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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-04-11, Page 5the CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY APRIL 11. 1990. PAGE 5. When did garbage get ‘sanitary' The lesson today concerns euphemisms. Linguistic muzak. The pretty words and punchless phrases we use to cushion and deodorize our thoughts. “Passing on" is a popular euphemism. So much softer and unfinal than “dying”, “croaking” or “biting the dust.” “Expecting” -- there’s another dandy euphemism. It's vague and sexless, unlike such straightforward vulgarisms as “preg­ nant”. “in calf” or “Carrying a bun in the oven”. The military world is a veritable compost heap of euphemisms. They’re the folks who gave us the “anti-personnel device” (read lethal explosive designed to shred flesh and pulverize bone). And who can forget “nuclear deterrent” (read annihil­ ation of life coupled with long-term planet poisoning). There’s another euphemism currently making the rounds. It’s a real late-twen- tieth century cutie. Sanitary landfill. Roll it around on your tongue once or twice. Sanitary Landfill. Might also be the Objectivity s in short supply BY RAYMOND CANON One of the most interesting phenomena in Canada is listening to somebody making an accusation against the federal govern­ ment in Ottawa for having committed some sin of omission or commision. The accuser is probably sincere in his or her feeling but there is one thing missing - the fact that Ottawa may not be the culprit after all. Rather the latter is to be found in Tokyo, Bonn or Washington or even all three and our government can do little but ,follow meekly along. This is not to say that we are always being pushed or pulled by these foreign governments; sometimes the fault lies squarely in our nation’s capital. However, it is safe to say that there are a number of occasions when Ottawa is only a bystander and can do little but follow suit. Nowhere is this more true than in the field of economics. Let’s look at the question of the high interest rates which currently afflict us. It is very easy for somebody to stand up in the House of Commons and urge the minister of finance to reduce them at the earliest possible moment, like, say, right now. The M.P. in question conveniently forgets that we are living more and more in a world economy, not a national one and that, if Japan, Germany and the United States, the “big three” in the world of finance, decide that for one reason or another it is in their best interest to have those rates go up. there is very little that the minister of finance in Ottawa can do except grin and bear it. Since all we get on T. V. is a 30 or 60 second clip, it is very easy for an accomplished opposition M.P., or even the press for that matter, to make the minister look like someone who has no idea whatsoever what is going on. This is all the more true since international economics is not exactly a prime topic of discussion at the supper tables of the nation on any name of a new complexion cream. “Sani­ tary” - nice, clean, inoffensive adjective ...“landfill” -- something to enrich the soil and eradicate all those unseemly pocks and craters. It sounds almost as if we’re doing the world a favour. In fact, we’re unloading our crap. Shrink wrap, old Loblaws bags, bald tires, rusty bedsprings, breakfast crusts, kitty litter - not to mention greases, solvents, acids, alkalies and a mad chemist’s brew of toxic, cancerous gunk too various to catalogue. And if we can believe the headlines, we’re running out of places to bury the stuff. The city of Toronto, that megalomaniacatropolis on the barely-flow­ ing Humber, is currently dispatching outriders to most of the townships and counties within garbage hauling distance of its borders. They hope to strike a deal with somebody - ANYbody - who will agree to take Hogtown’s garbage. Toronto’s not alone. There’s not a Canadian city or town of any consequence that has to look too deeply into its municipal crystal ball to see the garbage piling up. And this is in Canada - an underpopu­ lated country with nearly four million square miles of back yard! Makes you wonder what they do in less capacious countries. Is Portugal sinking under the weight of its trash? Is Belgium up to its eavestroughs in Glad Bags? What about England? Actually, we don’t have to wonder about given night. Why, you might ask, would the govern­ ments of those three nations want to increase their interest rates and thereby force ours up as well. One of the prime reasons is, of course, the evidence of a steady rise in the rate of inflation. The Germans, for one, have almost a pathalo- gical fear of inflation, having experienced the hyper variety twice in this century. They realize what it feels like to have their savings wiped out almost overnight and, when there is even a hint of a rise in the price level, their government of the day is ready to jump in to do battle with the monster. The remedy is the same there as it is here - raise interest rates and there is no thought whatsoever given to the thought of what this might mean to interest rates in Canada. The question, if it arises at all, is an academic one. Another situation where what happens here is conditioned, not in Canada but elsewhere, is that of unemployment. I have noticed recently that every time that there are layoffs in a specific plant, there is a good chance that the union representing the workers will jump squarely on top of the Free Trade Agreement and blame it and it alone for the layoffs. Of course that gets media coverage but the same union is never asked to provide any justification for Letter from the editor Feeling of despair in the land BY KEITH ROULSTON There’s a feeling of despair in the farm community, Jack Riddell, M.P.P. for Huron and former Agriculture minister for Ontario told a meeting in Clinton, Satur­ day. Mr. Riddell said he was worried by the mood in the rural area. Farmers usually holler about things that bother them but things are too quiet now, he told the Members of Parliament Dinner of the Huron County Federation of Agriculture. one city in England. An ex-citizen of Nottingham recently wrote an explanatory letter to the editor of a Toronto newspaper. The letter-writer, one Ben Banham, recalled walking to school past a building known as The Destructor. Inside the building, “the waste was dumped on conveyor belts and sorted by hand. All metal was first removed, except cans, and sent to scrap metal yards. Butcher bones were sorted out and finished as bone meal for gardens; bottles and glass jars were removed and recycled. The remainder went through the furnace and finished as ashes and cans. The cans were boiled and went to steel mills. That left tons of ashes which had two uses. They were mixed with cement and made into cinder blocks ... (which) were used to line the inside of the brick-built houses, also as partition walls inside, and plastered....” “It would be fair to say” writes Mister Banham, “that scores of the numerous soccer stadiums in the country used tons of the ashes for several inches of drainage under the turf. Result: Nothing wasted.” Indeed. Mister Banham says The De­ structor handled and disposed of all the garbage of Nottingham, an industrialized city of 300,000. But Mister Banham is wrong on one count. Something was wasted: the lesson we ought to have learned from Notting­ ham. Ben Banham is a senior citizen and The Destructor is a hazy memory. All the fact and figures cited above were true only when Ben Banham was a Nottingham lad. And that was 75 years ago. such a statement. The truth of the matter is that, free trade or no free trade, the world is going through an industrial realignment in which long established practices are changing in face of increasing competition and, regardless of where the head office is, many companies are becoming increasingly in­ ternational in nature. To cite on example, Northern Telecom is a Canadian company but you would never know that from the advertisement that this company puts out in other countries; there is no mention made anywhere of its Canadian origin. As a result of all this realignment, a good many businesses both here and elsewhere are going to have to adjust or else fold up their tent. Add to that the fact that Canada is going to the end of a long boom in the business cycle, as is the United States, and layoffs are going to become more pre­ valent. However, to blame these layoffs solely on free trade is being somewhat less than honest. As long as we get a diet of half-truths or outright false conclusions, it is going to be difficult for the majority of taxpayers to be objective to any great degree. This is a pity since, with the world changing so rapidly, objectivity is something that we need in even greater supply. The quietness tells him people feel they’re helpless and hopeless, he said. There’s no doubt after a decade of destruction in the farm community the mood isn’t good. There’s no doubt too that farmers have more reason than most to have a sense of helplessness. But I think in a lesser way the same kind of helpless and hopeless feeling is overtaking many people in the country, although the mood is more often expressed in loud, intolerant ways than in the quiet despair of the farmers that Mr. Riddell senses. Maybe the country, dominated as it is by the baby-boomer generation, is going through a collective mid-life crisis, but maybe it’s got more to do with the almost totally negative signals we’ve been getting in the last few years. The swing to the right, to the hard-edged economics of big Letter More than 600 help Heart canvass THE EDITOR, Did you realize that during the month of February over 600 people donated their time to thoroughly canvass all areas of Huron? To all of you - congratulations -- you have helped the Huron Chapter of the Heart and Stroke Foundation exceed its goal of $60,000. To all of you who donated so generously let me express the Founda­ tion’s sincere appreciation. Together we support the vital work of research and it is having spectacular results. The Heart and Stroke Foundation funds two-thirds of all heart and stroke related research. And it pays! We are making quantum leaps in finding cures, developing medical advances and educating the public to prevent the problem. When you realize that 43 per cent of all deaths in Canada are due to heart and stroke disease you also then know that we can and must beat Canadas No. 1 killer. As the year proceeds the Huron Heart and Stroke Foundation will sponsor events and programs which also depend on the efforts of dedicated volunteers. If you can donate time and talent please contact us. If you wish to make a financial donation please contact us. Or if you are in need of a speaker or would like further information please contact us at: Huron Heart and Stroke Foundation 39 West Street, 2nd Floor Goderich, Ontario N7A 2K5 Phone: 524-4440 You have made it happen! Thank you. Nico Peters Huron County Campaign Chairman Remember smoking patients THE EDITOR, As a smoking patient in Wingham Hospital, there are a few points I would like to make about the article by Mr. Hayes in the Wingham paper. As a smokpr I am grateful for any right to smoke. I try to abide by all rules. I have spoken to many smoking patients and we all agreed that smoking in the patient’s lounge was not right and they hated to sit in the entrance where everyone comes in and out. As long as there are ash trays there the visitors and out-patients use it too. They leave coffee cups and pop cans there and it makes it messy. Could we not have a small room on second floor for smoking patients only and tell them if their visitors smoke everybody’s right will be taken away. I know non-smokers will holler about this but one thing I know is that the patients’ lounge used to be crowded during visiting hours but now there aren’t nearly as many there. When a smoker’s lungs are being deprived of smoke they become very sensitive to nearly everything but fresh cigarette smoke and clean fresh air. I know smokers are in minority but we are still people. All I am asking is everybody try for a decent, sensible solution. Wm. F. Buchanan Brussels. business and market-ideology politicians, hasn’t been one to inspire visions of a better tomorrow. The tearing up of railway tracks, the cancelling of VIA rail lines, the turmoil of whether or- not communities would keep their post offices have sent signals to rural and small town people that their way of life isn’t economically viable any more. It has made us feel we’re a drag on the country. The whole country got something of the same feeling by the Free Trade debate when we were told over and over again that we h< d to go into Free Trade or we would lose the good lifestyle we had. Even if it means giving up some of the independence we’ve got, there isn’t any choice, was the message. If we have to play by the other Continued on Page 8