2009, Sami Nurash, the Murmansk Regional Saami Youth Organization, was established and registered. "November 23rd is a great day of joy for us, as it is the day all our efforts are rewarded," says Anna Afanasyeva, who is elected chairperson of the Saami youth organization. The Saami youth living on the Kola Peninsula have struggled for ten years to have a Saami youth organization registered, and they succeeded on the third attempt. Throughout the later years, Saami youth in Russia have been cooperating with Saami youth in the Nordic countries, through joint seminars and conferences and the Working Group for establishing an All-Saami youth organization. Saami youth are organized through Noereh (Norway), Sáminuorra (Sweden), Suoma Sámi Nuorat (Finland) and Sami Nurash (Russia).

Posted 21 December 2009; 2:17:54 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Indigenous Issues, Northwest Russia, Russia, Social Issues, Youth

Petition to make Bethel damp has enough signatures, sponsors say   

(Alex Demarban/The Arctic Sounder, 18 December 2009) -- Petition gatherers who want to make Bethel a damp community again say they have enough signatures to put the question on the ballot. "We feel pretty good, we're all pretty happy," said Allen Joseph, one of 28 petition sponsors. Voters in the community of 5,600 chose in October to end Bethel's damp status after three decades. A separate group of Bethel residents led that effort. They said they opposed the state-set alcohol-import limits placed on damp communities. But they also said they didn't want liquor stores or bars in Bethel. However, the decision opened a Pandora's Box, as several restaurants and grocery stores raced to get their liquor license applications before the state alcohol board. Three such applications, submitted by Osaka's Restaurant, Corina's Restaurant and 123 BBQ, are pending before the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, said director Shirley Gifford. The next board meeting where those can be considered is Feb. 26, Gifford said. Other businesses have run newspaper ads in The Delta Discovery expressing their intent to apply, including to open a liquor store. While gathering signatures, petitioners ran across people who voted to end the damp status but now want to go back, said Joseph. They said too many businesses were trying to get liquor licenses, he said. About 20 sponsors gathered voter signatures starting Dec. 7. They quickly had enough to get the item on the ballot, Joseph said. They gathered 673 signatures, more than the number of Bethel voters who chose to remove the damp status in October, he said. Just 404 valid signatures are needed to get the item on the ballot. That's 35 percent of the number of people who voted in the October election, Joseph said. Joseph turned 24 booklets into the city clerk Friday afternoon so she could begin verifying signatures. "To me, it's a tremendous accomplishment," he said. "A lot of people are pushing for it and supporting it and I'm hoping for the best."

Posted 21 December 2009; 1:50:37 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, Social Issues, United States

CBC Editor's Choice: Three items from the Northwest Territories [mp3]   

(CBC/Editor's Choice, 11 December 2009) -- Today, we have three items from the Northwest Territories. We'll start with an interview with John Kearney. He's the President of Canadian Zinc as well as the new president of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut's Chamber of Mines. Then, we'll meet 25-year-old grad student and aspiring filmmaker Chris White. He'll tell us about his Yellowknife-based web series entitled Teenage Wasteland. Finally, biathlete Brendan Green gives us an update on his performance in Europe's World Cup series.

Posted 11 December 2009; 3:33:33 PM.  editorschoice_20091211_24318.mp3 Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, NWT, Social Issues

Tuberculosis outbreak probed in N.W.T. community   

(CBC News, 7 December 2009) -- Health officials in the Northwest Territories are trying to determine the cause of a tuberculosis outbreak in the remote community of Déline. To date, there have been five confirmed cases of the contagious airborne disease in the community of about 700, located on the southwestern shore of Great Bear Lake. Health officials say there are 11 cases of people carrying Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the germ that causes tuberculosis. Carriers do not display symptoms and cannot transmit TB unless it develops into the full-blown disease. The N.W.T. Health Department has dispatched a team to investigate how the disease flared up in Déline, as well as to figure out how to stop its spread. People in Déline and the N.W.T.'s Sahtu region should watch closely for the symptoms of tuberculosis, communicable disease specialist Cheryl Case told CBC News. "They will be coughing, usually for three weeks or more. They'll start to feel fatigued and weak," Case said Monday. "As the disease progresses ... when they go to bed at night they'll find that they wake up with their bed clothing wet, so we refer to that as night sweats. They can also experience some pain in their chest. And they may even, if they get really sick, start to cough up blood." Once the tuberculosis infection or germ is identified, Case said, it is treatable. But left untreated, tuberculosis can be fatal. The World Health Organization estimates that tuberculosis kills about 1.5 million people around the world each year. Most cases are reported in Africa and Asia.

Posted 8 December 2009; 12:04:42 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, Health and wellness, NWT, Social Issues

Greenlandic patients to be treated in Iceland   

(IcelandReview News, 4 December 2009) -- Greenlandic authorities are hoping that around 80 patients can be sent from Greenland to hospitals in Iceland for treatment every year. Greenland’s Minister of Health Agathe Fintain is currently in Iceland with a Greenlandic delegation to discuss this proposal. One or two patients from Greenland are already being treated at hospitals in Iceland and Fintain is keen on expanding this cooperation. Currently, Greenlandic patients are being treated in Denmark, ruv.is reports. Patients in need of intensive care would be the first to arrive, mostly premature babies and heart and kidney patients. Next, people requiring specialized operations would come; the waiting list for knee and hip surgeries, for example, is long in Greenland. According to the Greenlandic state radio, it costs around ISK 10 million (USD 82,000, EUR 54,000) per year to transport patients to Denmark. That cost could be reduced by half if they were treated in Iceland instead. Fintain met with her Icelandic counterpart Álfheidur Ingadóttir yesterday morning and will also meet representatives of the Landspítali national hospital in Reykjavík and FSA, the hospital in Akureyri.

Posted 6 December 2009; 12:18:41 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Economic issues, Greenland, Health and wellness, Iceland, Social Issues

Exiles' new life was 'like a bad dream'   

(Paul Watson/The Toronto Star, 1 December 2009) -- IQALUIT -- The exiles were supposed to survive on their own. They gave up the support of their village's nursing station and school in northern Quebec to help Canada lay claim to the High Arctic wilderness. RCMP posts would ensure order in the bleak new settlements. The rest was up to the Inuit. The coast guard ship that brought them to the barren lands would return once a year to provide medical care. In Resolute, on Cornwallis Island, it fell to Johnnie and Minnie Eckalook to care for the exiles in the long, cold months in between. Johnnie was a traditional healer and a lay minister in the Anglican church. He also loved good company, often hard to find in an isolated hamlet where it wasn't easy to get along. The youngest of his six daughters, Elizabeth Allakariallak, thinks her father's kindness made him an easy mark for RCMP officers who needed someone to take in the sick and troubled while they waited to see whether the ship made it back. Their home became a boarding house for patients who travelled from distant villages for help. If Johnnie and Minnie weren't tending to physical ills, they had their hands full dealing with mental and spiritual maladies. ... Growing up among these sick, drunk and sometimes brawling houseguests inflicted deep wounds on the psyche of the girl who became Elizabeth Roberts, ID tag E5-1413. Now 52, Roberts has three children of her own. The terrifying fear that they will inherit her trauma, just as she was heir to her parents', makes her cry so hard she can barely breathe. ... The policy of insisting on Inuit self-reliance in the exile communities was so strict that RCMP in Grise Fiord refused to let Martha Flaherty's family take refuge near the detachment when fire destroyed their tiny home. ... "We were not allowed to be near RCMP because they said it's their land, and they didn't want us to become dependent on them," Flaherty says. "At the same time, if they don't want us to be dependent on them, why do they depend on our fathers? They used to send them to Resolute by dog team for weeks to pick up mail for them." For Roberts, the agony is compounded by the belief that someone, probably the RCMP, had blocked a letter from her brother-in-law Simeonie, telling her family to stay in northern Quebec.

Posted 2 December 2009; 2:05:59 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, December09, Indigenous Issues, North America, Nunavut, Social Issues

New Icelandic names include Ísbjörn and Árvök   

(Iceland Review, 1 December 2009) -- The Human Name Council has for the past eight months reviewed suggestions for 35 first names and two middle names. The council has given a green light on some of them, including the man’s name Ísbjörn (literal translation: Polar Bear) and the woman’s name Árvök (literal translation: River Air Hole). Other men’s names that have been approved are Spóli, Moli, Sturri, Mikkael, Kris, Gael, Keran, Emerald, Edilon, Bastían and Emmanúel, Morgunbladid reports. However, boys cannot be named Chris, Elias, Byrnir, Bastian and Emmanuel. The Human Name Council rejected these names on the grounds that their spelling isn’t in accordance with the general spelling rules of the Icelandic language. New women’s names, in addition to Árvök, are Elvi, Reyn, Adalrós, Manúela, Atalía, Ollý, Álfrós, Emeralda, Adríana, Isabella and Amilía. However, girls cannot be named Cara, Milicia, Aisha, Zíta or Leach, because of the same reason that the aforementioned men’s names were rejected. The middle name Valagils was also approved.

Posted 2 December 2009; 12:07:46 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Cultural Matters, December09, Iceland, North Atlantic, Social Issues, Women, Children and Families

Nancy Karetak-Lindell, former Nunavut MP, to head major Arctic initiative launched by the Gordon Foundation   

(Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation press release, 1 December 2009) -- Toronto, Arviat, New York - Nancy Karetak-Lindell is named Director of the Arctic Voices Fellowships, a new and innovative program created by the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation. The program aims to strengthen the participation of northerners in shaping policies governing the Canadian Arctic. Her appointment was announced today by Thomas S. Axworthy, President and CEO of the Gordon Foundation. ... The Fellowships will provide financial, educational, mentoring, and networking support to challenge and encourage Canadians from the north, ages 25-35, to become engaged in shaping public policy. The program provides funding for 12 northern participants to give them the opportunity to research and develop public policy ideas at a time of great change in the North. Each participant will be awarded $25,000 spanning 2 years to help them engage in projects and to learn how to develop policies that reflect their knowledge of northern culture and values. The search for candidates begins in the Spring 2010. The J.M. Kaplan Fund, a family foundation based in New York, is helping fund this initiative.

Posted 1 December 2009; 11:04:45 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, Education and Civil Society, People, Prizes, awards and recognitions, Social Issues

Nearly 300 people still living in devastated Kamchatka village   

(Regnum.ru, 24 November 2009) -- In 2006, Korf, a village [established in the mid-1920s to house salmon fishers] in the Olyutorsky district on the coast of [60°22'17.83"N, 166° 0'54.38"E] suffered a severe earthquake. In December 2008, it was floods. In 2006, in response to the damage caused by the earthquake, the Governor of Kamchatka Territory, Alexei Kuzmitsky, authorized the relocation of Korf inhabitants to safer places. Rising sea levels threatened the spit of land on which the town was built and its location in a seismic zone meant that human habitation was deemed unsuitable by specialists of the Geophysical Institute. Each resident was told how the evacuation would proceed, when containers would be loaded with their personal effects. However, of the 22 families first chosen to leave Korf, only seven left. The remainder continue to live in condemned buildings without access to social services, which have been suspended because the community was to be abandoned. Since some 170 families have not yet been issued certificates for housing elsewhere, the government has shipped enough coal to keep the district heating plant working through the winter and have repaired the power line serving the community. (Loosely paraphrased from the GoogleTranslated version of the original Russian.)

Posted 30 November 2009; 5:03:51 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Far East / Russia, Natural disasters and other problems, November09, Russia, Social Issues, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction

Inuit were moved 2,000 km in Cold War manoeuvring   

(Paul Watson/Toronto Star, 29 November 2009) -- GRISE FIORD, NUNAVUT - The long winter darkness is closing in, and the midday sun clings hard to the horizon, its amber light glinting off ice crystals covering a piece of granite. It stands next to a listing boat on blocks, a jumble of tools, severed walrus heads and a narwhal's spiralled tusk, waiting for sculptor Looty Pijamini to free its voice. He wants the rock to tell the world of the terrible pain inflicted on him and others by cruel lies. Pijamini, 56, is shaping a monument to Inuit people lured 2,000 kilometres from Inukjuak, in northern Quebec, and Pond Inlet, on the northeastern shore of Baffin Island, to make a Cold War stand in the polar desert of Ellesmere and Cornwallis Islands. The Inuit say they were duped in the 1950s into settling the country's two most northern communities, Grise Fiord and Resolute, by a government desperate for "human flagpoles" in a vast wilderness coveted by the U.S. and Soviet Union. Now, Arctic sovereignty is a hot issue again and southern politicians' new fervour for the defence of Canadian territory feels like fistfuls of salt rubbed into old wounds to Inuit who lost the best years of their lives holding the line in the godforsaken outposts. John Amagoalik, now a grey-haired, 62-year-old Inuit leader often called the Father of Nunavut for his role in winning Inuit self-rule in the federal territory, was 5 years old when his family was moved to Resolute. He has lived a lifetime with betrayal. "The United States still declares that the Northwest Passage is international waters, and the very reason why we were dumped on Cornwallis Island and Ellesmere was primarily to protect, to assert sovereignty over the Northwest Passage," he says. "Now we're being ignored. And we're hurt by this.

Posted 29 November 2009; 5:42:18 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Autonomy, Sovereignty and Politics, Canada, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Communities, Indigenous Issues, November09, Nunavut, Social Issues

In Greenland, warming fuels dream of hidden wealth   

(Karl Ritter/AP via GoogleNews, 27 November 2009) -- TASIILAQ, Greenland - Gert Ignatiussen returns to this fjord-front Inuit town with the spoils of his hunting trip. Six seals, all killed with a single shot to the head. With nimble handwork, his wife Bartholine cuts them up on the porch of their wood-frame home, saving the best meat for dinner. Ignatiussen throws leftover chunks of flesh and intestines to the yelping sled dogs fettered on a dusty slope below the house. The blood-drenched scene offers a glimpse into Greenland's past—a time not long ago when seal hunting meant survival to nomadic Inuit tribes in one of the most hostile climates on Earth. Inside, Ingatiussen, 54, shows what he believes is Greenland's future: A collection of mineral-rich rocks that he has stashed away in a drawer if he ever needs money. Global warming is melting the fringes of the frozen world where Greenland's Inuits have hunted seal, whale and polar bear for generations. It's thawing the permafrost on which their homes are built. It's disrupting Arctic wildlife and fish stocks, and making hunting trips more dangerous by thinning the ice that supports their dog sleds. But all is not doom and gloom. The retreating ice could uncover potential oil and mineral resources which, if successfully tapped, could dramatically change the fortunes of this semiautonomous Danish territory of 57,000 people. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there are more than 18 billion barrels of oil and gas beneath the Arctic waters between Greenland and Canada, and 31 billion barrels off Greenland's east coast. North Sea resources of the same magnitude have made Norway one of Europe's richest countries. Even if only a small part becomes recoverable as the Arctic sea ice retreats, it would be enough for a major boost in living standards for Greenland's tiny population. "If we find those kind of quantities of oil and gas and the prices remain at current levels, then Greenland would be a very wealthy country, no doubt," said Joern Skov Nielsen, the director of Greenland's Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum.

Posted 28 November 2009; 12:08:04 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Greenland, November09, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Social Issues

A Book a Week: Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indriðason   

(Becky Holmes/Daily Page, 26 November 2009) -- Arnaldur Indriðason’s Icelandic mysteries continue to be my favorites. As usual, Indridason delivers a simple mystery with a straightforward solution, but it’s the accompanying journey through Iceland’s modern social issues that makes his books so interesting. And of course, Iceland’s issues are Europe’s issues; in this case the impact of immigration on a formerly homogeneous culture. Elias, a boy with an Icelandic father and a Thai mother, is murdered on his way home from school. Was his murder racially motivated? Was it just a consequence of living in an impoverished neighborhood in Reykjavik? Suspects abound: local drug dealers and pedophiles, professed racists, schoolyard bullies. Detectives Erlendur, Sigurdur Oli and Elinborg must contend with all this and more, including Elias’ mother, Sunee, who speaks only Thai; her estranged husband, who has engaged in a series of “marriages” to Asian women whom he brings to Iceland, then abandons; and Elias’ older half-brother, who is fully Thai and whose adjustment to Icelandic society has been marred by depression and violence. This is a bleak story set in a rapidly changing society. Why do I read these kinds of things? I think I love them because they help me see that every society struggles with similar issues and that human traits are universal. The racist Icelandic teacher who rails against the Asian immigrants could be someone from the U.S. talking about Mexicans; the single mother trying to hold her family together despite her lack of money and her long working hours could be from anywhere. Trouble is everywhere, and we just have to sort it out as best we can, clue by clue, as Erlendur does.

Posted 28 November 2009; 12:02:02 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Books, Blogs and Publications, Circumpolar News, Iceland, November09, Social Issues

Fairbanks diocese to pay millions for abuse   

(Anchorage Daily News, 25 November 2009) -- Alaska victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and volunteers from the Fairbanks diocese could finally receive payments early next year for the damage done long ago, though many of the details of the bankruptcy settlement have yet to be worked out. Lawyers for the Fairbanks diocese and representatives of almost 300 creditors, most of them sex abuse victims, said Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court that they've agreed to a nearly $10 million settlement.The amount available to pay victims could grow considerably, depending on the results of efforts to extract up to $100 million from two insurance carriers that are not part of the settlement, said Ken Roosa, an Anchorage attorney who represents 240 victims trying to collect through the bankruptcy case.  Those two insurance companies had refused to participate in the negotiations, Roosa said. The Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska, the formal name for the diocese, turned to bankruptcy in March 2008 after efforts to settle numerous sexual abuse lawsuits failed. Under the settlement, the diocese would resolve the cases and would sell some property, but would not have to close any parishes. Specific amounts to individuals aren't yet set and will be determined case by case, depending on the abuse suffered. People with marginal claims of mistreatment that don't relate to sexual abuse may not get anything, Roosa said. Bankruptcy Judge Donald MacDonald still must approve the terms.

Posted 25 November 2009; 9:32:33 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, Crime, North America, November09, Social Issues, United States

Conference investigates high male youth suicide rates   

(IceNews, 15 November 2009) -- An international conference held in Nuuk has sought to understand why so many young men in the circumpolar region take their own lives. Despite declining overall rates in recent years, in Greenland and in other Arctic territories, around two-thirds of all suicides are performed by young males aged 15-25. Siku News reports that the statistics have seen Maliina Abelsen, Greenland’s social minister, call for additional research into the lives of young men. “We need to find out more about how our boys are doing,” said Abelsen, Greenland’s representative at the conference on teen suicide. “Why is it, for example, girls who finish their educations?” she asked. One suggestion for the high suicide rate has been the social taboos which limit young males displaying emotion according to feedback from teens in Alaska, Nunavut, Greenland and the Norwegian Saami. Young people attending the conference also implied that parental intervention into personal problems could be better managed. The role of the indigenous Arctic male has also changed as society has developed, with the traditional hunter gatherer figure no longer seen as an essential in modern development. Greenland will continue with its push on prevention efforts even though rates have fallen. Fifty-eight Greenlanders committed suicide in 2006, a figure which dropped to 38 in 2007 and to 35 last year with further declines predicted for 2009, although authorities point out that this does not mean that the curve is necessarily broken. “I hope it continues. But we have to wait some years before we can speak of a trend,” said Office of Prevention spokesperson Jette Eistrup, adding that forecasting was difficult to do based on small numbers.

Posted 16 November 2009; 7:47:23 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conferences, meetings, and gatherings, Greenland / Denmark, Health and wellness, North Atlantic, November09, Social Issues

Iceland holds national meeting   

(IceNews, 14 November 2009) -- A group of 1,200 Icelanders considered statistically representative of the population are being brought together today for the first time in an attempt to “harvest the wisdom of the crowd”. The group of people aged 18 and over were picked randomly from the national registry to be invited to attend the event at Reykjavik’s Laugardalsholl arena, along with 300 representatives of organisations and institutions. They will be asked to name the values Icelandic society should be based upon, as well as their vision for Iceland’s future and possible ways of action to rebuild the country’s economy and society. The results will be freely available to anyone who wants to take part in the rebuilding effort. The event is a privately-organised grassroots event, although a week ago the government decided to invest ISK 7 million in the project. Other funding comes from businesses and individuals. Similar groups are regularly sampled for polls and surveys; but never before have they been brought together in person in this way. Organisers, many of whom have strong political and business links, plan to work with all present to formulate a 52-week national recovery plan with a tangible goal for the nation to achieve every week. The motto of the National Meeting organised by a group calling itself The Anthill is, “a date with the future”.

Posted 15 November 2009; 2:30:20 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Conferences, meetings, and gatherings, Iceland, November09, Social Issues

Natives want PM to screen northern Quebec projects   

(CBC News, 6 November 2009) -- What has been called Canada's largest construction project came under fire from aboriginal groups Friday, who called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to protect their treaty rights in the face of a Quebec government plan to develop the province's north. The skirmish threatens to end an era of amiable relations between the province and aboriginal groups in a return to old feuds that dominated hydroelectric power discussions in the past. Premier Jean Charest's Plan Nord, a showpiece project that was announced with great fanfare during last year's provincial election, is part of the government's goal for massive resource development in the north. The plan includes $19 billion in new energy projects, which would add 3,500 megawatts to Hydro-Québec's grid by 2035—enough to power roughly 600,000 homes. But some aboriginal groups contend it will bulldoze their traditional way of life and steamroller their treaty rights. Five Innu communities boycotted a closed-door meeting hosted by Quebec Natural Resources Minister Nathalie Normandeau in Quebec City on Friday to discuss the project. But about 200 people from northern Quebec did attend the gathering. Chief Ghislain Picard, head of the powerful Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador, called on Harper to intervene. ... Environment groups have criticized the project, saying it would create significant problems in the forest land slated to be flooded. The Innu are threatening to use all legal means to throw a wrench into the plan if their ancestral rights are not respected, although no timetable was given Friday. Those rights include historical and modern treaties and the right to self-government.

Posted 8 November 2009; 1:08:34 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Indigenous Issues, North America, November09, Nunavik / Canada, Provinces / Canada, Resource Issues, Social Issues

Concern over media's poor Greenlandic language skills   

(Sermitsiaq, 3 November 2009) -- The media's inability to communicate clearly in Greenlandic risks making national news unavailable for large swaths of the population. News stories in Greenlandic are typically translated from Danish, but the quality of the language is too poor for them to be understandable, according to Arnaq Grove, an expert in Inuit languages with the Institute for Eskimology. Grove was concerned that Greenlanders unable to speak Danish would not be able to follow along with developments. "You get tired of news that is written poorly, and then you just stop paying attention," she said. "Quite often, you need to be able to understand Danish if you want to make sense of the news in Greenlandic."

Posted 6 November 2009; 4:18:54 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communications and media, Greenland / Denmark, Indigenous Issues, North Atlantic, November09, Social Issues

Arkhangelsk to become center for higher education in the Arctic   

(BarentsObserver, 2 November 2009) -- When the new Northern (Arctic) Federal University opens in Arkhangelsk, it will be Russia’s center for education and research on the Arctic. The main motives for the establishment are protection of Russia’s geopolitical and economic interests in Northern Europe and the Arctic. The Northern (Arctic) Federal University will conduct research and educate specialists within development of natural resources, including oil and gas, timber industry, onshore infrastructures, information and communication technologies and ecology. As BarentsObserver reported, Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev on October 21 signed a presidential decree stating that the State Technical University in Arkhangelsk will be transformed into Northern (Arctic) Federal University. The new university will have a student population of 30 000 students, Pro-rector at the Arkhangelsk State Technical University Yury Kudryashov told BarentsObserver in an interview in Arkhangelsk last week. -The university will have a special role both in securing Russia’s geopolitical interests in the Arctic and in education of specialists for development of oil and gas deposits on the Arctic shelf. According to Kudryashov, a brand new university campus will be built to house the Northern (Arctic) Federal University. The Pomor State University, the Northern State Medical University and the shipyard Sevmash’ own technical college Sevmashvtuz will also be included in the new federal university. Arkhangelsk Oblast is the largest subject in the North-Western Federal District in order of size. Arkhangelsk is called “The gateway to the Arctic”.

Posted 2 November 2009; 7:36:25 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Education and Civil Society, Northwest / Russia, November09, Russia, Social Issues

Bethel buying time on alcohol vote   

(Shane Iverson/KYUK – Bethel via APRN, 24 October 2009) -- The Bethel City Council is trying to buy time with the Alcohol Beverage Control Board before they approve liquor licenses in the City. Many on the council believe that Bethel residents did not intend to allow for local sales when they voted to revoke local option. The Council is now proposing an advisory election to see what Bethel residents want now.

Posted 26 October 2009; 10:26:46 PM.  ann-20091023-02.mp3 Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, Laws and legal, North America, October09, Social Issues

Pangnirtung, Rankin Inlet to vote on liquor laws   

(CBC News, 23 October 2009) -- People in two Nunavut communities will cast ballots Monday on whether to change how alcohol is imported and consumed. Residents of Pangnirtung, located on Baffin Island, will vote on whether to remain a dry community that prohibits alcohol or to allow alcohol to be brought in under a controlled import system. "It's up to each community to decide what they want in terms of liquor control in their own communities," Nunavut deputy finance minister Peter Ma, whose department is responsible for liquor management in the territory, told CBC News. "We've had a request from people in Pang to go towards the plebiscite, to decide if they want to go from prohibited to restricted." If Pangnirtung residents vote to change the hamlet from a dry to a restricted community, an "education committee" would be set up to govern how residents order in alcohol. "An alcohol education committee would really have two primary focuses. One would be to make the kind of rules that would govern who could bring alcohol into the community and what kinds and quantities of alcohol they could bring in," said Ron Mongeau, Pangnirtung's senior administrative officer. "The other focus would be on providing education for the community, providing counselling and education so that the community can understand the pros and the cons of alcohol." Mongeau added that the committee's educational component would be critical should Pangnirtung move toward allowing alcohol into the community.

Posted 26 October 2009; 10:24:16 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, Nunavut / Canada, October09, Social Issues

Island village isolated by lack of aircraft   

(Kyle Hopkins/Anchorage Daily News, 26 October 2009) -- People in the tiny island community of Diomede -- the one where you actually can see Russia from your house -- are stuck. Roughly four months ago the weekly helicopter service that brings mail to the village of about 130 people stopped flying passengers to nearby Wales and Nome, a councilman said. There's no other way to fly in or out of Diomede this time of year, and boating nearly 30 miles across the sea to Wales, the nearest village, can be perilous in poor weather. "A lot of people have been canceling all their appointments in the (Nome) hospital," Diomede resident Thomas Soolook said Sunday, in a phone interview from the town laundry building. The passenger flights stopped when Oregon-based Evergreen International Aviation had to switch to a different chopper for its Diomede flights. "Their aircraft is down for annual inspection and they discovered some major problems with it," said Carol Piscoya, president of the Norton Sound Health Corp. That was in mid-July, said City Councilman Andrew Milligrock, around the same time he went to Nome for a meeting. It took a month to catch a boat back to town, he said. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, wrote a letter to Gov. Sean Parnell on Wednesday saying Diomede is locked in a "transportation crisis" and suggesting the state and federal governments split the cost of subsidized passenger flights to the village. Meantime, the head of the regional health corporation says help is on the way for patients. Piscoya expects to sign a deal with Evergreen Aviation as early as today. It would allow for up to four patients to leave the village at a time.

Posted 26 October 2009; 10:18:14 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, North America, October09, Social Issues, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction

Remote villages in Greenland under threat   

(IceNews, 26 October 2009) -- The future of Greenland’s remote settlements has come under scrutiny after the Democratic Party’s Palle Chritiansen questioned the feasibility of villages with fewer than 100 residents. Sermitsiaq reports that Christiansen’s query has raised a difficult question for authorities, more so given his own change of direction as to whether the government can justify ongoing financial support to remote towns. In his new role as Finance Minister Christiansen has voiced his support of the government policy of providing assistance to the settlements, contradicting earlier claims in the lead up to the election that relocation to larger towns should be implemented for villages of fewer than 100 people. Christiansen and his Democratic colleagues were invited to join a coalition government after the socialist IA party swept to victory in the spring elections. Seemingly forced to adhere to government policy since obtaining seats in the cabinet, Christiansen’s personal views are still that smaller villages should be effectively eliminated with the financial subsidies provided to them better spent elsewhere. “At a time when we’re building up an increasingly autonomous country, we can’t afford to have taboos,” he told reporters recently. “Self-rule has its price, and we need to look at the way we live.” A study has been initiated to determine the potential for development in regional Greenland, with the findings being used to assist the government to make what Christiansen calls “realistic decisions”. “This will be a tool to help ensure that we make the most of the potential sources of development there are out there,” he claimed. However, the author of a study on living standards in Arctic areas, Birger Poppel, warned against making any premature conclusions over the viability of smaller settlements. Poppel suggested that existing evidence pointed to similar levels of public funding for villages as that for towns and cities. According to Poppel the real difference is in how the resources are spent.

Posted 26 October 2009; 11:33:19 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Greenland / Denmark, October09, Social Issues

Alaska Native youth talk about the future   

(Julia O'Malley and Mark Lester/Anchorage Daily News, 21 October 2009) -- Thousands of Alaska Native young people and elders from across the state filled the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center Monday and Tuesday for the First Alaskans Elders and Youth Conference. It precedes the annual Alaska Federation of Natives Convention, which gets underway Thursday. We talked to a sampling of teenagers Tuesday about the conference, their futures, and how they feel about village life.

Posted 21 October 2009; 2:45:38 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Indigenous Issues, North America, October09, Social Issues, United States, Youth

Concerns increase over Greenland’s high suicide rate   

(A.Rienstra/Icenews, 18 October 2009) -- Increasing concerns are being expressed within Greenland, the country with the highest suicide rate in the world. The rate in Greenland is 24 times that of the United States. Most at risk are the young, as in many countries it is the teenage and young adult population that are most likely to kill themselves. In bus stations and on school walls posters encourage the young to call the suicide hotline: “The call is free. No one is alone. Don’t be alone with your dark thoughts. Call.” While males tend to dominate statistics, a survey from 2008 showed alarmingly that one in four of all young women had attempted to take her life as reported by Siku News. Danish analysis has revealed that the trend towards suicide has been a recent one in Greenland. Up until the mid-twentieth century most Greenlanders existed as they had done for thousands of years. The society was very much a hunter-gatherer community centred on small hamlets along the rugged coastline. Statistics from the early part of the century indicate Greenland was amongst the lowest in world suicide rates. However, 1970 was a watershed year when the suicide rate began to rise, a trend that has continued to this day. By the end of the 1980s several towns reported suicide as the leading cause of death in young adults. According to Peter Bjerregaard, a researcher at Denmark’s National Institute of Public Health, nearly all suicides from 1970 were from people born after 1950. That year represented a landmark social change for Greenland as it launched its transformation into a welfare state backed by Danish resettlement and modern aid. The move to bring Greenland into the future seems to have brought one of the developed world’s most tragic causes of death with it. The high suicide rate has also been attributed to most deaths being from shooting or hanging, with up to 90 percent of suicides committed in this highly efficient fashion.

Posted 19 October 2009; 2:26:06 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Greenland / Denmark, Health and wellness, October09, Social Issues

Lapland brewery closure stuns locals   

(Luna Finnsson/IceNews, 19 October 2009) -- The news that Lapin Kulta, the iconic beer of Finland’s Lapland, is set to halt production has shocked residents and city officials in the brewery town of Tornio. Siku News reports that just last week, employer Hartwall met with employees of the Lapin Kulta brewery to notify them of the intention to close the facility. Negotiations on the future of the workers will begin later this week. Chief shop steward of the Lapin Kulta brewery, Markku Rautio, said he and his colleagues were stunned by the news. ”We could not expect anything like this; the news came as a great surprise to all of us. According to the announcement, the premises will be vacated,” said Rautio. The Dutch Heineken group took over Hartwall in 2008 and the announcement provoked a mass walkout of the group’s Lahti and Tornio sites. The small northern city of Tornio is expected to be hit hard by the closure, as the brewery was the oldest surviving industrial operation in Lapland. The brewery is a landmark in the city and crucial to the employment of many city residents who are expected to face difficulty in finding new employment. Around 100 jobs will be lost as a result of the closure, with the city set to lose some EUR 700,000 in tax receipts. Tornio City Manager Raimo Ronkainen expressed his dismay at the decision: “As far as I understand, the Tornio brewery has not been an unprofitable unit; but apparently it has not been profitable enough. From the Dutch perspective, it is all the same to Heineken, whether the beer is made in Tornio or in Lahti. This is the price of globalisation,” Ronkainen added.

Posted 19 October 2009; 1:47:04 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic and Commerce Issues, Finland, October09, Social Issues

Essay: Listen to the North ... a southern model just isn’t working   

(John Ralston Saul/Literary Review of Canada, 1 October 2009)** -- ... This essay focuses on the Arctic. But the larger context is that we are a northern nation. Two thirds of our country lies in what is normally categorized as North lands. One third of our gross domestic product comes out of the three territories and the equally isolated northern parts of our provinces. And that one third is what makes us a rich, not a poor, country. Our cities, our high-tech service-based lives are built upon the foundation provided by that one third of riches. And now the South believes that the percentage of the GDP coming from the Arctic section of the North will grow. We ought to be a central player in the northern world in general and in particular in the circumpolar world. But first we all need to see ourselves as part of it and, at the moment, we do not. The current Arctic enthusiasm instead resembles an updated manifestation of George Brown’s old rep by pop argument, in which the shape and direction of Canada are supposed to be controlled simply by those who have the most votes. We act as if the second largest country in the world is only real in a handful of southern cities. That is why our current approach to Arctic sovereignty has such a Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa-Calgary-Vancouver feel to it. And that is why there is little sign of the balance between people and place that has always been and remains central to Canada's success. In this atmosphere, the point of view of northerners is treated as if it weighed three House of Commons seats, which is what a strict geographical definition of the region allots them: three territories, one seat apiece. And so, throughout our history, when the moment comes to spend the money or talk about the issues, ministers tend to become distracted by a bridge in their riding or in a swing riding, and the northern monies evaporate.

Posted 19 October 2009; 1:14:25 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Education and Civil Society, October09, Social Issues, Tourism / Perspectives

$200 turkey sparks debate on Arctic food prices   

(CBC News, 9 October 2009) -- A picture of a $200 Thanksgiving turkey in a High Arctic community has people talking about the high cost of living in Canada's far North. The photograph, which has been circulating by email since Monday, shows a frozen Grade 'A' turkey with a price tag of $200.07 at the Northern Store in Arctic Bay, a remote community on the northern coast of Baffin Island. The picture had Quttiktuq MLA Ron Elliott, the Nunavut government's elected representative for the High Arctic, worried about the cost of food and other essentials in his region. "It would be nice to have people all across Canada sort of realize that even within our own country, the ability to … put food on the table for your family is almost becoming impossible," Elliott told CBC News on Friday. "The high cost of living in the communities, it makes you really think, you know, how within our own country can we allow this to continue to happen?" After the photograph started making the rounds online, the Arctic Bay Northern Store reduced the price of the turkeys to about $90 each. The store's manager said the $200 price tag was a labelling error. Nunavut Transportation Minister Peter Taptuna recently visited Arctic Bay to discuss the high costs of travel and shipping to the High Arctic region. Elliott said High Arctic residents generally feel they are not seeing the impact of the federal government's food mail program, which subsidizes the cost of shipping healthy perishable grocieries by air to remote northern communities that are not accessible year-round by road, rail or marine service. Federal officials are currently reviewing the food mail program, which cost the government $50 million to operate last year.

Posted 10 October 2009; 4:50:14 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, Economic and Commerce Issues, North America, Nunavut / Canada, Social Issues

Per capita booze consumption drops in Greenland   

(Sermitsiaq via Siku Circumpolar News, 8 October 2009) -- Alcohol consumption in Greenland has been more than halved over the past 20 years from 22 litres of alcohol per person to 10.55 litres, reports Sermitsiaq. A new study shows that alcohol consumption has been more than halved in Greenland over the last 20 years. Greenlanders now consume an average of 10.55 litres of alcohol per year, compared to 22 litres according to figures from 1988. The new figures showed a consistent drop in consumption year by year and the latest numbers are better than those of Denmark. "Greenland was especially noted during the Nordic alcohol and drug seminar, which took place on Åland in August, because its alcohol consumption continues to decline," said the department of health and prevention’s Line Dalentoft on Sermersooq council’s website. Figures in the study were measured according to the import of beer, wine and spirits distributed to each citizen from babies to the elderly, measured as pure alcohol. At the Nordic seminar it was pointed out that Danes now consume more alcohol than Greenlanders. The other Nordic countries praised the Greenlandic authorities for their alcohol policies, which have reduced consumption.

Posted 8 October 2009; 2:01:47 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Greenland / Denmark, North Atlantic, October09, Research / Reports, Social Issues

Liquor laws relaxed in Bethel, Kotzebue   

(Kyle Hopkins/Anchorage Daily News, 8 October 2009) -- Voters in two regional shopping hubs in rural Alaska are on pace to loosen liquor rules after decades of prohibition. On Tuesday, Bethel residents voted 543-482 to do away with the city's 32-year-old ban on liquor sales, according to an unofficial tally by the city clerk Wednesday afternoon. At least 114 ballots remain to be counted, the city says. Key supporters of the proposal say they don't really want liquor stores or bars but grew fed up with state restrictions last winter when then-Gov. Sarah Palin proposed reducing how much alcohol people in Bethel and other "damp" communities could buy each month. Opponents, including the school district and regional health corporation, feared lifting the ban would flood surrounding villages with inexpensive liquor. Bethel has been the largest community to forbid liquor sales. But towns and villages across Alaska have banned booze in an attempt to battle crippling rates of alcohol abuse, accidental death, suicide and domestic violence. The other major liquor vote came in Kotzebue. A proposal to allow a city-run liquor store, bar or alcohol-serving restaurant was passing 389-353 there Wednesday, with 90 questioned or absentee votes still uncounted, according to the city. "I think a lot of people realized that what we have right now wasn't working," said Willie Goodwin, chairman of the Kotzebue elders council.

Posted 8 October 2009; 11:45:48 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, Laws and legal, North America, Social Issues, United States

Watt seeks income tax relief for Nunavik   

(Jane George/Nunatsiaq Online, 22 September 2009) -- Senator Charlie Watt made the case for taxation relief in Nunavik last week. His private member’s bill S-227, an act to amend the income tax act, came up for consideration in the Senate finance committee. “Taxes in Nunavik are based on the product you purchase once it has reached Nunavik…it hits you right away that residents are paying three to five times more than those living in southern Canada… given the recession I would say that our dollar is worth about 29 cents right now,” Watt told the committee members on Sept. 15. “The people of Nunavik are cut off from other Canadians geographically, economically and politically, and their living conditions are desperate and deteriorating further because of isolation and distance,” reads Bill S-227. To remedy this situation, the bill calls for establishing Nunavik as a special zone under the Northern Residents Deduction. This would provide up to $70 a day as an extra deduction for Nunavik residents. The legislation would also apply a zero per cent GST rate on the supply of goods and services, and exempt petroleum fuels purchased in Nunavik from federal excise taxes. Not a bad idea at all, agreed Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, who testified in front of the Senate committee on Sept. 16. In fact, Simon told the committee that she would like to see similar measures applied to other Inuit regions. “The problems that Senator Watt has identified for Nunavik are experienced in very similar ways in the other three Inuit regions, and I would encourage the Committee to explore the application of the Bill to all four regions of Inuit Nunangat,” she said. Simon said the refundable tax credit “could be particular benefit to those with the lowest incomes and most pressing needs, particularly those households with many dependents.” Simon also said the committee should support giving Inuit hunters and trappers the same kind of tax breaks that southern farmers and loggers receive.

Posted 24 September 2009; 10:26:16 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, Economic and Commerce Issues, Social Issues

Nikolski to get national attention?   

(Alex Demarban/The Arctic Sounder, 18 September 2009) -- The New York Times is headed to Nikolski with a three-man team to do a story that broadly covers population decline in rural Alaska. "We're really looking forward to working out there," said reporter William Yardley. With only nine students, the school in the Aleut village is in danger of closing, said Joe Beckford, superintendent of the Aleutian Region School District. Village and school populations in the region have fallen sharply in the last two decades, he said. "If you go down the Alaska Peninsula to the islands, almost all the communities have experienced significant loss in enrollment," he said. Public schools with less than 10 students lose big chunks of state funding, making it difficult to operate. Other schools in the region are struggling to stay above that number, Beckford said. The Nikolski school is looking to hire a teacher with at least one school-age child to boost attendance, said Beckford. Without a teacher now, students are taking correspondence courses through the Chugach School District with the help of a teacher aide. The critical student count will begin in late September and continue for about three weeks. The daily average attendance during that period will determine if the school stays open. Beckford said he's been contacted by Yardley, who told him the Times crew will arrive next week. They'll probably stay in the empty teacher housing, Beckford said. At 4,000 years old, some consider Nikolski, population 27, to be the oldest continuously occupied village in Alaska. An archaeological site nearby dates back 8,500 years.

Posted 22 September 2009; 9:44:56 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, Social Issues, Tourism / Perspectives, United States

As ice melts, as court briefs fly, the white bear will hold center stage in climate drama   

(Charles J. Hanley/AP via Los Angeles Times, 20 September 2009) -- TUKTOYAKTUK, Northwest Territories - Henry Jr. slept in the arms of his father the unhappy hunter, who pondered the future of the boy born last Arctic winter, in the depths of a polar bear season he'd rather forget. "It's too late to be a hunter. I don't want him to do that," Henry Nasogaluak said of his son. "It's a hard life, and it got harder with the ban by the United States." Baby Henry may not grow up to spend his life on the ice, with gun and dog team. But the white bear itself, ancient prey of his Inuvialuit people, seems destined to spend the coming decades as a target in 21st-century debates over what to do as the world warms. It's a story whose latest chapter will take the Inuvialuit, the Inuit of this remote Canadian coast, from the familiar frozen vastness of their northern sea to the confines of a Washington, D.C., courtroom, where they're contesting a U.S. ban on imports of polar-bearskin rugs. That 2008 ban has wrecked an estimated $3-million-a-year business in which Canadian Inuit guides took American sportsmen on the big-game trophy hunt of their lifetimes, at rates of $20,000 to $30,000 for a two-week dogsled trek in quest of their own half-ton "ice bear." Now blocked from bringing the skins home to adorn their dens, the southern hunters aren't coming north. Last season, Nasogaluak got no takers for his "tags," a three-bear quota that had helped him earn up to $40,000 a year. "It's just like I got fired out of my job. No compensation, no nothing," he told a visitor to his small wood-frame home in this seaside hamlet. "When you're 61 years old, you can't do anything else, because I don't know how to work any other job, because that was my job for over 40 years." Further chapters in the polar bear story may unfold in the coming months, as northern nations consider how to protect an animal whose world is melting around it.

Posted 22 September 2009; 9:25:27 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Indigenous Issues, North America, NWT / Canada, Resource Issues, Social Issues

Native rights seminar   

(Sermitsiaq, 14 September 2009) -- Does the semi-autonomous Greenland have an official policy for other indigenous peoples and what is the Greenlandic national identity and self-understanding as a people in an autonomous Greenland? And will international recognition of Greenlanders influence their self-understanding as an indigenous people? These were some of the topics taken up during a one-day seminar on indigenous rights at the University of Greenland as part of the Bolivian-Greenlandic cultural exchange. A number of speakers from Bolivia and Greenland spoke on indigenous rights, political, socio-economic and business conditions, as well as culture and history based on respective Bolivian, Latin American and Greenlandic Arctic experiences. ... The seminar was organized by Taseralik, Sisimiut Cultural Centre in collaboration with the Danish Embassy in La Paz and the Danish Centre for Culture and Development, which has also sponsored the Bolivian Days in Greenland event. The University of Greenland co-sponsored the seminar.

Posted 15 September 2009; 11:50:25 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conferences, meetings, and gatherings, Education and Civil Society, Greenland / Denmark, Indigenous Issues, International, North Atlantic, Social Issues

Canadian Animal Assistance Team: Baker Lake, Nunavut, 2009   

(Canadian Animal Assistance Team blog, 10 September 2009) -- On Monday, September 7th, a team of nine veterinary professionals from all over Canada embarked on an expedition to the great white north. Specifically, the team headed to Baker Lake, the only inland community in Nunavut, and one which is aptly referred to as the "geographic centre of Canada". Nestled in a beautiful and remote landscape of vast tundra and shimmering lakes, the community of Baker Lake is home to around 2000 people, as well as approximately 250 dogs and around 20 cats that are in desperate need for veterinary care. ... CAAT is sincerely grateful to First Air, "the Airline of the North", which has been exceedingly generous in subsidizing team member flights not only to Baker Lake, but also to previous communities in the territory. ... Thank you, First Air! ... Nunavut is a rabies-endemic area, and the main vectors for the deadly virus are wolves and foxes. ... Nearly all of the dogs in the community are unvaccinated, but the team hopes to remedy this. As well as rabies, Northern dogs can suffer from Distemper virus, Parvovirus, tapeworms, ear infections, eye infections, wounds, and malnutrition, among many other things. Though dogs anywhere can experience these hardships, those in remote communities are generally unable to access regular or even occasional veterinary care. While in the community, the CAAT team seeks to provide spay/neuter services, vaccinations, deworming, and basic care of wounds and infections. They also hope to address questions and concerns of community members, relating to any aspects of animal care ranging from nutrition to parasite control.

Posted 12 September 2009; 1:27:45 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, Expeditions, exploration, and field trips, Flora and Fauna, North America, Nunavut / Canada, Social Issues

Barents girl to become paratrooper   

(BarentsObserver, 3 September 2009) -- More and more Russian girls are studying at military academies. A girl from Apatity in Murmansk Oblast is the only girl from Northwest Russia to be admitted to the Ryazan Higher School for Paratroopers. 17-year-old Svetlana Sokolova from Apatity is one of twenty girls to have been accepted at the prestigious school, which accepted female student for the first time in 2008, TV Murman reports. According to RIA Novosti, 750 girls and women are studying at the 18 higher military schools that accept female students. This is 336 more than in 2008. More than 77.500 women are doing service in the armed forces, of which 6000 are officers.

Posted 3 September 2009; 10:12:48 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Education and Civil Society, Russia, Social Issues, Women, Children and Families

Focusing on Fort Liard   

(Daron Letts/Northern News Services, 29 August 2009) -- ACHO DENE KOE/FORT LIARD - Youth in Fort Liard captured hundreds of digital photographs of their community earlier this month. The young artists participated in a Frozen Eyes Photographic Society workshop series from Aug. 3 to Aug, 9. "It was probably the most successful program that I had run in terms of engaging the older kids because they're a difficult group to interest in much," said recreation co-ordinator, Roslyn Firth. "But, they participated in numbers greater than I'd ever imagined and produced some really beautiful photographs." Society members David Pritchard and George Lessard of Yellowknife led the workshops. The pair brought 12 cameras and other specialized equipment to share with the youth. Pritchard opened the workshop with an instructional introduction to the cameras and the art of photography. After learning the camera basics, the youth fanned out around the community, shooting almost everything in sight, including shots of family, friends, trees, animals, architecture, vehicles and even each other. "After the first day more and more kids became interested," Firth said. "It was fantastic. They took pictures of just about everything in Fort Liard. They all enjoyed it very much." ... An exhibit of the young photographers' work goes on display at 7 p.m., Sept. 3, in the cultural room at the Hamlet and band offices. The photographers will attend the event.

Posted 31 August 2009; 12:03:16 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, North America, NWT / Canada, Social Issues, Youth

No more free bus rides for students in Reykjavík   

(Iceland Review, 27 August 2009) -- Students in universities and secondary schools in Reykjavík and surrounding towns will no longer receive free bus passes this school year as they have in previous years. However, the capital region municipalities will subsidize each bus pass by half. Students must now pay ISK 15,000 (USD 115, EUR 73) for each bus pass, Fréttabladid reports. The government agreed last week to work on a plan for sustainable transport. Both the minister of the environment and the minister of transport want to examine the possibility of the state participating in the free bus project. The student council of the University of Iceland is currently discussing this possibility with the minister of the environment. All Akureyri residents, in north Iceland, can ride the bus for free.

Posted 27 August 2009; 3:52:12 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Iceland, Social Issues

Norway House reserve aims to banish offenders   

(CBC News, 26 August 2009) -- A new bylaw in Norway House Cree Nation gives the Manitoba band's council the power to banish band members who engage in illicit behaviour, but it may run into opposition from federal officials. The legislation targets individuals who abuse drugs or alcohol, engage in violence or have gang affiliations. Chief Marcel Balfour said the bylaw was prompted by a spate of crime and violence in his community of about 6,500 people, 450 kilometres north of Winnipeg. "A number of people have been living in fear and I think that has probably caused a bit of a chill to work with local law enforcement as well," he said. "Personally, my place in Norway House has been broken into four times and a number of places and business have been having their places broken into as well." Balfour says banishment from the community and revocation of band membership would be the last step in the process. It would only be applied in cases where people refuse to take advantage of healing and reconciliation services. ... While the band is free to create such bylaws, the federal Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) does not support it. According to Balfour, the department told the band council it has gone beyond its bylaw-making ability and overstepped its jurisdiction. ... "From a ... broader perspective, one could say that INAC actually supports violence and drug dealers in my community because they don't want to support my bylaw-making ability to deal with it locally, but I'm sure that's not their intent," Balfour said.

Posted 26 August 2009; 1:26:37 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, Indigenous Issues, Laws and legal, Provinces / Canada, Social Issues

Relaunching OOKPIK.ORG: Building a community for circumpolar youth   

(IISD announcement, 19 August 2009) -- We are proud to announce that the community website for circumpolar youth has had a total makeover. It’s a completely new Ookpik! The site is designed for circumpolar youth, with contributions from circumpolar youth. Over the past two years, Ookpik has been managed by a series of young northerners and this practice will continue. OOKPIK is your gateway to Arctic networks, knowledge, opinions and events.

Posted 19 August 2009; 1:56:50 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Internet Resources, Social Issues, Youth

Foster care numbers up in Greenland   

(Siku Circumpolar News, 18 August 2009) -- An increasing number of children in Greenland are being removed from their homes to live in foster care, Sermitsiaq reports. About 6 per cent of all children and youth in Greenland are today living outside their home. This is a significant increase on earlier figures from before 1992, when 4.3 per cent of all children aged up to 17 years old were placed outside their home. The current figure is based on a 2006 project conducted by the National Research Centre for Well-being, KNR reports. The project also involved Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland. Greenland has six times as many children per capita living without their birth parents as number two on the list, Denmark. The increase may be caused by several factors but may be linked to a bigger focus on social problems, KNR said.

Posted 18 August 2009; 11:48:22 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Greenland / Denmark, North Atlantic, Social Issues, Women, Children and Families

Record breaking Svalbard school intake   

(IceNews, 18 August 2009) -- The Svalbard archipelago off northern Norway is far above the Arctic Circle and famous for its new international seed vault and for Longyearbyen, the northernmost town in the world with over 1,000 inhabitants. The islanders make most of their money from mining and come form all over the world due to the Spitsbergen Treaty which was signed shortly after the First World War. Under the treaty, Svalbard was ceded to Norway after centuries of claims and counter claims, including some bloodshed. The treaty stipulated though, that people of all signing nations have equal rights to settle and work in Svalbard—there are currently over 40 signatory nations. While people are forbidden to die in Svalbard due to the permafrost preserving corpses in their graves indefinitely, people are permitted to grow up there. In fact school has just reconvened with 241 students—28 more than this time last year, including 30 in the youngest year group. There are 1,821 residents in Longyearbyen, a town which holds a number of interesting records: “Longyearbyen is the world’s most northern easily accessible settlement, with Svalbard Airport just outside town offering regular flights to and from Tromsø and Oslo, Norway. The airport served 120,000 passengers in 2007. It is also the northernmost town over 1000 inhabitants; it houses a large number of northernmost places and objects of interest: the northernmost church, university campus, Rotary club, bank, automated teller machine, hospital, kindergarten, public library, night club, pub, school, supermarket, tourist office, permanent airport with scheduled flights, bus station, commercial sea port, taxi station, art gallery, cinema, climbing wall, squash court, swimming hall, and indoor target range,” according to Wikipedia.

Posted 18 August 2009; 11:00:24 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Education and Civil Society, Nordic Region, Norway, Social Issues, Women, Children and Families, Youth

Obama secretaries get ‘eye-opening’ look at rural Alaska   

(The Arctic Sounder, 13 August 2009) -- HOOPER BAY - Members of Barack Obama’s cabinet used words like “disturbed” and “eye-opening” to describe their impression of life in a Western Alaska village. “I think for most Americans, they would be shocked to know there are Americans living in conditions like this,” said Shaun Donovan, secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Four presidential secretaries—including Energy’s Steven Chu, Agriculture’s Tom Vilsack, and Education’s Arne Duncan—flew to Western Alaska as part of the administration’s effort to understand the concerns of rural Americans. They dropped in on Bethel, the largest community in Western Alaska with 5,600 residents, to hear from people at a short meeting. They then flew about an hour northwest to tour Hooper Bay beside the storming Bering Sea, where 28 percent live in poverty, according to state statistics. Donovan said he was “very disturbed” by the rundown condition of many homes. Almost all the houses in the Yup’ik village of 1,200 lack modern plumbing, so residents haul water in plastic containers and use buckets to chuck out human waste. “We heard stories as we came out of families having to carry their water half a mile through very difficult conditions in the depth of one of the harshest winters in the world, just to have decent drinking water,” he said. Destitution seemed visible everywhere when a truck caravan with the secretaries, reporters and others rolled through the village, as police officers and Secret Service agents whizzed past on four-wheelers. Gray, plywood houses rose from the mud on metal pilings. Outside some houses stood tall stacks of driftwood collected from the coast, to be burned in stoves this winter. They were meant to displace the heating fuel that, at $7.37 a gallon, many say they can’t afford. During one stop on the tour, Secretary Chu called the trip “an eye-opening experience,” before press officers whisked him into an idling truck. Hooper Bay “obviously needs help,” said Vilsack, as he tromped down a muddy road through the rain, sullying his black cowboy boots.

Posted 17 August 2009; 9:06:55 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Social Issues

Gazprom keeps up pipeline pressure in Komi   

(BarentsObserver, 29 July 2009) -- Russian gas major will not cancel any contract with partners in the Komi Republic, but only postpone project deadlines. The main part of the pipeline which is to stretch from the Yamal peninsula runs across the territory of the Komi Republic. In a meeting between Gazprom and Komi regional authorities today, the company representatives said that work with the 1100 km long pipeline will proceed, however not in line to previous time schedules. Company representative Sergei Prozorov confirmed that the Bovanenkovo field, the huge 4.9 trillion cubic meter field in Yamal will be ready for production in the third quarter of 2012, Komiinform.ru reports. The pipeline construction on Komi territory will restart in November, he added. None of the company’s commitments for the republic will suffer, the company representative stressed. "All key figures remain, only the time schedule is changed," he said. As BarentsObserver reported in mid-June, Gazprom has decided to postpone the launch of the Bovanenkovo field with one year, from 2011 to 2012.

Posted 29 July 2009; 11:25:42 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic and Commerce Issues, Resource Issues, Social Issues, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction

Homelessness is nationwide problem   

(Kurt Kristensen/News from Greenland, 27 July 2009. Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5iaNf2dAj) -- A new report has been published by the Department of Family and Health, ‘Homelessness in Greenland’. It estimates the scale of homelessness across the country, though no exact definitive figures have been provided. The report indicates that about 514 people are regarded as homeless in the capital Nuuk. This number is the equivalent of 1 percent of Greenland’s population. The report has already drawn criticism from politicians at home, with Astrid Fleischer Rex, chairman for Sermersooq Council’s welfare committee and member for Demokraatit on the parliamentary family committee, saying that the report could not be used for anything. Rex’s criticism was based on the report’s analysis that the small town of Upernavik, on the mid-western coast, had the highest number of homeless young people nationally. ‘But that is due to the fact that the many children from small settlements who live with family in Upernavik whilst at school are included in the statistic; a group that I can not accept as being homeless,’ Rex said. Despite her scepticism of the new report, Rex remained committed to finding a solution to the country’s problem of homelessness. ... According to the report there are two distinct groups of homeless people found in Greenland, each of similar size. The first group is the ‘houseless homeless’, those who have no roof over their heads but are otherwise fully functioning members of society with connections to the employment market. This group consists primarily of hunters and fishermen who manage to get by, but who due to their self-employed status do not have access to accommodation provided by an employer. While this group tend to find a solution to their predicament in one way or another, they nevertheless run the risk of falling through the social safety net. The solution for this group is quite simply housing. But in the larger towns this is easier said than done. Greater social and personal difficulties are a feature for the second group of homeless, meaning that their problems go beyond housing, unemployment and material poverty. This group are not able to overcome difficulties which include misuse, trauma and psychological problems just because they are offered a solution to their housing needs. In fact, a large percentage of this second group are homeless as a result of rent arrears and complaints from neighbours in their previous accommodation. What is required here is a not a single solution, but a combined effort including help from both social work and health authorities, as well as education and employment. While men represent the largest group of homeless in the country, notably within the 31-60 age bracket, there are also families and children represented.

Posted 27 July 2009; 4:11:34 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Greenland / Denmark, Health and wellness, North Atlantic, Social Issues

Labrador TB cases on rise   

(CBC News, 27 July 2009) -- Health officials in Labrador have been combatting an unusually high number of cases of tuberculosis this year after several years of decline. So far in 2009, 14 cases of TB have been confirmed, double the number seen during the last outbreak in 2006. Dr. Muna ar-Rushdi, the medical officer of health for the Labrador-Grenfell health authority, said most of the people affected live on Labrador's north coast. "Part of it is that we are better at picking up those people with active TB. And we have a population that may have been previously infected and now as they've gotten older, their immunity goes down, they have other diseases, they're more likely to develop TB disease," she said. Ar-Rushdi said stopping the spread of TB means testing everyone who's been in contact with the 14 confirmed cases. She said figuring out exactly how many people have been affected is difficult because people can carry TB without showing any signs of illness.

Posted 27 July 2009; 2:06:06 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Health and wellness, Provinces / Canada, Social Issues

Provisions bring no joy   

(Sermitsiaq, 25 July 2009) -- The first of two annual provision shipments to the town of Illoqqortoormiut [on the east coast of Greenland, just north of 70°N.] arrived packed to only half its normal capacity. "It is the first time that so few provisions have arrived with the ship," explained shop manager Jørgen Danielsen. "We only have half of what we received last year." The arrival of the first ship of the year is an important event for the small settlements that do not have sea access all year round, making the unusual arrival of a half-empty ship all the more disappointing for the residents of one of Greenland’s most isolated communities. The ship normally carries the supplies needed to support the community for an entire year. Danielsen said the shortage could be attributed to there being no building materials included in the cargo. Building work in the small community had come to a standstill following the council amalgamations that took place in January, he said. A dramatic proportion of the population has left the settlement since January. The population is now 450, which represents a drop of 50 people in the last year.

Posted 27 July 2009; 10:58:04 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Economic and Commerce Issues, Greenland / Denmark, North Atlantic, Social Issues

Take a closer look at Teriberka   

(BarentsObserver, 24 July 2009) -- Cows are grazing in the streets and the only decent building is the one currently renovated by the Shtokman Development AG. Welcome to Teriberka, the future hub of the world’s biggest offshore gas field. A two-hour drive towards the northeast from Murmansk will take you to the fishing village of Teriberka. 120 km on a bumpy road takes you across Arctic tundra landscapes to the more rocky seaside where Gazprom and its partners Total and StatoilHydro will build its huge Shtokman gas reception centre and a LNG plant. Teriberka was earlier this year taken out of the Russian border zone, thus opening up for unrestricted access to the area. Still, it took only five minutes after the arrival of a delegation this week to be approached by the FSB. The security officers wrote down the visitors’ passport data and made inquiries about the visit, Barentsnova.com reports. "Like many other old Russian settlements, Teriberka has saved its own atmosphere and a certain charm in spite of Soviet time changes and the recent years desolation. Picturesque costal line, wide sand beach in a bay and projecting rocks make a strong impression on visitors," Aleksey Filin, leader of the Barents Secretariat's Murmansk office told BarentsObserver after this week's visit. About 1400 people live in the town which might soon lose its cozy image to the rough landscapes of the oil gas industry. They will be heavily outnumbered by the about 10000 people who are expected to be involved in the construction part of the project. The permanent field staff is believed to be about 600. New housing quarters and service facilities are to be built near the site.

Posted 24 July 2009; 4:52:46 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Northwest / Russia, Russia, Social Issues, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction

Food security sprouts as hot topic at circumpolar health congress   

(CBC News, 17 July 2009) -- Health researchers from around the world discussed some unexpected themes during the 14th International Congress on Circumpolar Health, which wrapped up Thursday in Yellowknife. One new topic in particular, food security, came up during the week-long conference of scientists and academics discussing circumpolar health, organizer Pamela Orr said. Food security means "people's right to have access to healthy foods," Orr said Thursday. "That was an overwhelming new topic in this congress; there was tremendous interest. So there's never been that kind of energy before about nutrition and food." The congress's official theme was about turning research into action. This year saw the end of the two-year International Polar Year program, in which scientists conducted studies about climate change and related topics in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Orr said she and other congress organizers will continue addressing that theme at the next circumpolar health congress, slated to take place in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 2012. Hundreds of delegates from Canada, the United States, Russia, Scandinavia and other northern nations gathered in the N.W.T. capital to discuss the effects of everything from climate change to economic development on the health of northern peoples.

Posted 24 July 2009; 4:32:37 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, Communities, Conferences, meetings, and gatherings, Health and wellness, Indigenous Issues, Research / Reports, Social Issues

Rural flight ends in city plight   

(Kurt Kristensen/Sermitsiaq, 23 July 2009) -- The bright lights and attractions of the capital work like a magnet for the residents of small settlements and stations dotted across the country, with many making the decision to move to Nuuk to take advantage of its swimming pool and cinema facilities. However, it is a choice that officials are warning against. ‘Problems tend to follow a move to the capital, with many risking falling through the social safety net,’ said Astrid Fleischer Rex, mayor of Sermersooq council, which incorporates the capital Nuuk. Government help is available to those who fall on hard times, but social help legislation from 2006 stipulates that in order to receive aid one must first have a permanent address and be listed on the electoral register. Unfortunately, many of those who experience problems after moving to the capital become homeless, meaning that they are not able to take advantage of social aid. The extent of the problem in not currently documented.

Posted 24 July 2009; 1:50:55 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Greenland / Denmark, North Atlantic, Social Issues

Another Arctic community dumps plastic bags   

(Siku Circumpolar News, 24 July 2009) -- The local Inuit community government in Nain, Labrador has voted in favour of a ban on non-recyclable plastic bags. The community of Nain has become one of the first places in Newfoundland and Labrador to ban plastic shopping bags. The local Inuit community government voted in favour of a ban on non-recyclable plastic bags earlier this week. The ban is expected to go into effect on Nov. 30. “I think it’s a great step for our community,” Sarah Erickson, head of the Inuit Community Government in Nain, told CBC News on Friday. “A lot of people are already using their own bags, so this just seem the natural way to go." The community, with a population of approximately 1,200, goes through more than 100,000 plastic shopping bags each year. It's estimated a traditional plastic bag takes 1,000 years to dissolve. A local grocery store has promised to provide two reusable bags for every household in Nain. A plan is also in place to bring back paper bags. See also "Bethel, Alaska bans plastic bags," 22/07/09.

Posted 24 July 2009; 11:29:53 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, Contaminants and Pollution, North America, Provinces / Canada, Social Issues

RCMP looks at building Arctic intelligence network   

(CBC News, 22 July 2009) -- The RCMP wants to build a criminal intelligence network in Canada's Arctic, as it says organized crime groups are already established in the northern territories. Officials with the national police force say the presence of drug and other crime networks will only grow stronger, once future mines and other resource development projects bring more money into remote northern communities. "We expect organized crime to take advantage," Chief Supt. Pierre Perron, the RCMP's director of criminal intelligence, told CBC News. "If you need cocaine, you're going to have a network to bring it into the country and then eventually to Iqaluit." A decline in sea ice on the Northwest Passage, which could mean more marine traffic in Arctic waterways, could also mean more opportunities for organized crime groups to operate north of 60, he added. Currently, there is only one full-time criminal intelligence officer serving all of Canada's three territories. As part of a proposal to bolster the RCMP's criminal intelligence resources nationwide, Perron is calling for up to 30 new intelligence officers to be based in the North. ... Nunavut Justice Minister Keith Peterson said he knows criminal networks operate in the territory. However, he said bringing criminal intelligence officers north is not his priority. "I'm more concerned, as minister of justice, [with] responding to the request for nine administrative positions in the nine [RCMP] detachments across Nunavut," he said. Peterson said police administrators can handle calls and paperwork, freeing up officers in the process. The minister has also asked the RCMP to recruit 32 Inuit special constables over the next five years.

Posted 22 July 2009; 12:12:30 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, Crime, Laws and legal, North America, Nunavut / Canada, NWT / Canada, Social Issues, Yukon / Canada

Hunting and fishing proves a popular study option   

(Sermitsiaq, 15 July 2009) -- A new school has been established in Uummannaq, in north-western Greenland [at 70°40'24.35"N., 52° 7'41.59"W], with the aim of ensuring a viable future for hunters and fishermen in an increasingly industrialised and commercial world. The course will serve to ensure the continued supply of hunting and fishing produce for the home market, combining both traditional and modern techniques and knowledge to best equip those working in the two areas to secure a living. Prior to the establishment of the higher education institute for hunting and fishing, the skills needed in the two areas were traditionally passed down from father to son, but this is no longer sufficient. David Olsen, the school rector, pointed out that hunters and fishermen who hope to make a living in today's climate, need to have an understanding of the rules and methods concerning hunting, as well as preservation principles, which are increasingly important. The students will also be educated in exactly what species are profitable or unprofitable to hunt or fish, as well as teaching them how to use and look after equipment and boats. The course lasts two years and combines both classroom-based teaching and practical placements, with the possibility of continuing their studies after the course has ended with further teaching in tourism, product development and domestic industries, lasting between six and twelve months. Over 31 students have applied for the course, which sets admission criteria of a completed secondary education and good grades in both reading and mathematics. Unfortunately, only 15 students will be accepted on the course.

Posted 17 July 2009; 3:38:57 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Education and Civil Society, Greenland / Denmark, Indigenous Issues, North Atlantic, Social Issues

Eagle, Alaska, rebuilding begins (mp3)   

(Dan Bross, KUAC - Fairbanks via APRN, 13 July 2009) -- Work is getting underway on new homes for some Eagle residents displaced by this spring’s record flooding. Eagle recovery team leader Andy Bassich says the federal emergency management agency, or FEMA, has released funds to 13 local families who lost their houses. [mp3]

Posted 14 July 2009; 1:14:16 PM.  ann-20090713-07.mp3 Permalink

Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, Economic and Commerce Issues, Education and Civil Society, North America, Social Issues, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction

Linguists worry about English language infiltration   

(Silja Raunio/YLE, 14 July 2009) -- Some linguists in Finland are concerned about the infiltration of English-language words into the Finnish language. They fear that it may alienate Finns who aren't proficient in English and create inequalities, especially in public service. The use of English words in every language, not just Finnish, is a common phenomenon. Business and technology jargon is frequently heavily anglicized, for example. But some linguistic researchers are wary of its spread into daily life, such as in banks and government offices. Oulu University social studies professor Airi Mäki-Kulmala said she was struck by potential problems when she noticed that Tampere's central hospital began using the English term for the stroke unit, instead of the Finnish sydänyksikkö. "I began questioning whether we can really expect everyone to know English. This type of usage in daily life may be difficult for some people to come to grips with," she says. Mäki-Kulmala feels that the proliferation of English in many normal, everyday situations may put people on unequal footing if they can't follow the English jargon. If a new trend, product, or service only has an English name, many people may be confused or be unable to take advantage of it. Riitta Eronen, of the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland, says that the problem isn't the introduction of individual words into the Finnish language, but the transformation of entire offices and professional fields into English-based environments. This can handicap many Finnish workers who could do their jobs better in their own language. Eronen fears that Finnish could become a second-class language. "The worst threat is that we throw Finnish into the bin. We shouldn't think a "coffee shop" is any fancier than a good old Finnish kahvila," adds Eronen.

Posted 14 July 2009; 1:12:14 PM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Cultural Matters, Finland, Social Issues

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