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Arctic Slang

In their quest to unlock the mysteries of arctic climate change, polar researchers are looking beyond pure science to Inuit traditional knowledge. But in talks with unilingual Inuit elders, researchers found that many of the terms associated with climate change were either a new phenomenon in Inuit culture or such an intrinsic part of life that they were never given an Inuktitut name.

To help bridge the communication gap, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the territorial government of Nunavut, Canada, cohosted a terminology workshop, bringing together more than 20 Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun interpreters and elders from each of the main dialect groups in Nunavut. When the workshop ended, they had added 131 new words to the Inuit lexicon. Here's a sampling:

Arctic: Ukiuqtaqtuq
Climate Change: Hilaup Aalannguqtirninga
Extinction: Nunguttut
Global Warming: Hilaup Uunnakpallianinga
Weather: Hila

Reprinted from Up Here (April 2006). Subscriptions: outside Canada $39.97, Canadian/yr. (8 issues), in Canada $29.97 from Box 1350,Yellowknife, NT X1A 2N9, Canada; www.uphere.ca.

Clink Ka-Ching

Changes to immigration laws under presidents Clinton and Bush have sent unprecedented numbers of illegal immigrants to jail-and the private prison industry couldn't be happier about it. The number of immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service) shot from 7,444 in 1994 to 23,000 in early 2006, according to the Texas Observer (May 5, 2006), and that's not counting thousands more held by the U.S. Marshals. Halliburton subsidiary KBR and other corporations are scrambling to get a piece of the action. In addition to making money on multi-million-dollar construction contracts-like the $100 million 'superjail' near Laredo, Texas, that will house 2,800 prisoners and is currently out on bid-prison corporations stand to earn a bounty on every detainee. In Texas, that equates to between $35 and $65 per person per day in gross profit.

Protecting the Border

An overlooked casualty of recent immigration policy is the fragile ecosystem of the U.S.-Mexican border, reports Tucson Weekly (May 11, 2006). Endangered species like the Sonoran pronghorn are threatened by thousands of illegal immigrants, chased by four-wheeling border agents, trekking through protected lands. Border policy has pushed illegals out of urban areas and into sensitive desert ecosystems like Arizona's Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, which has become choked with trash discarded by migrants and rutted by off-road vehicles, reports Grist Magazine (June 6, 2006).

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