The title of this post is no longer a matter of opinion - it is a fact.
How many of you have listened or read negative and quite often nasty comments made by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians regarding the fishery?
You know like "it's time we rationalized" - "time to stop the welfare" - "I am sick of hearing fishermen complaining"?
How sad - to hear our own people kick our own people - when they are NOT responsible for the fisheries disaster.
How sad to hear other people inflicted by unemployment caused by inept politicians turn on unemployed fishermen and plant workers instead of the inept politicians.
How utterly pathetic to hear inept politicians ponder how to cut the guts out of the fishery, entire communities and families rather than tackle Uncle Ottawa.
1. The fishery was mismanaged by the federal government.
2. That mismanagement costs this province 1 billion dollars annually.
3. The recovery expected by 2001 did not occur.
4. There has been NO compensation for the past decade meaning we have lost 10 billion dollars.
5. The federal government continues to diminish fisheries science rendering the resource and the industry dead.
6. Newfoundland and Labrador has lost over 40,000 people and rendered many communities bankrupt from this loss.
7. The fishery continues to be a bargaining chip for foreign trade without the benefits of such accruing to Newfoundland and Labrador.
8. The provincial government does not have the knowledge, the will, or the guts to do what is right.
9. Rationalization is a word used to cover up incompetence at both the federal and provincial levels.
10. Politicians are responsible for kicking the pride out of our people and for turning one Newfoundlander and Labradorian against another Newfoundlander and Labradorian.
2 comments:
Sue, you are a litte too kind in attributing the adjective inept to some of our politicians. I myself thought for many years it was ineptitude that was the problem, but I have for quite a while now known that it is more like greed and corrupt that are the appropriate descriptors for the malaise that has made our province poor and prideless.
When carrots are dangled in front of some peoples eyes, they only see dollar signs, and I am pretty sure that is the crux of the problem that saw Newfoundland and Labrador's natural resources developed in a manner where our province and its people saw very little benefit accrude from the development for ourselves.
You know Sue politicians, under the rule of law, are not allowed do as they damn well please, so there is something Newfoundlanders and Labradorians can do to stop the pilfering of their resources for the benefit of themselves and those who they, the politicians, agreed would be the primary beneficiary.
Sue, unfortunately these inept politicians have been smart enough to hoodwink many of our people bceause they know that a divided populace is easier to manipulate.
Politicians will never willingly institute electoral reform because it may place them at a disadvantage as individuals and as parties. Only those on the outside ever call for such reform!
The politicians here, and in Ottawa, have less reason than ever to rebuild the fishery. Oil is the answer to all our problems...or so they would have us believe. It offers megaprojects, megabucks, and makes megamillionaires out of the party elites.
We have already lost a generation of fishers since the start of the moratorium, as the young go on to seek their fortune in Alberta or elsewhere. Is it too late? I would regretfully say yes in the current political climate. Unfortunately, in 20 years, we will rue our folly in not rebuilding a meaningful and prosperous fishery, once the oil runs out or is less lucrative. The greatest natural and sustainable resource we have is dying a slow and painful death and we are mostly oblivious to its demise.
Now, all we need to complete the destruction of our soverignty and viability as a province is to let the PC's develop Muskrat Falls for the benefit of Nova Scotia and Ottawa. We will then be back to being totally dependent on Ottawa, which is just where they want us. That way they can rape our resources and there is nothing we can or will be able to do except protest.
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