Boo boo. This can be “a hurt; a pain; or an impending hurt,” etcetera. I’m not sure that this word necessarily has a Cree origin because I believe the may be French. You see, in the days when Bubonic plague afflicted Europe, a rounded swelling on the skin of a person afflicted by that plague was called a “bubo.”
So, when a Cree mother sees their child headed to something dangerous, they usually caution the little one with “Boo boo!” (Emphasis on the second “boo.”) The child learns very quickly to be cautious when hearing the warning.

Ka Ka. This means that something is either dirty, filthy, or bacteria laden and is to be avoided, or that something needs to be cleaned up. For instance, a dirty diaper is “ka ka.” This word, again, may be French in origin. Way back in the day when former U.S. President Ronald Reagan (RIP) was in office, he strongly disputed the existence of acid rain; or if he did acknowledge its existence, he doubted that the source was environmental emissions. I remember one television reporter who said that Reagan’s administration would have had us believe that it was caused by “bird ka ka.” So, again, the origin of this word is probably not Cree.

Na Na. This means that a certain food is tasty, usually something sweet. A caregiver feeding the child will usually refer to something like Jell-o, cake, cookies, yogurt, etc as “na na.” This is one of the favourite words of my 22-month-old granddaughter Milla, who sounds really cute when she uses that word, or “ka ka” and “boo boo.” We haven’t taught her the “moo moo” word, and we may not.

“It’s Only a Flesh Wound”
The Miami Hurricanes football team has had many troubles over the years. For instance, in July 2006, reports say that reserve safety [I wonder which reserve?] Willie Cooper was shot in the buttocks when confronted in his yard before a morning workout. In other words, he was shot in the backside. However, the story was that Cooper was not seriously injured. It must have been the classic Hollywood case of being “only a flesh wound.”

You’ve got to wonder about that Hollywood line. It’s got to be extremely painful to incur a flesh wound, yet, we have been led to believe they are inconsequential. I suppose we’d have to ask Willie Cooper how it felt.

Ed Bradley Knew No Barriers
Ed Bradley, 65, a long-time correspondent on CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes, recently succumbed to leukemia. Bradley, African-American, grew up in a tough section of Philadelphia (I’m starting to think that the whole of Philadelphia is “tough”). His parents supposedly worked 20-hour days, on two jobs (I’d like to think they worked hard but that pace would easily kill anybody really fast).

Said Bradley one time: “I was told ‘You can be anything you want, kid.’

“When you hear that often enough, you believe it,” he said.
You can be anything you want to be. There is more to this, of course. Expectations of First Nations people in this country, it seems to me – and I may be wrong – have always been low. If you don’t achieve, it’s not a surprise – after all, you are First Nations. It’s like you are perceived as having a built-in handicap. If you rise above your station, it is extraordinary; if you don’t, it’s expected.

We should eliminate this artificial mental barrier from our minds. Most of my generation can’t change the way it thinks. The younger generation has to set the bar as high as it can.

Move Kashechewan to Timmins?
A federal government adviser is recommending that the community of Kashechewan be moved 450 kilometres south from near James Bay to the town of Timmins. Kash has had outbreaks of e coli bacteria, ice jams and flooding, and other social problems that make it a poster boy, if you will, of what ails First Nations communities. So Alan Pope, the report’s author said, “Move it to Timmins,” as if one could wave a magic wand.

Supposed benefits of such a move include easy access to hospital facilities and doctors, a full range of community health programs, proper policing and fire protection, removal of the threat of flooding and ice jams, according to Pope. Other positive factors pointed to include access to high schools, post-secondary education, economic opportunities and employment.

On September 16, 2006 Little Red River Reserve hosted a visit by National Chief Phil Fontaine who had just been in northern Manitoba. The National Chief spoke of a First Nations community that had been moved by the government:

“We spent a long day in the north part of Manitoba yesterday, visiting two communities. It was an interesting day; we were exposed to major challenges…. One was a Dene community that was forcefully relocated a number of times by government. They were absolutely powerless to protect themselves. The relocation was absolutely devastating to their community. One third of their community died near Churchill. But they’ve since relocated in part of their traditional territory, and you should see the community now. I remember reading about that situation and seeing a documentary. Knowing about what’s been done to them and seeing them today, it’s like night and day. It speaks to the incredible resilience of our communities—our people are strong, they’re courageous—they’re absolutely wonderful. It’s like this throughout the land, and I’ve had this opportunity to witness this.”

Unfortunately, there are no magic solutions to situations like Kashechewan. As Chief Jonathan Solomon told the Canadian Press, “I think this is something my people will also need a time to have public meetings and get their input and comments on the report.”

The most recent report has Kash residents thinking positively about moving the community. Well, if that’s what they want… but there shouldn’t be any hasty decisions.

Winter is Upon Us
Winter doesn’t arrive in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan on December 21. It arrives whenever the snow decides to stay on the ground. This year it was about November 8. Once the snow stays on the ground, the air turns chillier—it’s winter. Last year we forestalled it to December 10.

They say it’s going to be a cold winter. Part of the answer may be sunspots. There is an approximate 11-year cycle when sunspots return to our nearest star, where whole regions of it shut down, and the suns throws off less energy. It turns colder. Too bad. Winter also means the return of itchy skin season. I don’t recall this problem when I was younger, but I get itchier skin in winter. It’s the cold weather drying the skin, and there is nothing worse than trying to fall asleep with an itch in a part of your back that you can’t readily scratch.

Try Gold Bond anti-itch lotion (they didn’t pay me for this). At least you’ll be able to sleep.

The New James Bond
I’ve always been a fan of the Bond franchise, which has been around for about 42 years. But I’m tired of those certain Bond franchise fans that claim that Sean Connery was the “perfect Bond.” (Case closed.)

By the time I was a fan of the franchise, Connery was seen as being “too old, too fat and too bald,” (and , being still a teenager at the time, I agreed with that assessment in an old Mad Magazine). I liked Diamonds are Forever, but that one sealed it for Connery, in that he became, er, unBondable.

The perfect Bond, in my mind, was Roger Moore, who played the role of Agent 007 rather flippantly, i.e., he used a lot of humour in playing the role. You have to because, let’s face it, the things that James Bond is supposedly capable of doing is 100 percent BS. I liked the one Bond movie where Moore was on the ice floes of the High Arctic (it had something to do with a rendezvous with a nuclear sub), and he managed to elude his would-be captors by expertly snowboarding downhill for several minutes—this on the almost flat Arctic ice floes.

When Moore became “overripe” (I like that word) for the spy role, it was taken over by Timothy Dalton, who tried to play it as a serious guy. I hated Dalton. So did most everyone else.

Then I thought Pierce Brosnan would be great. However, his stint, which lasted about 3 or 4 movies, had degenerated into segments of special effects, which, it would seem to me, would be really neat to a 10-year-old mind.

I did attend the new Bond movie, Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig. I liked it. I would rather have Craig playing it seriously rather than be subjected to off-putting special effects.

Observations
Rona Ambrose, Conservative environment minister recently tabled a laughable Clean Air Act. The targets the Conservatives set for clean air would not have been met until 2050—long after most of us are in the Happy Hunting Grounds, including Steve Harper – and long after it would be too late to do anything about reducing greenhouse gases and trying to cool down our planet to make it habitable. Predictably, Ambrose was laughed out of the House of Commons, more or less.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, as I write this, have an 11-5 record in the NHL. It just could be that they will mount a challenge for the Stanley Cup. I don’t believe it is not too early to say this. Of course there are other strong teams, such as Buffalo (the favourite), and there’s Anaheim and Detroit, along with Carolina and Minnesota. Being an armchair expert, I would place Toronto in the same company as Carolina (First in Flight; Last in Hockey as one enthusiastic TO fan put it in 2002) and Minne. Even with their able leader, Mats Sundin out with an elbow problem, the team has continued to perform better than expected and has some good young players like Stajan and Wellwood. Will the 40-year Cup drought end with happiness and tears for fans and players in June 2007? (Or just tears?) Stay tuned.

Isn’t it interesting that Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity, and sentenced to hang, just four days before the American midterm elections? Saddam may be guilty of those crimes, but he’s also guilty of having had no weapons of mass destruction after 1991. And wasn’t it sheer coincidence also, that at the same time the price of gasoline was dropping fast just before those elections? The Republicans lost both the House of Representatives and the Senate anyway.

An Environics poll conducted for CBC between November 2 to 6, 2006 indicated that 59 percent of those surveyed said they want Canadian troops out of Afghanistan before 2009. I rather doubt that the United States will choose to remain there, especially with the Democrats controlling both the House of Representatives and the Senate after the U.S. midterm elections. And if they leave, we will almost certainly leave.

Quality of Life
The United Nations ranked Norway as the best country to live in for a sixth consecutive year, while Canada ranked sixth on the index.

Norway, the world’s third-largest oil exporter, with 4.6 million people, and its generous welfare state, topped the UN Development Program’s human development index, based on such criteria as life expectancy, education and income. Iceland was No. 2, followed by Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Canada, then Japan and the United States.

As First Nations and other Aboriginal peoples fall further behind other Canadians in the quality of life, our overall ranking as a nation will continue to drop. Canada used to be Number One several years ago before we began descending to our current ranking.

While most Canadians may rank perhaps Number 2, Aboriginal Peoples of Canada really are at about Number 33 or so, around the rank of a Second World country. Marie Waden, a research fellow, writing in the November 18 online edition of the Toronto Star writes: “The United Nations Human Development Index equates the aboriginal standard of living in this country with that of Brazil, well below the Canadian norm.”

So if we (First Nations, northern and rural Métis, Inuit) have a quality of life on par with the average Brazilian, then the majority of Canadians probably have a quality of life at the level of homogeneous Norway. Stephen Harper and his caucus probably are comfortable with that disparity, but would never admit it.

We Aboriginal Canadians deserve much better than what we are being dealt. The Kelowna Accord could have begun a process of improving the quality of our lives but the federal government is much more interested in Afghan military adventures to appease the disgraced and disgraceful George Bush. We are spending billions in Afghanistan for what end?

Three Soldiers
I had only one relative that went to war. He was Daniel Merasty, enlisting as a soldier in World War II. He served overseas for five years and survived the experience. He passed away in 2003.

My wife’s late grandfather Art Gillis served in France in World War I—fighting in the trenches. Art, as my wife called his grandfather, didn’t talk too much about the war. But he did, a little. It was miserable, as the trenches weren’t dry. A young man, and a teetotaler, he remembered a time when they were wading waist-deep in mud in the trenches, covered with lice. A senior officer offered him a serving of hard liquor, which he refused. But he was ordered to take it, so he did. It gave him some very temporary feelings of warmth.

Art, who was from New Brunswick, also remembered the First Nations soldiers that served with him. They were Miq’mak and Maliseet who hunted moose back home. They had little to eat but they had horses. The First Nations soldiers gutted, dressed and cooked the horsemeat like it may have been moose. Art credited First Nations soldiers for saving their lives.

Art received the Military Cross from then King George V for his bravery at the April 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge, and was invited to Buckingham Palace for the ceremony. He returned from the Great War with his humanity intact, married and had a family. In World War II he again enlisted but this time he was in charge of training soldiers. He lived to be 89.

A Couple of Ron’s Anecdotes
When I was in a Roman Catholic residential school, it was at a time when we had to use Latin during mass (church service). I didn’t know what we were uttering, but I remember a sound byte from a recent story in which one person said that Latin “added mystery to the service,” or words to that effect.

In time, after Vatican II, I think it was called, which was a conclave of all the RC Bishops in Rome, around 1962 or so, the decision was made to thereafter conduct mass in the language of the local congregation—which in our case was English—and that the use of Latin would henceforth be discontinued. It was, in fact, outlawed. My teacher told me then, back in 1962 (I was about 8), and I heard it as such, that “6000 bishops were gathered in a room [Rome].” (A lot I knew.) Rather large room, I thought.

But until about 1964 at Guy Indian Residential School, we used Latin during mass, but I didn’t really like Latin. I guess I wasn’t a Latin lover.
There seems to be this fear of commitment nowadays in First Nations country. Very few people are getting married. They prefer to “live in sin,” as it were, and when the relationship falls apart, they move on. Certain white folks call this situation, “serial monogamy,” whatever that may mean. It may be that or maybe it isn’t.
I know this guy that’s so wary of commitment (he’s a few Grades short of graduation) that he asked about the possibility of having a midwife.

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