My Top 5 Presentations in Northern Environments

Hey,

As a final blog for this years northern environment class I thought it would be a good idea to go through my top 5 Presentations of the course and follow up with some of my likes and dislikes of presenting techniques.

... in no particular order....

1. Tourism in Churchill

http://www.bon-voyage.co.uk/
destinations/churchill_holidays/

This presentation really opened up my already interested curiosity on travelling up North in Manitoba. The biggest pull for me, aside from seeing the polar bears, would be the chance to swim with the beluga whales! I talked about swimming with humpback whales in Tonga in one of my earlier posts and believe I would take the opportunities again in a second to jump back into the water to swim with such graceful animals.


Check out this great website on tourism in Churchill for more information! http://everythingchurchill.com/

2. Inuit Mythology & The Inuit Spirit

These two presentations both touched on different areas of the same subject. What I felt really caught my interest was the use of storytelling in both presentations that really helped to catch our attention. I enjoyed the comparisons to Christianity and the ability to look beyond what it had changed into and to understand why things have changes over the time. I do believe Ill forever be afraid of Mahaha, who will tickle me to death with a large grinning smile on his face.

3. Northern Towns

We had a couple opportunities to look at more remore Northern North American towns from Rebecca and Paxton. I thought this was a great way to experience and learn about towns we normally wouldn't take a glance at.  I've learnt through many of my travels that these remote locations can often host some of the most genuine, interesting people and create some of the most memorable experiences to a traveler. I was proud to hear about places like Pond Inlet that are doing their best to adopt with the modern world and finding ways to overcome their new found difficulties.

4. Grey Wolves, Tourism and Zoo's

http://travelmanitoba.com/default.asp?page=200690

One of the best ingredients to a successful presentation is the ability to pull from personal experiences. Karlyn's presentation on the grey wolves was a perfect example how she can use her own travels up north and apply them into her presentation. This is something I try to acheive throug my work as well. I attribute most of my success to the places that I have been to and what I have experienced. For example, my presentation on storytelling I actually pulled a photo of my own backpack and used it to describe a different type of story rather than traditional written stories.
Another aspect that gave her a great presentation was the thought provoking replies and discussion that sprouted from her presentation. Everyone had something to say about animals in zoo's after her presentation.


5. Invertebrates

Jessica reminded us not to forget our smallest living creates up North. She was very successful with the use of humor and a well researched topic to introduce us to the most common and diverse biodiversity in the arctic. She told the class about a subject that no one really knew anything about, and had us all leaving the room wanting to learn more.

Best and Worst Techniques

http://wallpaperswide.com/dreamcatcher-wallpapers.html

Powerful images was key to a good presentation. Everyone can still remember the video of the arctic fox slowly listening under the snow and gracefully diving head first to attack its prey.  Madison's choice of topic left everyone remembering the giant images or ice arches in the form of a hotel which makes an aesthetically pleasing architectural wonder.  Dominic's dream catcher project also became an image shaped into everyone's mind. He also had the advantage of taking a piece of culture that most people in Manitoba know a little about and might even have hanging around the house to pull in our curiosity.

Some of the worst presentations in this class were mostly due to laziness.  Creating excuses is the worst way to begin a presentation, I don't want to hear about how you stayed up till 5 o'clock last night getting everything ready, you should have had it done before hand.   We all knew starting the presentations that we would have active learning exercises.  I'm a little disappointed that I went first and took the quiz idea.  There wasn't too much deviation for most learning exercises, and I don't think the active learning really helped anyone but created more awkward situations.  The last thing I'll tell you about that I didn't like about the presentations was the weeks topics. We went through at the beginning of the class and chose different themes for the weeks, and for the most part these themes were ignored. This became pretty annoying after we learned about different animals week after week.

To end on a positive note, I feel like everyone in the class enjoyed the atmosphere in which we were all learning. I feel like this is one of the classes that most people take a little more pride into, and can learn in a different way. It has also taken my interest in doing more presentations. It would be interesting to use the skills that I've learnt in this course and apply them in different situations.


Thanks for reading my blogs! Hope you enjoyed them.

- Ben

Relationships in the North

 The Two Spirited People of the North
After discussing how far north is Northern Environments with the class in our early lectures we decided it was up to our choosing.  This week was suppose to be focused on relationships in the North. We got to learn about women in the North, family relations, and about northern communities.

Not discussed in our lectures was a more important issue hitting our own city here in Manitoba. Just reading the paper recently, homophobia has taken a center stage in our media. From the opposition of Bill 18 in Steinbach, to business owners being run out of town in Morris, to homes being vandalized in Winnipeg.

http://www.dancingtoeagle
spiritsociety.org/twospirit.php

What type of relationship do we have here in Manitoba with the LGBTTQ community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Two-Spirited and Queer)?

If we look back into our history, we have taken a backwards approach to this community in regards to gay rights (or human rights). An identity that many people don't know the meaning of in todays culture is a two-spirited person. People who identify themselves as two-spirited were put into cross gender roles. Men would take on the responsibilities of women, and women the responsibilities of men.  Men would marry other men, and women to other women. These people were believed to have two spirits, that of a man and that of a woman.

 In Native american culture, before European settlement, a two-spirited person was regarded as gifted, and as a teacher.  In over 155 different tribes across North America cross gender identity has been recorded and were accepted by their community, honoured and revered. They were treated as visionaries, healers, medicine people, nannies of orphans, and caregivers. They were given the respect that any human deserves.

Since European colonization we have taken a backwards approach with our spirited people of North America. They have been alienated from their aboriginal identity being viewed as perverted, nontraditional  and untrustworthy loosing their place in society.

(To learn more about the Two - Spirited people in North America, go to http://www.dancingtoeaglespiritsociety.org/twospirit.php.)

Canada has been one of the worlds front runners in regards to gay rights having same sex activity legal since 1969, recognition of same sex unions, nationwide same sex marriage accepted, adoption, able to serve openly in the military, and bans against all anti gay discrimination. But recently our society has not been as accepting as what is written on our human rights act.

If you want to learn more about Gay Rights in Canada, e-mail me for a PDF of a paper I wrote on the subject for an international development project.  

I can only hope that our children learn to become more accepting and can learn from traditional views of two - spirited people in our communities so stories such as a 14 year old boy being bullied in his school for trying to develop a resource center for homosexual people can stop.  So families are no longer being run out of town due to homophobia and so that hate slurs will no longer be accepted to be written on someones home. Relationships of acceptance of others are what we need to be building in today's society, and we can use and learn from our past to develop this.

Sports, Games and Politics Week

    What a busy week!  I slowly rolled into our Northern Environments class Tuesday just in time to miss the presentations, and more importantly, to miss the Starburst prize at the end of the last presentation.  I came in well rested and excited for Thursday's class, and got to learn about Inuit Clothing, Dog Sledding, and Arctic Sports. One of the most important themes I learnt from the combined presentations is patience in Northern Environments.

http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/
scripts/imagedownload.php
?accessNumber=M976.148&Lang=1&
imageID=269025

    Our first presentation went through all the different parts of an Inuits traditional wardrobe from their mukluks to the inuinnaq. After listing through all the different articles of clothing, it really portrayed a sense of quality and their persistence to producing these beautiful works of art.   For the inuinnaq, or their dancing cap,  Autumn told us how it contained a band of loon skin that would give the person who wore it a sense of the loons speed and vision.   The amount of detail put into all the articles of clothing really showed patience from the Inuit women who would construct these, and from the men who would hunt for the skins. 

     To learn more about Inuit clothing, check out the McCord Museum's article on Inuit clothing and construction at;

 http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/explore.php?Lang=1&tableid=11&tablename=theme&elementid=70__true&contentlong. (The article comes with some very reliable sources!)

   Our next presentation seemed to fit a little better with the weeks topic of sports and games.  We talked about Dog Sledding.  One of the more interesting facts I learnt about dog sleds, is the amount of patience that comes into play when the elements are not always agreeing with a dog sledder. We learnt that safety comes first for the dogs, and that running in thick, soft snow or on hard cold ice can do damage to a dog.  To continue a travel through soft snow, the dog sled driver will trek ahead of the pack with snow shoes, and help compact the ground to make it safe for the dogs.   This would make going a short distance take a lot of patience for the team. 

http://www.westcanadatours.com/dogsled_tours/dogsled_7.html

   Competitive dog sledding is a sport seen most popularly in the arctic regions of Canada, USA, Russia and some of Europe.  I found a race in Cannington Ontario with a 10,000 $ prize to the fastest team. They also expanded it into a festival, showcasing traditional Metis culture, ice sculptures, and live music.   I was also happy to see that they have the dogs safety as a priority and cancelled the race this year due to poor trails.  Have a look at the Cannington Dog Sled Race website at http://www.canningtondogsledraces.com/index.html

   To end things off for the day, we had Mario show us a very entertaining introduction into Arctic Sports. After seeing a video of two young men attempting to endure the pain of ripping each others ear off all I could think of is that these people had way too much time on their hands to come up with these games.  I mentioned patience a couple times already and what did you expect the Inuit to do while being so patient creating their own clothing, or wasting some time between a snow storm with their dog pack - They play their own sports!  I found a website describing the 11 events in Yellowknife's 2008 Arctic Winter Sports competition. Check them all out here, http://www.awg2008.org/sports/arctic-sports.asp

  

   Would you want to participate in these Arctic Winter Games ?

   Check out the website for the Arctic Winter Games here at http://www.arcticwintergames.org/

Blog Review

 Over the past couple months I've been attempting to write a blog every week about the presentations or the topics that are discussed in my Northern Environment class.  I think my biggest challenge to myself is actually getting the writing done weekly.  For me, writing is something that can't be forced.  I need motivation to get into it, and I need to be in the right mindset to keep the words flowing through me.  I've only touched blogging once before and I felt that it was unsuccessful.  

 A couple similar hobbies to blogging I've done is writing a travel journal and creating scrapbooks.  I have notebooks full of journals that go into little details of my travel experiences.  I've already used them as a resource to remember a few things from my past travels.  I am treating this blogging experience as a bit of a mix of the two when I can, using photos and old stories to tie into points of discussion.  

   What do bloggers actually need to accomplish to become known as a successful blogger? I found a website that lists 26 essential elements for creating a better blog.  You can find that at http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-essentials-for-blogging-success-what-you-need-to-know/. 

      

 I thought it was important enough for me to focus on just two elements, building relationships and design.  At the moment I can only see myself having 1 strong relationship with a reader that goes through my blogs.  The article I linked early suggests building relationships with other bloggers.  For this blog that I'm working on, working together with the other bloggers in my class could help re shape how I decide to do my blogging. It can help me improve what I am doing by seeing what works for other people.  And then it also just helps me to expand my audience.   I'm also assuming that the other bloggers in the class are discussing similar topics as I, so just being able to use each other as a link or resource for more information could really help and improve our blogging community. 

http://smthree.wordpress.com
/2011/11/15/why-do-we-use-social-media/

   Another relationship I haven't yet established with anyone yet is with comments.   Social media has been great for allowing people to voice their opinions and allow for others to react to their thoughts with words of their own.  Just having people ask questions to my blogs can help me build stronger relationships, it can help me bring back readers and hopefully they continue to come back. 

  I think the most important element to a good blog is going to be design.  The design in my opinion shows how professional looking a blog really looks.  It instantly tells the reader if the person writing cares about what they are writing, or if they are just doing it as an assignment and going through the process.  Taking the time to have a background photo, and using titles and captions, finding informative links and using personal photographs can easily help to improve the quality of a blog.    I've been having difficulty with blogger.com, I am often not able to place photographs exactly where I would like them . I'm not able to adjust the size to exactly how big I would like it.   

  Looking back at my blogs, I believe my strongest blog's have been those that include personal stories and photographs.  I think my most interesting blog to date has been my Swimming Amongst the Whales. I used a lot of photographs to help showcase my stories and pull readers in.  One way I can improve my blogs is the use of photo captions when possible.  It allows for the quick fact that can get the reader to go into the rest of my blogs.  

http://ingridsnotes.wordpress.com
/2012/09/02/close-to-the-the-end/

  One part of the blogging experience I haven't yet gotten the hang of yet is how to end a blog.  When I'm writing these blogs I feel like I could be having a (one sided) conversation with anyone who wants to read this, but eventually I just leave the conversation.  I tried just ending it with a simple 'Thanks for Reading', but I don't think that feels natural for a blog.  My last submission I ended it with a question, which can help get additional comments eventually.  I think starting the blogs with a question can also help with getting more comments. 

  So to end this blog I will ask you...  What do you think I can do to improve my blog?? What do you like about my blog, and what do you dislike ??  

  

Northern Environments Poster Presentation Week

   This past week, our little white classroom filled its walls with unique, colourful, and informative posters covering topics from wildlife, mineral deposits, to unique cultural events or stories.  The experience allowed for a quick learning experience to everyone involved as we circled the rooms posters and asked questions to those people standing by their topics.  Posters ranged from professionally designed, and state of the art printing, to the simple hand crafted yet equally if not more alluring posters.

 

   I contributed to the presentations this week with an expansion of my in class presentation on Storytelling in Scandinavia.  I specifically looked at danish poet and author, Hans Christian Andersen, and used a little game to highlight fairy tales Andersen has written and how his social environment and natural environment has shaped the themes he uses in many of his fairy tales. After receiving feedback from my earlier presentation, I heard that many people could recognise a lot of the fairy tales I talked about.  So I challanged everyone
visiting my poster to try and name all 10 fairy tales.   I feel my challenge either excited people, or scared them away a little bit.  With a little push nearly everyone was able to guess The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling.  I was also able to introduce people to new stories, such as The Flying Trunk and The Travelling Companion.  One of the main themes I suggested was the trend for Danish residents to travel off to new lands.  Early Scandinavian Vikings were very well known to travel to distant lands as far as Russia and Newfoundland.  This is also seen through Andersen's stories such as The Flying Trunk, where he sails off into the sky to Turkey to find a new life for himself.  The Travelling Companion is a story of a man who goes on a journey to find a new beginning for himself. It can also be seen in The Little Mermaid as she literally goes away from her home under the sea to a new land.

   Best of all, I had fun with my poster.  I wanted to make mine a little different than what I was expecting everyone else to be doing. I made it interactive, so it can help keep people around the poster for a little longer. This worked in my favour, when I saw someone really looking into my poster or browsing through the stories and resources I brought, it allowed time for me to run over and talk to them a little more, and make sure they got my handout with all my personal information, a smaller photo of my poster, a link to this blog, and just some extra space if they wanted to write something about my poster.

   The first day we had half the class presenting, and half the class viewing. I was one of the people presenting for the hour, but because of a planned timeline I had people rushing through my already short presentation and interactive game. I think the time could be best used if there wasn't a 3 -5 minute timeline to sit at each presentation, and the class didn't have to go in a circle to view all the posters, but people could move around freely to posters they want to view.  I think this would allow the viewer to see the posters they really wanted to see, and creates a challenge for the presenter to come up with unique ways to attract the viewers into their topic.  I also had a couple gaps during the day where I didn't have a viewer.  I thought this was great, it gave me a second to grab something from my bag, and then I started to ask questions and listen to the presenters going on next to me. Getting rid of the order we established the first day would also mean that I wont be repeating my self over and over to new people, but I can have a more natural conversation and continue to expand it with new people listening in.

http://annohiosaysgetsocial.wordpress.com
/2010/01/29/i-have-happy-feet/

   The second day we got rid of all the order, but also got rid of the mass majority of the presenters.  So it really became the class moving across the room looking quickly at the posters and trying to write down a few lines of critique.  The posters I really remembered from being a viewer this day were with presenters.  They were able to pull the interesting facts from their posters that I probably wouldn't have taken the time to read if they were not present. This made it interesting for me to ask additional questions and to really get into their presentations.   A couple of the posters I still don't understand what they were for. For example, one poster was of three penguins and two of them were bleeding.  The poster may have done a good job at drawing someone in, to ask questions, but there was no resources available to figure out what the poster meant.  Had there been a presenter they could explain what was going on with the penguins or if they had a handout that could direct the viewer to a website that describes the topic.  I'm left thinking there is a underground penguin fighting community that is causing these cute animals harm.

  I think the presentations this week were mostly a positive experience, but I still think there is room for improvement for future years doing a poster presentation week.  I think the most effective and memorable posters were posters that were actually accompanied by a presenter.  This allowed for someone to really highlight an interesting fact that I may not have read on the poster if they didn't draw my attention to it.   More time would need to be available if we were expected to see all the posters.  I really did enjoy the experience learning about everyone's research, and could genuinely tell when someone had a real interest in their topic opposed to someone just doing an assignment.

Did you try and guess all the ten fairy tales on my poster??

Territorial Disputes and Mineral Exploitation

  

   I've really only recently discovered that there is a major seaway connecting Atlantic and Pacific Oceans called the Northwest Passage.  I find it stupid, for lack of a better term, that countries other than Canada would believe the passage be an international strait or transit passage that would allow free passage.  With our changing climate this Northwest Passage has become more accessible throughout the year with less ice in the way for more navigable waters.  Now other countries are claiming that this water should not belong to just Canada but for any international ships to be connecting through.    This simple photo really shows that the straight goes right between Canada's land. I don't really understand how there can be a dispute about this.

http://www.athropolis.com/graphics/arcticmap-nwpass.gif

    What I found really interesting about the idea of the Northwest Passage being considered an international straight, would be the house keeping involved with it being international.   I've recently been interested in articles on the Pacific Oceans new twenty first century garbage island. (You can read more about the island at http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/what-is-the-great-pacific-ocean-garbage-patch if interested.)  This large accumulation of garbage is a result of everyone using the pacific ocean and adding their waste. If Canada allows the Northwest Passage as an international straight, who would be responsible for cleaning up problems that could result, such as a large garbage island.  Because the water access is in Canada, this will effect us primarily, and will be our problem to fix.  This is why we should be able to restrict access to the passage.  Although I'm curious if Argentina has attempted to restrict access between Atlantic and Pacific, or if South Africa restricts any access between the Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean and Atlantic Ocean.  

  Other land claims make more sense to me. There has been  land disputes between Canada and the Kingdom of Denmark (Greenland) between islands that were not marked as either Canadian or Danish.  Hans Island is a good example of this.  My favourite part of this land dispute is how the countries are dealing with it.  Our Danish neighbors began by pitching their flag on the island with a bottle of their finest shnappes (I'm hoping it was Aalborg Akvavit, my favourite!) at the base. The Canadians replied to this by leaving their flag, and a bottle of Canadian Club.   I think this mode of land claims seems to be much more entertaining than bombing either side.  To read more about this land dispute visit the website at http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/hansIsland/background.asp.

   I'm thinking that this last land claim will be settled more easily because it doesn't hold the weight of natural resources that seem to be the root cause for territorial disputes over the north.  If this were up to the traditional Inuit people I'm sure they would agree that no one really owns the land, but we are all apart of it. Unfortunately this is not how the world solves its issues. 

http://www.damianijewellers.com/canadian_diamonds.asp

  Luckily for Canada we have recently found a new valuable mineral we have been extracting.  Diamond mining in Northern Canada has really only started since in the 1980's which started with one man who spent his last dollars on a chartered plane up north and the dream to strike it rich.  Canada has become the third most valuable country in the world for Diamond mines. To learn more about Canadian Diamonds, visit the website at http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/diamonds/

  Unfortunately for the miners Canada also has very strict environmental laws protecting the wildlife and landscape up north as well.  Pros and Cons can be weighed in the diamond mining business including giving jobs to Northern Aboriginals that allows them to support their traditional lifestyles and to help buy equipment to adapt and change with our growing populations.  Major negatives to the diamond mining operations include the large scale contamination to water, and the displacement of migration patters and habitat for wildlife.  I found an older article from 2006 in which first nations people claimed diamond miners to be causing devastating problems to their communities.  This makes me question whether Canada's environmental laws are really protecting Canadians as much as they should be. Read more at http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2006/12/08/conflict-diamond.html

  Another issue were going to be looking out for is the land and territory disputes in the North over resources. I found some more info on territitorial disputes between Canada, the U.S., Norway, Russia and Denmark at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/06/arctic-resources-territorial-dispute and http://individual.utoronto.ca/seva/on_thin_ice.pdf

Northern Lifestyles

Maggie Noble, 
http://pinterest.com/pin/6192518207547027/

   Our northern lifestyles lesson couldn't have come at a better time than along side Winnipeg's Festival du Voyageur.  The festival has been present in Winnipeg for over 50 years, and celebrates the 'joie de vivre' of the original French Canadian fur trades who helped establish the Red River Colony.  I was told by one of my elders that the festival was originally put on in the city because there was nothing else going on, and it was needed to highlight the community to celebrate their culture here in Winnipeg winters.  The festival showcases traditional French Canadian food, drinks music, traditional clothing, music and culture.  Our French Canadian culture is really a great way to showcase our Northern Lifestyle to the rest of the world, as we head out to drink caribou in an ice cup while observing massive ice sculptures and listening to traditional music.  For more information on the festival check out their website at http://festivalvoyageur.mb.ca/

Liza Bo,
http://pinterest.com/pin/237846424041562852/

   In our class this week we got to learn about an even more electrifying topic, the Northern Lights.  The northern lights, or aurora borealis, is something known to anyone living in a Northern lifestyle.  They have been interpreted in many different ways.  One interesting fact that Angela told us about was that the Inuit thought that the Northern Lights brought a warm temperature along with them, but the Norwegians believed it brought colder temperatures.   Both these cultures were from very different climate regions, so maybe its possible that they were both correct.  Another interesting idea was that whistling can attract the northern lights and that clapping will send them away according to the Inuit. I used to be able to see the northern lights all the time, here in Winnipeg. They were dancing in the sky just in my backyard.  But over the past few years they seem to be more hiding or going elsewhere.  I'm curious if the amount of city light pollution has made it impossible to see the Northern Lights in my area of the city now. I found a good website to learn more about the Northern Lights at http://www.northernlightscentre.ca/northernlights.html.

   Other presentations this week included hunting techniques from Joe, and ice fishing from Jesse.   I found it really interesting that people in traditional Northern Environments can support their families on the land.  I feel that if I was put up North and told I can't use my credit cards to support myself, then I would probably end up going hungry. I find it hard to understand supporting the industry of hunting and trapping. If we're hunting the deer or the seals, then what are other carnivorous animals eating?  Living in the city, I know and understand that the large majority of meat I eat are from farms.  So why would there be a need to go out to kill animals, when a farmer can do it all for me. I feel that for city persons, hunting has become just a sport.  I myself enjoy sitting and fishing on the ice. I'm curious how traditional northern lifestyles are going to change as towns become to large and can't be supported on just the work of hunters and gatherers.  There is already a large need for supplied and canned foods to be brought up to the North.  Is it possible to begin more organised farming techniques in place of hunting up in the North.  I found an interesting project going on for sustainable hunting tourism going on in Northern Europe back in 2009.  To read more on the topic go to http://www.northernperiphery.eu/en/projects/show/&tid=9 or http://www.northernperiphery.eu/files/archive/Downloads/Project_Publications/9/Brochure%20in%20English.pdf. I like that the northern countries are working together in this project to help support the development of sustainable hunting practices up north. 

 
   Our last couple of of presentations helped us really understand a couple of northern town lifestyles. What I found really interesting is that there is some pretty good incentives for going up north as a tourist.  One of my bigger travel items is to head up to Churchill to visit the polar bears, and go snorkeling with the beluga whales.  I also learnt about the tundra buggy that allows for a unique living experience in the North. Check out the towns website at http://www.churchill.ca/ for more information.  The second town that we looked at was the proclaimed 'Jewel of the North'.  Pond Inlet has a 95 percent Inuit population of 1500 people living on the Northern Tip of Baffin island. These people are not necessarily looking to stick to their traditional lifestyles, but to adapt to a changing world in the North.  To me this sounds exactly what they should be doing.  But there is always a fine line between adapting with the world, and loosing too much of their own culture. So I hope that this small town can find a balance that works for them.  

    One of the more interesting and controversial problems occurring in the North has to do with the high food prices.  If you don't know much about this, then feel free to read this article on Nunavut residents protesting the high food prices; http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2012/06/09/north-nunavut-food-price.html.  My heart goes out to any one stuck in a bad situation, in which they cannot afford to have milk, or proper nutritional items.  But I think the high food prices are there for a reason.  These people live in more remote areas and if they can't support themselves off the land or with their professions then maybe they shouldn't be living in such a remote area.  I'm curious if the government offers an option to people who cannot afford to live in these conditions.
... then again, if someone has 35 dollars to buy pogo sticks or 29 dollars on cheese whiz , I don't think they are doing so bad up north. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/06/08/nunavut-food-hunger-protest_n_1581485.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2012/05/16/north-nunavut-food-security.html

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674photo_the_cost_of_food/


I would go for the Fruit Platter, and keep it in my year long out door freezer, called permafrost.


Thanks for reading!