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Alaskans to Hugo Chavez: Keep Your Oil

Discussion in '2006 Archive' started by KenH, Oct 10, 2006.

  1. KenH

    KenH Well-Known Member

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    It is good to see that some folks are willing to stand on principle.:thumbs:



    ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- In Alaska's native villages, the punishing winter cold is already penetrating the walls of the lightly insulated plywood homes, many of the villagers are desperately poor, and heating-oil prices are among the highest in the nation.

    And yet a few of the small communities want to refuse free heating oil from Venezuela, on the patriotic principle that no foreigner has the right to call their president "the devil."

    The heating oil is being offered by the petroleum company controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, President Bush's nemesis. While scores of Alaska's Eskimo and Indian villages say they have no choice but to accept, others would rather suffer.

    "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. "Even though we're in economically dire straits, it was the right choice to make."

    - rest at www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/09/alaska.oil.chavez.ap/index.html
     
  2. Daisy

    Daisy New Member

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    On the other hand, the article continues:
    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.

    For years, Alaska natives have accused the state and federal governments of sending too little money to their tiny, far-flung communities, where fuel and grocery prices are bloated by the high costs of delivery by plane and barge.
    An editorial last month in the Anchorage Daily News bashed the Legislature's rejection in March of an $8.8 million state supplement to a federal program that helps 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. "It's hard to blame villagers for accepting the gift."
     
  3. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    The reals story is still those who turned it down because they consider themselves to be patriotic Americans first.

    I applaud them.:applause:
     
  4. El_Guero

    El_Guero New Member

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    I will applaud that sentiment!

     
  5. Hope of Glory

    Hope of Glory New Member

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    Makes me proud.

    It's just an easy way out. "Well, someone's gotta help us or else!"

    The natives that I know work for what they have, either by working at a job, or hunting, fishing, picking berries, and growing crops.

    But, then again, most of the natives that I know left the villages because of all the lazy, alcoholic, drug addled people in the villages.
     
  6. pinoybaptist

    pinoybaptist Active Member
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    Still, if the Federal government does not sit up and take notice of the Alaskan people's complaints about being "left behind", the likes of germs such as Hugo Chavez will continue to insult the patriotism of Americans while at the same time pretending to be benevolent to the poor.
     
  7. Hope of Glory

    Hope of Glory New Member

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    So, the answer is to pay off the leeches?
     
  8. Ralph III

    Ralph III New Member

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    I second that applaud and good for the patriots!:applause: As I have started giving more my busines to such as those. I would rather pay more elsewhere than give my money to those as Citco. Unless they change.

    take care.
     
    #8 Ralph III, Oct 12, 2006
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 12, 2006
  9. Jack Matthews

    Jack Matthews New Member

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    You would think that, with all the profits American oil companies have raked in in the past few years, due to overpricing in the futures market and corporate greed, that American companies, not a Venezuelan company, would step up to the plate and help.
     
  10. Terry_Herrington

    Terry_Herrington New Member

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    Beware of the wrath of KenH!
     
  11. KenH

    KenH Well-Known Member

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    Nah, no wrath from me. The oil company I work for makes lots of charitable contributions - of its own and also matching that of we employees - including 2-for-1 to educational institutions. :)

    I imagine other oil companies do something similar.
     
  12. Hope of Glory

    Hope of Glory New Member

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    But... But... But... They're still making a profit! How dare they!
     
  13. rsr

    rsr <b> 7,000 posts club</b>
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    What principle, exactly, are these folks standing on?
     
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