Alaskans: Fight for change!

[JessE86]

why is the truth labeled as racist ? I have worked among white people my whole life, I see first hand on big money projects how they complain constantly, laid back instead of working hard, sabbotage on the job sites, I have seen it all, it is very sad. I choose to settle down here 30 years ago because I fell in love with a people that worked hard, didn't complain and did not get paid. I have never seen that before !!

I have lived intimately among these people in a hand full of villages up here. I see a vast difference in mind set and actions / beliefs.

If I call a spade a spade and a heart a heart, it is not being racist. I am just telling of my experiences over a 40 year work history in the IBEW !!

EAST COAST - WEST COAST - ALASKA same people on jobs, just different names / faces.

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by JessE86

why is the truth labeled as racist ?

Because it obviously isn't true. All kinds of people work on the northslope, 12 hours a day. Your bigotry is quite apparent.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by Floyd_Davidson

As usual, you start with insults.

And as usual, you quote the right text and miss the entire point of it.

The OP was not talking about eliminating the use of oil in all ways for any purpose. He was talking about how effects of oil production and the inflow of money from that production have affected the way people think (which causes them to act differently in areas which are not directly related to oil money).

Your response is to suggest "going back", but then you argue against the absurd idea that no oil would be used, which is not what the OP defined as the problem.

Again, it was you who started with insults, something that you always do to anybody who posts here. Go back and reread your posts.

I understand what the OP has said, and how he is blaming "oil" for what "it is doing to my friends" (his friends), while "oil" has nothing to do with human behavior. It's up to him and his "friends" not to become slaved to oil, something that is extremely difficult to do, not only for "his friends' but for every one of us.

As a native Alaskan, I hate to see what oil is doing to my friends, my family, and my home. The reality is surreal and eye-opening, and I don't want our children living this way.
Just because we had to live with it, doesn't mean we have to expose generations to come to the same punishments we had to endure.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by warptman

Keep in mind a majority of the bush villages are still living in a third world setting, when is their change coming? They still do business in a bucket and dump them in the lagoon. This is one change I wish they all can make, sanitation we all enjoy in larger cities that we all take for granted.

It would be nice if something can be done about sanitation, an issue that has been discussed in Alaska for quite a lot of years. I can only see this if people can move to centralized locations such as towns with locals services including sewage and water.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by stiffnecked

It's an interesting system. I was there when they were digging up the streets and putting the utilidor system in. It would be interesting to know how many homes aren't hooked up. When they were building it and starting to hook homes up a lot of grumbling was going on as the cost to hook up was pretty steep. I don't remember the exact price but it was around 20K for the connection back then.

Long after the utilidor system in Barrow had been in operation there were many homes still using honey buckets. By 1990 Barrow had about 50% of all housing connected to the utilitdor, about 5% with individual septic systems and about 45% using honey buckets (census data). By the 2000 census the use of honey buckets was down to 11.1%.

Community sewage/water systems were install in North Slope villages after the 2000 census. I found no data on the Internet this afternoon indicating the current percentages of homes connected to those systems. Some of them have been quite problematic (Point Lay is one example), and it is also certain (per the State of Alaska's 2008 Community Directory) that at least Kaktovik and Nuiqsut have city services for picking up honey buckets.

There are also honey bucket trucks operating in Barrow.

[Rance]

Dang...at a cost of 20 grand I'd be using a bucket my own self. My entire system with tank and leach field and installation didn't cost that much.

I believe there were some oil seeps up here that the locals had discovered and were using years ago.

There is a ton of drift wood on Kuparuks beach. It comes down the rivers and from Russia so it pretty much gets replenished every year. Lot's of dead grass, tundra cotton, etc. I'm not aware of flint on the beaches...but there are probably some rocks that produce a spark. The locals had bow to drill ivory with...and I'm sure they used the same principle to start fires.

Mal...I just learned how to use bamboo for starting a fire yesterday. Saw it on the movie "Rescue Dawn".

[JessE86]

Because it obviously isn't true. All kinds of people work on the northslope, 12 hours a day. Your bigotry is quite apparent.

First of all I never did limit it to just the North slope ! I said East coast I said West Coast. why are you twisting around what I stated ??

[Rance]

Please, use DM's for your rants and raves...or I'll just close this thread.

[mwachel]

Originally Posted by JessE86

why is the truth labeled as racist ? I have worked among white people my whole life, I see first hand on big money projects how they complain constantly, laid back instead of working hard, sabbotage on the job sites, I have seen it all, it is very sad. I choose to settle down here 30 years ago because I fell in love with a people that worked hard, didn't complain and did not get paid. I have never seen that before !!

I have lived intimately among these people in a hand full of villages up here. I see a vast difference in mind set and actions / beliefs.

If I call a spade a spade and a heart a heart, it is not being racist. I am just telling of my experiences over a 40 year work history in the IBEW !!

EAST COAST - WEST COAST - ALASKA same people on jobs, just different names / faces.

If you are narrow minded enough to actually think all white people are complainers based on your limited experience then there is no point arguing with you. You are a racist and a bigot. End of story.

Bigot Racist <-- Websters Dictionary

[Rance]

End of story...