The Price is Right: Nunavut Edition

Sorry it's taken me a while to put up another post...
I've been having some trouble with blogger.com and my internet connection!
PLEASE NOTE: I've moved all the grocery cart items to a new site: http://priceisrightnunavut.blogspot.com/

Maggie and YK-Megan:
If you email me ( qiqitiq@yahoo.ca) your contact information I'll get your stuff to you ASAP!

For everyone else...maybe you didn't win a FABULOUS prize...but you have learned how much FUN it is to make a strike pay cheque go 'round at the Northern.. And why we jumped up and down when our cheques went up by a whole $150 bucks a few weeks ago.

And if you sit on a guild committee (or have the ear of management,) the next time you hear a guild representative from the North talk about the need to
review the Northern Allowance...you'll understand the situation a bit better.

(BY the way...Kud0s to the guild for putting the bi-lingual bonus for aboriginal languages on the table in their last proposal. It may not go anywhere, but the recognition of this issue means a lot to those of us who want to see our aboriginal language hosts and reporters remunerated for the added value they bring to the CBC.)

By the way...I'm probably not going to be posting much in the next couple of days. I do have some things I want to say...but they may have to wait since
I'm packing up my house in preparation for a move that's supposed to happen when the lockout ends. (WILL IT EVER END? PLEASE TELL ME IT'S GOING TO END.) And then I'm on my way to Toronto, via Winnipeg, for Thanksgiving.
I'm going to eat turkey and hug lots of trees.
Q

Drumroll please....

The actual retail price, in Rankin Inlet, for all the items in our virtual shopping cart is...

$276

The same items, based on advertised prices at Sobey's and the Superstore, would have cost $111 in the Toronto area.

So with a guess of $273, YK-Megan is the winner of a FABULOUS prize.
...

a CBC North Kivalliq 21st anniversary button, a slightly used lockout picket sign (autographed by CBC Kivalliq's own musical wonder and funny man, Charlie Panigoniak) and some samples of caribou and char jerky from Kivalliq Arctic Foods, here in Rankin Inlet.

Now, YK Megan is not in the X0C area code but seems to have had some "Northern Exposure."

And I'd like to give a prize to the "true southerner" with the closest guess.

So as long as Maggie hasn't lived north of 60, she also wins a slightly used lockout picket sign, autographed by CBC Kivalliq's own musical wonder and funny man, Charlie Panigoniak.

If it turns out she's not a "true Southerner" the prize will go to the "anonymous" who guessed $175.

We'll have to find some way to get you to claim your prizes. Any suggestions?

Also, I'll try to edit my original posts, so you can see what the ACTUAL RETAIL PRICE was for each item in the cart. But I probably won't get to that until tomorrow.

YOU'RE the next contestant on...

Ok folks. It's me, Bob Parka, host of "The Price is Right: Nunavut Edition."
Remember, you've got a little more than 24 hours to post your guess-timates to qualify for your chance to win...A NEW CAR! Well, MAYBE that's what the fabulous prize is...or maybe it will hunk of raw caribou...or a nice fillet of arctic char. You'll have to enter to find out.

Just visit http://priceisrightnunavut.blogspot.com/ and check out the pictures Cold Feet.
Wednesday at midnight, central time, is when she'll post the ACTUAL RETAIL PRICE for all the grocery items. And the winner. If we can figure out who the hell Anonymous is.

Check out these two links

1. Thoughtful op-ed piece in the Toronto Star by the President of Inuit Tapariit Kanatami, Jose (pronounced JO-see) Kusugak (KOO-soo-gak.)

2. Canned clams blog featuring brilliant "scab" material produced during a previous lockout.

What Canned Clams doesn't tell you is...this is also Jose Kusugak.
He was a manager during a CBC labour dispute in the 1980's (I believe.)
He created this character, an elder, and apparently had people in stitches talking to him(self) about the Ayatollah Khomeini etc...
I've been told people even called in to complain because they were upset with the way he was talking to this elder. Of course, there was no on else in the studio with him!

PS. Thanks Canned Clams! People had told me about this material...but I didn't know where to get my hands on it!

A message from Bob...

Bob Parka, the host of the host of the Price is Right: Nunavut Edition will be deleting people's entries from this blog, as they come along.

That way, the playing field is more level for people who enter later in the game. But don't worry, Bob is recording all the entries.

Bob says we've had some good entries so far. I especiallly like the one from Lisa, which started with "You are brilliant."

Of course, most of the entries have come from someone named "Anonymous." It's a popular name these days, I guess.

(Don't worry...we'll eventually sort out which anonymous is who, I'm sure.)

NOTE Oct 8, 2005: The contest is over now but you can still find the items on http://priceisrightnunavut.blogspot.com/

The Price is Right: Nunavut edition.

Take a look at the grocery items I've posted here.

Then take a guess at what it would cost to ring those through the till at the Northern, and post your TOTAL guestimate here.

(If your postal code starts with X0C ... please sit this one out and let us have some fun with the southerners!)

Do it by Wednesday...and the person whose guess is closest to the actual total will get a FABULOUS prize (I don't know what it is yet, but it will be FABULOUS!) via Canada Post, sometime after the lockout is over. (If this is going to work, you're going to have to post your contact info with your total guess.

You'll also know why those of us on the picket line here have to chuckle a little when we hear people in the south complaining about lockout pay.

Have fun! (And my apologies to those who visited my site while I was putting this up...and before I got this intro in. I can't seem to download so many photos into one single blog...so this was the best I could do. Sluggish Northern internet...)

Utter disdain...

It seems I've developed a bit of a lockout addiction.

If I go too long without checking out the usual websites, I start "Jones-ing" for a blog.

First I check cbcontheline.ca and the cmg site, (although I guess those aren't really blogs.)
Then I check out Tod's photo of the day, before heading the CMG North site and some of the other northern blogs .

And, I admit, I make regular visits to Ouimet's site.

I spend a bit of time perusing the highlighted blogs in the blogosphere... and go to some of the usuals--like that bee fella, or Matt. Or that clever girl who also wears a mask...or jenkew or that other clever girl who also ALSO wears a mask.

And of course I obsess over my own posts. And how much time have I wasted because I've posted four or five pics...and then hit the back arrow on my browser and lost all my work?! ARG.

I noticed today that similar blogging and browsing obsessions have caused a little friction in the households of other "blogged out" CBCers.

"Good thing you only have cats at home, Cold Feet," is probably what you're thinking.

Well, even cats have their limits.

SOMEONE has offically registered his displeasure at the quantity of time I spend obsessiong over the lockout these days.

In the form of a hairball...on the lid of my laptop.

There it was when I got home from the picket line on Monday.
Maybe I should have photographed the evidence...but I was too grossed out.

I'm pretty sure it was Frank.

He is, after all, part Siamese. And good at the hairball thing.

Plus, just look at that scowl.





Quak, on the other hand
doesn't have a malicious bone
in his body.

(Frank says it was Ike-the Bike, who has, it should be noted, a malicious streak a mile wide. AND occassionally he spits up the darnedest things. But not hairballs. Plus, he's generally not allowed in the house. )

Don't worry Franklin. I know how you feel. If I had a hairball to hack up, I'd have done it right on top of theCBC board's "comprehensive review."

"hack, hack, hack, ptoooey..."

Current conditions

Ok. I give up. I'm pulling out my Canada Goose parka this morning.

Kunik!

Betty and her little grandson...
Some days...It's the little things that get you through a cold, damp shift on the picket line. Yesterday, it was this little guy.
Betty's been looking after her grandson for the last two days. She brought him down to the picket line yesterday for a visit.
Don't you just want to kunik him? !! ! Grrrrr!
I think this will end up being one of my favourite pictures from the lockout.
That very patriotic amauti was made by Betty's daughter-in-law.

Lost in translation.

So I did the ultimate ego thing and typed the name of this blog into google this morning.

There it was where I expected to see it...in the lists on a few other locked out CBC-er's blogs.

But then ... I noticed qiqitiqpuq was referenced in an Italian blog.

http://yubi.iobloggo.com/ (scroll down to the Sept 14 entry)

Oh me oh my! What is this person saying about my blog? I tried to throw my mind back to that Spanish course I took in second year university. All I could surmise was that perhaps this person was some kind of linguist and was more interested in the use of the world qiqitiqpuq on the web than in the CBC lockout. What a refreshing change!

Curiosity got the better of me and I hit the "translate this page" button in Google.
A lot of help that was:

"In my peregrinations early risers in the net today they are ended on the blog of qiqitiqpuq "Cold feet"Strange word?Nevertheless also we understood to use terms of this language, like qaiaq ... not? Ah, yes, usually we write Kajak: hour goes better?Draft of Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit (Inuk)... those that we call eschimesi.They are remembered to me of that I had read with respect to their language... and are content to have held this book, Artide , of Victor Stoll, Silva editionsIndependently from letters, from it means to you and from the prounucia, the conversation has the own characteristic rules that depend in wide measure from the habits of the place. The Inuk will consent cordial with the head, because its gentility glielo imposes, even if understands that its interlocutor is saying of the sciocchezze. The host in fact has always reason. He will continue therefore to follow to us even if we are going in the mistaken direction, because he is not to he to point out to the host its errors. [ to you much courtesy would make appeals to? It would annoy to you? You would succeed to involve to you therefore ]A minimum of acquaintance of the local language is necessary for who os in the polar regions, above all for being able to communicate with leading of slitte, with people of the people, the local guides or if he is hosts of a village. Although the Inuit attends the school, very rarely other languages speak and however they make feint not to understand, for two reasons: in order to hold wide the aliens and in order to emphasize own independence in just the country. [ vien to say to me: all the world is country ]We make present that in the small brought back dictionary of continuation the verbos sonon do not indicate you to the infinite but in the third singular person. The Inuit in fact never does not speak in first person; the courtesy, riserbo and the rules of behavior demand the third person. The Inuk will not never say: "I have seen..." bensìˆ"qualcuno has seen... ". A woman of the place will not say: "I sew for you...", but "someone sews for you..."; my father will not say not even "... "but" the father of... "and, using some prefixed one or suffisso, will make to understand that draft of its father. Little Inuit knows to handle the money and second how much has said poc' indeed they say "someone obviously has sperso..." or "someone has it stolen...", has not twisted if it is believed next to the going rates in the Arctic regions.Beyond to the word "mik", please used more sovente than we in the language speech, the inuktitut it possesses an other running word that is always felt in the answers of the Inuit: "imakka!" that it could be translate with "perhaps". To our question: "Then we leave tomorrow" or: "We arrive soon" or: "We remain a pair of days" the Inuk will answer "imakka", meaning: "It depends on the time". Such word, composed from "îma", yes, and "nakka", not, expresses in obvious way that the decisions of the Inuk in are tightened correlation with the extreme meteorological conditions of the Artide that, changing repentinamente from a moment to the other, can send to the air the program.And which phrases it would have to cite in our case?"

***

But I guess my suspicions were right. This is some kind of academic or sociologist or linguist.
And, reading between the weirld Google translation, I just learned something about the Inuktitut language I didn' t know--from someone whose first language, it appears, is Italian.

I just wonder...Why didn't they leave a post on one of my blog entries?

Then again...why didn't I leave a post on one of his/her blog entries? Particularly the one referencing MY blog. Maybe I'm worried s/he'll make fun of my Italian? Or my lousy Inuktitut?

So...what do you think? Should I post a message on Akeakamai's page?

Terry

Photos of Terry Fox were taken from a Heritage Canada site.
Copy right info:
Gail Harvey, The Terry Fox Foundation.


Around the time Terry Fox began his Marathon of Hope, my mom was in the middle of her own marathon.

Around that time my mom lost a leg below the knee because of complications from diabetes.

Terry was a huge inspiration to her. And it was so hard for her when he had to stop his marathon. I think I cried when I heard the news that Terry Fox had died. I can't remember. But I do remember that my mom cried.

Complications from diabetes chipped away at her and she eventually lost her other leg, and a finger. She had triple by-pass surgery, and eventually died of appendicitis because her heart was too weak to take surgery. That was in my last year of high school.

Throughout her personal marathon, her faith in God kept her strong through months and months in the hospital and through a lot of pain. I remember only one occassion where she refused to see us because she was depressed.
My mom eventually learned to walk on two prosthetics. She learned so well that many people couldn't tell she had artificial legs. I remember being in the parking lot of Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill one day, when she parked our ugly red station wagon in a handicapped spot. We were just popping in to get something and so I think she even left her walking stick in the car. Another driver stopped as we were halfway to the mall entrance and rolled down his window.
"Hey...you just parked in a handicapped spot," he yelled.
I think my mom had to resist the urge to reach through the window and kiss the man.
She just bent over a bit and knocked on one of her state-of the art fibreglass legs.
"They're fake," she said, laughing. "But thanks!"

To many people who knew her, my mom was their personal Terry Fox. Her strength was an inspiration to a lot of people, including myself.

It's quite probable that I'm not able to detach myself emotionally from my memories of Terry Fox, tied as they are to my memories of my mom.

Maybe that explains why I can't accept the way the CMG has played the Terry Fox anniversary celebration card the way they did.

To me, it's immoral and un-Canadian to politicize Terry's memory in any way. Our jobs are important, but our humanity is more important.

Perhaps I'm naive. But I think the Guild could have been more creative, and taken a much higher moral ground on this one.

For example, imagine what would have happened if the Guild had thrown all labour dispute tradition and law to the wind and said to its members: If you're offered any scab work related to the Terry Fox anniversary, why not take it? We'll even count your hours as picket duty and we'll pay you for your picket time. Ideally, we ask that any money you make be donated to cancer research or to the guild's hardship fund.

Think of the quantity of egg the corporation would be wiping off its face.

Instead, we threaten a picket, we harass the family and we look like bigger assholes than the corporation. Because we tried to capitalize on Terry Fox's memory. And we look stupid because we took the bait the CBC management offered.

But, as I said, I find it hard to be detached about this topic.

Month-iversary

Here's Charlie marking our Month-iversary on the line, by adding a really big rock to his inukshuk.
Notice the way the wind is blowing back his CMG sign.
Now, think what a gust like that will do to a bunch of Styrofoam coffee cups and little itty, bitty creamers.
Yeah. The weather conspired against our other plan to mark the month-iversary: coffee and cookies on the line with anyone who cared to drop by at coffee time.

Actually, we managed not to lose a single coffee cup. Those butt-ugly racks on either end of Ike-the-Bike made for perfect coffee tables.

Mr. Solidarity was the first to show up. Kind of cute, isn't he, considering he also looks a bit like Joseph Merrick (aka:"The Elephant Man.")

Svante, who's with the Nunavut Employees Union, showed up next. He was the first to sample the coffee. (Mr Solidarity offered, but we were worried he'd burn his lips.) Notice Betty has pulled out "the big guns" when it comes to gear. She's wearing her winter parka and sealskin mitts.

Leo Subgut and Charlie chew the fat with Yvo Samgushak watching.

We consider Yvo the"unofficial" sixth staff member at CBC Kivalliq, he hangs around so much. He comes out just as faithfully on the picket line. And he doesn't even listen to CBC, because he's deaf-mute.

Oh yeah, and that's the "VAT-O-COFFEE" hanging out on Ike's rear rack. Told you he makes a good coffee table.

Rankin North M-L-A Tagak Curley digging for cream and sugar.

Sadio came...with baby Shara. She gave us yummy samosas and they warmed up our insides better than the coffee! THANKS!

The stamina prize goes to Mrs. Irkootee. She stayed and chatted for at least 45 minutes, standing there with no gloves on. When I shook her hand to say good-bye, it was toasty warm. I guess she eats more "country food" than I do.

(That's another technique for staying warm on the line when you have lousy circulation: Shake a lot of people's hands.)

More people came out: Aaron and crew, John, Sandy, Lisa, Steve... I'm sure I'm forgetting a few, but thanks to everyone! I'm not sure what the morning accomplished with respect to contract negotiations, but it sure did our spirits good to spend time with folks on such a bitter cold morning. Especially since it's been a rather sad couple of days in Rankin Inlet.

After it was all over, Charlie was exhausted.

Carrying on a great blogging tradition...

Rankin Inlet really does look better with powdering of snow. Do we?
Notice Betty and I are smiling. That's because we hadn't yet seen the forecast.

I know you can't really see it very well, but in the bottom left, the windchill? It's -8.

That's what it was pretty much all day. And I think it got colder than that at some point tonight, because around 8 pm we looked out the window and the wind was whipping up the snow into a big ol' ground blizzard. The winds were gusting up to 50 kph.

A few flurries, my eye!

Ike-the-bike was not impressed. But Gene-the-snowmachine is getting pumped.

In the spirit of solidarity with Ike, I decided to follow in the great blogging tradition of navel-gazing and whining about how life is harder for me than for anyone else.

Today we had a rather big time news event in town. The new health centre was launched. I went and took lots of pictures and interviewed the health minister, thinking perhaps the information might come in handy. I'd like to say it was a matter of "you can take the reporter out of the newsroom, but you can't..." or "old habits die hard" but by the time I had written up my notes I was half hoping the pitch I tossed out to CBCunlocked would turn out ot be a strike.

However. I did hand out lots of CMG bumf and hobnobbed with some of th usual suspects. I even harassed the premier who is sporting a rather nasty fat lip with stitches. Apparently hockey practice got a bit rough over the weekend.

This morning...in the run up to the BIG event Nunavut's health minister was interviewed by phone from Iqaluit by the only Inuit staff member still in the building, a manager. I did mention to her and to a few other mayors and notables that if people really want their regional programming back, they can show some solidarity with us by not crossing the picket line.

It's hard to be ticked at people who do, however. How can you ask them not to, when there is no other media outlet doing daily news and current affairs in the territory? It's not like she can go down the road to the CFRB studio instead. Which just shows to go why this lockout is harder on the North than anywhere else. (Just following in that great blogging tradition again)

Tomorrow we have invited people to join us on the picket line for a coffee at the time most people take their morning break. We've promised no speeches. Some of the mayors and reps from the inuit organisations have indicated they will come. I've ordered a vat of 40 cups of coffee and I've been worried that won't be enough. But if this weather keeps up...it may just be the three of us again. (There's that G-B-T again!)

Quik post before I hit the picket line.

Ike-the-bike woke up this morning with a new look.

Frosting.



That's Gene-the-snowmachine in the background. You can't see it, but under the cover, he's smiling. His day is coming!

Welcome snow! You make everything, even Ike, look so pretty!

(I'm trying to put a positive spin on this...)

Small, dead animals

We pulled out the windpants weeks ago.
But Ike-the-bike and I got halfway to the picket line
this morning when I realized my usual gloves were not going to be warm enough.
So I turned around to get these.










Yes folks, I'm pulling out the heavy-duty handgear.
These are the beaver mitts my family and friends all laughed at when I made my debut on The National's Road Stories from Rankin Inlet this spring.
I normally use these for snowmobiling. But hey, it WAS hovering around zero yesterday.
Maybe it's my circulation, not the weather. Betty tells me I should eat more caribou.

Others have told me I should turn these guys into mittens. Of course,they're not too keen on the idea.


Ok.
I admit, that last line was just a lame excuse to post pictures of my cats.

But YOU have to admit they are pretty cute, aren't they? And these days, we need all the cute we can get.

For those who've never met the boys before, that's Frank in the box...Quaq in the sleeping bag.

On a more serious note, anyone else notice the tone of the Sept 11 missives from both sides at the negotiating table?
I've been thinking for the last week both sides have been remarkably brief...and that both sides have refrained from commenting too much.
Now this morning we get this from the CBC...

"Unfortunately, there are approximately twenty issues still outstanding ... there are outstanding issues where the Corporation has proposed status quo or better on items like Annual Leave, Program Managers and Training and Professional Development, but our proposals have been rejected by the CMG."

And this from the CMG.

"Discussions continue to be constructive. However, there are significant challenges ahead, particularly in negotiations on employment status and layoff and recall. "

Sends shivers up my spine (or is that just the wind off Hudson Bay these days?)

I'm usually a pretty optimistic person...maybe even a bit naive (GREAT trait in a reporter, eh?) But now I'm beginning to think these guys who say it could be another month have a point (When I read a blog the other day that said it could be January, I had to put my hands over my eyes and start singing "You are my sunshine" to make all the nasty, blood-curdling thoughts go away. )

But I'm not taking it as hard as Charlie...

(I haven't decided if this photo is funny...or just in bad taste. Personally, I bust a gut every time I see it. )

Mother Corp...

(Loose Trans: "Bring back CBC's Inuktitut Programming")

Expanding on something I alluded to in a previous post...
I keep having this nagging, stomach-wrenching feeling that when all this LOCKOUT crap is over...CBC North is going to look very different, for those of us who DO come back.

Here's what's on my mind:
I've been able to find part-time work over the last few weeks. I know other colleagues in Nunavut have done the same, to make ends meet, and to keep from going a CRAZY.

If this drags out much longer and they're given the option to make their current contractual situations permanent...Why wouldn't they..?

The fact is...when we're looking for people to fill permanent jobs that have an Inuktitut requirement, it can take a long time to find the right candidate. And in the last year three people have left the CBC for jobs with Inuit organisations...and we were short one reporter to begin with. Making those jobs temporary would only make it harder to attract good candidates. So I'm sure, for management in the North, the fact that we're locked out over contracting out seems laughable. (Ditto for many of us for whom Northern Allowance and housing issues are probably the bigger issues.) I know of at least one colleague who is applying for permanent jobs.

I personally think the contracting out issue is important.

But on a day-to-day basis it's not something that's going to affect most of my colleagues with the Northern service. Some people might stick it out with the picket duty because they really do enjoy their jobs and they believe more contracting out, though not a threat to them personally, is a threat to the CBC. But many people are just going to look for greener pastures. Especially because this lockout just confirms what people suspect...That the big bosses in the South really DON'T give a flying rat's ass about who we are and what we do up here.

So even when we're back at work...the reality is...there will be some casualties.
And being back at work isn't going to be much fun for management or staff.

This is another one of those effects of the lockout that isn't even on the radar for those who created this situation.

(Robbed this one from a much more clevererer person's blog...)

Hewers of wood and haulers of water...

Charlie had to go to Arviat for a funeral this week. We sent him with a few copies of the petition. He sent back 12 pages full! That's over 200 signatures!

But with Charlie in Arviat, that leaves just me and Betty on the picket line.

We've been hearing that pickets in other cities have been putting in their hours by volunteering.
So we decided to put our own Rankin Inlet spin on that.
We figure...
A. Many of our listeners, the ones who really really really miss inuktitut programming, are elders
B. Elders love having fresh water from the Meliadine River, maybe even more than they love the CBC.
A+B = We can't bring them the CBC...so lets get water instead.

Let me tell you, it was rough. We had to put up with all this sunshine and scenery as we drove the 10 kms to the river.
Then we had to take our A-T-V's down this muddly little trail to a place where the river ran a bit deep so we could fill the water jugs. Of course the river itself was just sooo noisy. All that rushing, clear water.
We couldn't wait to get back to the dusty streets of Rankin Inlet. But we had to stop part way because we were so famished from
hauling all those gallons of water. And the onlything to eat was a field of blackberries, so ripe they stained our fingers.
It was rough, let me tell you.

Labour Day

Some thoughts on LABOUR Day.

The International Labour Organisation reports that over 200 million children under the age of 14 can be found at work.
And we're not talking paper routes for pocket money.
77 million child labourers are under the age of ten.
And more than one hundred million are working in conditions that are considered hazardous. That includes jobs in mines, underwater, or in confined spaces, and at jobs that require them to carry heavy loads, work with dangerous equipment, or where they can be subject to physical, emotional or sexual abuse.
1.8 million work in prostitution...or pornography.
More than 5 million are in forced or bonded labour.

Which all kind of makes our labour issues seem like a walk in the park.

Then there are all those people whose lives have been wiped out by Hurricane Katrina.

World Vision is one organisation that's helping out.
(They also support programs that deal directly with child labour in some countries...)

Didja get the memo?

From cbcontheline.ca

"Okay to be nice to pickets: CBC management.
CBC management has reversed a policy that ordered senior employees to avoid being friendly with their unionized colleagues during the lockout. "

Apparently our manager didn't get the original memo anyway. Every time she drives to or from the station she rolls down her window and sticks her head out and says "I love you guys. "

We love her too. Hey, the woman sewed an anorak for each of us for the Bowhead hunt. How can we NOT love her ?

This is all just so nuts!