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Clinton News Record, 2014-09-24, Page 44 News Record • Wednesday, September 24, 2014 www.clintonnewsrecord.com NowsCl Record PUBLISHED WEEKLY — EST. 1860 53 Albert St. P.O. Box 39 Clinton ON NOM 1L0 (519) 482-3443 www.clintonnewsrecord.com SUN MEDIA A Quebecor Media Company MARIE DAVID Sun Media Group Publisher Grey Bruce Huron Division 519-364-2001 or 519-372-4301 NEIL CLIFFORD Publisher neil.clifford@sunmedia.ca MAX BICKFORD Advertising Manager max. b is kford@su n m ed i a. ca TARA OSTNER Reporter clinton.reporter@sunmedia.ca DAWN JOHNSTON Sales Representative clinton.ads@sunmedia.ca SUBSCRIPTION RATES 1 YEAR $50.00 (47.62+2.38 GST) 2YEAR $95.00 (90.48+4.52 GST) SENIORS 60 WEEKS $50.00 (47.62+2.38 GST) 120 WEEKS $95.00 (90.48+4.52 GST) Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged but that balance of advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. In the event of atypographic error advertising goods or services at a wrong price, goods or services may not be sold. Ad- vertising is merely an offer to sell, and maybe withdrawn at any time. The Clinton News -Record is not responsible for the kiss or damage of unsolicited manuscripts, photos or other materials used for reproducing purposes. Publications Mail Agreement No.40064683 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES: CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 53 Albert St., Clinton ON NOM 1L0 (519) 482-3443 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. Canada Apcna Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and the Ontario Community Newspapers Association editorial Global ranking proves nation falling behind QMI Agency On the crowded high- way that's the global econ- omy, there's both good news and bad for Canada as it jockeys with the world for open road. The good? Canada slipped only one notch in the latest rankings of the world's economies according to how competitive they are. The bad?? We're not gaining on our key competitors, most especially the United States, and our rear bumper is crowded with hungry countries trying to pass us. A problem for any country, that lack of accel- eration is especially prob- lematic for atinytrading countrylike Canada that has no choice but to find newways to get edges on nations whose engines are powered by much greater populations and econo- mies of scale. In its latest survey, the World Economic Forum ranks Canada 15th in its Global Competitiveness Index, just behind Taiwan and just ahead of Qatar. Tiny Switzerland and Singapore occupy the top two spots, and the U.S. — even with its slow-motion recovery from the 2008 economic meltdown — rose two spots to No. 3. For years, governments have warned us our recovery is fragile — that even with a solid banking system and huge invest- ments in infrastructure, factors that help our com- petitiveness, Canada can't rest on its laurels. Sure, we gave the world BlackBerry — but we need many more such hits, much more often. The rankings remind us of that Competitiveness boils down to smarts and pro- ductivity, reflecting a range of factors such as educa- tion and training, use of available talent, public-pri- vate collaboration and technological innovation. Countries that fire on all cylinders — like Switzer- land, with few of Canada's natural riches — inevitably finish on top, punching far above the weight of their economies and more prosperous for it Northern European economies still dominate theindexsTop 10, and the world's emerging markets, like India and Brazil, are still comfortablyway behind in our rear-view minor. But China is on the move and nations we might think are no big threat, like New Zealand and Malaysia, are on our taiL There's only so much gas in our tank and so much power under our hood. How we use both, counts more. column Cheerleaders, keep on cheering Tara Ostner "place," far from doing a ser - The Clinton News Record vice to women, she is actu- ally doing a disservice to Some cheerleaders in the them. Of course there is no United States are currently one place for a woman and in the process of suing the this is something that every - NFL claiming that they have one seems capable of received below -minimum understanding (and appre- wages and been subjected ciating) today except for to degrading treatment. If feminists such as Nelson. this is found to be true, the Rather than focusing on the NFL has some serious many different paths a changes to make. I don't woman can take, many take issue with this. feminists seem to have a However, I do take issue one-dimensional with the subsequent con- perspective. versation that can occur Nevertheless, the author after these kinds of lawsuits of the same article, Sophia are filed and, in particular, Harris, agrees with Nelson the claim that cheerleading and describes cheerleading is degrading to women. as a field where the cheer - Some people, for instance, leader's "main role is to some feminists, will use a please male sports fans:' lawsuit such as this as an Whyuse the word illustration of how cheer- "please" here? Why not use leading demeans women. the word "entertain?" For example, in a recent To this day, feminists con - article on the issue, former tinue to talk about a'wom- professional basketball an's proper role,' a 'woman's player, Mariah Burton Nel- place' and 'pleasing men' son, declared that cheer- and yet they seem to be the leading should be abolished only ones left in societywho and stated that "cheerlead- still seriously talklike this. ingimplies that women's They seem to be the only proper role is to support ones leftwho still care about men, smile at men and ful- pointing this out and the fill the sexual fantasies of blatant irony behind this males" never ceases to amaze me. In fact, cheerleading Believing that cheerlead- implies no such thing. ers are automatically Cheerleading is a sport degraded and demeaned Therefore, itis incapable of because of their occupation implying anything never- is a particular worldview mind what is "proper" (or that feminists like Harris improper). In reality, itis the and Nelson have come to people (i.e., feminists) who form, I get that; itis what utter such claims about the makes sense to them and sportwho are implying what makes them feel com- things which, far from help- fortable and perhaps ing their feminist cause, assured of themselves as actually does a disservice to women. it In my opinion, however, Nelson also stated that a cheerleading will never be woman's place is on the abolished, at least I hope field, "not on the sidelines." that it never is. However, again, bytalk- I also hope that young ing about awoman's girls today will realize that engaging in discourse that utilizes language, such as, 'a women's proper role; 'a women's place' and 'pleas- ing men' does little to miti- gate or solve problems of gender equality. What will solve problems of gender equalitywill be the dismantling of this unhelpful discourse and one way of dismantling it will be to prove that we can be on the sidelines and on the field and that our capa- bilities and powers extend much further than the sim- pleton, either-or dialogue that is rooted in so much feminist thought The young girls of today are not only beautiful but also, I believe, brighter and deverer than any generation before them and, for this reason, I am confident that they will be able to recognize this. Continuing to use lan- guage such as the above adds fuel to a fire that only certain feminists believe exists. As the rest of the pop- ulation knows, and are happy to accept, the real fire was put out years ago. And, by the way: Nelson and Harris believe that cheerleading should be abolished because it demeans women but is run- ningup and down a court trying to throw aball into a net somehowless demean- ing? If so, I would love to know how. Cheerleading and basket- ball are simply extra -curric- ular activities that happen to appeal to different types of people. The fact that some basketball players can't relate to cheerleaders doesn't mean anything quite likely, cheerleaders can't relate to basketball players either. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The News Record welcomes letters to the editor. All letters must be signed and include a daytime phone number for verification purposes. Let- ters can be sent care of the Internet at clinton.news@sunmedia.ca, sent via fax at 519-482-7341 or through Canada Post care of The Editor, P.O. Box 39, Clinton, ON NOL 1LO. CLINTON NEWS RECORD - HOURS OF OPERATION MONDAY: 9:00 - 5:00 • TUESDAY: - CLOSED • WEDNESDAY: - 9:00 - 5:00 • THURSDAY: - 9:00 - 5:00 • FRIDAY: - 9:00 - 5:00 • SATURDAY & SUNDAY: - CLOSED ADVERTISING DEADLINE: FRIDAY AT 2:00 • PHONE 519-482-3443 • FAX: 519-482-7341 www.clintonnewsrecord.com