controversies
It seems every time one racially-charged incident ends, a gender or religious controversy takes its place; Ruminate on the issues dividing our nation and world.
The 2020 Mi’k maq Lobster Dispute & Indigenous Food Sovereignty
During the 2020 Mi’kmaq Lobster Dispute in Nova Scotia Canada, we saw an altercation between angry non-Indigenous fisherman and the self-regulated Indigenous fisherman of Nova Scotia. This dispute over sharing the local resources started centuries ago when Europeans first told the local Indigenous peoples that they had to restrain their hunting and fishing. In 1999, the Mi’kmaq won the right to self-regulate fishing (Slaughter, 2021), which frustrated the local non-Indigenous fishermen who were subject to Canadian overfishing restrictions. It is important to note that Indian self-government was abolished by the Canadian government, and traditionally it was Indigenous Elders that would tell an overzealous hunter or fisherman to knock it off. Traditional Indigenous hunting and fishing goes way back before modern Canadian regulations and Indigenous people do not feel that they have to answer to European-imposed restrictions.
By Monique Sabrina6 years ago in The Swamp
Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures
Today's realities are filled with desperate times. Desperate times for millions the world over. For they are the ones who can't escape the oppressive realities of their existence. Their meager means have afforded them no luxuries or respite from the daily struggle to survive has only continued. The taskmasters of societies are continually subjugating more into a realm of reality far removed from their hopes and dreams. Their weathered faces, tattered clothes, and sunken eyes are all too familiar images that are splashed across TV screens are sights that show just how exposed our failures are in bringing any kind of balance into our society.
By Dr. Williams6 years ago in The Swamp
“Pay” Attention
On January 6, 2021, insurgents stormed the Capital. This is not new news. This is a fact. But what we are now learning about in the aftermath, is of the groups and the people that we may personally know or know of that were behind it. And how it was funded. This did not happen over night and most of these rioters did not have the means to leave their jobs mid-week, get an airline ticket last minute, pay for food and lodging, all on their own. Do you honestly think this money didn’t originate somewhere first?
By Meg Lagares6 years ago in The Swamp
No Laughing Matter: Taking Populism Seriously
The January 6th storming of the White House marked a turning point in the American political sphere. All of the US’s most prescient crises came into full relief and the inadequacy of our own government to protect itself from an attempted coup, one that began at the top with Donald Trump and trickled down through his allies to his followers, became startingly apparent. Irony seemed to rule the day. Complacency from the police seemed to confirm the police system’s complicity with America’s right populist movement, yet this clashed with the insurrectionist’s disparaging cries against the police when they started to respond to their rioting with force. In a moment of extreme dissonance, there appeared to be brief contact between the right and the BLM protests that they actively vilified and from which they gleaned (accurately) that the police were on their side. This inconsistency revealed to Trump supporters what the left has been saying all this time—the police serve the state and not the people.
By Darrin Gonzales6 years ago in The Swamp
My Response to the Killing of George Floyd
I was angery and I was sick with worry about what was going on in the country around the time that George Floyd was killed. I had emersed myself into social media at the detriment of my sanity. I did not want to see the video for fear of my own rage. I was afraid of what I would do, of what I would feel. A couple of weeks later I was reading a testimony of a bystander and there was a link. A little blue “here” link at the end of the sentence and I pushed it, and all of a sudden I was watching the murder of George Floyd. I know the word was that he was a criminal or that he was a bad person. I tried to rationalize it in my head to take race out of it, but now I am watching the brashness of the officer and the cries for help. and now I am angery. I am in rage, and I don’t know what to do. The following is what flowed out of me after watching that video.
By Alfonso Jaimes6 years ago in The Swamp
NHS Vaccination Cards
Written By: Leon Zadok - January 21, 2021 After months of hiding away and dodging one another in an attempt to avoid contagion, the coronavirus vaccine will, undoubtedly, bring much peace of mind to many. Now we see the light at the end of the tunnel.
By SNROCINUTAF6 years ago in The Swamp
Remembering MLK: Is This The America He Dreamed Of?
As my parents were watching TV today, a headline flashed across the screen: “MLK’s Dream Achieved.” I was taken aback by the statement— his dream was achieved? Certainly America is less segregated than it was back in 1963, but was this really the America he dreamed of? Anti-discrimination laws have been put in place and segregation has been outlawed. We even elected our first black president in 2008! These are truly wonderful achievements, and certainly what Martin Luther King Jr. strived for, but is this all that he dreamed of? Has his dream truly been achieved?
By Set Rose Speaks6 years ago in The Swamp
