PAST MISTAKES PRESENT PROBLEMS
Our world is a complicated place. A price has to be paid for mistakes made in the past, but not seen as mistakes at the time. Since the beginning of recorded history men and nations have judged previous generations by present standards but the standards of law, justice, ethics and technology are in constant flux. As I have mentioned in other essays I believe that power, self-interest and hypocrisy are always at the forefront. When acceptable standards today are evaluated, it is difficult to measure right and wrong, taking into consideration the values of the present and the past.
At present, with the apparent warming of our earth due to the CO2 produced by heating, industry and travel (imagine banning the car 100 years ago because of pollution or not using coal as a source of electricity) there is conflict between nations who have been
industrialized for 2 or 3 centuries such as the United States and England and the nations who have just arrived at this level such as India, Brazil, China and Russia.
All nations, more or less, accept the premise that it is necessary to clean the environment. But it is expensive, and the newly industrialized nations demand that the original and first polluters pay a hugely disproportionate amount to them to allow them to comply. They insist, and rightly so, that they were not responsible for the present problem. In order to accommodate these demands, the costs would be very high and would lower the standards of living for the U.S. and Western Europe. If you take into consideration the times when this pollution took place, those nations were not acting in other than an acceptable manner. The problem is, that with national sovereignty, no country is in a position to police another countries action, except by force of arms. Not a very pleasant thought, but the environment just keeps on being polluted.
There is no question that the aboriginal tribes were the first to populate North and South America and all things being equal should control both continents. But all things were not equal and Western Europeans with their advanced technology, primarily fire-arms, were able to wrest control. The Europeans fought with one another and eventually countries were formed, but in all cases the aboriginals became second class citizens in the lands in which they were born. It is far from easy to apply legal standards of the day to events that happened centuries ago. Morally, even if we accept the idea of universal principles transcending particular cultures and periods, which for the most part conformed to the then prevailing notions of right and wrong, there are still problems. You cannot look at the Puritans in New England who fought the aboriginals for their survival in the same light as the miners who killed men, women and children for gold and land.
In Canada, under the British Mandate, the slaughter was less extensive (not a very reassuring thought) but the result was the same. The Natives lost ultimate control of their own destiny and land. There are 100`s of First Nation tribes who live in parts of Canada where, under present circumstances, it is nearly impossible to sustain themselves. Some aboriginals were assigned land that at the time the government felt was useless, but subsequently was found to contain wealth in minerals. But First Nations do not want their land torn up and lakes polluted. They have seen profit hungry mining companies ravage the environment. They do not want to move. They want to maintain identity and sovereignty, as self-governing people. The government spends $7.3 billion a year with pathetic results. To add to the problems, the civil servants who make most of the decisions, the lawyers who fight the cases for the aboriginals and some of the chiefs of the tribes and their families and friends, want to keep the system as it is. Just keep the government money rolling in. I believe that First Nations want to contribute to a strong and vibrant Canada. But how?
Pollution and the situation of the aboriginals are but two examples of the problems created in the past which need resolution in the present.
