Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 12, 2014, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A11 T HERE is something particularly hurtful when one of the most important cultural institutions in Winnipeg invites Orientalism, fetishization and stereotyping in the name of charity. This is what is happening with the Winnipeg Art Gallery's upcoming Big in Japan Art & Soul Gala, where attendees are encouraged to " throw on a kimono and celebrate everything Japanese," " embrace their inner ninja" and " dress in theme or cocktail attire," with the reminder to " keep it in good taste." I'll mention that these descriptions come from an edited version; an earlier narrative also referenced " geisha girls," the Yakuza, and David Suzuki, a Canadian public figure. In just the last three months, yellowface has been in our face in a number of ways. Katy Perry's " geisha" performance at the American Music Awards in November was called " problematic" but " unsurprising" by racialicious. com . The creators of How I Met Your Mother apologized in January for what they called a " silly and unabashedly immature homage to kung fu." And just this week, followers of # notyourasiansidekick , led by writer and activist Suey Park, have taken on SNL for the sketch- comedy show's repeated use of yellowface, most recently in the horrifying character portrayed by Taran Killam on Feb. 1. Intention does not matter, as we are reminded every Halloween when someone dresses up as their favourite character from Orange is the New Black , or whatever. Asian cultures continue to be an endless resource for cultural appropriation; our various traditions ( old and new) are reduced, consumed and exoticized out of context ( the WAG invitation boasts a drink called " samurai- sword shooters"). These images ignore the struggles of Asian- Canadian and Asian- American activists who have worked for decades to resist this kind of cultural tourism. Though not the intention of the Art & Soul fundraiser, the circulation of stereotypes such as these often results in the marginalization of Asian- Canadians; despite our diversities in ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality, stereotypes are used to read us as a homogenous mass of forever- foreigners in our own Canadian cities. These decontextualized images also perpetuate dangerous stereotypes that see Asian- Canadian women as submissive and obedient " geishas," a fetishistic representational tradition that can be directly linked to the persistence of sexual violence against Asian women in North America. Considering the theme of the WAG's current exhibition on " violence, women, and art" - which prominently features a piece by Japanese- American artist Yoko Ono - one would expect the WAG to be more conscientious of their use of such triggering imagery, festive or otherwise. Winnipeg has an ever- increasing Asian- Canadian community. Some people have immigrated from overseas and chose Winnipeg as their home. Others have moved to Winnipeg from other Canadian or American cities. Many were born and raised here. The Winnipeg Art Gallery has a responsibility to these communities not to reiterate the stereotypes, well- intentioned or not, that continue to marginalize us regardless of our generational and cultural distances from our Asian countries of origin. We know blackface is not acceptable - even in the name of a charity fundraiser. I should also hope we know that redface and brownface are equally as damaging and dismissive. So how did an event come to be proposed, approved and organized that specifically calls for yellowface, whether " in good taste" or not? Let's think about that request, shall we? What is " good taste" minstrelsy? Taste went out the window when event co- ordinators declared, " Grab your chopsticks. or show off your karate skills." Yellowface somehow seems to be permitted, possibly because the model minority stereotype assumes Asian- Canadians are empowered to the point they can no longer be the targets of race- based violence. We know from countless examples, including the murder of Vincent Chin in 1982, that " honorary whiteness" in fact can rouse aggressive behaviour and certainly does not justify racial dismissiveness. I have spoken with some people at the WAG and I am pleased the lines of communication are open. Yet regardless of the changes that have been made to the event website, the spirit of the party remains the same. I hope we can use this situation as a platform for education and change. I want to end by saying this event puts a lot of people in an unfair position. I'm not just talking about Asian- Canadians, but also like- minded allies and friends who will not stand for this kind of Orientalism. It forces us to choose between supporting the arts and standing up for our beliefs and ourselves. I don't necessarily want people to boycott the WAG or its event. I definitely don't want us to stop supporting the arts. I only wish " the arts," and/ or the arts community, would also support us. Dr. Jenny Heijun Wills is assistant professor, English department, University of Winnipeg. Winnipeg Free Press Wednesday, February 12, 2014 A 11 POLL �� TODAY'S QUESTION What did you think of the federal budget? �� Vote online at winnipegfreepress. com �� PREVIOUS QUESTION What do you think is the best way to help kids avoid obesity? TOTAL RESPONSES 4,166 Winnipeg Free Press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 VOL 142 NO 93 2014 Winnipeg Free Press, a division of FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership. Published seven days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2X 3B6, PH: 204- 697- 7000 BOB COX / Publisher PAUL SAMYN / Editor WFP JULIE CARL / Deputy Editor SCAN TO VOTE ON TODAY'S QUESTION F OR all the attention the brewing competition for natural resources in the rapidly melting Arctic has gotten in recent years, things have been relatively quiet in Antarctica despite similar ambiguity over territorial control and potential for major resource grabs. The continent's oil reserves are estimated at up to 203 billion barrels - the third- largest in the world - and perhaps even more importantly in the coming century, its ice holds 90 per cent of the world's fresh water. But there's a sign this week that things may be heating up a bit on the South Pole with China's unveiling of its fourth Antarctic research base, the UFO- shaped Taishan, with a fifth planned for next year. Japan, Germany and Italy already have five stations, and Britain and the U. S. have six. Vaughan Winterbottom of Australia's Lowy Institute writes: " Some have questioned China's motivations for expanding its presence on the southern continent." " The country is rapidly building research stations - a method of assertion on a continent where sovereignty is disputed," wrote Nicola Davison on ChinaDialogue in November. In Stars and Stripes , Seth Robson commented last year that " China is boosting its presence in Antarctica with an eye on the icy continent's vast untapped resources." For now, mining is prohibited under the Antarctic Treaty, but that will be up for review in 2048 and a number of countries may try to jockey for position before then. The treaty also forbids new territorial claims by countries on the continent but passes no judgment on previous ones, which has occasionally led to some controversy. Britain and Argentina have overlapping claims and, in the midst of the dispute between the two countries over the Falkland Islands, Argentina objected last year to London's decision to name a large swath of Antarctic territory after Queen Elizabeth II. Chile, Argentina, Britain, Norway, France, Australia and New Zealand have current claims on Antarctic territory, but given the ambiguity involved, you can probably expect a lot more countries to be angling for a piece of the Antarctic pie over the next 30 years. Joshua Keating is a staff writer at Slate, focusing on international news, social science and related topics. - Slate B RANDON - Last weekend, Manitoba's New Democratic Party released a television advertisement attacking Progressive Conservative Leader Brian Pallister. The ad is a series of false and misleading statements. Even more disturbing is the fact the NDP seeks to bolster the veracity of its message by trading on the credibility of both the Winnipeg Free Press and the Winnipeg Sun. The ad cites the March 12, 1999, edition of the Free Press as the " source" for the claim that " as a former cabinet minister in Filmon's PC government, ( Pallister) helped cut 1,000 nurses and 700 teachers." For more than 16 years, that lone news report has served as the basis for accusations that Gary Filmon's Tories " fired" 1,000 nurses. It is time to set the record straight. The Free Press report does not reveal the firing of nurses, but rather the creation of a $ 7- million fund to hire nurses. It contains the assertion that the Filmon Tories " eliminated 1,100 nursing jobs" in the previous six years, but that is a summary of the position taken by the opposition NDP and the nurses' union in that and earlier reports. The allegation the Filmon government callously fired 1,000 nurses on an ideological whim is simply wrong and a misrepresentation of history. It is a matter of public record that severe cutbacks in federal- provincial transfer payments by the Chr�tien government forced the Filmon Tories to make painful spending decisions. They could not match the hefty pay increases other jurisdictions were offering nurses at the time. The March 12, 1999, Free Press report documents their effort to fight back against the poaching of nurses. The NDP ad cites the " standing committee on social and economic development, June 3, 1996" as the basis for its claim that the Filmon government " cut 700 teachers." The assertion, however, is both inaccurate and misleading. The committee referred to is a legislature committee made up of MLAs from the various parties. The transcript the NDP is referring to is dated June 3, 2010, not June 3, 1996. Nowhere in the 26- page transcript does the committee conclude the Filmon government cut 700 teaching positions. Rather, the document contains the text of a letter from Pat Isaak, then president of the Manitoba Teachers' Society, in which she states that during the 1990s, " we lost more than 700 teaching positions" - an assertion that was neither challenged nor validated by the committee. The fact is that the Filmon government did not fire a single teacher during its mandate. It neither possessed the legal power to do so nor directed Manitoba's school divisions to do so. While some school boards may have reduced teaching positions ( mostly through attrition) because of declining enrolment and an unwillingness to raise property taxes, other school divisions were hiring teachers. The NDP's ad identifies a report in the February 27, 1996, Winnipeg Free Press as the source for its claim that " the Conservatives tried to carve off and privatize home care," but private home health care already existed in 1996 and still exists today under our NDP government. Finally, the ad relies upon " Winnipeg Sun , Oct. 17, 2012, PC speeches & releases April 2013" as the basis for its assertion that " Pallister's plan is to cut again - half a billion dollars from the services Manitoba families count on and from construction for new schools, roads, hospitals and flood control." In fact, the Oct. 17, 2012, Winnipeg Sun contained a news report entitled More has to be done to help poor: Pallister. In that report, he expressed his concern over Manitobans' growing reliance on food banks and promised a massive increase in the employment and income- assistance rental allowance offered to Manitobans living on social assistance. In a press release dated April 18, 2013, Pallister proposed almost $ 287 million in spending cuts as an alternative to the PST increase, but none of those cuts would come at the expense of health, education, roads or flood control. It is fair game for one political party to expose the weaknesses of its opponents, but the use of false and misleading claims often backfires, with disastrous results. As the NDP works to restore its credibility with Manitobans, it would be wise to keep that in mind. Deveryn Ross is a political commentator living in Brandon. deverynrossletters@ gmail. com P ERHAPS, and hopefully, the Selinger government and its captive utility, Manitoba Hydro, will listen to the latest voice in a growing chorus calling for a pause and a rethink of what Hydro euphemistically calls its " preferred" development plan. La Capra Associates, an American energy consultancy engaged by the Public Utilities Board to provide an independent and objective assessment of Hydro's $ 22- billion hydroelectric dams and transmission plan, has given it a failing grade. You need not take my word for La Capra's view; you can read it yourself on the PUB's website. Last June, I gave a public presentation of my perspective on Hydro's major capital expenditure plans at a Frontier Centre luncheon. In my presentation, I critiqued Hydro's plans and forecast that if the plan was fully implemented, consumer rates could triple while the government's income from the Crown corporation soared. I openly worried about lower- income households relying on electric space and water heating. I listed the major changes in the economic climate that had occurred since the plan was initially developed, changes that make proceeding with the " big build" a gamble, one that could prove disastrous for consumers and industry alike. I noted Hydro's historically poor record of forecasting, a record that includes underestimating construction costs and overestimating load growth, export sales prices and export revenues. I reminded the government and Hydro that new technologies have been and likely will be developed to reduce load growth requirements for the grid. I also expressed concern that, pressed by government, Hydro was implementing its plan ahead of a proper, expert and independent review of the plan and options to it. I suggested such a review was necessary and was already overdue by five years. I reported that Hydro was spending millions of dollars a day on its plan, and that those dollars, and any infrastructure that was constructed as part of the plan, could not be rolled back if the plan didn't work out. I put the big build in the larger context of the province that would be required to shoulder its implications. I noted the debt and deficits that plague this high- tax, low- wage environment and listed the risks for the overall provincial economy if the big build didn't work out. I urged the government and Hydro to take a more cautious approach and consider more aggressive energy efficiency and demand suppression, including the mechanism of time- of- use rates. I suggested that to allow for a deferral of the big build, the construction of a combined- cycle natural gas plant should be considered, which could be built for a small fraction of the big- build plan favoured by the NDP government, provide diversity of supply, an asset in peak or drought times and promote and allow for the exploitation of Manitoba's natural gas resources. I explained how Hydro planned to record its costs as implementation of its plans were carried out and suggested that through the accounting and rate- setting mechanisms being put in place, ratepayers might not realize the disaster in the making until it was too late - perhaps two elections away. Since then, government and Hydro have rejected my perspective and have continued to implement their plan. I have been accused of " back- of- theenvelope" reasoning, as if conceptual thinking is a sin. Despite the coming together in opposition to the implementation of the big- build plan of two former premiers, former NDP cabinet ministers and retired Hydro executives, the Bipole Coalition, engineers, rural landowners, the Manitoba M�tis Federation, Treaty Two First Nations and both opposition parties, Hydro plows on. Hundreds have been hired for the construction, equipment has been bought and ordered, surveyors are in the field, commitments to First Nations and American utilities are being made or maintained and $ 6 million to $ 9 million a day is being spent. The gamble just gets larger with every passing day. Yet the review now being undertaken by the PUB, and involving consultants such as La Capra Associates, is not even finished. While not finished with its work, La Capra Associates has delivered a withering preliminary indictment of Hydro's preferred development plan. La Capra, employing careful and complex language and analysis, suggests, in essence, that Hydro has been premature in its commitments and its expensing already of $ 1.4 billion on the big build that Hydro and the Selinger government favours. La Capra is not the canary in the mine - I played that role; but, at least in its preliminary report, it joins the chorus in suggesting much more work and a better and deeper look at options to the big build needs to occur. This needs to happen before the Selinger government gives the final green light to a gamble of historic proportions. The next time Hydro president Scott Thompson accuses a critic, acting in the public interest, of not being careful in his or her assessments and of using back- of- the- envelope theorizing, he should first check his own figures. Graham Lane is a retired chartered accountant. From 2004 to 2012, he was the chairman of the Public Utilities Board. Earlier in his career, he managed or consulted to several large Crown corporations. GRAHAM LANE Independent analysts join chorus of Hydro critics WAG and the peril of yellowface DEVERYN ROSS JENNY HEIJUN WILLS By Joshua Keating China's newest research station heats up Antarctic Attack ad is baseless JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Former Manitoba premier Gary Filmon listens to his finance minister, Eric Stefanson, present the provincial budget in the legislature in March 1998. Enrol them in organized sports 15% Encourage them to play more outside 36% Provide them healthier food 50% A_ 11_ Feb- 12- 14_ FP_ 01. indd A11 2/ 11/ 14 7: 17: 54 PM ;