One of the oft-tossed phrases on The Twitter is ‘first world problem.’ Don’t know if it has jumped the meme shark, but it consistently serves a vital tone-defining purpose by allowing a user to whinge freely while communicating some self-awareness. It’s a sly wink that in the grand scheme’o'things this croissant-less-cafe, super-long-supermarket-cue or obnoxious-TTC-seatmate is less tragedy, more inconvenience.
Two totally unrelated distinctly Canadian happenings over the summer have me thinking more about this phrase within the context of advocacy campaigns and public policy.
There is no shortage of interesting, well-researched, vibrant and thoughtful pieces written by political and tech bloggers on the CRTC hearings and the belief in ‘net neutrality’ – an issue that’s been close to my heart since the early aughts when interning at Heritage Canada and researching new media policies’ effects on our cultural industries. And while it pains me to say this, not to undermine the many passonate people devoting energy to covering the hearings…I think we’re dealing with a #firstworldproblem here.
So I wanted to raise another #firstworldproblem, since we’re sitting here comfortably online in our sheltered homes or offices, powered by hydro, enjoying the interwebs (throttled or not) into the political blogosphere – howabout this summer’s TWO elections happening among Canada’s aboriginal population? Any thoughts on the candidates campaign websites or the coverage or tools to monitor donations/events/promises? Thought not.
With total affectionate bias towards the writer, I strongly believe that this piece by Waub Rice best reflects how the AFN election is both important and flawed in moving forward on issues affecting the quality of life of our country’s on-reserve native population. Please do take a moment to read it to have a *glipse* of what it would be like growing up TODAY on-reserve across Canada where the speed of internet access is an unlikely topic of conversation.
Last month a blog post surfaced citing a very dated Stats Canada report (published 2004 using 00/01 datasets) calling this lack of internet access a ‘second digital divide,’ but mainly attributed off-reserve aboriginal Canadians’ rates of use to living in non-urban areas and tracking alongside non-aboriginal rural internet access trends.
Essentially, sadly, on and off reserve internet access rates and the overall lack of robust compelling information and potentially collaborative spaces online regarding the issues facing aboriginal Canadians, the composition of band councils, the election of chiefs and the AFN itself, is due to the lack of the basics for many – we’re not talking high speed/wireless/unthrottled internet – it’s electricity, computers and modems – and in many cases the communities have yet to be ‘wired’ themselves.
As the AFN process will undoubtedly evolve, as noted in today’s Globe’s encouraging piece here, internet access for Aboriginal Canadians will become much more important. Hopefully within the next five years we will see an infastrucutre that supports on-reserve and off-reserve natives to have access to all candidates’ information and tools with which they can raise issues, coordinate campaigns and offer the same level of engagement despite a community’s location.
The same tools used to communicate the challenges of first-past-the-post or advocate for electoral reform in provincial elections in Ontario and most recently BC will hopefully be used to engage Aboriginal Canadians in a discussion around building a more representative political system. That’s a #firstworldproblem worth devoting some energy, IMHO.
