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Attacks on our way of life are outrageous
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H ere we go again.
drivel by stating “…there’s broad agreement among economists that mines leave communities worse off economically. That’s despite the value extracted from mines and the high wages they pay.” To prove this they allege the following parade of horribles about mining. “Mining-dependent small communities and rural areas are at risk for the following social problems: Increased alcohol and substance abuse and the violence, morbidity, and mortality associated with it; Increased violent crime including physical and sexual assault; Increased pressure on law enforcement agencies because of substantial increases in citizens seeking police assistance in dealing with social problems; Increased presence of convicted felons including drug dealers and registered sex offenders; Undermining of Indigenous peoples’ and other existing residents’ ways of life and traditions; and Increased conflict among residents along income, employment, and racial lines as the community fragments under the pressure of substantial transience among workers and residents.” 0aPYXZ]P]PNPY_WdLMWZRRP]b]Z_P_SL__P^_TXZYd on the Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project in Anchorage included “…fears that Native women from villages in the region might be abused in the “man camps” of any proposed mines, and that truckers going through the region may float bottles of booze down river to villages that are dry, a form of bootlegging.”
Miners are bad people. Did you know this?
Have you heard that the people who oppose any and all mining are again using the most insidious and nastiest of fear tactics in order to stop mining in Alaska? They are attacking the people. They are attacking you, me and our families. This past spring, at the Prince of Wales Mining Symposium,theSoutheastAlaskaConservationCouncil gave a presentation entitled “The Social Impacts of 8TYTYRLYO?ZZW^QZ]0YRLRTYR8TYTYR.ZX[LYTP^ɮ4Y this talk, it alleged that “Prospecting and exploration can cause social divisions, criminalization, and violence in a community.” That mining itself leads to “…community division and breakdown, forced community displacement, loss of cultural identity, and disproportionate impacts on women.” The council even went further: “When hundreds of single men are brought into a local community to work at a mine, even if living at a mine camp, it often gives rise to bars, brothels, alcoholism, prostitution …” and that “Men sometimes bring home sexually transmitted diseases, which are more common in extractive areas,” they alleged. These hideous and unfounded allegations were recently echoed in a report entitled “The Social Costs of Mining on Rural Communities” published by opponents to Constantine’s Palmer Project near 3LTYP^,WL^VL?SP]P[Z]_OZ`MWP^OZbYZY>0,..ɪ^
The Alaska Miner
October 2019
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