HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-08-08, Page 5Turning
up the heat
It’s been five years now since I pulled up
my tent pegs and moved from Thunder Bay
to the fleshpots of southern Ontario. The
other day somebody asked me what I
missed most about my old stomping
grounds on the shores of Lake Superior. I
took a deep breath and prepared to unload
my usual monologue about close friends,
gullet-gripping sunsets, clean air, no
traffic ...
That’s what I intended to talk about, but
when I opened my mouth what popped out
was
“Saunas.”
1 miss the saunas.
One of the better kept secrets of this
country is the fact that northern Ontario
contains the largest concentration of
people of Finnish descent outside of
Finland itself. The Finns, who are not a
flamboyant people, have nevertheless be
queathed the planet three priceless gifts.
Cross country skis.
Sibelius.
The sauna.
Albania -
Communism’s
last stronghold
BY RAYMOND CANON
I sat on the deck of the ferry leaving
Corfu for Brindisi in Italy and looked
through field glasses at the shore of
Albania just north of the Greek border.
Here and there I could see a light of some
sort but other than that there appeared to
be very little sign of any movement. As the
ship rounded the north tip of Corfu and
headed west toward the Italian coast, I took
one last look at the land and handed the
glasses back to my friend, resigning myself
to the fact that I was not going to be able to
see Albania other than from a distance.
It had not been for lack of trying. I had
just completed a series of articles on
Yugoslavia after the departure, rather
precipitiously, of the Russians, after Tito
had kicked them out; it occurred to me at
the time that a logical follow-up would be a
study of the Communist regime in Albania.
As it turned out the Albanian government
was not interested in tourists and espe
cially not journalists; applications for visas
were simply not encouraged. While I was
waiting for an almost certain rejection of
my application, I set about acquainting
myself with the country’s history, assum
ing that, if I did get in, the more I knew
about the Albanians,- their culture and their
language, the better. All that knowledge
got tucked away for future use.
It has occurred to me that some readers
might not be certain just where the country
is located. When I tell you that it is
opposite Italy and shares a common border
with both Yugoslavia and Greece, that
should give you enough to place it.
Regardless of how little you know about
any European country, it is highly likely
that you know even less about Albania. At
the beginning of World War II it found
itself in the embarrassing position of being
part of Mussolini’s Empire but, since the
latter picked the wrong side in the war, the
country became independent and, like its
Yugoslav neighbours, turned to commun
ism as a way of life. In contrast to the rest
of southeast Europe, this ideology was not
imposed from outside but was a deliberate
The Finnish sauna is ancient. Finns have
been going into little overheated houses,
taking off their clothes and sweating
themselves clean for at least 200 years.
And wherever Finns migrated they
always took along their sauna floor plans.
In the late years of the last century, large
numbers of Finnish navies came to Canada
to help punch a rail line across this country.
Many of them got no farther than northern
Ontario, where the lady they saw reminded
them so much of their homeland they quit
their jobs and bought a chunk of it. And the
first building that went up on all those
chunks of land was a tiny shack the chief
furnishings of which were a wood stove in
one corner and tiers of benches in the
other.
It makes sense when you think about it.
The Finns could live in their saunas while
their more elaborate houses went up.
Saunas could also be used for curing meat
and drying crops, for grain storage -- even
as a nursery. Many a Finn was born in the
family sauna — and why not? It was the
warmest the snuggest and certainly the
cleanest room for miles around.
It was also a different kind of sauna than
the ones you find in modern hotels beside
the swimming pool or tucked into surbur-
ban basements next to the rec room.
Purists say that to enjoy a real sauna you
have to have a wood-fired stove, not the
Yuppified electric gizmos most saunas use.
Well, having had both, I’d have to say
there is a difference. Somehow your skin
feels silkier and your bed feels softer after
choice of the ruling faction. Having
decided on this direction, the Albanians
became, as it were, more Catholic than the
Pope. There was established a government
that was even more Stalinist than Stalin
himself and even when the Albanians
decided that the Chinese were the purer
communists and switched to their sphere of
influence, the regime was still exceedingly
Stalinist. To cite one example, at the time I
was trying to get a look at the place, there
was not one single privately owned car in
the whole country. That fact alone says it
all.
The Stalinist leader Enver Hoxha proved
that he was mortal after all and his
successor, Ramiz Alia came to realize that
it was impossible to remain totally isolated.
Certain reforms, radical by Albanian
standards, were introduced but it has been
the sudden rush by Albanians to climb over
foreign embassy walls that has really
shocked Alia. It is to his credit that he
chose to go with the flow and let them
Letter
Working farm
THE EDITOR,
When taking into account the economic
conditions in the rural sector, the Queen’s
Bush Rural Ministry was not surprised to
receive a statistical report showing 65 per
cent of the farm women are in the labour
force. This is 10 per cent above the national
average.
The calls the Queen’s Bush Rural
Ministery are receiving, show a significant
number from women in this unenviable
position. They were not lured into the
labour force for personal fulfillment nor the
taste for luxuries. They sought off farm
employment to help their spouses provide
the basic necessities for their families.
The women who call for assistance do so
for several reasons. They are frustrated by
the lack of child care centres in the area to
provide affordable and reliable care for
their children. They must rely on friends
and neighbours, sometimes at consider
able personal cost, to get that service.
Some communities are beginning to see
the need and are doing something about it.
There aren’t enough child care spaces
a wood-fired sauna.
On the other hand, a wood-fired sauna is
definitely more trouble and work. It’s also
quite tricky to get just the right tempera
ture - somewhere between a low broil and
a blast furnace inferno that’ll turn you into
a grease spot quicker than you can say
open the door, Einar.
But it’s worth the effort. I still remember
the first sauna I encountered. It was out
behind a farmhouse I rented on the
outskirts of Thunder Bay. The sauna was
rickety grey clapboard, about the size of a
small chicken coop, with a rusty stove
made out of an old oil barrel in one comer.
There was a cairn of rocks and a tin can
nailed to a stick to ladle water out of the
wooden bucket and on to the rocks to make
steam. The anteroom where you shucked
your clothes was made smaller by a half
cord of split birch, stove-size and ready for
burning.
Can I convince you that sitting naked in
clouds of steam until the perspiration rolls
off in rivulets, then running out and
jumping in a cold lake or even a snowbank
- actually feels wonderful?
Can I make you believe that? Probably
not.
Unless you’re already a sauna lover. In
which case, chances are when you’ve read
this paper you’ll roll it up, light one end
and stick it in the stove to fire up your
sauna.
Well, all I can say is, lay out a towel on
the bench for me. I won’t be there, but I
wish I could be.
Yep, I sure miss the saunas.
immigrate. The sight of Italian ferries
bringing thousands of them to Brindisi was
undoubtedly witnessed by millions on T.V.
The ironic thing today is not only how the
Albanian government is going to handle
matters from now on but what is going to
happen in neighbouring Yugoslavia. One
of this country’s provinces, Kosovo, is 90
percent made up of Albanians and their
desire for greater freedom has caused the
Yugoslav government no end of problems
for a number of years. Now that the
Albanian government has decided to
liberalize their way of doing things, what
effect is this going to have on the
Albanians in Kosovo? After all, these
Albanians make up the third largest group
in Yugoslavia after the Serbs and Croats
and they would like the same rights that
have been already accorded smaller min
orities in Mecedonia, Bosnia and Monte
negro.
It will pay to keep one eye on Albania,
the other on Kosovo. We have not heard
the last of them.
wives need help
available, nor within reasonable driving
distance to ease the present sense of
frustration.
Some of the women are despondent and
just plain tired. They are also suffering
from self inflicted guilt. They were raised
by mothers and grandmothers in tradition
al farm women roles. Large gardens,
homemade baking as well as preserves
were the rule rather than the exception.
These women, now working off the farm,
as well as having family and chore
responsibilities on the farm, are at war
within themselves. Some liken it to a
treadmill that has no beginning and no
end. Some feel they can hang in there for a
short time until things “turn around”.
Their concerns affect the entire communi
ties they live in. Their energy levels are
definitely being depleted and have little or
no time for social or volunteer activities
within their community.
The Queen’s Bush Rural Ministry can
lend moral support to these callers and
inform them of the inroads being made in
Continued on page 9
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 1990. PAGE 5.
Letter
from the
editor
New election
system needed
BY KEITH ROULSTON
Maybe I’m getting old and crochety,
maybe it’s the summer heat, or lack of it,
but I can’t get really excited about this
upcoming provincial election.
I’m getting so old I’ve got a daughter
who can vote for the first time Sept. 6 (two
if the election had been held off for another
couple of months). How can I get as excited
as I should about watching my daughter
get her first chance to influence the history
of her province when 1 get less convinced
all the time that it really makes much
difference who you vote for as long as you
throw out the current bunch every so often
to keep people from getting too comfor
table.
It’s ironic that with more instant
communication possibilities than ever be
fore, our politicians seems to be listening
less and less. They’ve mastered how to use
one way communication media like televi
sion to sell the image they want but they
haven’t figured out how to listen to people
once they’re in office.
I suppose things could be worse and
have been. Back in 1841 they smashed the
heads of those opposing the family
Compact candidate when voting took place
in Goderich. We’ve gone through times
when votes were bought, either directly or
indirectly with new bridges and highways.
Patronage probably isn’t nearly as bad as it
once was.
Just the same, it seems right now that
politicians say anything you want to hear to
get elected, then go ahead and do what
they want once they’re in. Be against wage
and price controls, then bring them in. Be
against Free Trade, then promote it. Make
social programs a sacred trust, then try to
scuttle them.
Even without the kind of out-and-out
reversal there’s the whole matter of having
a “mandate” to do things. The last federal
election, for instance, became virtually a
one-issue election. Even though the major
ity of Canadians voted against the Conser
vatives and their Free Trade policy, it could
be said they had a mandate to bring in Free
Trade because they won big.
But once in power the government feels
it has a mandate to do lots of other things
we didn’t hear a word about at election
time. A mandate for Meech Lake? Get
serious when we didn’t have a choice since
all the parties supported it. A mandate to
abandon railways? To close post offices?
To bring in the GST? It could go on and on.
And in case this looks like pick-on-a-Tory
time, how about the Peterson government
and no-fault insurance or County govern
ment reform.
The fact is our current representative
democracy concept may have worked a lot
better in the days when government was a
relatively simple business than it does
now. Fifty years ago when there were few
issues, when Parliament and the Legisla
ture sat only a few months a year, when the
bureaucracy was tiny compared to now,
electing people and giving them the green
light to make decisions for us made some
sense.
But today, there are simply too many
things in the balance to elect somebody
once every four years and let them do the
thinking for us in the meantime. It’s
ridiculous that one factor in an election, the
popularity of a leader for instance, can
change an entire agenda for the next four
years and maybe for all time. If Canadians
hadn’t disliked John Turner so much would
we ever have had Free Trade? The GST?
Canadians didn’t vote for those things,
they voted against Mr. Turner.
With the instant communications we
now have at our fingertips there’s no
reason voters shouldn’t have their say a lot
more than once every four years. With very
little trouble it would be possible for
Canadians to vote on each and every issue
Continued on page 8