Quotulatiousness

November 30, 2020

Malayan Emergency 1948-1960

Filed under: Asia, Britain, History, Military — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

The Cold War
Published 28 Sep 2019

Our series on the history of the Cold War period continues with a documentary on Malayan Emergency of 1948-1960 during which the British empire was challenged by the emerging Malayan Communist Party. These events led to the independence of Malaya.

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Cultural Marxism or cultural leftism?

Filed under: History, Politics, Religion — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

In the most recent Libertarian Enterprise, Sean Gabb discusses what British Conservatives have been warned against describing as “Cultural Marxism”:

So far as I understand him — and I write as an outsider to any school of Marxist ideology — Marx made five essential points. First, there have been, since the French Revolution, two classes — the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Second, the bourgeoisie owns the means of production and exploits the proletariat through the extraction of surplus value. Third, this is an unstable parasitism, as the reinvestment of surplus value leads to periodic crises of over-production. Fourth, these crises concentrate wealth in fewer hands and expand and immiserise the proletariat. Fifth, there will be an inevitable revolution, in which the expropriators will be expropriated and a communist society will emerge. A further and perhaps optional sixth point is that the inevitable revolution can be hurried by the defection of informed bourgeois intellectuals to radicalise and form a vanguard for the proletariat.

Now, where is any of this in the present mix of climate alarmism and obsession with the alleged oppression of racial and sexual minorities? How is capitalism supposed to be overthrown by getting Sainsbury to fill its advertisements with pictures of black people eating Christmas dinner? Ditto boycotts of Israeli pharmaceuticals? Ditto arguing with or against radical feminists over the exact status of men who change sex?

The answer, of course, is the Cultural Marxist hypothesis — that the present culture wars are a product of the writings of Antonio Gramsci and the Frankfurt School. These men took the Marxian concept of “false consciousness” — that the bourgeoisie keeps the workers quiet by making them believe that all is for the best — and enlarged it into a project for achieving a counter-hegemony by taking over the means of cultural reproduction.

There is some truth in this answer, so far as these writings are prescribed in most university humanities departments, and many advocates of the new totalitarianism have at some time called themselves Marxists. It is, even, so a weak answer. Before about 60 AD, most Christians were Jews, and Christianity ever since has retained some Jewish religious writings among its core texts. But nothing is achieved by describing Christianity as “Gentile Judaism.” The differences between the two faiths are too essential to define either by reference to the other. In the same way, the present totalitarianism has nothing to do with the essential claims of Marxism. It lacks any interest in the analysis of surplus value, and its belief in the instability of unregulated markets derives mainly from a reading of Keynes and the welfare economists of the Cambridge School.

I prefer the term “cultural leftism.” I prefer this because the present totalitarianism is based on belief in an appearance of equality mediated by the State. It therefore has elements of socialism as reasonably defined. But it is in no sense Marxist. Its revealed preference is for a ruling class that is a coalition of politicians, administrators, policemen, lawyers, educators, plus media and business interests. So far as individuals move freely between them, these groups are mutually permeable. If they disagree over incidentals, they preside collectively over a mass of the ruled who are mostly well-nourished, but who are too atomised and intimidated by often meaningless words to combine in opposition.

Indeed, if I prefer my chosen term, I see little point in arguing against what it describes. Undoubtedly, this must be explained and opposed. But too much analysis of particulars can risk an overlooking of the much more important generality. This is that, in every time and place, there have been those who want to get on with their lives and those who want to control others. These latter will take up whatever body of ideas is most likely within the prevailing assumptions of their age to legitimise their urges.

The Ancient Art Of Brickmaking – Impervious Building Blocks Handmade From The Earth

Filed under: History, Technology, USA — Tags: — Nicholas @ 02:00

Townsends
Published 31 Aug 2020

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QotD: Grandstanding, or more properly, cant

Filed under: Politics, Quotations — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

A major proximate cause of the polarisation of opinion and consequent envenoming of political life is what the authors of this book call grandstanding, though a better word for it (in my opinion) is cant, a word which, oddly enough, they never use.

To cant is to utter moral sentiment far in excess of what is felt or could ever be felt. The purpose of cant is either to present the person who utters it as morally superior to others or to himself as he really is, or to shut other people up entirely. These purposes are not mutually exclusive, of course.

Cant is not new in the world, though the authors of this book offer no history of it. “Of all the cants that are canted in this canting world …” Laurence Sterne wrote more than quarter of a millennium ago, and Doctor Johnson suggested that his interlocutor should clear his mind of cant. My late friend, Peter Bauer, when elevated to the House of Lords, took “Let us be free of cant” as his heraldic motto, but far from ushering in an era free of it, subsequent years have proved a golden age of cant. The social — or antisocial — media have been a powerful catalyst of cant.

Theodore Dalrymple, “The Expanding Tyranny of Cant”, The Iconoclast, 2020-08-26.

November 29, 2020

Winter is here? The Germans can see Moscow – WW2 – 118 – November 28, 1941

World War Two
Published 28 Nov 2020

The German advance has pushed within artillery range of Moscow, but can they reach it — and take it — before the Red Army and the murderously cold weather halt them? Meanwhile in North Africa, both Erwin Rommel and Claude Auchinleck make daring and brilliant moves that save the fight for their sides. A mighty Japanese fleet is now secretly heading for Hawaii to make a surprise attack on American territory while the US worries where in Southeast Asia the Japanese are planning to attack.

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Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sources

Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson, Bodo Rittenauer
Creative Producer: Maria Kyhle
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Miki Cackowski
Sound design: Marek Kamiński
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)

Colorizations by:
Julius Jääskeläinen – https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/
Daniel Weiss
Norman Stewart – https://oldtimesincolor.blogspot.com/
Dememorabilia – https://www.instagram.com/dememorabilia/
Klimbim https://www.flickr.com/photos/2215569…
Mikołaj Uchman
Spartacus Olsson

Sources:
Bundesarchiv
IWM E 6661, WPN 298, E 446
Bletchley Park Trust
Mil.ru
RIA Novosti #303890, #2551
Yad Vashem 4562/3
Picture of Cordell Hull, courtesy of National Portrait Gallery

Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Rannar Sillard – “March Of The Brave 10”
Johan Hynynen – “Dark Beginning”
Hakan Eriksson – “Epic Adventure Theme 3”
Johannes Bornlof – “Death And Glory 2”
Jo Wandrini – “To War!”
Fabien Tell – “Weapon of Choice”
Fabien Tell – “Last Point of Safe Return”
Johannes Bornlof – “The Inspector 4”
Andreas Jamsheree – “Guilty Shadows 4”
Philip Ayers – “Trapped in a Maze”

Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

World War Two
2 days ago (edited)
– IMPORTANT NOTICE –
Since we’re all busy working on our minute-by-minute coverage of Pearl Harbor, which is edging ever closer, it has been an especially challenging task to follow Operation Crusader in all its complexity. This has resulted in an error on the animated map about which we want to be transparent and honest.

The current map suggests that the 2nd New Zealand Division links up with the Tobruk garrison from the south-east. In reality, it does so from the Via Balba running along the coast, along which it has advanced during the past days. Another thing to note is the position of the Allied 30th Corps, which has withdrawn further south after the Battle of Sidi Rezegh than the map shows. They are positioned near Gabr Saleh as the New Zealanders link up with Tobruk.

We apologize for this inaccuracy and are working to fix this error as soon as possible.

———-

It’s getting closer … 9 days from now is December 7th, and we will cover the Japanese attacks of that day right here in real time for FIVE HOURS. Pearl Harbor minute by minute will be the most exciting documentary series you’ve ever seen. https://youtu.be/5D8c7YvLBUc

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An unusually sympathetic biography of George III

Filed under: Books, Britain, History, USA — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Andrew Roberts reviews a new biography of King George III for The Critic:

King George III in his coronation robes.
Portrait by Allan Ramsay (1713-1784), original in the Art Gallery of South Australia via Wikimedia Commons.

Over the past six years, Penguin have been publishing their excellent Monarchs series in which a leading historian writes a 30,000-word book on a king or queen from Athelstan to Elizabeth II. There are now 45 of them (including David Horspool on Oliver Cromwell, who sneaks in despite the monarchical rubric, and Jonathan Keates who reasonably enough lumped William III and Queen Mary together). These extended essays are attractively produced, can be read in a couple of hours, and many are true gems, from historians such as Tom Holland, John Guy, Tim Blanning, Norman Davies, Roger Knight, Jane Ridley, Richard Davenport-Hines, David Cannadine — you get the idea.

Now Professor Jeremy Black gives us a full-throated defence of the monarch who is only really generally known as the king who went insane and who lost the American colonies, and who now prances around in the camp-yet-sinister show-stopping song in Hamilton: The Musical. “When considering George III’s mistakes,” Black argues, persuasively, “it is important to assess the parameters of the possible and to consider comparisons.” With his expertise in eighteenth-century European history, Black is able to place George III in the wider context of contemporary monarchs such as Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great, Louis XVI and Napoleon.

“In contradiction to the Whig and American image of George as a tyrant, or at least a would-be tyrant,” Black states, “he had a strong conviction of the value of limited monarchy and was a willing student of the lessons of the Glorious Revolution and the subsequent Revolution Settlement.”

Black brilliantly demolishes the paranoiac Whig view of George as trying to accrete powers to himself unconstitutionally. The George who emerges is a far more attractive figure than the Whig historians depicted, let alone Thomas Jefferson with his 28 histrionic and inaccurate accusations against George in the Declaration of Independence, and especially Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hilarious but profoundly historically incorrect caricature.

Instead, Black portrays a monarch with “a strong religious faith, a passion for hunting and an interest in art, architecture, music, astronomy and exploration”. He was a Renaissance man with an Enlightenment viewpoint, although Black also lists his failings, which were obstinacy, self-righteousness and a certain amount of priggishness when young. Black calls him a “fogey”. These were hardly cardinal sins, and a world away from the lust for dictatorship of which he has been accused.

Jeremy Black — who is fast becoming a national treasure in his own right, having written well over 100 books — takes a refreshingly unmodish stance towards George (as you might have guessed from listing hunting amongst the king’s attributes). “His qualities are easier to understand for those who prize commitment, duty, and integrity,” he concludes, “than in a modern age when scorn and satire, even hatred of the nation’s history, are often prominent.”

What is Concrete?

Filed under: Technology — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Practical Engineering
Published 27 Mar 2018

What’s the difference between concrete and cement?

Concrete is the most important construction material on earth and foundation of our modern society. At first glance it seems rudimentary, but there is a tremendous amount of complexity involved in every part of designing and placing concrete. This video is meant to be a bare-bones introduction to the topic, with a cool demonstration of concrete strength using a hydraulic press.

-Patreon: http://patreon.com/PracticalEngineering
-Website: http://practical.engineering

“Marxist Arrow” by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBlLC…

“Tonic and Energy” by Elexive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6fBP…

QotD: The succession problem of totalitarian leadership

Back in the Cold War, prudent Kremlinologists had to take the marked decline in the Politburo’s collective intelligence very seriously indeed (the old adage “never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity” is terrifying when the potentially malicious dumbasses have nuclear missiles).

There were two main reasons for the decline, both structural. The first, of course, is Communism itself. A totally ideologized society is a society totally committed to make-believe. You could fill a good-sized book listing the catastrophes make-believe caused the USSR. Just to take the most obvious: Hitler did everything but send the Goodyear Blimp over Moscow, towing a banner announcing his invasion plans. But since everyone who accurately reported the goings-on in Poland ended up in the Gulag, the Wehrmacht walked right on in.

The second has to do with the nature of totalitarian leadership. Obviously sharing power is out of the question, so every Boss who finally claws his way to the top ruthlessly purges everyone who could conceivably challenge him. The purged are replaced by yes-men and toadies, who immediately enact mini-purges of their own inside their new departments. It doesn’t take more than a few rounds of this for smarter functionaries to learn to dig themselves in very, very deep, disguising themselves in a kind of protective stupidity. A few more rounds, and “protective stupidity” drops the modifier, as anyone with anything on the ball has decamped for the safer — and, not coincidentally, very soon much more profitable — havens of technical management.

It doesn’t take long before your “leadership” is nothing but ideology-addled dimbulbs. Sound familiar?

Severian, “How Dumb Are Liberals?”, Rotten Chestnuts, 2020-07-31.

November 28, 2020

Miscellaneous Myths: The Zodiac

Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 27 Nov 2020

Thanks to longtime patron Volt for requesting this topic!

We know their names! We know their symbols! We know there’s a truly staggering number of websites dedicated to their stereotypical personality traits! But what do we know about their stories? Let’s discuss!

FUN FACT I GLOSSED OVER IN THE VIDEO: like I said, it’s REALLY hard to determine when these constellations entered Greece. Most people set the date at 300ish, when Eudoxus codified the Greek calendar based on the Babylonian one — but that clashes with the fact that Heracles’s labors predate that by at least three centuries, and they’ve had those zodiacal themes since that lost epic poem was initially written. We know, therefore, that the Babylonian zodiac entered greece between Homer’s time (when he conspicuously didn’t mention them — and neither did Hesiod in his Astronomia) and Peisander’s time (author of the lost Heracleia), basically the interval between 800 and 600 CE. The phoenician traders carrying that info is a reasonable assumption, especially considering how important the stars are to sailors navigating at night. But it is WILD to me how hard this is to research and how nobody seems to have really explored the timeline here!

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Showdown at the O.K. BBQ joint

Filed under: Business, Cancon, Government, Health, Law — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Toronto police reacted with overwhelming force to a rebellion centred on a small business in Etobicoke, intending to overawe any more potential lockdown opponents on Thursday. Jay Currie is of the “worse before better” school on this particular flare-up of public sentiment:

Well over 100 Toronto police officers and at least ten horses shut down Adamson’s BBQ today. They arrested the proprietor for “trespass” on his own property.

His sin was, of course, opening when Toronto is under “lockdown”. And then opening again and then, today, getting around the changed locks on his premises and opening again.

Now there will be plenty of people who will say, “Well, it’s the law and necessary if we are going to ‘stop the spread'”. But I suspect there will be a strong minority who will say, “Lockdowns don’t work and Costco is in full operation a block away.” Have at it, my interest is in the show of force.

For the City of Toronto and the Province of Ontario, Adamson’s was a point of rebellion which had to be crushed. At any cost. If Adamson’s was able to open the entire pandemic lockdown regime would collapse. So out came 100+ cops and the horses. (I was surprised there was not a tactical vehicle or two.)

Given that there were all of about a hundred people at the BBQ spot today this was more than sufficient force to ensure Adamson’s would not be able to open. No doubt Mayor Tory and Premier Ford are pretty sure the job is done. Adam Skelly, the owner, is cooling his heels in custody pending a bail hearing. (If that hearing goes as I expect, there will be compliance conditions attached to his bail, namely no re-opening.)

Big government relies upon the general complacency of its citizens. A couple of hundred people showing up to a BBQ joint can be handled with a large police presence. A couple of thousand? Much more difficult. 20,000, not a chance.

I keep saying to my very worried wife, “Worse before better.” Which means that before there is any chance that reason, moderation and good government is restored, things have to get a lot worse. On the left, groups like BLM and Antifa work very hard to create martyrs for their narrative. So far with limited success. Adam Skelly may have set in motion the process which will make him a living martyr for common sense and a degree of justice.

As of Friday morning the GoFundMe campaign for Skelly had reached $130,000 (I’m expecting it to be shut down for “reasons” any time soon … but it was still online and accepting donations when I checked at 10am).

FN Model D: The Last and Best BAR

Forgotten Weapons
Published 21 Aug 2020

http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons

https://www.floatplane.com/channel/Fo…

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QotD: Army recruit training

Filed under: Britain, History, Humour, Military, WW1 — Tags: — Nicholas @ 01:00

To-day our platoon once marched, in perfect step, for seven complete and giddy paces, before disintegrating into its usual formation — namely, an advance in irregular échelon, by individuals.

Ian Hay (Major John Hay Beith), The First Hundred Thousand: Being the Unofficial Chronicle of a Unit of “K(1)”, 1916.

November 27, 2020

Japanese Plague Bombs – War Against Humanity 023 – November 1941, Pt. 2

Filed under: China, Germany, History, Japan, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

World War Two
Published 26 Nov 2020

Japanse deploys biological weapons in China, leading to un unspecified number of deaths. Meanwhile, European Jews from Germany and their occupied territories are deported to Eastern Europe, where Jews are already being killed by the thousands.

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Follow WW2 day by day on Instagram @ww2_day_by_day – https://www.instagram.com/ww2_day_by_day
Between 2 Wars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sources

Hosted by: Spartacus Olsson
Written by: Joram Appel and Spartacus Olsson
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson, Bodo Rittenauer
Creative Producer: Maria Kyhle
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Joram Appel and Spartacus Olsson
Edited by: Miki Cackowski
Sound design: Marek Kamiński
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)

Colorizations by:
Mikołaj Uchman
Spartacus Olsson
Jaris Almazani (Artistic Man), https://instagram.com/artistic.man?ig…

Sources:
Bundesarchiv
Visuotinė-lietuvių-enciklopedija
Yad Vashem 2725/5, 4613/360, 85DO1, 142BO7, 4613/1055, 4147/32, 8747/3, 4360/99, 4613/525, 4572/3, 4572/2, 4572/4
USHMM
Picture of Jezdimir Dangic, courtesy of pogledi.rs
from the Noun Project: Skull by Muhamad Ulum

Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Farrell Wooten – “Blunt Object”
Yi Nantiro – “A Single Grain Of Rice”
Philip Ayers – “Trapped in a Maze”
Gavin Luke – “Drifting Emotions 3”
Gunnar Johnsen – “Not Safe Yet”
Cobby Costa – “From the Past”

Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

World War Two
3 hours ago
We often get the question how we cope with researching, editing and hosting a series which is almost exclusively about human suffering. Indeed, for every episode that we make, Miki, Spartacus and I spend hours researching, reading accounts and scrolling through gruesome pictures. It is hard or stressful at times, and of course it impacts us emotionally.

There’s a couple of things that help us get through this. The purpose with which we’re doing this, which is to learn, share and contribute to awareness so that this may never be forgotten definitely adds to our resilience. We have set up a small-scale support system between us, and we try to talk and share our emotions whenever we need to.

We recognise that some of you watching this may deal with similar questions. Talking about it, wether digitally or in person, helps us understand and process. We believe that exploring the motivations and fears of perpetrators and victims also helps to stay in touch with the human dimension behind staggering statistics. We try our best to keep this series down to earth with a close eye on the humane aspect – both in content and our community.

Thank you all for your support and kind comments,
Cheers,
Joram

“The Attack of the Dead Men” Pt.2 – Gas! Gas! Gas! – Sabaton History 095 [Official]

Filed under: Germany, History, Media, Military, Russia, Science, WW1 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Sabaton History
Published 26 Nov 2020

On 22. April 1915, a wall of greenish-yellow fog, up to 2m high, was slowly creeping towards the Allied lines on the Ypres salient. A sweetish-chloric smell preceded the horrific effects of the deadly gas. Coughing, spitting, and retching, men were abandoning their trenches, hurrying to the rear, or falling to the ground, clutching their throats. It was the same desperate, gruesome scenery, the Russian soldiers at Osowiec Fortress had to fight through. From then on, a scientific race to counter and protect against those deadly chemicals began.

Support Sabaton History on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sabatonhistory

Listen to “Attack of the Dead Men” on the album The Great War: https://music.sabaton.net/TheGreatWar

Watch the Official Lyric Video of “Attack of the Dead Men” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AFdw…

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Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Markus Linke and Indy Neidell
Directed by: Astrid Deinhard and Wieke Kapteijns
Produced by: Pär Sundström, Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Maria Kyhle
Executive Producers: Pär Sundström, Joakim Brodén, Tomas Sunmo, Indy Neidell, Astrid Deinhard, and Spartacus Olsson
Community Manager: Maria Kyhle
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Editor: Karolina Dołęga
Sound Editor: Marek Kamiński
Maps by: Eastory – https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory
Archive: Reuters/Screenocean – https://www.screenocean.com

Colorizations by:
Adrien Fillon – https://www.instagram.com/adrien.colo…

Sources:
– National Archives NARA
– Library of Congress
– Bundesarchiv
– Imperial War Museums: IWM Q 56546, HU67224, Q 60344
– Canadian War Museum
– Auckland Museum
– Wellcome Images
– Icons form The Noun Project: Arrow by 4B Icons, gas bomb by Mete Eraydın, Gas by Andrejs Kirma, Skull by Muhamad Ulum, smoke grenade by 1516

All music by: Sabaton

An OnLion Entertainment GmbH and Raging Beaver Publishing AB co-Production.

© Raging Beaver Publishing AB, 2019 – all rights reserved.

Is clean water too much to ask for in a first world nation?

Ted Campbell explains how he would resolve the TWENTY-FIVE YEAR OLD PROBLEM in the Neskantaga First Nation in northern Ontario, which is one of the many First Nation public health issues the federal government has been promising to address for years:

A few weeks ago I was horrified to read about the 25 year long water problems that continue to plague the Neskantaga First Nation in North-Western Ontario ~ yes you read that right: it’s been 25 years since these Canadians have had clean, potable water! I begged the government to Do Something! and I offered one concrete idea based upon by near certain knowledge of what the Canadian Armed Forces can and have done for people overseas. One of my readers, a retired colonel in our Military Engineering branch confirmed that what I suggested was doable.

Now I read, in a report by Campbell Clark in the Globe and Mail, that the main problems are a combination of political over-promising and bureaucratic ineptitude. I am going to blame Justin Trudeau for pretty much all of the political over-promising: he made it a centrepiece of his 2015 election campaign and then totally failed to follow through. He has to wear at least a large part of the bureaucratic ineptitude, too, because he’s been prime minister of Canada for over five years. He’s failed, again.
OK, I can hear you saying: if you’re so smart how would you fix things?

For a start I would stick with the outlines of my earlier proposal: I would ask the Army to help, right now, using existing technology. We would declare this a disaster ~ and if Canadians going without clean water for 25 years doesn’t qualify as a disaster then I don’t know what does ~ and send the Canadian Armed Forces’ Disaster Assistance Response Team (the DART) to the Neskantaga First Nation and tell them to fix whatever needs fixing ~ using the Indigenous Services department’s budget. When they finished there we would buy them a new water purification system and send them the next First Nation that has a water disaster on its hands. People overseas will have to wait or we’ll have to build a second DART.

Next I would ask the Army and the Canadian manufacturers of water purification systems to work together with First Nations corporations, like Matawa First Nations Management, to develop (at the Indigenous Services department’s expense) concrete, workable plans to install, operate and maintain, over their complete life-cycle, water purification and waste disposal systems and the electrical power and the power and water distribution systems necessary to support them.

After this long, it may not be that the government can’t deliver these services, it might be that the government has deliberately chosen not to deliver.

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