Thursday, January 19, 2012

Respect

This article by Tyler McCreary; "An Essay on Respect" focuses on how the chairperson of the Joint Review Panel for the community hearings into the Enbrigde Pipeline simultaneously disrespects the Haisla, Tsimshian, and Wet’suwet’en First Nations while asking them to respect everybody else, including the Enbridge Corporation that threatens their land:
On the morning of the 16th, the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs had opened the meeting by singing a song composed for the hearing. The song expressed the depth of their connection to their territory, the chorus “noh' y'in tah way atsaan tsun” translated to “our territory is our livelihood”. But the song also clearly expressed their opposition to the pipeline, closing with the line, “Enbridge noh' y'in tah wagga way sow' ye'h” (Enbridge don't step onto our land).

Prior to the hearings in Burns Lake on the 17th, representatives of the National Energy Board organizing the review panel indicated that they did not want the Wet’suwet’en chiefs to open with an anti-Enbridge song again. While the review panel presumably considered this prerequisite respect for Enbridge, dictating the terms of traditional opening ceremonies to Wet’suwet’en chiefs on Wet’suwet’en land disrespected those chiefs and their authority.

There was a buzz amongst the hereditary chiefs about the gall of the government folk who sought to dictate proceedings on Wet’suwet’en land. The chiefs, however, did not cede control of the opening. The panel was convened to hear their testimony, and would begin in accordance with their process. The chiefs paraded into the room in full regalia, assembled before the crowd, and again performed their oppositional anthem.

While the details of this performance were conveniently quieted in the official record, which only recorded this demonstration as the “Opening Ceremony”, numerous cameras and cell phones captured events and the words and images of Wet’suwet’en protest circulated through social media.
Here's the thing though: This bullshit government, all its hirelings, and its likely criminal paymasters, none of them deserve any respect. The harper government is a criminal government that hides behind institutions for which it has no respect itself. The proper attitude towards any harpercon slime-ball who seeks to lecture anyone about respect for others and the rule of law is to laugh in their face and tell them that they have renounced all claim to our respect and that they will listen to what you have to say and that you are granting them an unearned privilege by listening to whatever lies they are being paid to spout.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
thwap said...

I just want everyone to know that the comment above was one of four from a typing shit-stain who attempts to submit ghoulish jokes about Jack Layton to my blog on almost a daily basis.

Said typing shit-stain has been exerting itself in this fashion for almost two years now.

Comments?

Anonymous said...

Both Enbridge and Harper are arrogant, stubborn, liars and certainly have no respect for the F.N. People.

They said not one word about the F.N. food sources being threatened. It's bad enough the filthy diseased fish farms, killing off the wild salmon.

Campbell's theft and sale of our rivers, also absolutely destroyed, important salmon runs and steel head fish. Salmon is a staple for the F.N. to feed their family's.

Bears, eagles, wolves and many wildlife species also depend on the salmon too. Why do we think 61 bears were shot in BC? Why, because of the salmon being depleted. The Bears come into towns, to eat human garbage, because their food sources were destroyed, by the s.o.b's Harper and Campbell. What did Harper do about the filthy fish farms? Why he did absolutely nothing.

How did Harper treat the F.N. in Northern Ontario? He treats them like dirt under his feet. Harper should be tried for, crimes against humanity, for his terrible negligence of the F.N. People, all across this country. That tiny adorable baby girl that died from pneumonia, was utter neglect of Harper's crap health care for the F.N. citizens. The number of the F.N. youth committing suicide, is heartbreaking. How sad those kids see no better lives for themselves.

The one and only good thing is, we now see the terrible plight of the F.N. people. We must stay on the governments ass, until these people have decent schools for their kids. They deserve to be able to go on to a further education. They need warm houses. They need industry. We need more First Nations in government.

I have never been so pissed off in my life. The F.N. people, have lost enough. No Enbride pipeline and no dirty oil tankers.

thwap said...

Amen comrade. harper is criminal scum and he will end his days in a prison cell.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
thwap said...

Six comments today anonymous? Good use of your time? It's not like you have friends to spend it with 'eh?

Loser.

Merowe said...

Well here's some fan mail for a change. I've been digging your blog for a couple of years now: many thanks for drawing my attention to this story, I missed it on rabble and it really puts flesh on this sordid pipeline business; I went on and found good stuff on Youtube to follow up.

As an ex-pat Canuck - Hamilton, eh - I have to say, it's almost un-Canadian, your appetite for richly abusive profanity and I get a real kick out of it.There are few Canadian writers I know who come as close to the standard operating levels of obscenity that feature in my own thought processes as I survey the Canadian political scene.

I particularly like the thought that that piece of shit Harper will end his days in a cell.

thwap said...

Merowe,

Happy to be of service!

I can write rather nicely and respectably if I really have to. But this is just a blog.

What part of the Hammer are you from? How long ago did you leave for sunnier climes?

Merowe said...

hm...well, actually grew up near Mineral Springs so I called Ancaster my hometown, but Hamilton was the nearest city. Lived on James st north for a couple of years, then on to Toronto the Screamingly Dull. Some years ago shifted to Dresden Germany of all places. Still a faint whiff of the old socialism hereabouts, and a break from the Tide of Stupid consuming the home continent eh?

thwap said...

Merowe,

James St. North is supposed to be happening again. Art galleries have moved into abandoned store fronts and every month they have an "art crawl" on a Friday night with a big "super-crawl" in the summer.

Here's a link:
http://www.supercrawl.ca/

I keep hoping the tide of stupid in North America has crested, but every year my fellow North Americans exceed my expectations of their capacity for swallowing bullshit and liking it.

The faint whiff of socialism in Europe is, I believe, the deliberate target of all this austerity nonsense we read about. The European working class is the last big thing that capitalism has to break and break it they intend to.

It will be ruinously expensive and incredibly dangerous, but the elites are convinced that we have deep enough pockets to pay for it and policing and surveillance powers are strong enough to control the outraged response.

Prove 'em wrong for the world's sake.