Post by Okwes on Oct 12, 2006 14:30:09 GMT -5
Poor reject oil gift over 'devil' insult By Jeannette J. Lee
Associated Press
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska �" In Alaska's native villages, the punishing
winter cold is already coming through 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.
[Image] James Mason, Associated Press Ron Hunnicutt, right, fills a
55-gallon drum with heating oil for David Sheidt in Kotzebue, Alaska,
one of the villages that has accepted the Venezuelan oil gift. And
yet a few villages are refusing 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."
Nelson Lagoon residents pay more than $5 a gallon for oil �"
or at least $300 a month per household �" to heat their homes
along the wind-swept coast of the Bering Sea, where temperatures can dip
to minus-15. About one-quarter of the 70 villagers are looking for work,
in part because Alaska's salmon fishing industry has been hit hard by
competition from fish farms.
The donation to Alaska's native villages has focused attention on
the rampant poverty and high fuel prices in a state that is otherwise
awash in oil �" and oil profits. In 2005, 86 percent of Alaska's
general fund, or $2.8 billion, came from oil from the North Slope.
The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association is a native nonprofit
organization that would have handled the heating oil donation on behalf
of 291 households in Nelson Lagoon, Atka, St. Paul and St. George. It
rejected the offer because of the insults Chavez has hurled at Bush.
[Image] Associated Press The impoverished Alaskan village of Nelson
Lagoon, above, and three other villages have declined to take money from
Venezuela for heating oil because of the insults Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez hurled at President Bush. Residents of Nelson Lagoon pay
more than $5 a gallon for oil �" or at least $300 a month per
household �" to heat their homes in the wind-swept community.
Chavez called Bush "the devil" in a speech to the United Nations last
month. He has also called the president a terrorist and denounced the
war in Iraq.
Dimitri Philemonof, president and chief executive of the
association, said accepting the aid would be "compromising ourselves."
"I think we have some duty to our country, and I think it's loyalty," he
said.
Over the past two years, Citgo, the Venezuelan government's
Texas-based oil subsidiary, has given millions of gallons of discounted
heating oil to the poor in several states and cities �" including
New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine
�" in what is widely seen as an effort by Chavez to embarrass and
irritate the U.S. government and make himself look good.
Maine Gov. John Baldacci, who approved an agreement last winter to
buy discounted oil, said he had no plans this year to seek a similar
arrangement. In Boston, a City Council member wants a landmark Citgo
sign near Fenway Park taken down and replaced with an American flag. In
Florida, a lawmaker asked the state to cancel Citgo's exclusive contract
to sell fuel at turnpike service stations.
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."
A spokesman for Gov. Frank Murkowski, John Manly, said the
governor believes Chavez's donation is a ploy to undermine Americans'
faith in their government. But he said it is up to each village to make
its own decision.
"It seems like a very strange irony that we produce the oil and
yet every year there seems to be a chronic problem in getting the fuel
to people that need it," Manly said.
Joan Eddy, principal and teacher at Nelson Lagoon's school, said
most buildings in town were erected 30 to 40 years ago, which makes them
pretty old, considering how they get battered by the constant 20-25 mph
wind coming off the ocean. Their heating systems are aging, too.
She noted the fuel barge is late arriving this year, and said
residents are turning on their furnaces for only a few hours in the
morning and at night.
"We're conserving as much as we can because we are concerned. It
looks like it's going to be a snowy winter and cold," she said.
Associated Press
www.topix.net/r/08BM8Ca8mRbRcWeEwmnFx8Q=2FgcmTRREB5gjIOU=2BHLJuQG\
YcTqAL7RaY89ITi9ghnNw8TwxQWNKiYAe9jhAx77UJkbRTVRy0U7BKKktGSBN2A=3D
<http://www.topix.net/r/08BM8Ca8mRbRcWeEwmnFx8Q=2FgcmTRREB5gjIOU=2BHLJuQ\
GYcTqAL7RaY89ITi9ghnNw8TwxQWNKiYAe9jhAx77UJkbRTVRy0U7BKKktGSBN2A=3D>
ANCHORAGE, Alaska �" In Alaska's native villages, the punishing
winter cold is already coming through 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.
[Image] James Mason, Associated Press Ron Hunnicutt, right, fills a
55-gallon drum with heating oil for David Sheidt in Kotzebue, Alaska,
one of the villages that has accepted the Venezuelan oil gift. And
yet a few villages are refusing 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."
Nelson Lagoon residents pay more than $5 a gallon for oil �"
or at least $300 a month per household �" to heat their homes
along the wind-swept coast of the Bering Sea, where temperatures can dip
to minus-15. About one-quarter of the 70 villagers are looking for work,
in part because Alaska's salmon fishing industry has been hit hard by
competition from fish farms.
The donation to Alaska's native villages has focused attention on
the rampant poverty and high fuel prices in a state that is otherwise
awash in oil �" and oil profits. In 2005, 86 percent of Alaska's
general fund, or $2.8 billion, came from oil from the North Slope.
The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association is a native nonprofit
organization that would have handled the heating oil donation on behalf
of 291 households in Nelson Lagoon, Atka, St. Paul and St. George. It
rejected the offer because of the insults Chavez has hurled at Bush.
[Image] Associated Press The impoverished Alaskan village of Nelson
Lagoon, above, and three other villages have declined to take money from
Venezuela for heating oil because of the insults Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez hurled at President Bush. Residents of Nelson Lagoon pay
more than $5 a gallon for oil �" or at least $300 a month per
household �" to heat their homes in the wind-swept community.
Chavez called Bush "the devil" in a speech to the United Nations last
month. He has also called the president a terrorist and denounced the
war in Iraq.
Dimitri Philemonof, president and chief executive of the
association, said accepting the aid would be "compromising ourselves."
"I think we have some duty to our country, and I think it's loyalty," he
said.
Over the past two years, Citgo, the Venezuelan government's
Texas-based oil subsidiary, has given millions of gallons of discounted
heating oil to the poor in several states and cities �" including
New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine
�" in what is widely seen as an effort by Chavez to embarrass and
irritate the U.S. government and make himself look good.
Maine Gov. John Baldacci, who approved an agreement last winter to
buy discounted oil, said he had no plans this year to seek a similar
arrangement. In Boston, a City Council member wants a landmark Citgo
sign near Fenway Park taken down and replaced with an American flag. In
Florida, a lawmaker asked the state to cancel Citgo's exclusive contract
to sell fuel at turnpike service stations.
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."
A spokesman for Gov. Frank Murkowski, John Manly, said the
governor believes Chavez's donation is a ploy to undermine Americans'
faith in their government. But he said it is up to each village to make
its own decision.
"It seems like a very strange irony that we produce the oil and
yet every year there seems to be a chronic problem in getting the fuel
to people that need it," Manly said.
Joan Eddy, principal and teacher at Nelson Lagoon's school, said
most buildings in town were erected 30 to 40 years ago, which makes them
pretty old, considering how they get battered by the constant 20-25 mph
wind coming off the ocean. Their heating systems are aging, too.
She noted the fuel barge is late arriving this year, and said
residents are turning on their furnaces for only a few hours in the
morning and at night.
"We're conserving as much as we can because we are concerned. It
looks like it's going to be a snowy winter and cold," she said.