HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2010-01-28, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2010. PAGE 5.
Bonnie
Gropp
TThhee sshhoorrtt ooff iitt
Serious sport has nothing to do with fair
play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy,
boastfulness, disregard of all rules and
sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in
other words, it is war minus the shooting.
– George Orwell
Obviously George never spent much time in
The Great White North. In Canada, we don’t
do sports like that. Canadians play nice.
Look how nice we’ve played with the IOC
since they graciously deigned to let us host the
2010 Winter Olympics.
When they asked us to build brand new
multi-million-dollar sports venues, we reached
for our cheque book. When they complained
that the Sea to Sky highway through the
mountains was too twisty we built them a new
one.
As for Olympic-themed clothing, we kind of
hoped they’d give the nod to our local,
traditional, Cowichan sweaters which we’ve
bestowed upon everyone from the Queen to
Vladimir Putin – but the IOC fixers nixed that.
Said they could get coats cheaper from an
‘approved’ supplier back East.
We said “Hey, no problem!” – as we did
when they outsourced those official Olympics
mittens. They are HUGE best-sellers.
Which is great news for the Chinese
manufacturers who are shipping them to us by
the boatload.
When the IOC decreed that all Olympic
torch bearers would wear an outfit that made
them look like fugitive bakers or maybe extras
from a Caspar the Friendly Ghost movie,
Canadians didn’t utter a peep of protest.
And when they announced that the torch
bearers would be forbidden to wear any other
advertising whatsoever – that even the Nike
swooshes on their running shoes had to be
duct-taped over – we just smiled and bent over
a little further.
Hey, why not? The IOC said they’d even pay
for the duct tape!
Admittedly, the Vancouver Symphony
Orchestra got a little uppity when the Olympic
Organizing Committee told them the VSO
would be essentially ‘lip-synching’ their
performance at the Opening Ceremonies. The
conductor had a hissy fit and cried foul.
“I regarded that as fraudulent and withdrew,”
the conductor said.
What a grandstander! Didn’t he know
there’s historical precedent for faking the
music at the opening of the Olympics? Just
two years ago in Beijing the officials yanked
seven-year-old singer Yang Peiyi who was
slated to sing Ode to the Motherland. At the
last minute they replaced her with nine-year-
old Lin Miaoke.
Oh, the seven year old could sing like a bird,
but…well, she had these crooked teeth, see?
So the officials taped her voice and got the
more photogenic Lin Miaoke to lip-synch for
the ceremony.
Wouldn’t you know it – some nosey Western
reporter figured it out and spilled the beans.
Can’t blame the Chinese really – they’re
pretty green when it comes to international
sports protocol.
Canadians have a history of playing nice
with the big boys. Once upon a time we had
money-making NHL franchises in Winnipeg
and Quebec City, but NHL commissioner
Gary Bettman, a New Yorker, didn’t care for
that. He yanked the teams, re-locating them in
the U.S.
You can see his reasoning. Much more
sensible to situate pro franchises in hockey
hotbeds like Arizona and Florida.
The important thing – and I think this is
probably what the IOC likes best about
Canada as a venue – is our respectfulness.
And boy, are we respectful. We’re so
respectful we won’t even let foreigners into the
country who look like they might not be
respectful enough.
Last December, Canadian border guards at
Vancouver grabbed up Amy Goodman and
questioned her for over an hour. So who’s
Amy Goodman? Taliban operative? Al Qaeda
suicide bomber?
Worse. She’s host of a show called
Democracy Now on National Public Radio in
the US. The border guys were nervous about
the fact that this 120-pound middle-aged
woman broadcaster was planning to give a
speech in Vancouver.
After an hour-long grilling, the gist of which
was one question: was she planning to say
anything negative about the Olympics? – they
grudgingly let her into the country. But only
on a 48-hour pass, mind.
Can’t be too careful with these 120-pound,
middle-aged female radio people.
You know the old saying: you can’t make an
omelette without breaking a few eggs – and
the 2010 Winter Olympics is some omelette.
The price tag, we’re assured as of this
writing, is $6 billion (but I’m taking side bets
that the final bill, when all security
and infrastructure costs are toted up, will be
well north of $10 billion – you read it here
first).
But look on the bright side – there is life –
and black ink – after these international
bashes. Look at Montreal. As of this year that
city is officially free of its Expo 67-generated
debt.
And it only took 42 years.
Arthur
Black
Other Views Those olympic fun ‘n games
There is no failure except in no longer trying.
~Elbert Hubbard
Failure doesn't mean you are a failure... it
just means you haven't succeeded yet.
~Robert Schuller
It’s been mentioned before in this space that
in many aspects of our personalities my
husband and I are quite different.
And recently I just had another one smack me
in the face.
With our current renovation project
underway (I use the word ‘our’ loosely) we
(again loosely, but this time with me, not he,
the logical replacement) decided upon
incorporating a new feature.
Now then, I have since learned, it seems
there’s nothing like a little crown moulding to
test a handyman’s talents. While it does add
quite a lot to a room’s aesthetic, it’s also an
element that can bring a frazzled frown to the
brow of even experienced carpenters.
I had faith, however. A jack of all trades from
way back, Mark can put together most DIY
projects. He also isn’t afraid to admit when
one’s a bit of a puzzle for him and seek advice.
Such was the case with this most recent home
improvement idea of mine for someone else to
do.
Never one to shy from a challenge, he
attacked the work by analyzing and
researching, before testing and failing — often.
Seeing this task steal so much of his precious
time got me feeling just a bit guilty and I
offered him an out, saying he could stop, that it
had just been a suggestion, we could live
without crown moulding.
But Mark was tenacious. Once committed to
the project he would not be beaten.
And would, of course, ultimately be
successful.
Watching it all from the thick of things when
called to offer a hand or two, or rooting him on
from the sidelines, I thought how different his
reactions are from mine when faced with the
new and daunting. Then sadly acknowledged
my house is not the only thing in need of
improvement.
When faced with a task that I’ve never done
before I will almost always experience an
initial uncertainty, a feeling that I will be
incapable. And so, if I can avoid it, I will. After
all if I’m going to stumble anyway, why bother
even taking that first step.
If I can’t avoid it, any stumbles along the
way will frustrate me beyond words and I
know that it’s not tenacity that keeps me going.
It is only because I must continue that I do.
Of course, at the end of all this failure is
typically success. And with it the acquiring of
knowledge, skill or experience.
Obviously, I’m pretty comfortable doing
what I do. But I seem to forget that I wasn’t
born knowing how to do what I do. Toddlers
learn to walk by falling down and getting up
again. I have to wonder when I forgot that life’s
all about baby steps.
I suspect it happened as the result of growing
up as the youngest in the family. There was
always someone there to do things for me.
But I’m a little old for that excuse now. The
determination demonstration I witnessed the
other day reminded me that the life I lead is the
one I choose to lead.
From here on in I choose to keep on trying
new things, and if it happens, to fail as many
times as it takes as well until achieving
success.
McGuinty tips hat to grey power
Try, try again
P remier Dalton McGuinty has given a tip
of his hat to grey power, which these
days is not always the most sought after
quality in politics.
The Liberal premier, in a little noticed
aspect of his latest cabinet shuffle, named his
four oldest ministers to key posts.
In doing so he ignored many predictions his
dominant aim would be to put a younger,
newer, fresher – which often are seen as
denoting more enthusiastic and energetic –
face on government to win an election in 2011.
Gerry Phillips, who is 69 and the oldest
cabinet member, is chair of cabinet, which
gives give him an elder statesman’s voice in all
decisions.
He is also minister without portfolio with
responsibility for seniors, the fastest growing
segment of the community with rapidly-
growing problems, whom all parties will be
courting intensively.
Jim Bradley, 64, has moved from
transportation minister to municipal affairs,
where there are momentous issues to be
decided, including whether developers will
continue to have undue influence on municipal
councils.
McGuinty gave votes of confidence to John
Gerretsen, 67, in keeping him environment
minister, where he has been a solid agent for
change despite constraints of an economic
recession, and Rick Bartolucci, 66, in
community safety.
Ontario has tended to appoint younger
cabinets since the era of the Kennedys in the
United States, who appeared to embody youth
and vigour. McGuinty has been premier for six
years and still is only 54.
Bradley is one of the two longest serving
MPPs, having been elected in 1977 with
Progressive Conservative Norm Sterling.
McGuinty’s faith in him at a ripe age is
understandable.
When Bradley was environment minister
under premier David Peterson in the 1980s,
David Suzuki, the dean of environmental
activists, rated him the best environment
minister of any jurisdiction in Canada.
But Bradley’s prime benefit to McGuinty
now is he has watched every blade of grass
that has moved in Ontario politics for three
decades.
He knows which opposition parties tried to
block policies now considered indispensable
and in government favoured friends who were
lobbyists.
Bradley knows where all the bodies are
buried and exhumes them in every debate to
discomfit opposition parties.
Phillips also was a minister under Peterson
and had tried to reduce his involvement in
government. But McGuinty clearly has
persuaded him to stay on.
Phillips has a reputation for dispensing
quiet, down to earth good sense, which is not
always in abundance in governments, where
whiz kids of all ages and remote from
practicalities sometimes get undeserved
power.
These oldest ministers have been in politics
long enough to be called grizzled veterans, but
they are useful to their party and difficult to let
go.
Older, more experienced politicians even in
opposition, can win the day. Sterling, 67,
recently used long-existing rules to sneak a
request into the legislature to debate a
pensions issue so it was heard before rivals.
Sterling could not resist chortling “the early
bird gets the worm and they should learn that
when they’re dealing with an old vet like me.”
But the issue of when politicians are too old
is never far from MPPs’ minds. Bradley was
accused by his Conservative opponent in the
2003 election of having been too long in the
legislature. He had then been there 26 years –
which can be seen as being too old. But he
insisted it was the quality of his work that
mattered and kept his seat.
Liberal MPP Annamarie Castrilli was 48 in
1999, when she argued longer serving Liberal
Monte Kwinter at 66 was too old and should
step aside in a merger of their Toronto ridings
and leave the new riding to a younger, more
vigorous rival, herself.
In the first case voters and in the second
party members felt age was no reason to put a
politician out to pasture and McGuinty has
agreed there is life in the old dogs yet.
Eric
Dowd
FFrroomm
QQuueeeenn’’ss PPaarrkk
Be who you are and say what you feel
’cause people who mind don’t matter, and
people who matter don’t mind.
– Theodor Seuss Geisel
Final Thought