Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The Destruction of an Ocean Bounty by Phil Earle

The history of the world has been one in which the life , welfare and provision of people is nearly totally dependent on regional natural resources available to the people of that area. A necessity for people in any part of the globe to have a decent level of subsistence, and adequate standard of living, is that these people have access to these resources and the right to a fair share of the economic benefit of there development.

Since the beginning of civilization, rulers, whether they be ancient kings, dictators, emperors, or modern democratic parties have, to a one, usurped power and prosperity from resources for their own ends. This process put the mass of people to work on the resources for profit to the haves, making have not's and destitution for themselves!

For example the present English democratic system involving privileges of the countries land Lords and Barons, signed into law in 1215 by King John in the magna carta, is a classic example of the success, (or failure depending on your view), of elevating and ingraining the elite on the backs of the commoner! The ownership of the resources of the land is past, generation after generation, from father Lord to son, as is his title, keeping it's value forever out of reach of the people.
This rule of English democracy has at it's pinnacle the Queen, who is the richest women in England , perhaps the world, and made her the single largest land owner in all of the British Commonwealth! All this while millions of Britons are subsisting on unemployment, welfare and living at poverty level.

Using the English as example was not to find fault with their way of governance but to show that whom ever controls the land, the natural resources and it's development will control the wealth, and prosperity of the world. Indeed, for the most part, the world itself.

The Canadian government's autocratic parliamentary treatment of the NL fishing resource, which came under her control in the confederation of 1949, has been no different in principle from that of dictatorship control and personal use of a natural resources. The Canadian Government's treatment and disrespect of a 500 year old Martine culture and sea faring people is a disgraceful display of global, 21st century, hypocrisy, ignorance and violation of the human rights of a people. A violation of the human rights of her own Citizens, the coastal peoples of Newfoundland and Labrador.

No doubt Canadian 21st century democracy is kinder to its people then governments of ancient times but the division between the government elite and coastal poor is as wide as it ever was between Barron and peasant of feudal times! For 60 years Ottawa has taken for its self, and used in any way possible for it's central strength, all the power and economic benefit it can from the fishery. In the process she has abandoned the resource to it's destruction by NAFO foreigners and ignored the plight of dissemination and despair of a once great Martine people of the sea.

The Canadian Government has pursued a nefarious path in it’s mismanagement of our Fishery , one which allowed the destruction of the way of life of half the peoples who survived off it for 500 years, leaving near destitution for those that remain. They shattered a marine culture, replacing a once proud and skilled work force with demeaning unemployment. Fact. If this criminal act on its own people were not enough they also have presided over 90% of the resources destruction with out as much as asking, to this day, why has this happened? Or how can this destruction of the worlds most prolific fishing grounds to halted!

Recent comments in the media from fishers, mayors, union heads, local ministers, MP's, and the silence of our elected MHA's & MP's are a painful distance from what is needed to save the Fishery. MOU's, restructuring and rationalization, as it stands at present, are but the acceptance and submission to the age old process of higher authorities taking the wealth and power out of our fishing heritage (as described above). They have milked it down to 10% of its former greatness and they continue to suck the last drops of benefit out of it for their own greed and position.

None of their actions, all of their actions, at this time will mean anything in time to save our resource. If the province does not stand up now and demand Ottawa protect the resource , for us and not foreigners, it is over for us. We all can see what Ottawa is doing now as they pass a new NAFO convention against the peoples vote, invite fishing pirates to PEI to do science in our waters and pat the port bared Faroese and Danes on the back and permit Canadians, even Newfoundlander’s, to sell shares of Canadian quotas inside the 200 mile limit to foreigners. Ottawa has no respect for our Fishery, they never have. They have decided to give away our continental shelf and fish resource to EU and the world.

If we in this province can’t get the Williams government to demand Ottawa make policy changes which would protect the resource for ourselves , not foreigners, the fishery will be no more.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

The problem with the fishery... a Philip Earle perspective

The problem with our fishery is not the fish but the people who manage the fishery.

Many, if not all, in trusted positions of the authority, FFAW, Processors, governments and some large fishers want or would like programs that will direct the economic outcome and influence of the Industry into their sector.

This is a classic example of self driven motivation instead of what it should be...motivation based on the protection and health of a treasured renewable resource for the benefit of maximum peoples who depend on it for their subsistence.

This has been the main fault in our fishery....all of them, in each of their specific ways, want more say and control of the resource. This is the cause of our fisheries collapse.

A person will understand truth until the potential loss of his position or income interferes with his judgement!. Or as Krishnamurti said all organizations are corrupt! (Because eventually they will do anything to anyone or anything to insure their own survival and success.)

Ask yourself if your income and livelihood to provide for yourself and family and future security was in jeopardy because you stated factual truth which was different then the policies of the organization that you work for (e.g., federal government) would you still state those truths? 99.9% of people would not. Many would perhaps at best be silent altogether. But silence of this nature on things that you know are wrong is the same as committing and agreeing to those wrongs!


This is the simple fact of the weakness of human nature and many in our country, and our province, despite their profound reasons of confidence to differ, their ego of politics and position blinds them.

You may then wonder how can we correct these inherent human flaws, or is there a solution at all for the Fisheries Problems? I say we can correct it.

By first recognizing the truth, perhaps the greatest and most difficult truth of all to see, the truth of seeing the false in ourselves as false.... the falsity in our own human nature.
Only then can there be a successful program of resource protection, restoration and development directed by scientists who do not depend on the production of profits and power created by the Industry. Examples of this type of Fishery already exist in the world in Iceland and Norway.

This is perhaps a strange way to state things , so maybe a simple example will help. People say stop destroying the rain forest in the Amazon , because it will be all gone. If we keep at it we will lose discovering unknown species of animals and all the benefits of the undiscovered medicines that are in the jungle. In other words this approach is saying save it because in future there may be something in there that man can benefit from. Man , all man again. Wrong.

Why cant we just save it and protect it because it just is what it is...a marvel of millions of years of natures beauty, evolution, creation and genius? Save it for the sake of what it is to itself, it's beauty for it's beauties sake...it's creation for creations sake.
This way, just like the potential nature of our ever renewable fishery, Nature will be able to handle our need, but not our greed, forever!!! phil

Politics... putting a spin on the truth... our Fishery?

Recently our NL government decided to invest 14 million dollars into fisheries research... nobody can argue the sensibility of conducting research to properly manage our primary resource... the Fishery.

But... isn't that someone else's job, namely the federal government's responsibility? Didn't we forego the right to manage our fishery resource when we entered confederation?

I am far from being an expert on the fishery, or even the dictates of our entering confederation. As a matter of fact, I would say that for the most part I am very ignorant of the fishery, and why it has been, and is in so much trouble. However, I do consider myself to be a keen observer of human nature, and a thinker, with some ability to troubleshoot situations and get to the nub of what is going on.

So, our government is doing something good for the fishery and injecting a very large sum of money into research. Nothing but good can come from knowing the truth about our fishing stocks.

While this is important work it is not our responsibility to carry it out; it is the responsibility of the federal government. The money being used for this is not excess money as our NL government's budget shows we are running a deficit this year despite our oil revenues. This is, therefore, not 'found money' because of having a balanced budget, it is borrowed money, because it was not accounted for in any budget disclosure that I read.

I believe the case has been made for having a new longer term prison facility constructed in NL. However, this funding is supposed to come from the federal government as it would be their responsibility. Our government is not deciding to go it alone there... at least not yet??

I think it is very easy to make the case that more money is needed in many areas which is the responsibility of the NL government. So to beg the question, if the government of NL is willing to borrow money to carry out a needed service, why isn't it one that we have responsibility for like our highways for example, our highways need a lot of repair that will not get done this year, not to mention our ferry services? Has our government now decided to help subsidize Ottawa in it's responsibilities by spending money on fishery research?

Let me pose some reasons why this money is being invested into fishery research at this time.

1. Our fishery is in serious trouble, and this research is needed.

2. While the federal government has responsibility to be good stewards of this resource and provide the needed research, it has failed in living up to its responsibility to invest the necessary resources.

3. Research information that is gathered by federal government is not/has not been readily accessible by our people and our NL government, even though we have the right to 'Access Information'. In fact, the truth be known, I suspect we have extremely limitted access to federal fisheries research data.

4. Nobody has a bigger interest in the proper management of the fishing stocks off our shores than the people of NL, therefore, our NL government is saying that they are not willing to let our federal government add further to the demise of our NL fishery.

5. The actions of the NL government say, we don't trust you, the feds, to be good stewards of our resource and therefore we have to take steps which will give our fishing stocks a fighting chance of survival.

6. The actions of our government, in gathering hard independent research data, lead me to believe that the government of NL is 'making a case' against the federal government. The NL governments agenda may be to force the feds into doing what is right to manage this resource or it may be to take the management of this resource from the federal government altogether.

Our NL government has learned from recent scraps with the federal government that it is not wise to come out and verbally show the feds up as liars and decievers and not giving a damn about Atlantic Canada, especially NL. While those words may be very true, they then cause the feds to punish you for taking such a public position. I think it is safe to say that has happened, BUT... the feds would never say that they are putting the screws to you because you have been openly defiant and slammed them verbally at every chance. No, the feds put the screws to you and then come up with another rationale for why they are doing it.

Well, finally, our NL straight-shooter, Danny, is taking a page out of the federal play book. He is not saying with 'words' that Ottawa is incompetent, or uncaring but he is certainly saying it with his 'actions', especially as it pertains to the fishery research investment. Danny was once criticed/praised, I am not sure which, for not being a politician. Well, I don't think we can say that now. A previous blog on this site talked about how Danny gave a speech in Ottawa referring to PQ as being unfair and self-centered etc., without directly naming Ottawa... but we all know it is Ottawa who is supposed to be the over-seer and creator of fairness for all the provinces and ultimately is responsible for what PQ is allowed to perpetrate against NL.

Ottawa is not publically saying much, if anything, regarding the premier's slamming comments about PQ. Maybe they are OK as long as they aren't named directly? As for the fishery research to be done by NL, Harper's (bought and paid for) mouth-piece, Fabian Manning has voiced some approval for this move by NL, while other known Harper puppies, who ran, unsuccessfully as Conservatives last election, seem to operating from Harperish talking points which is trying to scold NL research as 'over-stepping' its legal rights into federal jurisdictions.

The bottom line... the badly needed, real and open fishery research, is about to be conducted. It does reflect badly on the feds that NL would have to do this. But Danny ain't sayin' a word!

Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks. Maybe it is for the bloggers, like it appears I am becoming, to pick the kernals of truth and logic out of it. Afterall, politics is not about truth... it is about taking actions and creating spin on the truth for taking that action afterwards.

It just occurred to me... I think that there is a possibility that if someone stays inside the inner circles of politics for long enough that they start to actually believe their own spin, and forever lose their capability for truly independent and honest judgement. O My!