HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2009-10-15, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2009. PAGE 5.
Bonnie
Gropp
TThhee sshhoorrtt ooff iitt
You probably don’t realize it, but you
are reading the words of one wealthy
dude. I Am Loaded. Extremely well
off. Filthy rich, even.
Nobody asks me how I achieved my
fabulous financial prosperity but if somebody
did, I would tell them I became rich by
following the example of another man of
magnificent means, Aristotle Onassis.
You’ve heard of him? Greek shipping
tycoon.
At 22, he was a penniless refugee; when he
died, aged 69, in 1975, his empire was worth
half a billion dollars.
Someone asked Onassis the secret to his
success. He said he was rich because he wore
no topcoat.
“Since I am known as a ‘rich’ person” he
explained, “I feel I would have to tip at least
$5 every time I check my coat. On top of that,
I would have to wear a very expensive coat,
and it would have to be insured. Added
up, without a topcoat I save over $20,000 a
year.”
Exactly. That is also the secret of my
success. I don’t mean that I don’t wear a
topcoat; I just mean that I, too, am cheap.
Smoking? I gave that up years ago, but I was
once a pack a day man. Last time I checked,
smokes were selling for $10 a pack. I save
$3,700 a year right there.
Gave up booze, too. Used to drink wine,
beer on a regular basis and a martini from
time to time. Doesn’t take long for that to add
up.
Let’s say I drank two bottles of wine, a half
dozen beer and one martini (a martinus?)
every seven days. That’s got to be a minimum
of fifty bucks. A week.
Now, cranberry and soda is my social
beverage of choice and I’m no longer shelling
out at least $2,600 a year.
If you throw in the tab from parties,
weddings and showers, expensive cab rides
and drunken over-tipping I’ve got to be
pocketing an extra four grand a year – just
from not drinking.
We used to be a two-car household, but we
sold one ($30,000) and replaced it with a
motor scooter ($3,000). Savings: another
$17,000.
Used to cost me close to a hundred bucks a
week to fill the tank on the old gas-eater.
My scooter takes about $5 every week and a
half.
Chalk up another $5,000 or so I’m saving
every annum.
Vacations? I save a bundle there. I stay
home. I don’t go to the States anymore
because…it’s the States. Their economy is
worse than ours and crossing the border is
unpleasant and demeaning.
Europe and Mexico are (a) hideously
expensive and (b) dodgy in the food and
mugging departments.
Besides, you still have to face the customs
goons when you come back. If I wanted to be
abused and mistreated by anonymous,
unsmiling thugs I’d just go down to the local
Hell’s Angels clubhouse and kick over a
Harley. Much cheaper – and no passport
required.
So, by not going abroad I save at least four
or five thousand a year.
Recreation? I don’t live close to any major
hockey, baseball or football franchise, so, no
overpriced season’s tickets for me.
As for personal sports involvement, hey, I’m
an old guy. Nobody’s going to sell me a $5,000
mountain bike, a Kevlar kayak or a set of skis
to do the Black Diamond run at Whistler at my
age.
I don’t have the plaid slacks (or
temperament) for golf and I’m too young for
lawn bowling. Gotta be pocketing at least
another $10 or $12 grand a year there.
And I don’t buy toys – well, not the
expensive ones anyway. Don’t have a
BlackBerry, an iPhone, a GPS thingummy or a
shuffleboard-court-sized plasma TV screen for
my living room wall. Another ten thou a year I
don’t have to spend.
I’m retired, so I no longer have the expense
of commuting to work – that also means my
wardrobe expenses have plummeted. I dress
for comfort now – sweat pants, T shirts,
running shoes.
My business suits, leather shoes, ties, and
dress shirts? All gone to the Thrift Store –
whence cometh aforementioned sweats, Ts
and sneakers.
The money this saves is difficult to
calculate, but let’s round it off at $10,000 a
year.
I don’t play poker or the ponies and I don’t
buy Irish Sweepstakes tickets or patronize
casinos.
Lottery tickets? Please. Do I look that
dumb?
A retiree pays a lot less income tax than a
working stiff. I save a huge wad there.
Granted, I no longer cash a weekly corporate
pay cheque, but who cares? Look at the money
I saved in the past 12 months by not
smoking/drinking/driving a hummer/going
abroad/holding down a day job/buying
titanium golf clubs/playing roulette/wearing
dopey white nipples in my ears.
Easily over $100,000. Makes me feel smug,
fulfilled, holier-than-thou and fiscally astute
all at once.
Just one question.
Where’s the money?
Arthur
Black
Other Views How I became a rich guy
The biggest story in Ontario politics is
not anything Dalton McGuinty is
doing, but the uncertain future of the
province’s biggest news media chain, which is
on the financial rocks and partly nudged there
by competitors.
Some of the many newspapers owned by
Canwest Global Communications Corp. soon
may be owned by others.
Owners of papers normally, although not
invariably, decide which political parties they
will support through their editorials, the
papers’ official voice. This is not surprising,
because most bought them mainly so they
could exert political influence.
Politicians, elected and back room, and
those who vote, which should mean
everybody, have a huge stake in who owns
these papers.
In Toronto, where the widest-circulating
newspapers in the province are published, The
Star energetically and relentlessly supports the
Liberal party in its editorials, although this has
not prevented its news reporters from leading
in unearthing faults in McGuinty’s Liberal
government.
The Globe and Mail likes to think it is
independent, but its editorials mostly support
the Progressive Conservatives, and The Sun
almost always urges vote Conservative.
The National Post, the flagship paper of
the Canwest chain and therefore facing a
possible change of ownership, diverges from
the Conservatives’ line only when it thinks
they are not far enough to the right, which is
often.
A National Post that no longer is
Conservative would be a huge loss to the
Conservative extreme right. Those that hope it
will continue its present political stances also
will include many in the Jewish community,
who have seen it as a constantly reliable
supporter of their causes and particularly the
state of Israel.
Canwest’s financial difficulties have been
caused almost wholly because its owners in
assembling it piled up huge debt and
found it impossible to repay, particularly
when newspapers generally are selling
fewer papers and advertising in them is
reduced.
But this writer has worked on the staffs of
several newspapers that have died in recent
decades, including the News Chronicle of
London, England (where Charles Dickens was
once a writer), Toronto Telegram and Ottawa
Journal.
A variety of reasons contributed to their
demise, but in each case repeated reporting by
competitors they were in financial trouble
helped build a public image that made it more
difficult for them to survive.
Advertisers who spend huge money on
campaigns will not put it in a newspaper they
feel may not be around long. They play safe by
running their ads in papers whose continued
existence is not in question.
Rival papers in Toronto reported the
difficulties of Canwest and the Post regularly
and even with relish.
In February The Globe and Mail said
Canwest was “scrounging for a few desperate
dollars and has reached the wall.”
In March, The Star reported its own
readership remained steady, but The Post’s had
declined and it was forced to postpone a
deadline for repaying. The Globe said
Canwest was merely tinkering with repaying
and creditors were worried.
In April The Star said the crunch time had
come for Canwest to repay and it might be
forced to sell.
The Globe said Canwest’s income from
advertising had fallen so dramatically
creditors might be less willing to wait for
money owed and those most likely to take over
had no insights that would win back readers
anyway.
In May The Globe reported Canwest was
trying again to extend deadlines to repay and
“reworking” them several times.
In June The Star said Canwest’s debt load
“threatens to topple” the company, which had
to borrow money at a time when credit was
tightest, and there was constant speculation
about the future of its National Post, and in
August The Globe said advertising in The Post
had dropped so steeply its debt was
unmanageable.
The rival papers’ predictions have come
true, so it could be argued they were justified,
but they also helped weaken media already in
trouble and may cost the public another voice
it cannot afford to lose.
Eric
Dowd
FFrroomm
QQuueeeenn’’ss PPaarrkk
Thirty years ago a trip down a pretty tree-
lined street changed everything for my
husband and me.
Our first home was in the plans way back
then. With two small children and a plan for
more, we had the property and blueprints that
for us, at least, meant homey and kid friendly.
The land we had chosen backed onto a country
field, the area was quiet offering plenty of room
for youngsters to run and play.
We were almost ready to dig when a cycle trip
around town one summer evening took us in an
entirely different direction. A friend had pointed
out the big old home on the tree-lined street, and
when I mentioned it to my husband, and the
accompanying price tag, he decided we should
take a peek.
Opening the door, I fell in love. Certainly not
with the biggest sow’s ear in home decor, or with
the drafts I could feel blowing in the room. All I
could see was a house meant for family, plenty
of bedrooms, a farm kitchen and a banister
designed for sliding down.
What I didn’t know then was that my husband
was sold before we even entered, enchanted by
the glorious old maples that lined the street, and
the other building right in our backyard. “Our
kids,” he said, “will never have to cross a street
to go to school.”
It was one of our blessings, for sure. I
remember those early days, moving from
window to window to follow their progress
enroute to kindergarten. I remember my oldest,
seeing me outside, coming to the fence on his
first day of track and field, a beaming smile on
his face, a winning display adorning his chest.
The shouts of my exuberant youngest heard
across the grounds, visits with my girls, were all
reminders to me that I was glad we made the
choice we had.
With children grown now, our world has
changed, and this big, old house may someday
be too big and old for our needs. The shadow
being cast on rural elementary schools with
accommodation reviews, is a pretty good
predicator that future owners won’t be as lucky
as we were.
Not that the Avon Maitland District School
Board cares about such sappy sentimentality.
One can’t consider the issue of a three-year-old
travelling a third of the way across the county to
attend JK in a new school, after all, when the
numbers, or dollars, aren’t there to support
keeping them closer to home. Or so it seems.
Nor can the province be expected to see the
value in fixing a school, that is filled to capacity
no less, when they can build a new one. Never
mind that this is not like travelling a few city
blocks to a different school, but long drives
down country miles.
We know at The Citizen, what taking the
school from a community means. The
relationship we have with our local students
once they move on to high school is tenuous; we
learn what they think to tell us, or what we
happen to be lucky enough to overhear. The
same thing will happen should all our children
from East Wawanosh, Blyth and Belgrave be
moved to a larger school close to Wingham, as
has been suggested. Not that the board or the
province care either about that loss of
connection between students and community.
When Blyth and East Wawanosh thought they
were doing the right thing by offering to have
their schools closed in favour of a new building,
I spent too much time confused to be angry. Not
so this time. There is nothing that makes sense
about the decimation of the school system in
Huron County. No high-paid administrator is
going to convince us otherwise. Hopefully we
can convince them to stop trying and try
working with us instead.
Media shakeup affects politics
Nothing makes sense