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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2013-03-07, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 2013. PAGE 5. You know the metaphor about the canary in the coal mine? Well into the twentieth century, underground miners carried caged canaries into mine shafts where they kept one eye on the birds as they went about their work. When the canary fell off its perch, the miners downed tools and scrambled for the exit. Canaries are ultra- sensitive to toxic gases. If a canary had trouble breathing it indicated a carbon monoxide build-up that could eventually kill the miners. Now, suppose you lived in New York and on the morning of Jan. 22, you decided to put your caged canary in front of an open window for a spot of fresh air. The bird would probably fluff up its feathers against the chill but it wouldn’t croak. The Air Pollution Index in New York on that date was a (relatively) healthy 19. If, however, you lived in Beijing on that same day and you plunked your caged canary in front of an open window ... Well, only a fool would have opened a window in Beijing on Jan. 22. And if you did you’d be shopping for a new canary rather soon. The Air Pollution Index for Beijing on that date read a staggering 755. Let me repeat those figures. New York 19; Beijing 755. How bad is air pollution when it hits 755? We don’t have adjectives to describe it. Officially, China deems any reading above 300 as ‘hazardous’. The World Health Organization judges a reading of 500 to be more than 20 times the level that’s safe to breathe. Nobody has a category for 755. Here is what happens at that level. You cannot see across the street. Flights into and out of the city are cancelled due to zero visibility. Highways are closed for the same reason. Small animals are in distress; birds fall out of the sky. And if you’re a human you are quite literally, on life support. Without an air purification system it is virtually impossible to breathe. It didn’t take an Al Gore visionary to see this coming. China has been exploding industrially, socially and commercially for decades. Canada has six cities with populations over a million; China has 160. More than 20 million live in Beijing. Worse, the city sits on a low, flat plain surrounded by mountains and thousands of factories. On windless days, Beijing is a massive cauldron of pollution. Can China turn this around before it asphyxiates its citizenry? It’s possible. China still enjoys the privileges of totalitarianism – which is to say, the leaders can make things happen without going through the messy dance of democracy. But you have to acknowledge a problem in order to deal with it – and historically, despots are myopic when it comes to radical change. One of the latest government responses came in the form of an official condemnation – not of the pollution outrage – of reporters talking about the pollution outrage. A Chinese Foreign Ministry Official blasted such reports as “not only confusing but also insulting”. The only insult in this sad story is the massive gang rape China is perpetrating on the planet. I don’t know how canaries are faring in Chinese coal mines these days, but it's obvious the Chinese chickens are coming home to roost. Arthur Black Other Views Chinese chickens come home to roost We all know someone who has a conflicted mind. Someone who stands on one side of the mirror and sees someone else reflected back at them. For me, right now, that person is Sean Lowe. There is no doubt that regular readers of this space will remember the bombshell admission of Feb. 23, 2012, just over one year ago, when I admitted to the world that I watch ABC’s ode to polygamy, The Bachelor. After he got canned by former Bachelorette star Emily Maynard, Lowe was named this year’s bachelor. In breaking news last week, he also admitted that he is a born again virgin. There is a bit of a problem with this, as you might imagine. You’re a virgin, until you’re not. A physical act (sex) has taken place that means your virginity has gone the way of Lowe’s relationship with Maynard. The term “born again” is most often associated with Christianity. Once born again Christians decide to dedicate their lives to Jesus, according to their faith, they experience a rebirth, and are thusly saved. This is a life choice that is made, not an ignorance of something that has already happened in your life, which is what Lowe is trying to accomplish. He is not, however, the first to try and pull the wool over the world’s eyes. In one of TLC’s perennial freak shows The Virgin Diaries, we met a group of folks who had decided to abstain from sex for various reasons. Some were doing it for religious reasons and others simply hadn’t found the right mate yet, both noble reasons to refrain from sex. However, one member of the group, Tamara, a 29-year-old (at the time of the 2011 show) Vancouver resident referred to herself as a reclaimed virgin. Tamara admitted, on camera, that she had sex with all seven of her past boyfriends multiple times, but felt that now, after deciding to “reclaim” her virginity, when she had sex “for the first time” on her wedding night, it would be like she had never had sex before. Lisa, Tamara’s roommate, an actual virgin, disagreed, saying “I don’t think it works quite like that.” Neither do I, Lisa. I fear that “reclaiming” one’s virginity is yet another step towards the politically-correct eunuch of a world that we seem destined for. It’s as though people can be whatever, and whomever, they want to be, but not in the free world, be-all-you-can-be kind of way. It’s in the you-decide-what-you-are-and-the-world- has-to-agree kind of way. It was just last year that Albertans were split over the provincial government reinstituting funding for gender reassignment surgery (formerly known as a sex change). This procedure is also covered in Ontario. There are groups of people who disagree with thousands of taxpayer dollars being spent on someone reinventing themselves as a person of the opposite sex when the average Ontario resident has to go out-of-pocket for an eye exam and to have their teeth cleaned. One has to wonder how far off we are from baseball players “reclaiming” their rookie year so they could perhaps win Rookie of the Year honours in their fourth or fifth season. Perhaps people who begin to identify more with another heritage than their own will insist that, despite being Canadian, they are actually Jamaican because they like to listen to Bob Marley. The possibilities are endless. So maybe when Lowe’s relationship with whoever he picks on this season of The Bachelor inevitably fails, he’ll become a born again virgin... again. He’s probably looking forward to losing his virginity again already. Man in the mirror Shawn Loughlin Shawn’s Sense Parents, I know this is going to be a very difficult thing to accept, to understand and, last of all, to internalize, but it has to be said: Your children are going to be okay at some things, good at other things, and, if they’re lucky, they might be amazing at something. However, for most of them, there will always be someone out there better than them. Where is this coming from? Well it comes from a decision by the Ontario Soccer Association to not keep score for children as old as 12. They are doing this to focus on ‘development’ of the player instead of competitiveness. I could reference any number of articles regarding whether this is a good or bad exercise for the children to go to or I could use that real world experience that so many “consultants” and “policy makers” and “decision makers” seem to ignore. Sports, competitiveness, athleticism or whatever you want to call it, allows people to excel past each other. It allows that kid who may not be the best mathematician become great at something and finally know what it feels like to be admired. I was a goalie in soccer, as well as a defender and, from time to time a sweeper. I never scored goals on a regular basis. As a matter of fact the only praise I ever received was in regards to my willingness to push myself to stop other people from scoring goals or to stand in front of a blistering shot. I knew what I was good at. I was good at stopping people who were good at scoring goals. I played with other people who were good at scoring goals and I played with other people who just plain sucked. Sorry, I know that’s not exactly a correct term to use, but when you have that kid that knows everything about insects and would rather sit in the field playing with them than watch the game, even at the age of 15, there isn’t any other word to describe them. That kid may be an amazing entomologist some day, but as a soccer player, he sucks. I’m good at a few things and I’ll never consider myself great at anything because, let’s be honest, odds are there are a lot of people out there who are better. In more recent years, a friend admitted he admired the fact that I could write as I do and connect with people. This was back before I started writing for a living. It was back when I maintained a blog that I wrote a couple times a week. I won’t say it was ever as widely read as I would have liked, but I had loyal readers. Anyway, that’s really the best anyone can hope for: to have someone whose opinion you respect think you’re decent at something. While there are a lot of different ways I could steer this column, I guess the main issue I have with taking the scoring out of soccer is that the goal is being removed (and that is a fantastic pun) and, with it, all of the reason for being on the field. Imagine some of the most defining moments in sports history; are they when one team was dominating the other so thoroughly that there wasn’t any drama or do those moments come when everything is on the line and it’s a do-or- die situation. The Summit Series finale was exciting because it was tied 5-5 before the Canada’s running goal was scored. Do you remember the last time someone swept the Stanley Cup Finals? Or the World Series? Not likely. Do you remember when your team went to game seven against Boston? I sure as heck do. Those lip-tightening, stomach-flipping moments are where character is defined and champions are born. I don’t care whether you’re five years old or 95 years old, winning feels good and losing makes you want to win and when you put that together you have one of two results: someone who wants to work their tail off to succeed or someone who decides that they’re okay not being the very best. Both of those are healthy attitudes. Saying everyone is a winner isn’t. When the children of today get their first job, (again, I’m sorry for the language, but it’s all that really fits) if they suck at it, they are going to get fired. No one is going to walk in and say, “Oh but they tried their best so we’ll keep handing them a paycheque.” No one is going to let them into the National Hockey League or an Olympic team because “they showed good hustle out there.” The best are chosen to represent us. The best are the best because of either natural talent and/or hard work. If you aren’t keeping score in a game, why play it at all? If you’re just there for the exercise, jump on a treadmill and put a few kilometres under your belt. For me, and everyone normal (yes, I did just say that), competition isn’t just about winning. It’s about the drive to keep going. That drive translates to exercise and self confidence. I guess it all comes back to comedian George Carlin who asked if all children are special, then why are all adults not special? He also put forward the statement that, if everyone’s special, then the whole idea is flawed and no one is special. If, as has been intoned by many proponents of the scoreless system, everyone’s a winner, then no one is a winner. Following that logic, if no one is a winner, then everyone is a loser. And, following that logic, if everyone is a loser, what exactly are we doing to build self-esteem? The whole system is designed to make sure that every child feels that they are doing well when some of the best growth comes from knowing you aren’t doing well. When I was a kid, we had the Most Improved Player award. I won it. I wasn’t embarrassed by it. It meant I used to suck and now I suck somewhat less. I grew as a player. Kids under this system won’t grow, not until they hit the cold water of competition. Denny Scott Denny’s Den Scoreless soccer? That’s just a treadmill