Count your Blessings
by Gilbert Oskaboose

Did you ever stop to think that compared to the rest of the world Indian Country in Canada is not too bad off?

Look what happened in central America a few weeks ago. Huge killer storm, thousands killed and thousands more left homeless. Nothing like that happens in Canada. Look what happens in Africa so often. Mass starvation, people dying in the streets, ethnic slaughter. Tens of thousands of people in many different cultures earn less than a hundred dollars a month in wages. Even our poorest member on welfare does better than that.

Many of us are overweight, obese. We eat too damn much. Compare that to the millions all over the world - men women and children - who have barely enough to stay alive one more day. I'm an old man, retired and living on a disability pension, 30 years in native journalism. My wife is on a Canada Post Pension after 25 years on the job. We have a CMHC house three quarters paid for, two cars in the yard and living reasonably comfortable. Things could be a helluva lot worse.

We have a lot of opportunities here in Canada, if you're willing to pursue them. A university education, partially subsidized by Ottawa, is available to most who apply. Health care is an integral part of most treaties. White kids take summer jobs we wouldn't even look at to get through school. Even our people who contribute absolutely nothing to society are rewarded with a healthy old age pension.

White folks reading this column shouldn't get the wrong idea. There are no "freebees" in Indian Country. There are no free rides in Life. Anything we "get" from white society we have more than paid for. The so-called freebees like education, health care and treaty money were all negotiated into old time treaties. Your people have made countless billions from the land our ancestors so freely traded off. Anytime you tire of the deal you can keep your freebees and give us back most of Canada. Treaty money is often less than $4.00 in most Canadian treaties. Not something anyone would need a wheelbarrow to bring home, eh?

We could do a lot worse than being born and living in Canada. We don't have killer earthquakes, massive flooding, tornadoes, mudslides, killer droughts, hurricanes or dangerous wildlife. There are many downsides to living in the balmy tropics. In India 30,000 human beings are killed each year by cobra bites. Thousands more are killed by tigers.

A friend of mine, speaking of affluent globe-hopping Indians, just got back from a month's vacation in Cuba. He tells me in a Cuban grocery store it's not what you want or can afford, it's whatever that's available in the store that day. The average police officer in Cuba makes $150 dollars Canadian every month in wages. In Bosnian and Russian grocery stores empty shelves are the order of the day.

We waste money on beer and junk food and still grumble about the price of it. Yeah, if you want to stop and think about it, we could be doing a helluva lot worse than living in Canada - the land of the free and the home of the braves. Think about it and thank the Creator for small mercies.