This past summer has seen a noticeable increase in the number of scientists, researchers and other academic types visiting the Nain region. Much of this increased in interest is related to the new Torngat National Park Reserve.
But one could not help but notice the number of staff from MUN taking an interest too. For years MUN has all but played lip service to the North Coast. Some social related programs were carried out over the years from MUN staff, pilot program stuff, funding gone they be gone. There may have been others that I’m not aware of, but on the whole it was obvious that the coast of Labrador was not on MUN’s favorite play list.
There was interest in research in the area, mainly from universities from outside the province, much research has and is still being done by these people.
Money may have played a roll in the disinterest by MUN; it plays a roll in all other aspects of our society. I am not saying the sudden interest is a bad thing either, just that it has been noticed.
On the same theme of money and our society; you think VLT’s are problem in our province? Take a gander at this story, boy oh boy are pokies a big issue down there. Most of the clubs mentioned I have visited; back those days they started out as small intermit special interest or sport clubs. As the years went by some started to expand and add more pokies. Then take in more members or just sign in guests. Some clubs ended up looking like mini Las Vegas casinos with all sorts of entertainment and activity for members and guests.
Like here gambling is a huge cost to society, like here governments continue to ignore that cost in the short term aim of balancing the books.
4 comments:
But one could not help but notice the number of staff from MUN taking an interest too. For years MUN has all but played lip service to the North Coast.
Huh?
If anything, judging by the published MUN materials I have to hand, the North Coast has been the most-studied region of Labrador, although that's still not saying much.
There was a period of interest from social sciences at MUN beginning in the late 1960s with the establishment of the Extension Services. In anthropology, The Identity in East Arctic project produced a lot of literature on the Inuit area in the 1970s. But there followed a long period of disinterest in north coast affairs. The Lab Institute was kind of cut off like a dead fish there for a long time, left to flap around on its own.
Most academics don't go to the bathroom without a grant to help them. Land claims on the north coast created a period of interest, same with the "metis" area.
Everybody's slapping on the feedbags now for international polar year, and the decade long festivities that will follow. I'm glad the arctic is in the public eye and at the centre of policy discussion, and IPY is going to draw a lot of attention to the arctic. But in other ways, it's going to be a great big waste of money that will accomplish little outside padding academic CVs.
Old Brooktrout
To WJM.
Its wat old trout said, in it, especially the last sentence.
Papers at hand nor anywhere else do not policy make. Nor does it help the people on the ground.
No, but if you're talking about "interest", that's the form of "interest" MUN has paid to Labrador in terms of research, which is what your original post touched on. And the North Coast is, relatively speaking, very well-studied compared to most other parts of Labrador.
The South Coast from Lodge Bay to Cartwright is especially poorly-studied, although Kennedy has made a few inroads there. That's partly perhaps owing to the better documentation (thank you, prolix Moravians!) on the north coast. The interior? Abyssmal. The Straits could use a good amount of work outside the Basque component to its history; there's been almost nothing done in English, and very little in French, on the French fishery in the region in the early 18th century, for example. Central Labrador, you have Zimmerly, Plaice, and McGee... and that's about it.
There are also probably a lot of honours and PhD theses gathering dust on shelves, from all regions and disciplines... but no one has access to them.
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