Rural Newfoundland and Labrador
Lloyd C had this to say about "Time to Deal with Rural Decimation" posted a couple of days ago.
Sue, says "Rural Newfoundland and Labrador is near death ....". I wish I
could shrug off what she is saying as nothing more than "crying wolf", but
the truth is I am chilled by the truth ringing in those words.
Last night I looked out to see the full moon over a blanket of new fallen
snow; reflecting the myriad of festival light strung out in celebration of
the birth of a Child, and of all the hope that miraculous birth foretold.
While this was a beautiful and joyful sight, it was not possible to avoid
awareness of an anomaly: the overshadowing pall of death and decay, and the
despair of a people with heads bowed in defeat, retreating in endless
procession to some other place. .What we are witnessing today is,
undeniably, the dying of our nation, made all the more shocking by the
silence of the shepherds.
Where are the voices who lead in the vanguard of every happy and vibrant
society: the academics, the scholars, the intellectuals , the writers, the
artists, the leaders in business and commerce, and, most conspicuously
silent, the voices of our religious leaders. Oh yes, I hear them sing and
dance and write and paint and preach in boast of a glorious past, but what
of now, what of today!!!!! True, there are a few exceptions, people like
Sue and Gus Etchegary, but they are the exceptions that prove the rule:
voices crying in the wilderness..
John Donne wrote,
"No man is an island, entire of itself...........if a clod be washed away by
the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were. ......any
man's death diminishes me" Thus are we all diminished with every man woman
and child forced through greed and mismanagement to forsake their beloved
homeland: to be washed adrift from their roots into some alien place. Our
outports are a very precious thread with a very special place in the
tapestry of human history. With their emptying - their disappearance - is
diminished not only Newfoundland, not only Canada , but the whole of
humanity . So, ask not, foolishly, "for whom the bell tolls"
Lloyd C
Sue, says "Rural Newfoundland and Labrador is near death ....". I wish I
could shrug off what she is saying as nothing more than "crying wolf", but
the truth is I am chilled by the truth ringing in those words.
Last night I looked out to see the full moon over a blanket of new fallen
snow; reflecting the myriad of festival light strung out in celebration of
the birth of a Child, and of all the hope that miraculous birth foretold.
While this was a beautiful and joyful sight, it was not possible to avoid
awareness of an anomaly: the overshadowing pall of death and decay, and the
despair of a people with heads bowed in defeat, retreating in endless
procession to some other place. .What we are witnessing today is,
undeniably, the dying of our nation, made all the more shocking by the
silence of the shepherds.
Where are the voices who lead in the vanguard of every happy and vibrant
society: the academics, the scholars, the intellectuals , the writers, the
artists, the leaders in business and commerce, and, most conspicuously
silent, the voices of our religious leaders. Oh yes, I hear them sing and
dance and write and paint and preach in boast of a glorious past, but what
of now, what of today!!!!! True, there are a few exceptions, people like
Sue and Gus Etchegary, but they are the exceptions that prove the rule:
voices crying in the wilderness..
John Donne wrote,
"No man is an island, entire of itself...........if a clod be washed away by
the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were. ......any
man's death diminishes me" Thus are we all diminished with every man woman
and child forced through greed and mismanagement to forsake their beloved
homeland: to be washed adrift from their roots into some alien place. Our
outports are a very precious thread with a very special place in the
tapestry of human history. With their emptying - their disappearance - is
diminished not only Newfoundland, not only Canada , but the whole of
humanity . So, ask not, foolishly, "for whom the bell tolls"
Lloyd C
1 comment:
Let's use this blog to get those voices together and come up with solutions. Not rhetoric about whose fault it is - what can everyone do?
I know next to nothing about the fishery. But I think that those who are in the fishery all their lives should know something?
What about entrepreneurial activities? The problem as I see it (like I said with a limited knowledge of the subject) is that the big processors are out for profit (and who blames them?) Do we need to go to community owned plants whose goal is economic stability and not profit? Would fishers sell to these plants? Could we have a province wide marketing plan for the fishery to help all producers who employ in this province? Would plant workers accept a viable wage to stay in their hometowns? I think there are a lot of markets that we are not into in terms of secondary processing - are there opportunities there?
Just some ideas I have. Maybe they are out to lunch considering the draw of the "big bucks" in Alberta - really nothing can compete with that these days... Does life in NL mean more than $$$$ in fort mac? It's a personal question.
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