Globe & Mail shocker...
...apparently Canadians no longer give a crap about their kids...
Hmmm, that doesn't sound right... let's pick this apart...
Statistics Canada figures reveal that Nunavut has the highest number of infant deaths – 15.1 per 1,000 live births in 2007.And... as disturbing as that is... there appears to be a correlation with, among other things... Canadian homicide numbers.
Manitoba has a high rate of infant mortality, at 7.3 per 1,000 live births in 2007, due in part to a larger aboriginal population.
Heck, even when nobody dies... the child welfare numbers tell an appalling tale.
Call me crazy... but maybe Canada's aboriginal communities have something to learn from the wiley white man, after all.
4 comments:
Is it not significant that we were once number 6, and are now number 24?
Nunavut probably doesn't explain it given that it's been there for a while, and there are only about 30000 people there.
It sounds (from the article) like we all have a thing or two to learn from the Estonians and the Japanese.
Or we could "pick apart" the numbers and pretend nothing has changed or that nothing can be done. Or that nothing needs to be done other than hope that "little wiley white man's" good example will be followed.
I think the international and interprovincial differences show that these figures (like child mortality) are more affected by different government policies rather than by different cultural or racial communities.
To stick with the Aboriginal Canadian example:
- "[I]n Quebec the representation of Aboriginal adults in provincial and territorial
sentenced custody is two times their representation in the province’s general population. In
Saskatchewan, the representation is seven times greater."*
- "The ratio of aboriginal to non-aboriginal prison inmates in the atlantic provinces is 3.7; in Ontario it's 5.2; in Alberta, it's 11.4; in Saskatchewan it's 29.8."**
-Anon1152
*page 9
**page 29
P.S. I won't be surprised if you are accused of "racism" by someone on account of the "wiley white man" comment. Though I suspect you won't be surprised either. (The reference to "learning" alludes, probably unintentionally, to the residential schools).
*
"anon1152 says... in Saskatchewan it's 29.8."
as infamous bank robber willie sutton said when asked why he robbed banks... "because that's where the money is."
infant mortality, child mortality, adult mortality... they've got it all. let's not even bother with substance abuse, domestic violence... etc., etc.
p.s. -- if i had a nickel for every time some dumbstick went all "abraham, martin & dawg" on me... i'd be a very wealthy man.
*
I'm guessing that Quebec is more generous to their natives but I could be wrong about that? Many native communities are remote and isolated yet even so they are subjected to strong influences from the outside world via television etc. The young people in general find the reserve life boring and in fact there isn't much to do from what I hear on most reserves. Welfare and nothing to do combined with little ambition or goals with readily available illicit substances means trouble. (real conservative)
*
"rc says... reserve life boring and in fact there isn't much to do"
just another reason for these outmoded misery-pits to join the larger field of folk.
*
Post a Comment