Becuase Everything Else Sucks

Alaskans Say Helping the Poor is Unpatriotic

By Manila Ryce
Published Tuesday, October 10th, 2006, 4:49 am
Filed under: World: North America, World: South America, Society/Culture: Civil Unrest, Economic, Society/Culture, World Issues, US Politics

In Alaska, the heating oil prices are amongst the highest in the nation, and yet a few villages are actually refusing an offer of free oil from Venezuela. The refusal of this much needed resource is a direct result of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez calling Bush “the devil” and a terrorist. “As a citizen of this country, you can have your own opinion of our president and our country. But I don’t want a foreigner coming in here and bashing us,” said Justine Gunderson, administrator for the tribal council in the Aleut village of Nelson Lagoon. In Gunderson’s village, temperatures can drop to minus-15. Residents pay at least $300 a month on oil, and about one quarter of the village is unemployed. Still, Gunderson insists that “even though we’re in economically dire straits, it was the right choice to make.”

The generous donation, being offered by Citgo, has shed light on the rampant poverty and high fuel prices in a state virtually awash in oil. Last year, 86 percent of Alaska’s general fund came from its oil, yet locals still struggle to afford it. The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association would have handled donations to nearly 300 homes, but has instead rejected Citgo’s offer. Dimitri Philemonof, president and chief executive of the association, said accepting the aid would be too much of a compromise. Speaking as if there were no difference between country and government, Philemonof said, “I think we have some duty to our country, and I think it’s loyalty.”

For two years, Citgo has given millions of gallons of discounted heating oil to the poor in several American cities and states - including New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine.

Maine Gov. John Baldacci, who approved an agreement last winter to buy discounted oil, said he had no plans this year to seek a similar arrangement. In Boston, a City Council member wants a landmark Citgo sign near Fenway Park taken down and replaced with an American flag. In Florida, a lawmaker asked the state to cancel Citgo’s exclusive contract to sell fuel at turnpike service stations.

About 150 native villages in Alaska have accepted money for heating oil from Citgo. The oil company does not operate in Alaska, so instead of sending oil, it is donating about $5.3 million to native nonprofit organizations to buy 100 gallons this winter for each of more than 12,000 households. “When you have a dire need and it is a matter of survival for your people, it doesn’t matter where, what country, the gift or donation comes from,” said Virginia Commack, an elder in the arctic village of Ambler, an impoverished Eskimo community of 280 where residents are paying $7.25 a gallon for fuel.

Alaska natives have had limited success over the years in obtaining state or federal money for their communities, where fuel and grocery prices continue to rise due to the costs of delivery by plane and barge. Last month, the Anchorage Daily News bashed the rejection of an $8.8 million state supplement to a federal program which would’ve helped poor Alaskans with home heating costs. “It’s embarrassing that residents in a state with so much oil wealth should be looking to a foreign nation for help,” the newspaper said.

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3 Responses to “Alaskans Say Helping the Poor is Unpatriotic”

  1. […] Da Silva and Chavez are two of Latin America’s most influential leaders, and represent divergent faces of the continent’s move to the left. Chavez has pissed off Washington in the past by reaching out to the poor in America, and for calling George W. Bush “the devil”. Da Silva is hardly as outspoken as Chavez, and has thus maintained better relations with the US. […]

    The Largest Minority » Blog Archive » Brazilian President Praises Chavez for Building Bridges, not Walls
    11/17/06 at 12:33 am

  2. […] Venezuela is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter, with climbing global oil prices making it the continent’s fastest growing economy. Chavez has used his country’s oil profits to fund programs for the poor including: subsidized food, free university education, and cash benefits for single mothers. He has even done more for poor American citizens than the United States government. Though Chavez has boosted state control over the oil industry, he says he will continue to respect private property while possibly nationalizing utilities. […]

    The Largest Minority » Chavez Re-elected: “Long Live the Socialist Revolution!”
    12/4/06 at 3:45 am

  3. Socialism is what scares the people of the US. Lack of education among the people of the US is why socialism scares this country. Sadly “the devil” is having his pockets lined with the money of the poor in this country and even worse is that a man like Chavez is trying to do something good to help people and he is portrayed as the bad guy because he is honest about the idiot in the white house. I don’t care whee he is from I think the programs he is supporting and human lives are worth more than egos and patriotism. This country is no longer the country for which the ancestors of this Daughter of the American Revolution fought and died. Elections are no longer free or fair and we have a man in the white house that wasn’t even elected. If my ancestors and the ancestors of many of you out there were alive today there would be an open revolution in this country; the exact same type that founded this country. Unfortunately, we are a lazy nation that likes to live in our comfort zones, wallow in our gluttony, and watch our freedoms be taken from us without us so much as lifting a finger to stop it. Meanwhile we shift the blame to outsiders and deny culpability for the choices we make. Chavez is not the enemy. He is not the bad guy. He is good guy trying to move a bunch of wealthy oil barons (which includes the Bush family) into the concept that we are a global economy with global problems of poverty, hunger, and homelessness rather than a bunch of independent countries with problems that no one else understands or as is more commonly believed in developed nations like the US a country with no social problems. The governments of the developed nations often appear to be as callous to the needs of their poor as that infamous line attributed to Marie Antoinette. Now she may or may not have said “Let them eat cake” but the reality is that it is an example of how out of touch with the common man most political leaders are and that is why Chavez is scary to everyone. he is very aware of the common man’s real problems and is trying to fix some of them. If he does that he will empower the common man and the powers that be are afraid of the common man. They will do anything to keep Chavez or anyone like him from helping the common man. As far as him calling Bush “the devil” was most simply stated in the Disney Pixar Film Toy Story 2 “IF THE BOOT FITS……”

    Miss A
    11/19/07 at 9:47 am

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