Donors replace fuel villages refused
Venezuela’s offer
was rejected because of Chavez speech denouncing Bush
By Alex DeMarban
Anchorage Daily News
Businesses and people around
the country are digging into their pockets to help four Alaska villages whose tribal leaders rejected a
heating-fuel gift from the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, a critic of President George Bush.
Donations, including a
huge one from several fishing companies, have been so numerous there might be
enough to replace the gift -- and then some.
"The response has
been overwhelming," said Dimitri Philemonof, president of the Aleutian Pribilof
Islands Association, a nonprofit representing villages
in Southwest Alaska.
Texas-based refiner Citgo, owned by the Venezuelan government, is offering free
fuel valued at about $5 million to 151 Alaska Native villages. Every household
in each village -- more than 12,000 homes total -- will get 100 gallons under a
program set to begin Nov. 1.
Most villages, faced
with the coming winter, few jobs and fuel prices exceeding $7 in some cases,
plan to accept the help, program organizers said.
But APIA officials and tribal leaders with Nelson Lagoon, Atka, St. Paul
and St. George rejected it after Chavez denounced Bush as "the devil"
during an inflammatory speech at the United Nations nearly two weeks ago.
Chavez supports Iran's nuclear ambitions and has befriended regimes the Bush administration
opposes.
News reports of the
rejection Friday prompted more than 150 calls and e-mails of support from
people around the country, APIA
officials said. Only one comment was critical, they said.
A
conservative Web site, www. freerepublic.com
,
posted a story that had run in the Daily News describing the rejection.
"God bless these
people!!!!!!!" one visitor wrote in one of more than 50 comments,
including many promising donations.
"Suddenly I like Alaska -- maybe
I'll visit next summer," another wrote.
The decision had angered people in
some of the villages, residents said.
Many Atka
residents are "just scratching by" and 100 gallons would provide
about a month of heat, said Millie Prokopeuff, a
wellness advocate at the local clinic.
She's grateful that Americans are
helping, she said, but it doesn't matter who's providing the fuel.
"Choosers can't be picky, you
know," she said.
Anchorage elementary
school teachers Kacey and Steve Magestro
will shell out $1,000 to help, Kacey Magestro said.
"Our feeling was you don't have
to like your leaders, or agree with them, but there's a respect factor,"
she said.
Frank Williams, an owner of Kenai
River Drifter's Lodge in Cooper Landing, called the decision brave. The four
villages pay $5 to $6 a gallon for gasoline, APIA says.
"They're standing up for what's
right, not for what they want," he said.
Williams spent part of Friday calling
representatives with banks, oil companies and the governor's office to rouse
support, he said.
Everyone enthusiastically supported
the villages' decision, he said Monday, but no organization or business
promised to commit money.
Representatives with the governor's
and lieutenant governor's offices said they knew of no new state efforts to
assist the four villages.
Four fishing companies are shelling
out $92,000, said Joe Kyle, chief operating officer of the Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association.
That's enough to give every household
in the association's Southwest Alaska service area
$500, he said.
The organization, formed to work on
fisheries issues in the region, will donate half the money, Kyle said. APICDA
partners Trident Seafoods and the Starbound
Partnership in Seattle, and Prowler
Fisheries in Petersburg, agreed to
offer the rest, he said.
Officials with the companies called
the rejection "patriotic" and wanted to make sure the communities
didn't suffer this winter, he said.
The companies' gift will go to every
village in the fishing association's service area. That includes three villages
-- False Pass, Akutan and Nikolski
-- that weren't originally on the list to receive Chavez' fuel.
Qualifying villages must be at least
80 percent Alaska Native.
The Bering Sea village of St. Paul,
750 miles west of Anchorage, was scheduled to receive the fuel but isn't in the
service area.
That community will be the first to
receive money from the Unangan Energy Assistance
Fund. APIA, the Native
regional nonprofit, created the fund at Key Bank, said Philemenof.
"That's only fair," said Philemonof.
Any extra money in the fund will help
pay for more energy assistance in the villages, he said. The national
generosity shows APIA made the
right decision, he said.
"I just feel great for the
people and grateful" for the help, he said.
