Word: inuit
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...deep-seated humanity." At the shrine of Ste. Anne de Beaupré on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, he greeted a crowd of more than 3,000 colorfully garbed Indians and Eskimos, using seven native languages ranging from Algonquin and Micmac to Mohawk and a passable Inuit (Eskimo) dialect. In the tiny Newfoundland community of Flatrock (pop. 869), John Paul blessed local codfishing boats from a seaside platform, then radioed, "Good fishing, safe passage and God's blessing" to the fishermen...
Nine and a half hours after launch, Challenger sent off the first of two communications satellites. At $11 million a shot, this is clearly the moneymaking part of the flight. The electronic parcel was the second in the series that Canada has labeled Anik C (from the Inuit word for brother). Among other things, it will provide direct satellite-to-home television transmissions. Sent spinning out of the shuttle's big cargo bay, the satellite automatically fired its booster 45 minutes later and began the long 140-hour climb to a permanent "geostationary" parking place 22,300 miles above...
...rotation. But before Telesat's Anik 3-C reached its resting place over the Pacific, controllers discovered that they were unable to "talk" to the satellite on any of the programmed frequencies. The radio silence perplexed and panicked Telesat's control room on Guam. Unless Anik (Inuit for brother) accepted their commands, the controllers could not angle it properly toward the sun or keep it locked in place. Thus its critical maneuvering propellants would quickly freeze. Without this fuel, the $24 million bird would be a dead duck...
...culture defined by extreme hardship keeps its values simple and its instincts honed. "The hunter in the North, for whom fear and courage are interallied," writes Malaurie, "would smile if one talked to him about heroism." Indeed, he notes, there is no word for heroism in Inuit: "One lives, one struggles, one dies. If there is nothing to eat, you lie down and wait. Emotional involvements are brief. Trouble always lies in the offing...
Malaurie does not romanticize the passing of the old ways. A people whose total energies were geared for survival no longer turns from new things that make survival easier. What the author wants is a balance that might preserve the Inuit spirit. The threat to that spirit is illustrated by an American businessman who asks an Eskimo carver to mass-produce an ivory figurine. Naturally, the American wants a volume discount. The native craftsman has a more natural idea. Turning to an interpreter, he says: "Tell this silly qallunaaq that the more of them I make alike, the more expensive...