The Consolidation of the Russian Economy

As noted in my previous post, there is a consolidation of corruption in Russia that is paralleled by the consolidation of business into a handful of monopolies. The trend continues. The BBC reports that the head of Russneft quits and that this oil company will be sold. According to the BBC:

The head of Russian oil group Russneft has said he is quitting the firm and selling it to a Kremlin-friendly rival.

Mikhail Gutseriyev said "unprecedented persecution" from authorities had forced him to step down and sell up.

Aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska has now applied for regulatory approval to buy the group for an undisclosed amount.

The company is currently facing tax claims of around $1bn (£500m) and police charged Mr Gutseriyev with illegal business activities in May.

In an open letter in the Russneft company magazine, Mr Gutseriyev said there was "an attack on all fronts" against the firm from tax authorities, the prosecutor general's office and the interior ministry.

"They told me I could take the easy way out. I refused. Then to make me more ready to negotiate, my company came under unprecedented persecution," he added.

According to the BBC, Deripaska is widely seen as loyal to the Kremlin and has previously said that he would sell his aluminum assets to the state if he was asked. The coerced consolidation of Russneft under Deripaska's ownership will facilitate the state's nationalization at a later date: it is easier to nationalize one large company as opposed to several smaller corporations.

Corruption in Russia

One of the defining features of Russian life since the fall of the Soviet Union has been the rise in corruption. Everything and everybody had their price. This included the police officers who would ignore a traffic violation for the right price or government officials who would use their offices as a means of accumulating wealth for themselves and their family. The Russian state has now launched a program to fight corruption. I have my doubts. Corruption is changing in Russia, but it is not disappearing. In the same way that power is becoming increasingly centralized, corruption too is becoming monopolized. Simply put, rather than paying many people small bribes, it is now necessary to pay one individual one large bribe to achieve the same goal. Below is an excerpt from the online journal Gazeta.ru followed by my translation.

Прежде всего, речь идет о смене модели коррупции в России в последние два-три года – от массовой и преимущественно «низовой» коррупции страна стремительно переходит к коррупции преимущественно «верховой». По всем оценкам, обороты на коррупционных рынках растут не так уж и стремительно: например, Всемирный банк в своем отчете за 2006 год вообще утверждал, что объемы «коррупционного налога», процента ВВП, приходящегося на коррупционные сделки, несколько сократился.

Одновременно наблюдается существенный рост объема средней взятки –тенденция подтверждается и региональными опросами, и косвенными данными. Говоря грубо, размер взятки вырос, число взяток уменьшилось – вполне очевидно, что речь идет о консолидации процесса мздоимства в более высоких эшелонах власти.

First of all, the discussion centers on the changing model of corruption in Russia in the last two or three years where corruption went from a pervasive and largely "grassroots" corruption to a corruption of the upper echelons. By all estimates, sales in the corruption market is not growing exceedingly fast: for example, the World Bank in its 2006 report claimed that the the "corruption tax" collected as a percentage of [Russia's] GDP declined slightly.

There is a significant increase in the average bribe, a trend confirmed by the regional polls, and circumstantial evidence. Simply put, the size of bribes has increased, while the number of bribes declined, and it is clear that there is a consolidation process whereby bribes paid stay within the higher echelons of power.

This, of course, only applies to government officials. Businesses in Russia do not only have to deal with the official state structure and the corruption that is inherent, they must also pay the unofficial and illegal structures (the "mafia") if they are to remain in business.

The overall tendency therefore is a centralization of corruption that parallels a growing centralization of power. It is also a matches the growing power of monopolies in the Russian economy both at the national and regional level and the increasing disparity of wealth in Russia. It is much easier and efficient to siphon bribes and wealth from a small number of companies than it is to collect a "corruption tax" from thousands or millions of small businesses and individuals. Given that much of Russia's growing wealth is based on the oil and gas industry, the existence of a few monopolies (GAZPROM being a prime example) simply facilitates the centralization of the economy and the potential for corruption.

However, all corruption, big or small, weakens a country's economy. The centralization of corruption will not make the Russian economy stronger, it simply makes the general population that much poorer in the long run.

Back to the USSR

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last General Secretary of the Soviet Union, who is widely respected in the West and largely ignored in Russia, came out with a stinging critique of Russia's leading party, United Russia. This party is a pro-Kremlin that was established to support the president. This party holds the majority in the Russian parliament, the Duma.

Gorbachev is cited in Gazeta (the syndicated partner of the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph) as saying that Putin's party is a bad copy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union:

«Я ее страшно недолюбливаю, это плохая копия КПСС, - признался бывший советский лидер по поводу «Единой России». - Собрались там все администраторы и хотят нас убедить в том, что они партия народа». По мнению Горбачева, ЕР использовала парламентское большинство и «шаг за шагом демонтировала многие завоевания избирательной системы, для того чтобы проложить себе дорогу к успеху». «Это не годится вообще!» - возмутился экс-президент и заметил, что «тут надо вмешаться президенту».

"I terribly dislike [the party United Russia], it is a bad copy of the CPSU", admitted the former Soviet leader with regards to United Russia. "It has gathered all the administrators in the party and wants us to believe that it is the party of the people." In Gorbachev's opinion, United Russia used its parliamentary majority to "dismantle step-by-step many of the gains achieved in an electoral system in order to clear its road to success." "This is not a good thing," the ex-president said with indignation and observed, that "it is necessary for the president [Vladimir Putin] to intervene." [my translation]

United Russia is seen as a rubber stamp for Vladimir Putin, ensuring his control of the legislative assembly.

Power in Russia

The Russian News and Information Agency published an interesting piece in its What the Russian papers say section. I have reproduced the article below entitled "Who stands at the top of Russia's power pyramid?" According to a poll, Russians believe that the Russian President Vladimir Putin buttressed by the FSB is the ultimate source of power. The Federal Security Service is an agency that was created after the collapse of the Soviet Union and is the main successor to KGB. What is interesting to note is that "the people" is not listed anywhere in the poll. Simply put, the Russian population sees itself as largely powerless in country's power structure.

According to a poll conducted by the Levada Center, Russians believe Putin and the FSB are the ultimate powers in the country.

People do not understand the principle of the division of power, and do not realize that the executive, legislative and judicial branches must have equal rights.

Russians think that raw power is what rules their country, and so place Putin and security-related bodies at the top of the power hierarchy. The runner-up is money, described in the poll as "oligarchs, bankers and financiers."

It is nice to know that the theory of conspiracy (Zionist or Masonic) is gradually losing ground.

The respondents, who were asked to evaluate the workings of public, political and state institutions, gave top marks to the president. Experts said their opinions are still strongly influenced by television.

"The media have agreed, secretly or openly, that President Putin must not be criticized," said political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin. "That is one of the Kremlin administration's greatest achievements. The economic situation is rather good now, and people tend to thank the president for it."

The FSB and other security-related agencies are given second place. The president's top ranking is based on love, while the prestige of security-related structures rests entirely on fear.

Oreshkin said the media encourage the people to think that Russia is surrounded by enemies bent on undermining its economy.

The armed forces and the government hold third place, closely followed by the prosecutor's office and governors.

The judicial bodies are the outsiders, because Russians do not believe courts can do anything.

"Courts are heavily dependent agencies," a Moscow judge told the popular daily Gazeta. "Judges depend on money and administrative resources, and so seldom pass rulings in favor of ordinary people."

According to the poll, the lower house of parliament (State Duma) and political parties have the least power in the country.

Giscome Portage Trail

Today, my wife and I decided to explore northern British Columbia. We have developed a passion for biking and we decided to explore the Giscome Portage Trail. What a disappointment! Even though this is a provincial park and they do specify on their website that cycling is permitted, the trail is a mess. Clearly, the trail has not been cleared for years. Roughly every 5 meters there is a dead tree blocking the road. The cows on the trail have reduced the softer portions of the trail to muddy pits and there clearly has been no attempt to clear or even maintain the trail. We did not expect paved trails or even perfect trails, but how hard is it to clear a trail? A couple of days and a chainsaw would suffice to remove the dead trees. The city of Prince George could certainly show the province how to do it: the trails behind my university are meticulously maintained and it is a joy to bike down the many kilometers of trail cutting across the forest. I tried to send an e-mail to BC Parks to complain about the condition of the trail, but their site does not have any contact information. So much for a province that claims to be "The Best Place on Earth."

Canadian Colonialism

Having commented on Russian colonialism, I have to be fair and point out the glaring injustice that exists in Canada. Canada has a long history its own when it comes to the internal colonization of its territory. Not all Canadians have benefited from the wealth created in our society, and Canada's First Nations lag behind the Canadian average when it comes to a variety of socioeconomic indicators including wealth, health and education. A piece on CBCNEWS reviews the legacy of oil and gas development in Northern Alberta and how the indigenous peoples have not shared equally in the oil boom. Here is a short extract:

Decades of oil and gas activity in northern Alberta has done little to improve the lives of aboriginal people living there, according to a national environmental group that used federal government numbers that gauge community well-being.

The Sierra Club of Canada is using its findings to warn First Nations in the Northwest Territories that the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas project could drag down their quality of living, rather than improve it.

"Natural gas development primarily benefits folks who live in Calgary, and perhaps Toronto, perhaps New York, perhaps Houston," executive director Stephen Hazell told CBC News on Thursday.

The underlying problem is the same as in Russia: a center benefits from the wealth generated at the periphery, with only a small fraction returning to the indigenous populations that must deal with the consequences of this industrial development.

The conclusions presented by the Sierra Club can be debated. In the article, a sociologist is cited who is critical of the way the data was used and interpreted. However, that is a good sign. Debate and disagreement is essential in any society, and NGO's play an important role in generating debate. Fortunately, NGO's such as the Sierra Club in Canada do not face the restrictions that NGO's now face in Russia. However, much still has to be done in Canada when it comes to promoting greater well-being in Canada's indigenous communities.

Northern Natives Tenacious in Preserving Cultures

It is nice to come across an optimistic article from time to time. Below is an article that was published in the Moscow Times. I have reproduced it in full, but I do encourage readers to read the Moscow Times. It provides a relatively balanced view of what is happening in Russia. The Moscow Times' article discusses the efforts by Russia's indigenous peoples in the Kamchatka Peninsula to maintain their culture. For those who are interested in learning more on the subject of the indigenous peoples of the Kamchatka Peninsula, one anthropologist who has done extensive research in the region is Petra Rethmann. She had recently published Tundra Passages: Gender and History in the Russian Far East. She is an associate professor at McMaster University.

PIMCHAKH, Kamchatka Region -- Listening to enigmatic Koryak-language songs and eating traditional salmon soup and cutlets in this village, it is easy to imagine indigenous cultures still thrive on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

In fact, it is only the sheer tenacity of local Koryaks, Itelmens, Evens and other aborigines that keeps centuries-old customs and languages from dying out in the wild Far East after much was eroded by Soviet rule.

"Native people must live on. Without them this land will be poor and it will be impossible to bring any meaning to this land," said Vera Koveinik who heads the ethnic community of Pimchakh, 40 kilometers from the regional capital, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

When Russians began settling in Kamchatka in the second half of the 17th century, up to 11,000 Koryaks lived here fishing, herding deer and hunting whale and walrus.

Three centuries of pervasive Russian and Soviet influence and intermarriage have left an indelible mark on Kamchatka's Koryaks, who now number around 7,300 -- by far the largest indigenous group on the peninsula.

"Everyone of my generation speaks the Koryak language, knows the customs, dances, dishes like in the ancient times. But some of our children don't know anything at all," said folk performer Lidia Chechulina, slightly breathless after dancing to the beat of a deer-skin drum and the music of her own voice.

Her songs, sung in a guttural language reminiscent of Chinese, describe the beauty of the tundra, volcanoes and the sea, she explained. She said that songs, one for each person, accompany Koryaks all their lives and act as a charm.

"Our parents preserved everything as it was before the [1917] Revolution," said Chechulina, a small, bubbly woman in her 50s.

Probably the most effective Soviet assimilation policy was that of forcibly putting Koryak children in state-run boarding schools to teach them the Russian language and customs.

"The Soviet culture was imposed on them," said Andrei Samar, a researcher at the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the People of the Far East.

Since the children came back home only once or twice a year, he said, they knew very little about their native culture let alone traditional skills such as the difficult and dangerous trade of hunting at sea.

Some of those children, now adults, and their parents are actively working to revive indigenous cultures.

A large number of schools offer classes in the Koryak and other aboriginal languages as an extracurricular activity, and families observe ancient holidays. There are also efforts to expand deer herding in regions where it is dwindling rapidly.

The Pimchakh community organizes summer camps in the village where children learn about ancient traditions and do crafts.

The regional government says it runs cultural programs and also provides financial aid for ethnic communities.

But Koveinik said there were no signs in Kamchatka in any of the indigenous languages and no monuments to celebrate the aboriginal culture and history.

"The government probably helps somehow. I don't know, I wouldn't say so," said Chechulina, wearing a traditional suede-and-fur overcoat, a headdress made of beads and soft leather boots meant to protect from moss and mosquitoes in the tundra.

Hardly any aborigines wear such costumes every day and many are university-educated, but the way they talk retains traces of their ancient spirituality rooted in the shamanism that is still practiced.

Pimchakh leader Koveinik, an Itelmen, told the audience after the community ensemble's performance that they were privileged.

"You are today the richest people, you've received so much power and energy," she said.

Russian Colonialism

Christopher Caldwell, a columnist for the Financial Times, published today an interesting piece entitled Putin’s colonial exploitation. This opinion piece reacts to comments made by the President of Russia earlier this week. Caldwell cites Vladimir Putin:

“What they are offering us is obviously a vestige of colonial thinking,” was Russian president Vladimir Putin’s bizarre assessment this week of continuing British calls for the extradition of Andrei Lugovoi. “They must have forgotten Britain is no longer a colonial power, there are no colonies left, and, thank God, Russia has never been a British colony.”

Caldwell analyzes Putin's understanding of colonialism and his reading of Russia in a post-colonial world. He writes:

There is always a grain of truth in such observations. Mr Putin’s treatment of Russia as a post-colonial problem seems to have been vindicated mightily. Russia has fared far better economically under his strong hand than it did under the tutelage of western economists. Its income a head has doubled since the turn of the decade. Mr Putin’s approval rating rests between 70 and 85 per cent.

But Russia’s parallels to newly decolonised nations are not all positive. They include capital flight, rapid atrophying of economic sectors outside its major exports, cronyism, arrests of political opponents, lack of transparency and an intentional blurring of property rights. As for human rights, it is true that the doctrine is sometimes misapplied, but it ought to be possible, whatever your source of values, to distinguish between the case for extraditing Mr Lugovoi (a suspected killer) and the case for extraditing Mr Berezovsky (a regime opponent).

Mr Putin’s view that the west is interested only in Russia’s energy is getting truer all the time. But he deserves part of the blame for that. He has built an economy based on resource extraction, to the exclusion of other things. Even when Mr Putin is not shutting off oil shipments to Lithuania or gas shipments to Ukraine, Russia relates to the world through its natural resources. For now, with oil around $80 a barrel, this means relating to the world from a position of strength. Mr Putin seems like a visionary to his citizenry. He does have a visionary side. Indeed, he has brought to life the spectre against which he sermonises.

However, Caldwell analysis fails in one regard: neither Caldwell's piece nor Putin's statements acknowledge the fact that Russia can be characterized as a colonizing force. Historically, the rise of Russia occurred with the invasion and colonization of neighboring territories. Pushed by the need to acquire resources (first sable furs then oil and gas), Russian colonization pushed North and East as far as Alaska. The colonized lands were integrated into the Russian Empire, then the Soviet Union and finally the Russian Federation, but modern Russia is still a colonial power in that the state exploits peripheral territories for its benefit and the benefit of a small proportion of the population.

Russia's oil does not come from Moscow, yet it is Moscow that benefits most from the wealth generated from the sale of oil and gas. In the Komi Republic, where I spent many years doing research, most villages do not have natural gas and houses are heated using firewood. Survival depends on the potato crop and keeping a few animals to provide mild and meat. This in spite of the fact that the Komi Republic is a major producer of crude oil. The same can be said of numerous other regions in Russia. In effect, the periphery is colonized for the benefit of the elite.

Simpsonized

It is Simpson season with the release of the Simpson's first movie. To cash in on the hype, Burger King has created the site "Simpsonize Me." To the left is what I would look like as a Simpsons' character.

Russia: one of the world's richest countries?

With Russian presidential elections months away, the Russian administration is seeking to demonstrate that Russia is becoming a superpower. The Russian News Agency features an opinion piece that presents Russian government economic forecasts that predict the rising economic status of Russia.

On Tuesday, Russia's Economic Development and Trade Ministry submitted a remarkable document to the government - a plan for Russian social and economic development until the year 2020. With ambitious targets, it attracted the attention of experts even before its official publication.

According to the forecast, if the country shifts its economic orientation from raw materials to innovation, its gross domestic product will grow by an average of 6.7% a year, putting the Russian economy into the world's top five. At that rate, the country's economy will grow two-and-a-half times by 2020, giving it an annual per capita GDP of $30,000 - no less than Western Europe and North America.

Some experts smirk at the forecast for its starry-eyed idealism-but Russia's present-day and recent economic growth rates back it up. GDP has been adding almost 7% annually for the last eight years, exceeding the most optimistic projections of government experts and other analysts. The Economic Development and Trade Ministry has forecast a 6.5% growth rate for this year. It will certainly be greater than that-the Kremlin and the Cabinet expect 7-8%.

The Russian government forecasts are reminiscent of the promised Communism that was always within grasp of the Soviet Union. The reality of the present never distracted from the glorious future that awaited, a future where the Soviet Union was to surpass the capitalist countries.

The Russian Saami

The Russian Federation is home to over 100 ethnic groups or nationalities including the indigenous peoples of the Russian North. The indigenous peoples have endured decades and centuries of colonization. In the Soviet Union, herds were collectivized and indigenous peoples were forcibly Russified and Sovietized. The traditional lands of the indigenous peoples were often devastated by the impacts of industrialization (mining as well as the oil and gas industry) of militarization. The consequences of Soviet and later Russian policies have had their impact on the indigenous peoples of the Russian North. The BBC has published an excellent piece on the Saami (or Sami) of the Kola Peninsula. Below, is an excerpt from this article.

The Sami people's traditional way of life has been under assault for decades as they have been gradually forced off arctic Russia's fertile tundra grazing-land and into artificially created towns.

Much of the displacement was caused by a steady expansion of industry, forestry and mining, and the arrival of hundreds of thousands of workers from other parts of the Soviet Union - many of them arriving as forced labourers in Gulag camps.

Then, during the Cold War, Sami coastal fishermen were ordered to move away from the shores of the Barents Sea, which is currently littered with secretive navy installations, and reindeer herders were forced away from a 200-mile exclusion zone that ran along the Cold War frontier.

To this day, the few who still herd reindeer complain about bored and hungry soldiers who use their machine guns to shoot their animals.

Urban Sami, meanwhile, bemoan the way powerful tourist companies prevent them carrying out their fishing traditions in Voronya River or Lovozero Lake.

"We are not used to private property rights, and we are not used to competing," laments Vatonena Lyubov, vice president of the Association of Kola Sami.

"We will never regain our grazing lands and our rivers."

Russian Arctic Expedition

As noted yesterday, a number of states are vying for control of the Arctic. Russia seeks to extend its territorial waters all the way up to the North Pole. To do this, it is collecting geological and geographical data to prove that much of the Arctic is an extension of its continental territory. An icebreaker and a research vessel were dispatched from Murmansk with great fanfare to collect data on the Arctic Ocean and its seabed. However, the BBC reports that on the second day of its expedition, the research vessel experience engine troubles. The problem was reportedly fixed and the two vessels continue on with their expedition. The goal: to send a mini-submarine down 4,200 meters (14,000 feet) to study the seabed and to carry out scientific research. The mini-submarine was to be launched on Sunday, but these recent events will delay the launch.

Global Warming and Northern Sovereignty

With much of the world's oil and gas fields mapped and already under production, one of the few remaining untouched regions of the world is the Arctic. The Arctic, unlike the Antarctic, is an ocean that is covered by ice most of the year. Though the ice does retreat, the northern zones are never free of ice. Until recently, weather and technology conspired against the prospect of drilling for oil and natural gas in the Arctic Ocean. However, with global warming, this is changing. Claims are being laid to the Arctic and plans are being made to eventually explore and exploit the Arctic waters for its oil and natural gas resources.

The BBC provides an insightful piece examining the quest for Arctic resources. The article notes:

The Arctic's commercial potential has sent most leading energy companies scurrying into harsh and remote areas in North America, Russia's Siberia and the Barents Sea - all parts of a region that is believed to contain as much as a quarter of the world's undiscovered reserves of oil and gas.

Recently, Canada's Prime Minister announced that the Canadian government would be investing in upgrading Canada's navy to ensure Canada's presence in the Arctic and to lay claim to Canadian sovereignty in the Northwest Passage and the High Arctic. The Prime Minister recently asserted that Canada would deploy military icebreakers to monitor and defend the northern Arctic waters.

Canada is not the only state that has been seeking to lay claim to the Arctic. Recently, Russia has been sending submarines under the Arctic Ocean to map the ocean floor. According to an article in the Russian News and Information Agency:

The nuclear-powered ice-breaker Rossiya will escort the Academician Fedorov, the flagship of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environment Monitoring, which will take about a hundred scientists from Murmansk to the North Pole. Along with unique studies of the far-northern continental shelf, the expedition will carry out the first-ever Arctic dives using the mini-submarine Mir. The first crew will descend to a depth of more than four kilometers, with the deputy speaker of the Duma on board.

But Chilingarov acknowledges the expedition's geopolitical goal: "We want to prove that Russia is a great polar power." A titanium capsule with the Russian flag will be dropped to the bottom as evidence of this. In other words, Russia will publicly stake its claim to the North Pole.

Strictly speaking, Russia claims a triangle-shaped area of the Arctic Ocean; its base includes the Russian coast from the Kola Peninsula in the west to the tip of the Chukotka Peninsula in the east, across the Bering Strait from Alaska. The apex is the North Pole. This triangle covers 1.2 million square kilometers, an area the size of Italy, Germany and France put together. Generally speaking, we have always considered it our own. Starting in the 1920s, this sector was marked as Soviet and later Russian territorial waters on all the country's maps.

At least, this was the case before the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea limited us to a 200-mile economic zone along our coast. Having ratified it in 1997, we immediately lost our right to the rest of the Arctic Ocean, including our chunk of the North Pole. Other countries, not only those ringing the Arctic, laid claims to what we had lost. This is understandable. According to some estimates, the continental shelf holds about 100 billion tons of oil plus a wealth of fish species. Moreover, the Northern Sea Route, running through the Arctic Ocean along Russia's northern coast, is the shortest way from Europe to Asia and the Pacific coast of America, which will make it easy to transport oil and gas from Arctic deposits. The shelf will bring in an enormous amount of money to whomever has the right to develop it.

Though Russia has lost that right, we can still try and get it back. The same convention gives us a chance. If we prove that the shelf - the oceanic Lomonosov ridge - is a continuation of the Siberian continental platform, we can practically have the whole lot to ourselves. Five years ago, Russia was the first Arctic nation to submit an application to a special UN commission set up to determine the ocean's status, but international experts did not find our arguments convincing. We will have another go in 2009 and are now getting ready for it.

What is at stake are the massive reserves of oil and gas that are thought to lie below the Arctic Ocean.

However, there is much at stake. The Arctic with its massive icebergs and sheets of ice is an inhospitable region of the world to drill and the environmental dangers are enormous. In the coming decades, there will certainly be a push to control the region's resources and the various states will jockey for control of the Arctic Ocean. The challenge is to ensure that the Arctic's environment is protected and that local populations will not suffer unduly from future development in this region.

Using dogs to adapt to global warming

The Globe and Mail featured a piece examining the Inuit, dog sleds and global warming. To cite the article:

As the country's northernmost communities face the impact of global warming, a researcher is suggesting that the Quebec Inuit should try switching back from snowmobiles to dogsleds.

Sled-pulling dogs are more adept at spotting where the ice is more dangerous, said Martin Tremblay, a geographer and environmental researcher based in Kuujjuaq, near Ungava Bay, 1,500 kilometres north of Montreal. “Dogs will sense more thinner, more unstable ice,” he said. “If the sled falls through, the dogs will pull the sled out of water.”

The idea is part of a report on the impact of warmer weather on Quebec's Inuit that a team of researchers will present to northern communities this fall.

The piece does provide some interesting tidbits on traditional Inuit culture. It does highlight the advantages of a dog sled in traveling over the winter ice floes. It also highlights the importance and advantages of traditional foods and the Inuit traditional diet. It also seems to be an interesting project that is collecting Inuit traditional knowledge and seeks to pass on this information to future generations using modern technology.

It is unfortunate that the article was marred by one unfortunate paragraph:

As the country's northernmost communities face the impact of global warming, a researcher is suggesting that the Quebec Inuit should try switching back from snowmobiles to dogsleds.

In reading this paragraph, the impression is given that the Inuit should switch to dog sleds to do their part in cutting back on carbon dioxide and global warming. This is, of course, ludicrous. Why should the Inuit abandon snowmobiles?

This is what comes out in the postings. Dallas McQuarrie from Regina writes:

Perhaps people in Canada's urban centres could also lend a hand by giving up the SUV and other other affectations of modern living that serve no useful purpose beyond ego masturbation. Just asking the Inuit to give up their gas machines will hardly dent the problem compared to all the members of the Conspicuous Consumption Club driving over sized vehicles in an attempt to compensate for under sized egos.

However, this is not what the researcher was implying. The researcher is suggesting the use of dog sleds as they are safer when traveling over thinner ice that is a consequence of global warming. The researcher is not suggesting a return to dog sleds so the Inuit will stop polluting with snowmobiles, but rather is suggesting that dog sleds are advantageous in an Arctic environment that is facing warming temperatures.