Every newscast in our province has announced the birth of baby Portnoy with the pride of a father. It is true that the birth of a child is a wonderful and celebratory event for any family. During the nine month pregnancy we knew more about the Portnoy's ( a family in Canada illegally) than our own people leaving in van loads from the Burin Peninsula.
I think I could listen to the Portnoy baby news if I had a day by day media account of every Newfoundland and Labrador family that leaves the province because of the fisheries crisis.
We should get to know these families at least as well as the Portnoy's day to day diary. We should know the history of each family - how many generations fished the waters - how many children have to leave and how it hurts them to leave their friends and grandparents. I could listen to the Portnoy diaries if I understood how local families were coping with dispensing with the family home for significantly less that the replacement value because their community is dying or they needed cash to go out west.
I cannot blame the media with respect to reporting the Portnoy diaries because Newfoundlanders and Labradorians would rather fight that battle than protect their neighbours. I do blame them however for not making more of an effort to get the details of families leaving everyday because their industry and community have been destroyed. The politicians would gladly focus on the Portnoys as then they do not have to answer for the pathetic lack of action to deal with the theft of our resources and people.
No comments:
Post a Comment