HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-12-20, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012. PAGE 5.
I think that the substitution of the internal
combustion engine for the horse marked a
very gloomy milestone in the progress of
mankind.
– Winston Churchill
I’m with the British Bulldog on this
one. Oh, I rely on a gas-guzzler as much as
the next person and I’ve had my nether
parts kneaded by enough saddles to know
that going on horseback is no feasible
option – but that doesn’t mean I’m in love with
my car.
I believe future archaeologists will be
dumbfounded when they see how thoroughly
we allowed automobiles to dominate our lives.
They transfigure our landscape, poison our air,
dictate our habits, define our habitations, suck
our natural resources dry…and they kill us.
You think guns are dangerous? Gun fatalities
account for less than 100 Canadian deaths a
year. Fatal vehicle collisions claim nearly
3,500 lives annually. Put more graphically,
guns kill approximately one Canadian every
six days; motor vehicles kill one Canadian
every four hours.
What they do to us socially is even more
alarming. Marshall McLuhan predicted that
mass transportation such as subways and
trains was doomed in North America because
“a person’s car is the only place he can be
alone and think.”
That’s what our vehicles do – they separate
us. We don’t walk or stroll or – beautiful
word – ‘promenade’ anymore. Cars box us in.
We jump in our boxes and join streams of
other boxes that take us to work or to play or
to shop – as often or not in boxy office
towers, boxy rec centres or big box
stores.
Happily, attitudes are changing. Many
towns and villages – and even the tiny island I
live on – are putting in pedestrian pathways
and bike lanes for all those littletrips that really
don’t require motorized assistance.
Cities too – and no city more
comprehensively than Paris, France. There,
the city fathers have okayed Velib, a
bike-sharing network that allows citizens
to pick up a bicycle at one location, ride
it to their destination and leave it there.
They have also eliminated 23,000 parking
spots downtown, narrowed cross-town
expressways and replaced pavement and
parking lots with nearly 10 acres worth
of parks, floating gardens – even a flower
market.
All of this in downtown Paris, which
just a short time ago was characterized by
honking horns, squealing tires and cursing
drivers, all emanating from crawling daisy
chains of cars and trucks courting terminal
gridlock.
Has it changed the fabled City of Lights?
Bien sur. For one thing, you can actually see
those lights now that the blue-black curtain of
auto exhaust is dissipating. Car use in Paris
has dropped a whopping 25 per cent over the
past decade. In the same time, bicycle use has
doubled. One half of all trips in Paris are now
made on foot.
Vehicular diehards are aghast. They predict
massive traffic jams and widespread chaos.
The head of one pro-car lobby harrumphs “We
can no more eliminate cars from Paris roads
than empty the Seine of water.”
Fulminate away, monsieur. Other large
urban jurisdictions are moving in the
same direction as Paris. Across the channel,
the city of London now levies a daily $16
‘congestion charge’ on all private vehicles
travelling downtown. The cities of Toronto,
Montreal and Ottawa have already set up
bike-sharing programs; Vancouver’s working
on it.
Personally, I think McLuhan was just a hair
off the mark. Men don’t love their cars
because they allow us to be alone. That’s what
the bathroom’s for. Men love their cars
because it’s the last place they can be in
charge. Comedian Rita Rudner says car love is
the reason most men are afraid to make a
commitment to a woman.
“It’s because we can’t be steered.”
Arthur
Black
Other Views
There auto be a law against cars
In the final issue of The Citizen before the
holidays I had hoped, of course, to not be
writing about a massacre, but unfortunately
the world is a cruel and unfair place and it
seems to be getting worse.
By now everyone has heard about the
massacre at a Connecticut school with a death
toll of 26. Twenty of those killed were
children, students at the school, who were said
to have been between five and 10 years old.
The death toll rose to 28 when taking into
account that the gunman, 20-year-old Adam
Lanza, killed his mother, a teacher at the
school, at their home before he went to the
school. Lanza also killed himself before he
could be taken down by authorities.
Of course there is plenty to be said for
Lanza, his motivation and the senselessness
with which nearly 30 people were killed, 20 of
whom whose lives ended before they had
really begun. This week, however, I wanted to
focus on the irresponsibility with which the
issue was reported by some mainstream news
outlets in the United States.
While news leader CNN didn’t broadcast the
image of Ryan Lanza, the shooter’s brother,
Ryan’s image was published online through
the user-generated forum iReportCNN. Ryan’s
picture was then picked up by several other
media outlets in what will no doubt be an
expensive lack of research and integrity.
Screen captures of Ryan’s Facebook page
show him being inundated with comments
from his friends, informing him that his picture
is being shown on television in association
with the shooting. He responded with two
posts “[Expletive deleted] you CNN it wasn’t
me” and “Everyone shut the [expletive deleted]
up it wasn’t me.”
After the image made its way across the
world via the internet, law enforcement
officials informed the Associated Press that the
shooter was not Ryan, but his brother, Adam.
This is just another case of anyone with a cell
phone thinking they’re Woodward and
Bernstein all rolled into one.
Potential journalists go to school for many
years learning about the ethics and laws
surrounding reporting the news. However, with
Twitter and Facebook and blogs and media
outlets opening their professional websites to
reader submissions, it seems anybody can
report anything and not be held accountable.
Last spring there was the case of filmmaker
and activist Spike Lee and the murder of
Trayvon Martin. Martin was shot and killed
simply for walking and wearing a hoodie while
Martin’s murderer George Zimmerman shot
him for looking suspicious.
The case became a source of outrage and an
example of stereotyping as a young black man
with a hood on his head was immediately
associated with crime by Zimmerman.
The problem came, however, when Lee, who
at the time had over 250,000 followers on
Twitter, posted Zimmerman’s address,
encouraging people to protest outside of his
home. Except that it wasn’t his home.
Lee, acting on bad information, tweeted out
the address of the McLains, who are in their
70s. The McLains soon found a mob outside
their home calling for Zimmerman’s head.
Even locally there has been a tug of war
between local politicians and bloggers over the
accuracy and legitimacy of blog “reporting”.
As the character of Erica Albright told Mark
Zuckerberg in the film The Social Network,
“the internet’s not written in pencil Mark, it’s
written in ink.” So to all the would-be reporters
out there, I’d get my facts straight and think
before you post.
Responsible reporting
Shawn
Loughlin
Shawn’s Sense
Over the past few days I spent the first
weekend at my home-away-from-
home in Brampton in quite a few
weeks and while I always look forward to
visitng Ashleigh, there are a few things about
the Greater Toronto Area I don’t look forward
to.
First and foremost has to be the drivers.
People have absolutely no respect for one
another on the road and drive like maniacs. I
know that driving in a place like Toronto and
its surrounding bergs requires a heavier foot
and more defensive driving, but some people
take it way too far.
I hate the music too; from my experience in
trying to find a decent news station, I’ve
gathered that most of the music stations down
in the GTA play either house electric music,
rap, or music that I don’t understand because
it’s in a different language.
The thing I hate the absolute most though is
the disdainful way that people are treated by
customer service representatives.
Be it on the phone or in line at a fast food
restaurant, there is just no work ethic, no pride
and no customer “service” happening down
there.
Just so you know, I’m not being the kettle to
the pot here. I worked at a pizza parlour in
Seaforth, a coffee shop in Goderich, and a half
dozen other restaurants from the time I turned
16 to the year before I became a journalist.
When I worked at those places I followed
one simple rule; service with a smile.
When working as a front-line representative
of a company you should always be focusing
on two things; accuracy and attitude.
Speed is of course important as well, but it’s
not always something you can change when
you’re behind the counter.
When you’re working the drive-through at a
coffee shop, sometimes you’re the front-line
but the backup in coffee is on someone else’s
shoulders.
It’s for that reason that it’s of paramount
importance that you focus on attitude and
aptitude.
Keep a smile on your face, keep the orders
correct and, above all, exhude an air of
confidence that comes from knowing you’re
doing your best. (Note: confidence, not
arrogance.)
People will recognize it and respect it.
Even if you have to deal with someone
whose order was wrong, endeavour to make it
right as quickly as possible, be sympathetic,
but not apologetic, and assure them steps will
be taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
It’s for that reason that I hate the lack of
service in Huron Co... er Brampton.
That slip up there? Well that’s because I
think I may be demonizing people when I
really shouldn’t be, or not demonizing the
right people.
Recently I visited a restaurant about 25
minutes away from the office. I’m not going to
name names, but let’s just say the company’s
founder has a military rank and I’m not talking
about Cap’n Crunch.
Walking in at noon, I was surprised at how
short the lineup was. However, by the time I
left, I understood why.
I ordered something advertised in big bold
letters and was informed it would be a 10-
minute wait for the item.
This frustrated me, given that, with the
Christmas season upon us, I didn’t have time
to wait when I could be back in the office
writing up the Christmas stories of local
council members. However, I remembered my
own rule; sometimes circumstances are out of
the front-line personnel’s hands.
What followed was quite possibly the worst
experience I’ve ever had in a restaurant and
I’ve witnessed a hold-up.
The person working the counter told the next
three people in line the same thing; the item I
had ordered would be at least 10 minutes. This
led me to believe that someone had dropped
the ball. However, the person at the counter
stated the fact as if it were the fault of the
person for wanting that item.
After taking four orders, and telling us
all varying wait times, the person proceeded
to grab a garbage bag and start cleaning
the washrooms. Having only been gone
about two minutes when a customer
walked in, the employee had to return to the
front counter. Then things really went down
hill.
Instead of using the hand sanitizer, the
person rinsed off her hands (not washed) and
proceeded to serve the person, including
packing their food into a bag.
I was about ready to walk away right then
and there after demanding my money back, but
I held my temper in check and simply resolved
not to return.
Fortunately for me, someone else packed my
meal and handed it to me so, instead of
knowing the person wasn’t being clean while
working, I simply had to wonder. I’m not sure
if that was better but I guess fear of something
unknown is better than a confirmed fear.
I thought I would be done at this point as I
had been waiting for 15 minutes but lo and
behold, the person who worked the counter
had made a mistake in my order.
I’m usually the first person to be fair and
equitable about situations like this and go to
the counter and quitely explain what happen as
to not get anyone in trouble. However, my fair
and equitable attitude had left the store and I
followed it.
What’s the moral of the story? Well I won’t
be looking to eat at that establishment any time
soon. However more important is the fact that
I can probably find bad drivers in Huron, I can
find bad radio stations that play music I don’t
like and I can certainly find places where
customer service falls by the wayside. I guess
I just didn’t want to admit that the problems of
the big city can be found anywhere if you look
hard enough.
I, unfortunately, found them when I wasn’t
looking.
The grass really is always greener
Denny
Scott
Denny’s Den