Loading...
The Brussels Post, 1981-01-14, Page 2 7;1N 1872 4Brussels Post BRUSSELS ONC Established 1872 519-887-6641 Serving Brussels anal the surrounding community Box 50, Brussels, Ontario NOG 1H0 Published at BRUSSELS, ONTARIO every Wednesday morning by McLean Bros. Publishers Limited Andrew Y. McLean, Publisher Evelyn Kennedy, Editor Pat Langlois, Advertising .41!13211;, 10 AN cc) AI,Wliaaa?Pll,N,,,lIlljtr. Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association and The Audit Bureau of Circulation. Subscription rates; Canada $12 a year (in advance) outside Canada $25 a year (in advance) Single copies - 30 cents each Stay safe at home Lately it seems there's a snowstorm every week. Sometimes, things get so bad that many highways in the area are closed. Some people must really enjoy the challenge of driving out into these storms. It doesn't seem to matter that the police are warning people to stay off the roads, some foolhardy driver will always risk his neck out there. Unless it's a qualified emergency, then there's no reason at all why people have to be out on the roads in the middle of a snowstorm. Not only do people who do so risk their own lives, but the lives of others, such as policemen, grader operators and other people who come out to help them. It's one thing to risk your own life, but to risk the lives of others just isn't fair. The next time you get an urge to head out in a storm, think of the possible consequences. Only a real emergency could qualify as a good reason for being out on the road. Behind the scenes by Keith Roulston Dumping on our leader Canadians in general, and the press in particular, have spent a lot of time in the last couple of decades, dumping on political leaders who dare to leave Canada. It doesn't matter which party our leaders represent, they're liable to be both criticized and ridiculed if they dare to step outside our borders while there are any unsolved problems left at home. Remem- ber Joe Clark's ill-fated world tour where the press managed to take every minor slip-up and make it symbolic of the sloppy Joe who wanted to be our leader? Pierre Trudeau has received even more criticism over the years, possibly because he's been around longer. Last week the same readiness ,to symbolize filled the media reporting on his current world travels. It's ironic that at a time when ordinary Canadians are doing more world travelling than ever before we begrudge our leaders what should be their duty: to get out and visit other countries to learn and let people learn about Canada. Every time a leader goes abroad people grumble that they should be staying, home to solve the inflation , problem or the unemployment problem or the separatist problem, as if the problem that couldn't be solved the other 51 weeks of the year will suddenly be solved in the one week the leader is away. The current troubled tour of the Prime Minister may do as little to solve the problems of the poor countries as the cynics say but it may have a important side-effect back,home Canada. Canada was a very outward country for many years. We seemed to regard ourseiveg as of little importance for nearly the first century of our existence. That changed in the mid-sixties as Lester Pearson'S govern- ment tried to build a national sense of community, an interest and pride in ourselves and our own country. Canada, turned around to the point that today Canada is so inward looking that we are in as much danger of hurting ourselveS as before. THE "ME GENERATION" If Canadians have become the' "in generation, Canada has become a "me" country. All we can see is our own problems and we have blown things all out of proportion because of it. We fuss about the horrible inflation and indeed it is nothing to be proud of at 11 per cent last month. Inflation last year in Israel was something like 135 per cent. In Iceland they're hoping for a good year to get inflation down to 40 per cent from a predicted 80 per cent. Interest rates? Israelis would drool at our 20 per cent interest rates here. They pay 100 per cent interest and still they borrow like mad. Cost 9f petroleum too high? At least we can afford it. The third world nations, already behind us, are falling farther behind every day. We're burning our share of the world's petroleum resources and theirs too and then complaining about it costing too much. Many nations think we're not paying enough for our fuel here because the price is less than the U.S., Europe and other places, thus not encour- aging us to cut consumption as much. How about the cost of food? Ridiculous you say. So do the people in Poland who can't find food to buy in their stores. But the Poles are on the rich side of the poverty line compared to hundreds of millions. Take Haiti, so close to our own backyard, a place Canadians go to spend a carefree winter holiday. Those tourists will spend more on one night out then the average Haitian will make in a year. We have fostered a picture throughout history of the rich European aristocrats who complained about the price of jewels getting absolutely ridiculous while people starved in the streets. We've immortalized Marie Antoinnette's famous "Let them eat cake" line, and we look at the rich people in our own country in the same light we see the uncaring aristocrats of other times. WE'RE THE RICH ONES And yet looking at the World as a Whole we are the rich aristocrats telling the poor to eat take. We are the privileged few in the world where the majority are in poverty Please turn to page 5 Why does the plow tear up our garbage? WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1981 To the editor: Upon arising this morning we were informed both by observance and by radio of the terrible weather conditions outside. Buses are cancelled, schools closed, people are to stay off the roads etc. But even with weather conditions being what they were there was no mention of the garbage truck not making it through. Veiwing the situation outside, I noted that the plow had never been along. After having my garbage torn up by the plow on previous occasions I waited until almost 9 a.m. before attending to the task and still no plow. So out I went with my garbage and all that of my recently departed neighbours. I also gave a friend across the way a reprieve from the weather by offering to put her refuse out too. The job completed, I waded back through It's difficult to peer ahead into 1981 with wild enthusiasm. Unless you live in Alberta, where the taxes are low and the living is high. Inflation is almost guaranteed to increase from 10 to 15 per cent. Our Prime Minister, in his infinite wisdom, had some advice for poor p eople and pensioners who dread such a forecast. In effect, he said if they can't afford bread, let them eat cake. The last person who uttered those sentiments wound up with her head in a basket. Yes, Mr. Trudeau has much in common with Marie Antoinette, and is just about as close to the people. Peace and goodwill seem like a hopeless cause for the coming year. The Russians are still in Afghanistan, keeping the peace. The situation in Poland, as I write, is very dicy. The Middle East is on the verge of catching fire, literally and figuratively. There are wars and rumors of wars around the globe. And our country is not exactly in glowing health, politically, although that's nothing new. Barely has Rene Levesque had his ears pinned back when out of the West gallops, not young Lochinvar, but fairly serious threatsttof separation from Canada, airily dismissed by our P.M. as "hysteria." It's anything but. If everybody west of Ontario went along with it, The West would have one of the biggest countries in the world, with a small population, great resources. And it's about time Ottawa, and Ontario, the fat cat of Canada since confederation, did more than pooh-pooh the idea. Meanwhile, let's get back to the trivia that is so much more important to the individual. It's still a gloomy outlook. Young people, unless they have a double income or inherited wealth, might as well forget about buying a house with mortgage rates so high that, even the Lord can smell something rotten in the state of our economy. Donald McEachen, a wealthy bachelor who happens to be Minister of Finance, is so eager to de-index our income tax that he's dancing about like a kid who has to go to the bathroom. If he were allowed to get away with it, no matter how hard you worked, or how bright you were, your income' would melt like a snowball in you-know-where. Pollution and acid rain areattaCking this beautiful country like the bubonic plague, while government talks tough and does nothing and industrialists, in sincere sur- prise, ask, "What pollution?" while our lakes are killed of fish,,our soil is poisoned and our health is threatened. These may seem pretty gloomy thoughts, but there are even more horrible prospects for 1981. Every one of its is going to be one the snow and into the house. Five minutes later along came our wonderful plow, tossing everything in its path helter-skelter. Every- one's garbage was either tossed right into the front yard or buried deep in the banks. Out I went again, wading in snow over my knees to rescue my and all my neighbour's garbage so it could be readily taken away rather than having to clean it up in the spring. The question I would like answered is; where is this plow when people are trying to drive to work at 6, 7, or 8 o'clock in the morning? It looks to me as if they take great pleasure in pushing everyone's garbage etc. to ... and gone when they should be more concerned with the safety of our streets. I thought the streets were to be• plowed at night- hence the "no parking" by law. I guess I have been grossly mistaken. Nancy Currie Brussels. year older, and not one whit better. That may be all very well for a kid of 18 who wants to become 19 so he can drink legally. But for many of us, all it means is more aches and pains, new glasses, new teeth, and one step closer to the grave. Many of us will lose friends and relatives to that old Grim Reaper, and many will desert the sports page or the comics for the obituary columns. We'll probably have a dreadful winter, a late spring, a short wet, cool summer, and another lousy fall, like that of 1980. I can feel it in my bones, especially the middle toe-bone of my left foot upon which- I dropped the mickey. Unless the feds go on priming the pump with our taxes, gas and oil prices will soar, creating dreadful hardships, such as having to wear a sweater in the house, or walk to work. Now, everything I've said is true, and you know it. But I can just hear you saying: "What wrong with Smiley? Who does he think he is?' Cassandra? He's getting into his dotage, and should be put away in an old people's home." And you'd be quite right. Nobody believed Cassandra either, and it was a good thing. If they'd believed her, the fall of Troy would never have taken place, the great Greek tragedians would have had no material, and instead of working like trojans, we'd probably be working for Trojans. But inside, I don't feel any of that gloom and doom I've been spouting. I feel like a boy. Rather an old boy, - but a boy, nonetheless. Despite our economic situation, high taxes, inflation on both port and starboard bows, war and violence our everyday diet, we'll survive, and probably have as good a year as we ever had. We still have one of the highest living standards in the' world. We are still a rich country, comparatively. We still have a sturdily independent nation of individuals. Our inflation rate is no worse than most countries, better than many. So, if you can't buy a house, as Trudeau would say, buy a condominium. If you can't afford the supermarket pribes, get out and cultivate your own garden. It you can't afford gas, walk. If you can't afford fttel, drop dead. It'll be warm enough where you go. When I think of what Canadian pioneers faced, every new year, I just laugh at the whining of modern Canadians, one of the spoiledest nations in the world. Personally, I'M going to have a great 1981, even if I can't afford teeth and have to gum my grub, have to get around on Crutches. And the same to you. Sugar and spice By Bill Smiley Even the trivia looks glum for 1981