The thoughts and musings of a modern-day Inuk put into text and image form. O, the wonders of technology.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Forget Texas, Everything's bigger in Nunavut!
Take a look at these monsters!
Okay... so the Lake Trout is actually from Kangiqsuk, Nunavik (Northern Quebec) but it's still in the Inuit Nunaat (Inuit Homeland)
I was emailed these pictures this week and it sure makes me miss home. I haven't gone hunting since last spring, and the weather is really nice this time of year. Instead the forecast for Ottawa is in the 30's this week.
The video above is a mash up of speeches by Martin Luther King Jr, JFK, RFK, Reagan, Goldwater and Malcolm X. I must say that I'm not a fan of Ronald Reagan, but he says some pretty good things here.
I've watched this video probably about a dozen times and the ending always gives me goose-bumps. It makes me wonder what happened to America since then. How did they go from that to this?
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm not religious. I don't think that I'd call myself a true atheist per se, but more of an agnostic. I've studied various religions in my travels, mainly Christianity, Islam and Buddhism and to a lesser extent Hinduism. I believe that every person has the right to live as one chooses as long as it doesn't cause harm to others and as such, I try to be tolerant and accepting of religious people.
There are many religious people that I have a tremendous amount of respect for such as Martin Luther King Jr, The Dalai Lama, Khalil Gibran, and Ghandi just to name a few. When you listen to the works of Handel and Mozart, it certainly seems possible that they were somehow touched by a divine power to create such powerful and beautiful music. When you observe the glories of nature and look into the vast cosmos, it can be easy to imagine some sort of sentient entity out there keeping watch over it all. I realize that religion gives certain people strength and comfort and I respect that. However, I think it's the establishment of churches of men and the compartmentalization of faith that has undone the actual message of most religions. I think that the original teachings of Christianity, Judaism and Islam were indeed very good, but for the most part, I think that those teachings have become so perverted and misinterpreted by Churches, Mosques and Synagogues that I can't bring myself to be a part of the establishment. There are many things that I find fascinating about religion and I don't presume to hold the answers to the mysteries of life, but I find it hard to believe that the only way that I can be a good and moral person is to go to a building of bricks an mortar every week. To me, it seems more of a mechanism of social control rather than a way of fostering moral enlightenment.
One thing I'm not tolerant of is the incredible hubris and close minded dogma of the religious right that seems intent on assimilating everyone on earth and forcing their narrow view of the world on everyone else, especially through the government. I think the video below is a fairly good representation of the mindset of many evangelicals. Personally I don't understand what most of them are thinking really. To me, it seems glaringly obvious that they are cherry-picking arguments and completely ignoring verifiable facts. Ultimately, they're hurting their own cause, but nothing seems to convince them of this.
As Galileo once put it; "I don't feel obliged to believe that the same god that endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use"
I found this video a while ago and I thought I'd share it here.
I think it's particularly relevant considering that Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Jim Prentice has recently decided not to apologize for the Residential schools and actually went so far as to deny the fact that the primary goal of the schools was to destroy aboriginal culture, language and identity and to assimilate them into Euro-Canadian culture.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised considering the CPC's history in regards to natives. I guess simple common human decency is too much to ask from this bunch.
Another thing I did this summer was I finally got the Tattoo I've wanted for so long.
I first wanted to get this tattoo in 2003, while I was on Easter Island during my trip to Chile. I wanted the Arctic Tern because it is an amazing, small bird that flys from the Arctic to the Antarctic every year. (kind of like when I went to Antarctica in 2001) The only problem was that I couldn't find the Tattoo artist on the island for the week that I was there. I tried getting it again in Hawaii during the Christmas of 2004, but the Tattoo artist I found there didn't have time in his schedule for me. I even tried again in Beijing during my trip to Mongolia in the summer of 2005, but it didn't work out. So earlier this summer, I finally got it done here in Ottawa at a place called New Moon Tattoo. I'm very happy with the end result.
(For those that may be wondering; it says Immiqutailaq, which is Arctic Tern in Inuktitut.)
Well I'm back from the West Coast. Sorry for not blogging, I've been a bit of a hermit. But I'm still around, I've been in Ottawa for a while now, and I made my way to Cortes Island, BC for a bit. I adore that place. The weather was perfect, it was extremely relaxing. I went boating, swimming and sun bathing at the lake. I did get sunburnt, but I was able to get a tan out of the process. It was Meredith's first time to BC. (besides the Vancouver Airport) She enjoyed it too. My uncle owns a pretty nice ranch on Cortes Island, I helped him clear half of the 10 acre lot when I was going to high school in Campbell River. The first 5 acres of the place is a big meadow, a row of apple trees, a garden, the house, a few sheds, the VW Westfalia Van where I slept, sheep pens, a chicken coop with 30 chickens, and a barn. The 5 acres in the back was kept as old growth rain forest with a system of trails and a stream. It's really a beautiful place, and it's incredibly natural.
Here are some pictures of the place and of Cortes Island:
