Message-ID: <34F5D1BD.B60FB697@internet.idrc.ca> Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 15:34:06 -0500 From: Sam Lanfranco <mailto:lanfran@INTERNET.IDRC.CA> Subject: Canadian Cree Model Community: UN Top 50 + Website To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Here is an example of combining development in the literal sense with reporting out and sharing lessons using the electronic venue. The follow excerpts are from the February 26th Canadian GLOBE AND MAIL Newspaper.For the full article see see:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/docs/news/19980226/Compass/UNCOMPN.html
"How a phoenix keeps its nest warm A community rises from the ashes of its tar-paper shacks with the help of sawdust heating"
Thursday, February 26, 1998 By Andre Picard in Ouje-Bougoumou, Que.
To visit the village on the Web, go to http://ouje.ca/
Ouje-Bougoumou, Que. -- SOCIOLOGISTS and anthropologists used to visit Oujé-Bougoumou to see for themselves what was possibly the poorest, most desolate community in North America: hundreds of Crees living through brutally cold winters in tar-paper shacks and ramshackle tents, culturally and economically battered by repeated displacements but valiantly trying to eke out a living from forests and lakes devastated by unfettered logging and mining.
Today, researchers take the 960-kilometre trip from Montreal
for an entirely different reason, to see a nation reborn, a stunning modern village that the United Nations has deemed to be one of the world's 50 outstanding communities, a model
for how people can live in harmony with the environment in the 21st century.
The shacks have been torn down and burned, replaced by well-insulated, custom-made homes and public buildings designed by famed architect Douglas Cardinal. Children have access to modern sporting facilities, a state-of-the-art medical clinic (offering traditional medicines alongside modern treatments), and a trilingual education (Cree, French
and English).---<text deleted>---
The entire village, population 600-plus, gets its heat and hot water from a central source. District heating, as the concept is known, is common in Scandinavia. --<text deleted>-- the raw material used to produce energy is sawdust from a local mill. --< text deleted> --
Engineers from as far away as Taiwan have come to visit the energy pioneers of Oujé-Bougoumou.
To visit the village on the Web, go to http://ouje.ca/
The district heating system will also be showcased at Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany, where the theme is "balancing humankind, nature and technology." --< text deleted> --
André Picard is Montreal bureau chief of The Globe and Mail.