HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1986-04-09, Page 40 Titnead
PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1986.
Going first class
too expensive
The headline was effective: "We can't afford government
that goes first class".
The accompanying article in this month's Reader's Digest
columnist Don McGillivray effectively spells out how things
have changed in government from the days of John
DiefenbakertothedayofBrian Mulroney, how politicians have
gone from cramped, cluttered offices in the 1950's to plush,
spacious offices in the 1980's. He puts the blame on the
Trudeau years for a change in attitude but points out that the
trend has, if anything, accelerated under Brian Mulroney with
his own office's expenses increasing 57 per cent in one year over
Trudeau's last year. At one time someone had the brilliant idea
to have a second jet follow the Prime Minister everywhere he
flew because once his jet had broken down and he had been
stranded for a few hours until he could hitch a ride with another
private jet.
But while the horrors of government waste have been
"'documented time and again, little attention seems to be paid to
the waste in private industry. Professor Ralph Blackmore in a
recent television commentary, pointed out that the top 44
executives with Ford Motor Company in the U.S. last year
earned an average of $250,000 each in salary and, as if that
wasn't enough, took home bonuses that averaged more than
$300,000. A retiring head of a Canadian company was given a
going away present of $2 million. Given that government is
competing with private industry for good management people,
is it any wonder that the perquisites of office have increased
dramatically?
But, people argue, there are checks and balances on private
industry. Any company that becomes too wasteful will become
uncompetitive and die in the market place. But will it?
The ongoing trend on merger upon merger is creating a few
companies so large that if they should flounder, the entire
national economy is endangered. When Chrysler was in
trouble, the company was so important to the economy it wasn't
allowed to die. When two western banks collapsed, the fear of a
ripple effect through the entire banking system was so great the
government had to step in with a billion dollars.
The open market place is a great check against too much
"first class" treatment of employees but the open market only
works when we can afford to let it. If private industry becomes
as big as government, it can be just as dangerous as big
government.
Canadians -
lovers of gloom and doom
Ah the Canadian psyche. Last week we in Ontario enjoyed
summer-like weather, sunny and warm and for the most part
dry. Did we enjoy it? Well yeh ... sort of ... when we weren't
worrying how God was going to make us pay for it by dumping a
late snowstorm on us or going from April to October and
skipping summer altogether.
We Canadians just can't seem to relax, sit back and take the
good times and enjoy them. We're always worried about the
dark cloud that might be over the horizon behind that beautiful
sunset.
Take the sports situation in Toronto and the media response
to it for instance. The Toronto Blue Jays came within a game of
going to the World Series last year and over the past several
years have had the best record of any team. But rather than
relish that fact, the Toronto newspapers spend all their time
finding reasons the team is going to fall apart. Every cramp
suffered by a player means the team may spend most of its
season in the hospital emergency ward. Every argument
becomes dessention. Read the papers and you'd think the team
was destined for last place this year.
Such cynicism is a little better earned across town where the
Toronto Maple Leafs have been an a mbarassment to tM' city for
nearly two decade but still, the Canadian propensity for seeing
the dark side, the Toronto press doesn't want to see any silver
lining behind the dark cloud of many years of Leaf failure. The
team is in the playoffs for the first time in years. It has shown at
various times through the year it can play with the best, it has
the most exciting young player in the game and yet even when
the team is on a winning streak the media is totally negative.
Instead of seeing progress, the media thinks that if the team
didn't go from last place last year to first place this year,
everything about it is bad.
Ah yes Canadians. If somebody gave each of us $1 million
today we'd worry that with inflation we'll have only $960,000
next year.
•
THE DEVIL- /v1ADE ME Do T.
GUESS HE FORGOT To C LEAN UP
//
AFT {= R W A fi t)j
ftr `d he world view
r -) from Mabel's Grill
There are people who will tell
you that the important decisions in
town are made down at the town
hall. People in the know, however
know that the real debates, the real
wisdom reside down at Mabel's
Grill where the greatest minds in
the town (if not in the country)
gather for morning coffee break,
otherwise known as the Round
Table Debating and Filibustering
Society. Since not justeveryone
can partake of these deliberations
we will report the activities from
time to time.
MONDAY: Julia Flint was talking
about the United States shooting
up a couple of Libyan gunboats to
prove that gulf over by Libya is
international waters and she was a
little worried about the fact the
Americans also claim our northern
waters are international water.
Maybe they'll start shooting at our
navy too, she said.
Ward Black said there wasn't
much to worry about. First of all
they'd have to find a Canadian ship
out on the ocean to shoot at and
they'd have hard problems be-
cause most of ours are in the repair
shop.
Billie Bean says the Americans
certainly wouldn't find a Canadian
ship up around the arctic circle. He
has abrother-in-law in the navy
and whenever his ship goes on an
exercise it seems to be somewhere
in the Carribean, he says.
Tim O'Grady said there isn't any
worry about the Americans any-
way. "They started out taking on
Grenada and they've moved up to
Libya and Nicaragua which have
about three million people each.
They'll have to have quite a bit
more success before they're ready
to take on a country with 25 million
people even if we don't have an
army or navy."
FRIDAY: Everybody was abuzz
about that guy who found the
lottery ticket work millions who
actually gave it back to the owner,
in fact had to go through quite a bit
of trouble to get it back to the
owner.
"Noway I would have given it
back" Billie Bean said. "Imagine if
the guy had said thanks for
bringing the ticket back and only
given him a $5 tip."
Julia felt it was a really
heart-warming story, one of those
rare examples of honesty really
being the best policy. After all here
were two guys on welfare with a
chance to be millionaires with the
one guy being honest enough to
give the ticket to the real owner and
the other guy then giving him over
$1 million reward so they both end
up off welfare.
"Ah yes," said Ward Black,
"one more bit of proof that the
Mulroney government is getting
people off the welfare roles."
Wingham Hospital
gets new radiology equipment
The new radiology equipment
has arrived at the Wingham and
District Hosptial and the staff at
the hospital wants everyone to
know about the capabilities and
uses of the newequipmentand how
fortunate local residents are to
have such a precision diagnostic
device at the hospital.
Its four major functions include:
fluroscopyforx-ray examination of
internal structures by casting
shadows on a fluorescent screen,
even while in motion; radiography,
a picture produced on a film or
plate by x-ray, for example, a
fractured bone; angiography, the
process of making x-rays of blood
vessels after first injecting a
radiopaque substance and tomo-
graphy, which is a technique of
x-ray photography whereby an
x-ray is taken with the tube over the
patient and the film under the
patient, the two moving simultan-
eously in opposite directions. The
result is a clearly visible area at the
precise point where they intersect
and everything else is blurred.
Computerized controls allow
more accurate exposures and
shorten the time of exposure to the
patient. This allows incredible
accuracy and eliminates repeat
films due to patient movement.
It also allows the technologist to
position the patient, then by using
a low dose of fluroscopy to check
the position to make sure it is
correct before the x-ray actually is
taken.
Repeat films due to incorrect
positioning therefore are avoided.
The exposures are almost totally
phototimed, which means the
radiation is automatically stopped
when enough exposure to com-
plete the x-ray is used.
The x-ray table has a four-way
floating top which allows the
technologist to move even an
extremely heavy patient easily into
the correct position. The new
equipment will convert instantan-
eously from tomography to fluros-
copy or radiography to angio-
graphy, a time-consuming process
for the old machine.
Additional monitors can be
added to this equipment to allow
the radiology department to video-
tape images and display them in
other parts of the hospital and the
video is of sufficient quality that it
could be transmitted by teletrans-
mission to London, Kitchener or
Stratford for diagnostic purposes.
cizen.
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