Welfare:

I agree - when it comes to each individual there will be winners and losers when welfare is reduced. Here in Denmark with a relatively high proportion of individuals under the age of 60 cut off from the labor market for various reasons, and relatively high social welfare, a lot of effort goes into separating the really weak from the lazy. Maybe someone should suggest a similar approach to the FN chiefs.

It's a well established fact that people don't get more healthy or happy because of generous welfare. On the contrary - if people are otherwise healthy enough to work, a generous welfare only takes away the incentive to work, and the sense of purpose and self respect that comes along with it.

Here a lot of lazy people get by very well on the relatively generous welfare, and the political consensus in recent years has (among other things) been to cut back on welfare to push these people into jobs for the benefit of the society as a whole, but specificly also because it frees up public funds to increase welfare to the really weak, who are unable to work no matter how much they are pushed.

I respect the fact that the FN chiefs fight for good living conditions for the really weak people, but they should also be very aware that with development comes job opportunities, and if the natives are not ready or willing to take the jobs themselves, then the jobs (and money) will go to oursiders. And for those that are able to work, generous welfare is a negative incentive. Job training should be the premise for keeping the high welfare, as noone prosper in the long run from handouts.

Drug abuse:

On the subject of drug abuse, I very much agree with Gerwin that the availability of drugs doesn't create addicts - but I would like to add that I find the whole logic behind the argument that a road creates more addicts, false.

If the FN chiefs are unhappy with the fact that there are too many addicts in their communities, I would take them more seriously if they would do something about the problem themselves. I'm thinking about the supply of drugs... These are fly-in communities hundreds of kilometers from the nearest road. What I don't understand is, how does the local pusher get the drugs in? It's flown in like all other supplies, of course. Okay, how much cargo is flown in daily to a community of 250 people. Probably not more than a few dedicated people could go through on a daily basis. So if the chiefs as the authority of their communities really wanted to do something about drug abuse in their communities, they could probably have stopped or significantly reduced the flow many years ago. My question is, do anyone know of such action taken by the FN communities themselves?? Another thing that defies logic to me is, that in an isolated society with many addicts, anyone must more or less know who the pusher is. So if it's so easy to identify the pusher, then why hasn't the pusher been thrown in jail a long time ago??

I'm not being a saint here, but if I was the leader of an isolated community of only 250 people (of which at least 50 are children), I would able to reduce the flow of drugs significantly within a relatively short timespan - and given the opportunity, I would bet all my NOT shares on that :-).

The thing is that it's impossible to control everything in large open cities like Copenhagen or Amsterdam, but an isolated community of only e.g. 250 people can be micro managed. Everytning can be controlled if you have the proper authority to do so, and hence it's only a matter of having the will to do so - and all it takes is effort!

So the fact that the drug problems have been allowed to grow and escalate is, in my opinion, sadly a testimony to the apathy of the chiefs, and their lack of leadership for the good of the people in their communities.

When added to that, that it will probably be 2 years from a road is announced until the trucks full of drugs arrive, the chiefs could impress the hell out of me by putting and end to the drug problems before that time - so they wouldn't have to blame progress for the unhappiness of their people.

Sorry if I'm being hard here, but I'm really struggling with the logic.

Best regards DRA