The food/fuel crisis in Western Alaska makes it to the front page of CNN!

[Blue_In_AK]

From The Immoral Minority http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/

Wow this is huge! We have been pushing this story as hard as we can hoping that a national media outlet would pick it up and now it has!

Most of the credit has to go to Dennis Zaki who bravely flew out to the village of Emmonak, having no idea what awaited him, earned the trust of the villagers, filmed their story, became violently sick after drinking tap water before boarding a plane back to Anchorage, and has been tirelessly shopping his footage around until CNN offered to buy it. Now that my friends is selfless dedication to a cause!

And of course we must give a shout out to the many bloggers who pushed this story as well. Mudflats, Progressive Alaska, Diva's Blue Oasis, Alaska Real, Alaska News, and of course this site did a lot of the early heavy lifting to get this story out.

But none of it could have happened without the generous donations from visitors to this blog and others who contributed their hard earned money to help ease the suffering of the people of the Yukon Delta and helped to send Dennis out there to bring back this footage.

You can be proud.

Here's the story: "In rural Alaska villages, families struggle to survive" http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/09/rural.alaska.villages/index.html

By Mallory Simon
CNN

(CNN) -- Thousands of villagers in rural Alaska are struggling to survive, forced to choose between keeping their families warm and keeping their stomachs full, residents say.

Villagers in Emmonak, Alaska, travel to the store and to hunt by snowmobile now that the river has frozen over.

Harvested nuts and berries, small game animals, and dried fish are the only things keeping some from starving.

To get to the nearest store, Ann Strongheart and her husband, who live in Nunam Iqua, Alaska, take an hour-and-15-minute snowmobile ride to Emmonak, Alaska. Their town does not have a store of its own.

Normally, they would each ride a snowmobile, in case one broke down. But now, they can't afford to waste the fuel, so they just take one and hope for the best.

At the store, the Stronghearts buy groceries and supplies for the family for the week, which cost more than $400. They buy only as much as their snowmobile can carry.

In many stores, 2 pounds of cheese costs between $15 and $18, milk costs $10 a gallon, a 5-pound bag of apples costs $15, and a dozen eggs costs $22 -- more than double the price in the area just two years ago.

<snip> ... more

Citizen journalism at work. Had it not been for the bloggers, this story would never have come to light. The governor is doing her best to ignore the situation. She has yet to personally visit any of the affected villages.

[earth mom]

1. Sarah Palin is letting her people starve.

:grr:

[Blue_In_AK]

2. She found time for a photo op yesterday

seeing "Tawd" off as he embarked on the Iron Dog snowmachine race. We see where her priorities lie. http://www.adn.com/irondog/story/683922.html

:puke:

[Barack_America]

5. And I thought she was so proud of Todd's native roots.

Apparently not.

[madinmaryland]

3. I always wondered how peoples in some of the remote areas of AK survived.

Having to pay for heating nearly year round, in addition to the transport of any perishable goods, has to be incredibly expensive, as is pointed out in the second artical.

[roguevalley]

19. during a meeting earlier in the year, a chieftain said it can cost

2500 a month to heat a house. awesome, blue. I am soooooo glad this is out.

[kestrel91316]

4. Sadly, the use of snowmobiles to live the remote life sans sled dogs

is ultimately not gonna work out. In order to keep living out there, people will have to revent to the native lifestyle.

I'm not blaming anybody. I just see this as sad fact.

[Barack_America]

6. If eggs are $20 a dozen, how much do you think dog food is?

It's quite possibly more expensive than fuel.

[ogneopasno]

8. Most natives feed their dogs meat that they've hunted.

[Barack_America]

10. But if you spend all your time hunting to feed your dogs, how do you make money to feed your family?

I'm just saying that I understand the tough spot these communities are in.

[kestrel91316]

11. You don't (make money). You have to make do without money.

It's called subsistence. When the white man brought in all his wonderful inventions and petroleum products, he took away the native's subsistence culture. We are now seeing the logical outcome.

It's basically slow-motion genocide.

[Barack_America]

13. Well, the white man also brought global warming and overfishing, which I imagine...

...is pretty seriously fucking up the subsistence living traditions of old.

[Blue_In_AK]

14. Especially the overfishing by the huge factory trawlers out of Seattle.

See this excellent analysis http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2009/02/post-super-bowl-perspective-on-yukon.html

[Barack_America]

16. Checking that out now.

Thanks!

[Fireweed247]

18. THIS is the real problem

:grr:

[kestrel91316]

20. Yup.

[John Q. Citizen]

7. Yep, same for LA and New York. Good luck!

[kestrel91316]

12. Well, here in LA we at least have a climate that allows us to grow

most of our own food within striking distance of the population.

In the LONG run, however, you are right. The way we are doing things down here is also unsustainable. If people wasted less gas, we could hold out longer, but they don't and we won't. I'm becoming very pessimistic about the human race.

[John Q. Citizen]

24. What will you use for water?

Just like the Mojave desert has always had a very small population historically, so too has the polar region, and for the same basic reasons.

The land can't support large groups without either bringing in food from elsewhere or bringing in water from elsewhere.

[Blue_In_AK]

9. I agree the Native Alaskans would have been much better off

had the European explorers, American missionaries, etc. never intervened. I don't know if there's a way to go back now, though. Some solution must be found because we can't allow these people to starve out there, but they can't all move to the cities either. That creates a whole different set of "culture shock" problems. I don't know what the answer is.

[kestrel91316]

15. I think ultimately they will need to move to slightly less remote communities,

or revert back to subsistence.

[Fireweed247]

17. I know this sounds really uncaring...

...but maybe when fishing and whatnot is bad, they could learn how to cook from the basics. I read one grocery list where the people were paying $5 for rice a roni and I can't remember how much for bread...why don't they buy foods in bulk during the summer and prepare a little better? I don't live that far remote but I would never buy a few ounces of rice for $5.....buy a 25lb bag and some spices. I would never rely on having to drive one and a half hours for a loaf of bread....buy some 50lb bags and learn to make bread, then you are set for the winter. Perhaps after this winter, we can send in some cooks to teach and better prepare them for the future. (Give a man a loaf of bread vs teach a man to make bread) Something went wrong here, and it wasn't just the fishing. When you know you are living remote because you want to continue your subsistence lifestyle, your don't rely on premade processed crap foods. (sorry if I sound uncaring but I felt it had to be said)

One interesting thing is that Rep Ramras is actually helping get food out to the villages, but he is the same representative that just finished a 'report' where he said he used his intuition to determine that Alaskans aren't being gouged on gas prices...which is the real reason that food prices are so high and villages are paying so much for fuel.

[Blue_In_AK]

21. Yeah, Jay Ramras's "intuition"

Wasn't that the most ridiculous thing? Just when you think he might be okay, he says something stupid like that.

[Blue_In_AK]

22. The Mudflats has more on this

"Grassroots to MSM - Eyes on Rural Alaska" http://www.themudflats.net/2009/02/09/grass-roots-to-msm-eyes-on-rural-alaska/

Headline News on CNN today featured a story on the struggles of rural Alaskans. The story which began with families unable to keep their children and elders warm and fed, and feeling completely alone, is now on the most mainstream of mainstream media, the top story on CNN.com. We did it.

I talked to Dennis Zaki this morning, and he was on cloud nine. The generous donations of this community and others paid for Dennis to take the expensive and laborious trip from Anchorage, to Bethel, to Emmonak, where he was able to talk to residents, and film their stories. After sleeping on the floor of the Emmonak school, and long days of interviews, filming, and more filming, CNN has picked up his story. “I’m on a mission,” he told me. “I never thought of myself as a ‘mission type guy’, but it just happened. This is awesome.” That’s what happens when people put real faces, and real people to stories like this. That’s why bringing Dennis’ pictures and stories to the wider world is so important. We can easily ignore that which we don’t see. But the power of CNN to bring the story to the world instantly, makes it known, and seen and understood by millions.

Donations of food and fuel have been critical as well. We raised thousands of dollars above and beyond Dennis’ travel costs, which went for immediate fuel and food relief. In addition, the efforts of church groups, and compassionate Americans sending boxes of food and supplies have made an immediate difference that waited for no beurocracy.

Where this story goes from here, we can’t know. But the floodgates are open, and the exposure from this CNN story will be far-reaching. The next challenge for this state will be finding solutions, and ways to empower rural Alaskans to take charge of their own futures. The roots of this crisis are deep and complex. Poor fishing practices and regulations, game management, inefficient transport, and reliance on fossil fuels have acted in concert to create much of this problem. After the immediate assistance this winter, we need to continue to work for sustainable solutions.

<snip>

One wonders how much effect it would have had if Sarah Palin while on camera, waving the flag at the start of the Iron Dog snowmachine race yesterday, would have used that opportunity, while the eyes of the nation were on her, to ask for help. With a Facebook group of almost 1/2 a million ‘friends’, a support group from the website “Team Sarah” in the tens of thousands, and unprecedented national celebrity, Sarah Palin could have done something besides wringing her hands and telling us why she can’t declare a state of emergency. But she hasn’t.

I had hoped that the original letter from Emmonak resident Nick Tucker, which started the awareness of this issue would have shamed her into helping somehow. Then I hoped it would be the bloggers. Then I hoped it would be church groups. Then I hoped it would be the Anchorage Daily News or the L.A. Times. Then I hoped it would be Rep. Jay Ramras. Maybe it will take CNN to shame her into action. Or maybe not.

But this state has proven that we can rally without the help of our Chief Executive. Alaska is not defined by the person sitting at the helm, alone. Alaska and its people have many friends inside and outside of the state who use the tools they have, to do what they can. Cold hungry children do not care about political parties, or whether it will look like someone is promoting government handouts which might hurt their conservative image on the 2012 campaign trail. They are just cold and hungry. And not all bloggers are sitting in their parents' basements in pajamas making up stories. Some of them have done more to help those cold hungry children than their governor.

I am glad that most of the bloggers who have been championing this cause are progressive. And I’m glad Rep. Jay Ramras is a conservative. I’m glad that churches are getting involved. I’m glad that those without religious affiliation are getting involved. This is what bipartisanship looks like. This is our ‘team of rivals’. This is what happens when people stop thinking about politics and start thinking about people.

[Fireweed247]

23. kick

:kick: