Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-01-03, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1990. More of the same? The beginning of a new decade brings the hope that the future will offer more than the past: that the bad times will improve and the good ones will get better. Those who make their living from agriculture, and communities likeoursthatdependonagricultureasamain industry, can only hope the 1990’s are as deceptive as the 1980’s. The past decade began on a note of optimism in rural Canada. Farmers had been told the starving world needed more food and they should produce all they could. Land prices were soaring allowing farmers to borrow unheard of sums against their fattened equity. Told to be more efficient and bigger units were more efficient, farmers were buying more land, buying bigger equipment and enlarging their operations, much of the expansion based on borrowed money. We all know now what happened. Interest rates soared, commodity prices sank and the price of land dropped to nearly half what it was and lending institutions began foreclosing to rescue as much of their money as they could. Friends and neighbours found themselves moving off their farms, some of which had been in the family for more than a century, and living the unfamiliar ways of the town and city. While the spotlight of publicity was swung away from the troubles in agriculture at present, the problems remain. Many debt-ridden farmers aren’t going to be able to find money to plant their crops this spring. While the tragedy of each farm loss is personal, the effect spreads through the whole community. Every lost farm family means a loss of potential customers to urban business in our communities. The prospect for the 1990’s look grim for agriculture. Prices for mostfarm products remain low. The trade war between the U.S. and European Community continues with smaller countries like Canada getting hurt. And our governments, both provincial and federal have stopped saying even soothing words to farmers. Instead the words like farmers having to “adjust” to changing times so they can take advantage of “new opportunities” are on the lips of politicians basically saying “you’re in this on your own boys so sink or swim”. Even those commodities that were doing well because of supply-management now face an uncertain future because of Free Trade pressures and the GATT negotiations where the Americans seem bent on imposing a system which will allow them to set the rules for all nations and where our government, as yet, hasn’t showed much willingness to fight the direction the negotiations seem to be taking. The way is being laid for betrayal of supply management in an urban press that sees marketing boards, not as a way for farmers to help keep themselves in business, but as a monopoly which, people are told over and over again, costs consumers money while promoting inefficiency. Stories of Canadians lining up at the U.S. border to bring back American turkeys at bargain prices only help reinforce the image. For those of us that live in places like Huron County the trend should be of concern to everyone. When our rural neighbours get hurt, so do we. One can only hope that the prospects for the decade turn around as dramatically as those of the 1980’s did. If not, our whole rural way of life is in danger. Neanderthals’ code Those worried about violence on television are more lately to find it in the hockey game than on the detective shows. They’re also likely to hear more apologists for it. The code of the neanderthal side of hockey has come to the fore of late, not just in professional hockey but at the local level. Two weeks ago there was the edifying sight of Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Black Hawks fighting at the end of a period with one player hurling himself over the linesman to get at a Toronto player who was fighting with Chicago’s star player. His sin was compounded by the fact he’d already been sent off the ice but had returned to take part in the fight. His excuse, backed up by Don Cherry the popular apologist for such brainlessness, was that with him off the ice, the Toronto players outnumbered the Chicago players and had an unfair advantage. Yeh, sure like one-against-one in the fight he hurled himself into. Several nights later Chicago and Minnesota didn’t wait for the game to begin to get into a fight. In the practice session, 25 minutes before the game, the two teams got into a gang fight. Sunday in Brussels with six seconds left on the clock and the Hanover Barons going back to the kind of defeat they haven’t been accustomed to over the years of championship after championship, a Baron centre huddled with first one of his wingers, then another. When the puck was dropped, all three dropped their gloves and attacked the Brussels players. On the way off the ice the Hanover trainer tried to attack another Brussels player. The excuse for what would be called assault anywhere but in a hockey rink, is that fighting relieves the tension that builds up in afast contact sport like hockey. When the fighting becomes a premeditated tactic of intimidation, however, that excuse is hollow. With hockey leagues like the NHL and OHA need to clean up their own act or the courts may have to do it for them. Cattails and snow Letter from the editor The school yard bully strikes again BY KEITH ROULSTON Most of us, if we think back, can remember at least one school yard bully in our lives. When you were small there were times when you hated to go out in the schoolyard to play. Somewhere out there was likely to be a big kid that just loved to throw his weight around and usually picked a II«lle kid to take his frustrations out on whenever he needed to demon­ strate his strength to his friends who hung around, courting his favour by applauding his actions. The thing that was so frustrating was the complete lack of power you had as a little kid. There were supposed to be rules in the schoolyard, administered by the patrolling teacher but there were too many children for the one teacher to see everything and too many places where the bully could hold sway. If he wanted to, it was the bully who set the rules and if you were his chosen victim there was little you could do but try to please that big guy and his friends. It was frightening because there was a sense of complete helpless­ ness. If you live in Latin America today, I think, you must still have the feeling of looking out for the school yard bully when you look at the Uncle Sam. That’s why few Latin American nations, even if they had to sympathize with the overthrow of the dictatorship of Manuel Noriega could agree with the way it happened: through the use of 20,000 U.S. troops. For the people of other countries in the region, an American invasion has been something that has happened too often in their own countries to support it, even if they did agree Continued on page 23 P.O. Box 429, BLYTH Ont NOM 1H0 Phone 523-4792 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $19 OO/yr. ($40.00 Foreign) Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p m - Blyth We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright. Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Editor & Publisher, Keith Roulston Production Manager, Jill Roulston Advertising Manager, Dave Williams Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968