Panis Angelicus [Hymn]

Uploaded by Lord Sebastian Flyte
PANIS ANGELICUS
Written by Saint Thomas Aquinas
Music by César Franck
Performed by Friar Alessandro Brustenghi

Panis angelicus fit panis hominum;
Bread of the Angels is made bread for mankind;
Dat panis coelicus figuris terminum;
Gifted bread of Heaven, of all imaginings the end;
O res mirabilis! Manducat dominum
Oh, thing miraculous! This body of God will nourish
Pauper, pauper servus et humilis.
Pauper, pauper servus et humilis.
The poorest and humblest of servants.

Panis angelicus fit panis hominum;
Bread of the Angels is made bread for mankind;
Dat panis coelicus figuris terminum;
Gifted bread of Heaven, of all imaginings the end;
O res mirabilis! Manducat dominum
Oh, thing miraculous! This body of God will nourish
Pauper, pauper servus et humilis
Pauper, pauper servus et humilis.
The poorest and humblest of servants.

..............................................................................................................................


A Note From The Gull

Thank you Friar Alessandro.

I took the advice generously dispensed recently by a compatriot that we should use Google to educate ourselves about whether the human body can or cannot survive without food and without water for more than X number of days. So anxious was I to avoid being included on that author's list of “morons who don’t even have the sense to google longest hunger strike” that I even let slide his comment on totalitarianism and rushed through the rest of his article.

Well, I am happy to report to my readers that once again my willingness to humbly take the counsel of my betters has paid off. I diligently googled and found the story about an Indian sadhu named Prahlad Jani who claims to have not taken food or water for over six decades. The video below is just a snippet of the documentary which tells his story.  You are entitled to arrive at your own conclusions after acknowledging of course, the inputs of the critics who questioned the validity of the scientific investigation conducted by the Government of India.

My intention is not to suggest that Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh is being sustained by pranic feeding. Those are matters about which I know virtually nothing but it shocks me even more to consider that he may not even be receiving the benefit of that sustenance in his struggle. I am not at Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh's side 24/7 so I cannot say that my belief is based on what my eyes have seen. I believe him because I have no reason not to, because deceit is not something that I associate with his name, a name by the way, which is destined to be admitted to the memory of the blessed. Mine definitely won't. Will yours?

For better or for worse, to be raised Roman Catholic is to be steeped in the mysteries, and over the years, despite the best efforts of the dross of this world, I remain predisposed to entertain the miraculous. Apparently Shakespeare was similarly afflicted:

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Uploaded by lightdocumentary.com

See: The Case of Prahlad Jani

For more information about the film: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/lightdocumentary

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

Chaudhvin ka chand, ya Aaftab ho?

SUHANI RAAT AND CHAUDHVIN KA CHAND

Mashup performed by Aakash Gandhi [ft Jonita Gandhi and Studiounplugged]

SUHANI RAAT

Suhani raat dhal chuki, na jaane tum kab aaoge

The beautiful night has slipped away, don't know when you will come.

Suhani raat dhal chuki, na jaane tum kab aaoge

The beautiful night has slipped away, don't know when you will come.

Jahan ki rut badal chuki, na jaane tum kab aaoge

Throughout the world the seasons have changed, don't know when you will come.

Suhani raat dhal chuki, na jaane tum kab aaoge

The beautiful night has slipped away, don't know when you will come.

Nazaarein apni mastiyaan dikha dikhaake so gaye

The sights have shown their beautiful effects and are gone now

Sitaarein apni roshni luta lutaake so gaye

The stars shone and now are no more.

Suhani raat dhal chuki, na jaane tum kab aaoge

The beautiful night has slipped away, don't know when you will come.

Jahan ki rut badal chuki, na jaane tum kab aaoge

Throughout the world the seasons have changed, don't know when you will come.

CHAUDHVIN KA CHAND

Chaudhvin ka chand ho, ya aaftaab ho

Are you the full moon, or the dazzling sun?

Jo bhi ho tum Khuda ki kasam, laajawab ho

Whatever you may be, I swear to God, you are beyond compare!

Chaudhvin ka chand ho?

Are you the full moon?

Zulfein hain jaise kaandhon pe baadal jhuke hue

Your hair is like a soft cloud kissing your shoulders

Aankhen hain jaisi mey ke peyaale bhare hue

Your eyes are like two goblets

Masti hai jis mein pyar ki, tum woh sharaab ho

And you are the wine that fills them with a zest for love.

Chaudhvin ka chand ho, ya aaftaab ho

Are you the full moon, or the sun?

Jo bhi ho tum Khuda ki kasam, laajawab ho

Whatever you may be, I swear to God, you are beyond compare!

Mohammed Rafi sang the original songs: Suhani Raat and Chaudhvin Ka Chand

..............................................................................................................................  



A Note From The Gull

Listening to this haunting mashup tonight, I am writing through this terrible sadness that I am feeling. When I first listened to this soulful performance, I heard my conversation with my country. These words, "Suhani raat dhal chuki, na jaane tum kab aaoge" and "Chaudhvin ka chand ho, ya aaftaab ho " are now never far from my lips and I find myself spontaneously saying them softly to myself as I go about my daily activities.

For me, three states are expressed in this beautiful remake:

1. Love and desire.

Jo bhi ho tum Khuda ki kasam, laajawab ho | Whatever you may be, I swear to God, you are beyond compare!

2. Anxious, lingering, persistent hope.

Suhani raat dhal chuki, na jaane tum kab aaoge | The beautiful night has slipped away, don't know when you will come.

3. An undercurrent of growing despair that that hope may not be realised.

The painful possibility that the "don't know when you will come" will be replaced with, "You never came. My heart is broken."

I have always felt these for my country. I feel these with Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh. The two, the man and my country, are one and the same for me.  For over two months many of us who are still capable of paying attention for more than three seconds have been inspired, embarrassed, challenged, disturbed, frustrated, threatened and outed by this man, the one who some have callously named "the human reptile."

I believe instead, that Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh is The ProtoTrinbagonian and only time will tell if he is one of the last of a trial breed on the verge of extinction or a viable precursor of what is to come. I prefer to hope that like a lance, he is opening the way and leading our advance. Roman Catholic priest, Father Clyde Harvey, suggests that it may not be that we are losing our soul as a nation but that at this moment in time, we, our leaders included, are being offered the precious opportunity to create it for the first time.

Like Father Harvey advises, we have to look beyond personalities. They, like the thousand and one upsets which have had our heads spinning over the past few years, not to mention what went before, are only symptoms, just pustules on the back of the beast, the same beast to which many of us have been furtively throwing scraps under the dinner table. They are symptoms being used as distractions, symptoms labelled disease to condemn us to an infinity of applying and reapplying plasters to societal sores that predictably continue to weep profusely. They are symptoms which confound and enervate, unsettle and exhaust, to dumb down this country with punishing, mindless dissembling...not a day of peace, not a day of intelligence, not a day of hope that isn't doomed to betrayal. I am beside myself with exhaustion and I am just a witness from afar.

To borrow the title of Neil Bissoondath's novel, there is a casual brutality about the way in which we regard and treat each other in this country.  Others have given much thought to explaining why this is so but I have no time tonight.  WE have no time. There will come a day of darkness when the hearts of the conscious will be even more broken than they are today. They will not dare to ask themselves the question: What could we have done? because the answer in all its clarity will come when it is too late. On that day, those who still have the capacity to recognise loss and to mourn it will say:

Sitaarein apni roshni luta lutaake so gaye | The stars shone and now are gone.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

Below the Surface [Song]

TRUTH, TRANSPARENCY, TRUST.
Trikuta meri, na jaane tum kab aaoge.

Patriot Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh
"For the more injustice rages, the more they fight."

Uploaded by edward spencer

BELOW THE SURFACE
By Mystic Prowler

Sometimes I does get angry when I see somebody watch a next man achievement
And declare that that was easy.
They doh see all the struggle and all the failure
They quickly form allegiance to toast the winner
But in this life there's a truth and every tree you see have a root
And is from way below the surface you bring up your fruit.

Now, Thomas Edison, the light bulb inventor
Is two thousand times he fail before the bulb could light
And when, when he reach age sixty-seven, a fire cost him two million
That's when his studio burned to the ground one December night
But he stood strong, faithful to his craft
And three weeks later released his first phonograph.

You see, he had the stuff great men are made of
Is the stuff you could miss unless you look below the surface
I say, he had the stuff great men are made of
Is the stuff you could miss unless you look below the surface.

They say that pressure, it does make diamonds out of rock
And is the same with the human character when our dreams are downstruck
In a jail, two men looking out through the same bars
One will fail 'cause he see mud while the other see stars
You see, while pressure humbles the weak it strengthens who earnestly seek
It's the barometer that measures the strong and the weak

Because Martin Luther and South African Nelson Mandela
The darkness in their jail cell couldn't dim their lights
And civil rights atrocities only fuel more energies
For the more injustice rages, the more they fight
And for twenty-seven years Nelson Mandela suffer
And from jail became President of South Africa.

You see, Nelson had the stuff that great men are made of
Is the stuff you could miss unless you look below the surface
Potential, I say, he had the stuff that great men are made of
Is the stuff you could miss unless you look below the surface.

Check any success story, take any one you wish
And you'll see the road is often littered with blocks and rubbish
When as you clear one hurdle, you will meet another
And as you lift one burden, you will hit a next gutter
You see while your progress is slow, your determination must grow
Just affirm and profess the success you already know.

Don't you know Elvis Presley was fired by Jimmy Denny?
After just one show, he was told, "Go back, go back and drive truck."
And the great Beethoven of music, imagine he was deaf at forty-six?
But that's when he produced his greatest musical stock
And the great Caruso stood firm by his choice
Although his teacher told him, "You can't sing and you have no voice."

But he had the stuff great men are made of
Is the stuff you could miss unless you look below the surface
Oh, he had the stuff great men are made of
Is the stuff you could miss unless you look below the surface.

As a nation, we would do well to train our young
Not to adopt a luck and chance approach or a gaming disposition
For they will dream of easy money and sweet tomorrow
From a get rich scheme with their one in one hundred thousand ratio
We need to teach foundations of truth, trees that send down good roots
Not parasites that suck at ill-gotten fruits.

Don't you know Basdeo Panday walked so many miles barefoot to school
Land in England with six dollars to take his law course?
And Arthur Napoleon Raymond Robinson, imagine he was shot and imprisoned?
Half blind and dying he said, "Attack, attack, attack with full force!"
For such men with belly, leadership was meant
No wonder they are Prime Minister and President.

You see, they had the stuff great men are made of
Is the stuff you could miss unless you look below the surface
I say, they had the stuff great men are made of
Is the stuff you could miss unless you look below the surface.

Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance! ..............................................................................................................................
 
 
A Note From The Gull

Thank you, Mystic Prowler.  What can I say now that I have not said before? Concerned Trinbagonians, with the exception of a small minority, are impotent and struck dumb - cat got our tongue and catfish gone with our lignum vitae. So tonight I can only rest whatever hope I have left on the wisdom of the message generously shared by Trinbagonian Roman Catholic priest, Father Clyde Harvey:

"A man fasting for a cause challenges us about our soul. Where is the soul of the nation?

With the first hunger strike, Wayne Kublalsingh gave me, and I tried to communicate it to others, three words which I think can help us find our soul - Truth, Transparency, Trust.

And the Armstrong Report which is at the center of all of this is not about the Honourable Prime Minister. It's not even about Wayne Kublalsingh. It's about whether or not we, as a people, can develop principles and processes which allow us to believe in ourselves, to always stand for truth and to try to be transparent about what we do.

Unless I can believe in your truth when you speak to me, when you relate to me, nothing is possible. I can't trust you.  Unless to some extent I can think that I am seeing through you, the real you, in the way and the process that we are engaged in, I can't trust you. And people who don't trust each other can't form relationships. No nation can endure.

So we are faced today with that challenge and a man fasting is challenging us to ask ourselves - Is there anything that we are willing to die for? Do we love anything enough, in this case Trinidad and Tobago, to identify what are the values, what are the things that I would lay down my life for as a citizen of this country?

Unless some citizens have that sense, we're are not a Republic. We are still subjects of some monarch, whatever, whoever that monarch is, and we won't survive.

So, today as we face this, let's forget about the personalities and let's think Trinidad and Tobago."

--Father Clyde Harvey, Trinidad and Tobago.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

Separated Lev Tahor Children Reportedly Hunger Striking and Hospitalized.

Third hunger-striking Lev Tahor child hospitalized in Toronto.
By Jennifer O'Brien, Vicki Gough, QMIAgency
IFP | Tuesday, March 11, 2014 11:07:52 EDT AM.

A third Lev Tahor child is now at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, severely dehydrated from a hunger strike, a spokesperson for the group says.

“We do not know how many children are hunger striking, as no contact is allowed with them,” said Pamela Palmer.

Earlier this week, she said two kids were refusing food — to protest being separated from their parents — and one was at the Toronto hospital after their return to Canada from Trinidad and Tobago where they had been intercepted by authorities after fleeing Canada. But now, Palmer said three kids in total were admitted to Sick Kids.

The children were among nine members of the ultra-orthodox Jewish community detained in Trinidad and Tobago while en route to join their parents and other community members who had gone to Guatemala.

Their parents were waiting for them in Guatemala when the children were intercepted and flown back to Canada, said Palmer. Another six children are believed to have been taken to Guatemala.

The Jewish sect has developed a high profile in Canada this year during a very public dispute with child welfare authorities over allegations of child abuse.

More than 200 Lev Tahor members uprooted from Quebec last fall, as a child-welfare probe closed in, settling in Chatham more than 1,000 km away as a Quebec court ordered 14 kids from three families be taken into temporary foster care.

Lev Tahor has denied the allegations of child abuse and neglect, including of forced marriages of girls as young as 14, saying it’s all persecution for the group — which teaches its own kids — of not following Quebec’s secular education system.

Ordered to stay put in Chatham-Kent by a judge while an appeal period unfolded, adults and the 14 kids vanished last week — one group to Trinidad and two others to Calgary. All were intercepted.

Palmer said high-profile Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby was meeting Lev Tahor members Monday afternoon to discuss their circumstances.

After Ruby told QMI Agency Monday he wasn't representing Lev Tahor, Palmer said the group is trying to gather up enough money for a retainer fee.

THE SAGA

* Ultra-orthodox Jewish sect fled Quebec last fall amid child-welfare probe.

* Accused of child abuse and neglect, including forced marriages of girls as young as 14. Sect denies allegations.

* Fled to Chatham; Quebec issued order to seize 14 kids from three families.

* The 14 kids vanished last week, despite a judge's stay-put order, as an appeal was to be heard in Chatham. Another judge issued an emergency seizure order.

* Six kids intercepted in Trinidad, two others in Calgary.

* Six others thought to be in Guatemala.

Lev Tahor children believed to be on hunger strike until reunion with parents: spokesperson

By Erika Tucker | Global News | March 11, 2014 6:20AM.

TORONTO – Several Lev Tahor children in the care of Chatham-Kent Child Services are on a hunger strike until they are returned to their families, according to an email sent by someone acting as a “media coordinator” for the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

One of the children has apparently been admitted to Toronto’s SickKids Hospital to be force-fed, according to the Monday statement.

A 14-year-old girl was also reportedly rushed to hospital Monday night after she lost consciousness due to the hunger strike.

“As for the children that are still in the care of the CAS [Children’s Aid Services] since being illegally detained and taken into custody by police in Trinidad, the children are on a hunger strike until they are to be returned home to their families,” said the email, signed by Pamela Palmer, “Media Coordinator for the Lev Tahor Community.”

A SickKids spokesperson did not “have authorization to release [any] information” pertaining to whether a Lev Tahor child had been admitted or whether the hospital had been in touch with police or Chatham-Kent Children’s Services.

The director of Quebec’s youth protection centre—one of the first organizations to get involved in the children’s welfare while the community was still living in St.-Agathe-des-Monts—said in a Sunday statement (translated from French) that he was pleased at the return of six Lev Tahor children from Trinidad and Tobago to Ontario. But there are eight more children under a judge’s apprehension order to be placed into foster care.

“Pursuant to the order of the Superior Court of Ontario, issued earlier this week, the children were taken care by the child welfare services of Chatham-Kent,” Centre jeunesse des Laurentides director Denis Baraby said in a statement.

“Despite this positive outcome, I remain very concerned about the situation of the other eight children, as well as that of the hundred others remained in the community. As such, we continue to closely monitor developments and continue to work with the child welfare services in Ontario and the authorities.”

At least two Lev Tahor families left Canada for Guatemala last week, but some of them were stopped in Trinidad. The group (three adults and the six children) was detained by immigration authorities after their flight landed in Trinidad and Tobago Monday, March 3.

Nine members of the sect returned to Canada Saturday evening and the children were placed in the care of the Children’s Aid Society.

The members of Lev Tahor were supposed to appear in court last Wednesday for a hearing in Chatham-Kent, Ontario to contest a Feb. 3 order that 13 of the sect’s children be taken into foster care because of allegations of abuse and neglect—all of which Lev Tahor has denied.

After the verdict, six children were sent to Trinidad and Tobago and six others went to Guatemala for a “vacation.” Canadian authorities, including child protection, flew to Trinidad on Friday to bring them back.

Reports suggest a teenage girl and her infant daughter were met by police Sunday afternoon in Calgary and will be returned to Ontario’s Chatham-Kent Children’s Services at an unspecified time.

The hearing of the appeal has been postponed to April 4.

With files from Global News reporter Rachel Lau and The Canadian Press.

Lev Tahor spokesman says allegations based on 'hate'.

The Canadian Jewish News | Monday, March 10, 2014.

CHATHAM, Ont. — Uriel Goldman could not contain his anger and frustration. The latest development in the saga of Lev Tahor had him boiling over.

For Lev Tahor, he said “you’re guilty until you prove you’re not guilty.”

Goldman, a spokesperson for the ultra-Orthodox sect, was seething at reports that authorities in Quebec were planning to seek the removal of all children in the community, which is based in Chatham, Ont. “They’ve been investigating for two years, police, child welfare, and they’ve found nothing,” he said.

If authorities had evidence of wrongdoing, they should have laid charges and taken the case, or cases, to court. The one time an Ontario court looked at allegations of physical abuse, over a small mark on one child’s face, they returned the child to his parents, he said.

Goldman said children in the community can’t sleep over worry they will be taken from their families.

“The allegations are hate, hate,” he said.

“ We’re going to take you down, to take your children because you’re you. You’re a dirty Jew and that’s it,” he said, suggesting the allegations against Lev Tahor resembled longstanding anti-Semitic stereotypes.

Allegations have appeared in a number of media reports that homes in the Lev Tahor community are filthy and the children are dirty, that children sleep on urine-soaked mattresses, that they do not have basic math skills, that corporal punishment is used for discipline, that Melatonin is dispensed to calm children, that marriages are forced, teenaged girls marry under the legal age and that children are removed from their families as punishments. Goldman said the allegations are all false.

The latest developments in the group’s saga took place this past weekend, when nine members of the group who had fled to Trinidad were returned to Canada.

Arriving at Pearson International Airport on Saturday night, authorities took five girls and a boy into custody. Three adults were not taken into custody.

The children were subject to an order by Ontario Superior Court Judge Lynda Templeton, who ruled last week that 14 Lev Tahor children should be placed in the care of Chatham-Kent Children’s Services. Another six children who were subject to the apprehension order are believed to be in Guatemala – the destination of the group that was stopped, en route, in Trinidad.

On Sunday, two more children were apprehended at the airport in Calgary. A 17-year-old girl and a five-month-old baby were apprehended under the court order and were to be flown back to Toronto.

Templeton’s apprehension order called on child protection authorities to work with police and the Canada Border Services Agency to apprehend the children.

The court had convened to consider an appeal from an Ontario court ruling that upheld a Quebec order to apprehend the children. The group moved to Chatham last November ahead of the Quebec court ruling.

Quebec Judge Pierre Hamel said in the original ruling that he believed the children were at “serious risk of harm.” The judge ruled after he heard testimony from three child-protection workers as well as a former member of the group.

Denis Baraby, the director of Quebec’s department of youth protection for the Laurentians region, said he would ask for the removal of all children in the Lev Tahor community, which number some 250 individuals.

“I think the community is preparing a mass move,” he told the Gazette in Montreal. “If we want to protect the children that are in the community, we need to start working on the exit of the 114 other children.”

Baraby also said police and Crown prosecutors were preparing criminal charges against the guardians of the children who took them out of the country, the Gazette reported.

Goldman said “those people who left, I cannot talk on their behalf.” But non-Lev Tahor members have told him they understand why parents would flee rather than lose their children.

The allegations against them are not true and there are no substantiated allegations against the rest of the community that would warrant the removal of all their children, he maintained.

Goldman said Quebec child welfare authorities want to destroy the community. Speaking in their voice, he said, “you cannot run away. We have to get you down. Your children are not sleeping at night because they’re afraid. Who cares? They’re just dirty Jews.

“This is normal?” he asked. “This is hate.”

“We feel exactly like 1939 Berlin.”

That suggestion was roundly rejected by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA).

“Lev Tahor is a radical cult. Perhaps they do suffer from delusions of persecution,” said David Ouellette, CIJA’s associate director, Quebec public affairs. “Anti-Semitism has absolutely no role in this. The Jewish community in Montreal has been involved in the investigation of Lev Tahor.”

Orthodox families have agreed to provide foster care for the children, should they be removed.

Ouellette said family relations of Lev Tahor members in Israel and elsewhere have raised serious allegations of abuse and neglect.

“It’s preposterous to suggest that Quebec authorities would persecute a religious group because of its beliefs,” he added.

But that’s precisely the allegation that Goldman advanced. He said the group left Quebec because it did not want to comply with the province’s educational requirement to teach their children evolution or about homosexuality.

And the allegations of abuse are ridiculous and unsubstantiated, he said.

“We have to take your children away because they take Melatonin [an over-the-counter sleep aid]. If they take Melatonin, call the police, take away the children,” he scoffed.

“They say they have to take the kids away. Why? Because they don’t know math?”

As to children sleeping on urine-soaked mattresses. “Maybe [a few] kids in the community make in the bed. Even Canadian kids make in the bed,” he said.

Goldman rejected other allegations levelled against the group, that children are taken from their families as a form of punishment.

“Tell me names where children were taken away as punishment. This is lies,” he said. “If someone took my children, I’d call the police.”

Allegations of mass suicide, levelled by a former Lev Tahor member, are likewise ridiculous, he said.

The suggestion came from a former member, who happens to be Goldman’s son-in-law, and who likened their plight to that faced by Jews facing torture and murder during the Crusades. The media accepted the allegations.

“People will believe anything about Lev Tahor,” Goldman said.

Child welfare authorities have visited the community regularly and in an intrusive way, he said. “A social worker asked a couple 35 years old when they last had sexual relations. You have to disclose all your lives and every detail. This is unacceptable,” he said.

As to Baraby’s comment that the members of Lev Tahor are planning to move again, Goldman said, “Absolutely not true. But tell me right now, why can’t I move?”

There’s no court order against Lev Tahor members, he said.

“Why don’t the same rules apply to us?”

Canada: Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence's Hunger Strike: The Ninth Day

Attawapiskat Chief Spence says not “afraid to die” as she launches hunger strike.
National News | 10. Dec, 2012
By APTN National News | 

APTN National News 

OTTAWA--"Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence stood at the steps leading up to the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill Monday and said she was “willing to die” if the federal government ignored her call for a meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Queen Elizabeth II and First Nations leaders.

Spence plans to begin her hunger strike Tuesday morning after a sunrise ceremony on Victoria Island, just up the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill.

“I am willing to die for my people, the pain is too much,” said Spence. “Somebody asked me if I was afraid to die. No, I am not afraid to die, it’s a journey we have to go on and I will go and I am looking forward to it.” Spence told reporters who had gathered for her small press conference that the Canadian government was ignoring the treaties and that the Crown, in whose name the treaties were signed, is ignoring the breakdown of the relationship. She wants the prime minister, the Queen, or a representative, to sit down with First Nations leaders and reestablish the treaty relationship.

“I want the Crown, the prime minister and all the leaders to sit down and rebuild that relationship and honour and protect the treaty,” said Spence.

The British, and later Canada, signed numerous treaties across the country and First Nations hold those treaties as defining their relationship with the Crown that predates the creation of Canada.

A meeting was held last January dubbed the Crown-First Nations gathering and it was attended by the prime minister and Gov.-Gen. David Johnston along with First Nations leaders.

Spence said the meeting was a failure because the Harper government didn’t change its approach to First Nations.

Spence’s community of Attawapiskat burst onto the national consciousness last fall after images of the community’s deplorable housing flashed across the country’s television screens.

The Harper government, however, attacked the community, blaming the band for its housing situation. Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan took away the band’s control over its finances and imposed a third-party manager.

Spence said her community was still in a housing crisis with people living in sheds and trailers.

In an open letter released early Monday, Spence said she decided to go on a hunger strike after “months” of consideration and meetings with elders.

“After a long period of reflection, the time is at hand for a clear statement,” wrote Spence.

Spence wrote that the Canadian government was trying to “isolate” and “assimilate” First Nations people.

“This process of marginalizing our political leadership, along with the enforced segregation of our people is part of a deliberate (attempt) to isolate our people, marginalize our people and ultimately assimilate our people so that our rich heritage can be wiped out and the great bounty contained in our traditional lands be made available for exploitation by large multi-national companies,” wrote Spence.

Spence plans to spend her days during the hunger strike on Parliament Hill and her evenings on nearby Victoria Island where she will sleep inside a structure there." SOURCE

Attawapiskat chief's hunger strike part of wider movement.
Grassroots movement Idle No More driven by social media.
CBC News | Posted: Dec 18, 2012 3:44 PM ET

Chief Spence exclusive interview with CBC News.

 
"As Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence continues her hunger strike on Parliament Hill in an attempt to get a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a grassroots protest movement of First Nations activists across Canada has united on social media and at public rallies.

Idle No More's supporters say they are upset about the effects of the Harper government's policies on their communities. They want First Nations to be recognized as sovereign stakeholders in decisions affecting the country's land and resources.

A large group performed a Round Dance at the Cornwall Centre in Regina to raise awareness of their Idle No More campaign on Dec. 17. (Submitted to CBC)

Spence’s hunger strike underscores that wish. Now, after more than a week without eating, concern is mounting about her health as she protests what she sees as a lack of respect for the treaty rights of First Nations.

Mushkegowuk Grand Chief Stan Louttit has been keeping a close eye on developments with Spence.
Louttit said leaders and communities across the country are uniting in protest in a way he has not seen in the past.

“They can all relate to the fact that communities are in despair,” he said.

“Over a year ago, Attawapiskat declared an emergency for lack of housing and they are still not out of the woods. And they brought national attention to their issue. And people are seeing that and feeling that.”

Louttit said Spence's protest shows a long-standing fight over treaty rights has come to a head.

Mushkegowuk Grand Chief Stan Louttit. (CBC)

“The government does not want to talk about the treaty,” he said.

“The way they look at it is ‘this is 120 years ago and that's old business.’ But we are saying the treaty of 1905 is as relevant in terms of spirit and intent then as it is now.”

Attawapiskat is covered by Treaty No. 9.

Author and Nipissing University Prof. John Long, who has written a book about the treaty, said there is conflict due to interpretation.

“Virtually every treaty has this built-in contradiction,” he said.

“One party looks on it as a real estate transaction, giving up the land and rights to the land and the resources…and the other party says, ‘We agreed to share and there were promises made to help us and protect us.’”

'Massive gulfs between people'

Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan told a CBC reporter last week that the rallies are a result of social media.

"We'll just have to see where that goes," he said.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

Duncan proposed a meeting with Spence to discuss issues affecting Attawapiskat, but there was no response.

Quebec City-based writer and activist Nora Loreto recently blogged, "Idle No More has reminded me that there exists massive gulfs between people, experiences and awareness."

She claims there’s been an “effective media blackout” on the cause.

“After an aggressive social media campaign, flash mobs, rallies, blockades, co-ordinated actions, letters of support from national unions and a hunger strike, the media coverage has still been significantly lacking,” she said.

“How can someone know what’s going on if none of their friends are talking about it?”

‘Moving towards sustainability’

The campaign was started by four women from Saskatchewan who were protesting against a number of bills before Parliament. They are particularly critical of Bill C-45, the government's omnibus budget legislation, which they say weakens environmental laws.

"There are many examples of other countries moving towards sustainability, and we must demand sustainable development as well," says a manifesto published on the group's website, idlenomore.com.

Theresa Spence on Parliament Hill at the start of her hunger strike Dec. 11. (Facebook)
"We believe in healthy, just, equitable and sustainable communities and have a vision and plan of how to build them."

Louttit is concerned that Spence’s quest to bring this message to Canada’s top leaders is heading down an unhealthy path, however.

“She's a mother and a grandmother and there's a lot of people, I think, that are worried about her,” he said.

The federal opposition parties and the head of the Assembly of First Nations have urged Harper to take steps to end the hunger strike.

In a letter to Harper, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair called on the prime minister and the Governor General to meet with aboriginal leaders to end the protests.

"I ask that you please act swiftly to avoid a personal tragedy for Chief Spence," Mulcair wrote. "I look forward to your early positive response to this urgent matter."

Spence has been living in a teepee on Victoria Island in the Ottawa River, less than a kilometre from Parliament Hill, since beginning her fast Dec. 11.

Victoria Island is considered by the Anishinabe as traditional territory. New Democrat MP Paul Dewar visited Spence on the island Tuesday and reported that she is so far in good health.

Harper met with Assembly of First Nations Chief Shawn Atleo as recently as Nov. 28 to review progress the government has been making in addressing aboriginal issues, said spokeswoman Julie Vaux.

"The prime minister hosted an historic gathering of the Crown and First Nations this past January," Vaux said in an email.

"Since then, the government has been working with First Nations leadership to make progress in several areas, most notably education and infrastructure on reserve."

The Liberals and the Assembly of First Nations also sent letters Tuesday to Harper and Gov. Gen. David Johnston, calling for an urgent meeting to discuss Spence's demands.

"I urge you to agree to participate in this meeting and meet with Chief Theresa Spence to hear directly from her why she has felt it necessary to take such drastic action," wrote Liberal aboriginal affairs critic Carolyn Bennett." SOURCE

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"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare
 

Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh: "I Feel An Enormous Gratitude..."

Kamla: Let the courts decide. Kublalsingh ends 21-day hunger strike, accepts agreement for highway review. By Renuka Singh | Trinidad Express | Dec 6, 2012 at 2:12 AM ECT.

After 21 days without food and water, environmental activist Dr Wayne Kublalsingh ended his hunger strike yesterday.

Kublalsingh, who was protesting the Debe to Mon Desir section of the Point Fortin Highway, said he agreed to the terms of reference hammered out after a two-day mediation meeting between the Joint Consultative Council (JCC) and the Government.

Just before 6 p.m., the Kublalsingh family announced the activist had accepted the changes to the initial proposal and had ended the hunger strike.

In a media release, Kublalsingh said the Highway Re-Route Movement read the details of the proposal and found that it contained the relevant particulars they had requested, including the undertaking of a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed Debe to Mon Desir section of the highway, a social impact assessment and a hydrological, terrestrial and marine ecological report of the affected area.

“If I am to put into words how I feel now, it would be that I feel an enormous gratitude to the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” Kublalsingh said in brief telephone interview.

The newly detailed terms of reference that the parties agreed to are not too different from Kublalsingh’s initial proposal and request that was sent to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar weeks ago.

The one bone of contention remained over whether work would continue on the now contentious segment of the highway during the two months the independent committee would need to undertake its own review.

“No work shall be done on the proposed Debe to Mon Desir highway since this has not been officially handed over to the contractors,” said Kublalsingh.

In an addendum to his statement, he said the National Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (Nidco) told the review committee that “preliminary works will be done on the Fyzabad and Siparia exchanges, but that no compulsory acquisitions will take place and no homes removed during the period of the review”.

“We have spoken to Dr Carson Charles (head of Nidco), asking him to respect the sensitivities of people in the area, and we are satisfied that no home acquisitions would take place in period.

They will also confine their works to earth removal and grubbing,” Kublalsingh said.

The independent committee will also accept submissions from the Highway Re-Route Movement and affected residents and take those into consideration as well. This was part of the Kublalsingh’s original proposal but was not included in the initial draft proposal between the Government and JCC after their meeting on Monday.

By 7 p.m. yesterday, the JCC, the body at the centre of the mediation talks between Kublaslsingh and the Government, issued a statement outlining the frame of reference to which Kublalsingh agreed.

Afra Raymond, head of the JCC, said in the release that they regarded the finalisation of this issue as a “solid framework for the transparent ventilation of the matters in dispute”.

“After consultation with the Government and the Highway Re-Route Movement, the JCC is pleased to confirm that it has appointed an independent working group to examine the several matters of concern on the disputed Debe to Mon Desir segment of the Solomon Hochoy Highway to Point Fortin,” he said.

The terms of reference include the appointment of Dr James Armstrong as head of the independent committee that will undertake, inter alia, the three studies as suggested by Kublalsingh, and include persons from various disciplines.

“This is a real advance in the development of our country, so we would like all parties to work in good faith within this process. The Independent Working Group will be inviting oral and written submissions within this exercise. The civil society groups are inviting Dr Kublalsingh to stop his protest action now, so that we can have his submissions and active participation in this important matter,” said Raymond." SOURCE

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A Note From The Gull

The PM has assured us that she is in command so I want to thank the PM for this resolution. If she is in command and nothing happens without her approval, it is clear that it was because of her that the JCC's petition was received and that Monday's meeting was allowed to take place. So, as far as I am concerned, this agreement is thanks also to her allowing negotiations to ensue. I thank her and the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure.

A problem remains and if our PM still dreams of leaving a legacy that will be praised and remembered with gratitude, it will not be as a result of constructing highways but of laying the foundations for another sort of infrastructure, one based on transparency and accountability that will invite, accept, process, include and respond to citizen participation in the running of our affairs. No one should ever again have to resort to a hunger strike to get the attention of his countrymen and his government.

I want to also thank the following:

The Joint Consultative Council for recognising the urgency of this situation and for intervening and offering constructive suggestions for ways out of the impasse. This includes the work of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and NGOs (FITUN), Working Women for Social Progress and the T&T Transparency Institute. Thank you especially, Afra Raymond, for the seriousness and generousity with which you approached the impasse. Your interventions in this matter and elsewhere will not be forgotten. Thanks in advance to Dr. James Armstrong and all those who will be working with the Independent Working Group.

Opposition Leader, Keith Rowley, for having offered your own suggestion and for your humane demeanour during this crisis.

Dr. Winston Dookeran for your appeal to the PM for compassion in this issue.

The independent senators - Elton Prescott, SC, Dr Rolph Balgobin, Corinne Baptiste McKnight and Dr Lennox Bernard who urged the Government to take the "necessary first step" to bring to an end the current impasse. 

All the writers,  even those who do not agree with Dr. Kublalsingh's protest action, who looked past politics to stand on the side of humanity.

All the persons who have shown and continue to show support for Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh and especially those who actually visited him. I am not in my homeland and with every visitor that I read about I got some vicarious comfort from that visit. I imagined that Dr. Kublalsingh was comforted even more.

The medical personnel who were on standby and attended to Dr. Kublalsingh during this ordeal. It could not have been an easy task for persons trained to preserve life to have to watch the slow deterioration of a fellow human being.

Ishmael Samad and Karen Kublalsingh for breaking down and not being as strong as those who respected Dr. Kublalsingh's wishes in this matter. Your weakness is your humanity and I would not hold it against you for fighting for my life if I were ever in such distress.

The family of Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh. You are made of the same stuff as your son. Most parents do not want to experience the anguish of the death of their child. So although I can imagine some of the pain that you experienced over this period, I don't know it and I hope that I will never have to know it. Your son has survived and you have survived this as a family. We will ALL survive this as a nation.

I have already thanked Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh (the Highway Re-route Movement (HRM). I am still reflecting upon his struggle and I do not have the words at this time to describe what he has accomplished. Perhaps words are not the reward which he will appreciate as much as actually seeing his efforts changing in small and in big ways how we go on to take care of each other and this country.

Today I want to repeat the prayer that I said for our PM on January 29, 2011.

Bless and protect our sister.
Let those who can assist, draw closer to her
Let those who cannot, depart.
Give her the discernment and trust to recognise and admit true patriots.
Remove from her space the negative influences both near and far,
emanating from the hurts of the past and the present,
from those who are against her
and from some of those who claim to be for her
and everything which distracts us all from achieving the higher destiny
which many still hope will be hers and this nation's.

Malele, toma e malonge, zamya zamya kwenda. 

Things have quietened down, be well countrymen, o quietly, quietly go.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare