HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-09-05, Page 5Arthur Black
It's bugs
that really
bug him
And the black flies, the little black flies,
Always the black fly no matter where you
g°,
I’ll die with the black fly a-pickin’ my
bones
In North Ontario-io
Venerable Canadian song lyric
We’re on the downslide side of another
summer, no question about it - but that’s
not so bad for humans. The approach of
autumn means no more than an extra
blanket on the bed for you and me. It’s the
kiss of death for bugs.
Yep, all those nasty little critters with
stingers and buzzers and feelers and
altogether too many legs are just one hard
frost away from meeting their maker. I am
not a blood-thirsty man, but the thought of
billions of man-eating bugs clutching their
hearts and falling flat on their carapaced
backs fills me with joy unalloyed. DIE, you
little #♦♦#&’»! I’m delighted to know that
I’ll never see you again, and so is the back
of my neck.
If there is a heaven, and if I ever get
there, I hope there’s a Question Period. I
can’t wait to ask the Chief Product Control
A new Germany
takes shape
BY RAYMOND CANON
I usually work off my jet lag in a little city
in Germany called Mayen which is about
1 */i hours drive from Frankfurt. When I got
up the next morning and went for a walk
around the market square and the streets
in the city centre which are remarkable free
from traffic, it was such a peaceful scene
that it was difficult to remember that
Germany is going through some dramatic
changes. When I was here last year, the
Berlin wall had yet to be tom down
although it was obvious that the two parts
of Germany were, sooner or later, going to
be united.
The question is, what sort of unified
Germany are we going to see? Every
German I have talked to seems to have a
different idea of what the new country
should look like and, for those who have
not been following too carefully the rapid
change of events, here are some of the
problems that have to be faced before the
final decision can be made.
Right now West Germany is composed of
10 Laender or provinces while East
Germany has 6. The latter have a
population of 18.6 million while West
Germany has over three times that figure.
If each province is allowed to retain its
status, that gives us no less than 16 in the
new country, a number which is by most
people’s calculation too many. In addition,
most of the East German provinces are
considerably smaller than their counter
parts in the West; they are also poorer, at
least right now they are.
This brings up an interesting point, one
which Canadians can appreciate. In Ger
many there is something called
Finanzausgleich. You don’t have to be able
to spell or pronounce it, all you need to
know is that it is similar to the equalization
payments that the wealthier provinces in
Canada make to the poorer ones. The
wealthy provinces in West Germany are
not very happy over the thought of having
to make payments not only to the poorer
parts of West Germany but now to five
even poorer parts of East Germany.
It should also not come as any surprise to
learn that the various proposals by the
political parties in West Germany are
Officer why he or she thought a planet
(already infested with a surfeit of lawyers,
politicians and the incipient threat of
hemorrhoids) needed such a bewildering
variety of insects with a taste for human
pelt.
Because it isn’t just black flies that want
to jump our veins. It’s mosquitoes and deer
flies and horse flies and mites and gnats
and beer bugs and noseeums - all, all of
the vampiric persuasion. And in some
parts of this country -- everything north of
Tecumseh Road in Windsor, Ont., - they
hover in clouds, nay, galaxies just waiting
for some fat, pink, warm-blooded creature
in Bermuda shorts to blunder by.
Why so many of them? And what do they
do for lunch when they don’t have my body
to fight over for drilling rights?
1 can’t prove it, but I suspect if you
peeled back the lichens that blanket the
floor of Canada’s boreal forest you’d find
countless tiny, gothic, Frankensteinian
castles each no bigger than a good sized
mosquito welt. And I bet if you could peer
into the darkest vault in the miniature
dungeons beneath each of those castles,
you’d see row after row of eensy-weensy
coffins lining the walls.
That’s where the bugs live. In those
coffins. Just imagine 80 kazillion dwarf
Bela Lugosis wearing deely hoppers. Until
I, like a fool show up for a camping trip or a
barbecue. That’s when the bug lookout
rings the dinner gong, 80 kazillion tiny
coffin lids slide back and the bugs come
after me, buzzing their blood-curdling
conditioned by where the same parties
think they can pick up the most votes. This,
too, should not come as any surprise to
Canadians; politicians are always com
plaining that any rearranging of the
constituent boundaries are to the advant
age of the party in power. Needless to say
the current German chancellor, Helmut
Kohl, is more than a little interested in the
feelings of East German voters; he has just
recently lost his majority in the West
German Parliament and, since his party is
the strongest in East Germany, he is quite
anxious to set up a system that will give
him the most votes in any reunited
Germany.
Then there is the question of Berlin. The
city, which is the former capital of all of
Germany, is still legall under the control of
the four occupying powers - France,
Britain, United States and the Soviet
Union. They are not going to give up this
control of the city until they are certain that
Letters
Vivid reminders at Nagasaki
THE EDITOR,
I read with interest your letter re
Hiroshima (Aug. 22nd issue) having just
returned from a month’s stay in Japan. It
was very informative.
Whilst visiting with my son Jeff, we
stayed four days in Nagasaki. A larger
A-Bomb than the Hiroshima one, was
dropped Aug. 9, 1945. One third of the
Nagasaki population died and many more
since.
The museum artifacts that we visited
Epilepsy group says thanks
THE EDITOR,
Epilepsy Huron-Perth-Bruce wishes to
thank all those who volunteered their
precious time to assist with our 1990 Glad
Days Campaign. Every community, busi
ness and church that provided locations for
our sales tables is to be commended for
their ready support of our cause.
Our appreciation also extends to each
individual who by buying our flowers made
a significant contribution to the efforts to
provide important services and public
education about Epilepsy. Recognizing
Epilepsy in this way we move one step
closer to conquering this disturbing dis
order and correcting the many misconcep
tions that surround it.
battle cry: “SOUP’S ONNNNNNNNNN!”
It’s not that grim everywhere in Canada
of course. Insect intensity varies greatly
across our Dominion. The mosquitoes that
wait in ambush along the shores of Ungava
Bay for instance, are the Exocet missiles of
the biting bug world. They make mosqui
toes that live and prey along the American
border look like limp-mandibled panty-
waists. Folks in Vancouver on the other
hand, love to skinny-dip in their hot tubs
out on the deck, airily remarking that they
“have no mosquitoes to worry about”.
Yeah, well, they’ve got Bill Van der
Zalm too. Everything evens out.
In any case, it could be worse. We
Canucks could be living in Equatorial
Africa, watching a Goliath beetle trying to
Have His Way with the family Volkswagon
in the driveway. Goliath beetles are as big
as your hand, tipping the scales at nearly a
quarter of a pound.
And I’ve heard tell of a water-dwelling
insect that inhabits certain South American
rivers. In between hosts, that is. This
critter prefers to live in the urinary tracts of
mammals dumb enough to urinate in the
river. The bug is extremely heat sensitive,
and small enough to home in on and swim
up, the urinary tract of larger animals,
including humans. The bug lodges in the
urinary tract, using spiny fins that open up
like an umbrella to keep him there.
The pain, I am told, is in livid
technicolor.
On second thought, Canadian bugs don’t
seem half bad.
it will be under the most favourable
circumstances possible.
This may take more than a bit of political
haggling and, if the negotiations become
protracted, we would easily witness the
situation of one Germany but without
Berlin, at least temporarily. Although most
Germans would like to see the capital
moved back to Berlin, failure to come to
some, agreement on the city might mean
that Bonn would continue to be the centre
of government. That would suit the citizens
of that city very well; they have never
really liked the idea of giving up being the
centre of attention.
To a certain degree Germans are like
Canadians. Both would like to see their
country unified but there is no unity of
opinion on the matter. However, the
chances are certainly good that the
reunification of Germany will come a lot
sooner than any constitutional accord in
Canada.
were very real and sickening. We saw a
woman’s blouse that had been peeled from
her back, the notation beside gave her
name, and the information she died five
days later.
At the time of the bombing it was stated
that the area would be devoid of vegetation
for 75 years, so it was surprising and
pleasing to see flowers blooming, bushes
and trees in abundance throughout the
whole area.
Barbara M. Brown
Kitchener, Ontario.
This year’s Glad Day Campaign extend
ed to more communities in our region of
Huron, Perth and Bruce counties. The
welcome we received in the new communi
ties was much appreciated and the efforts
of our volunteers new and old made this
most important fundraising effort a success
once again.
The volunteers from past years could not
have been more helpful and committed.
The effective organization of such a large
endeavour was due to the efforts of
volunteers, well-prepared co-ordinators
and staff. A heart-felt thank you to you all.
Maq Vere
Executive Director
Epilepsy, Huron-Perth-Bruce
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1990. PAGE 5.
Letter
from the
editor
When it comes down
to ‘them’and iis’
BY KEITH ROULSTON
That was a pretty ugly scene in Montreal
the other day when 500 residents of
Chateauguay hurled rocks through the
windows of cars driven by native women
and old men trying to escape a possible
confrontation with the army over the
blockade at the Mercier Bridge.
There’s no doubt there was reason for
frustration on the part of the white
residents of Chateauguay after being
forced for weeks to take a lengthy detour to
get to Montreal instead of a short trip
across the blocked bridge. If these young
men had taken out their wrath on the
Mohawk warriors it might even had made
some sense. But it was women and
children and old men they attacked. “They
can all die in Kahnawake for all I care” one
of the young men said, referring to the fact
the army was moving in on the reserve to
take down barracades.
Many people have remarked on the irony
that weeks after the Meech Lake failure
when Quebecers yyere incenced at what
they regarded as the failure of the rest of
Canada to acknowledge their distinct
society, an even more ancient distinct
society, the natives of North America, has
gotten little support for its aspirations from
the Quebec government and Quebec
people. In truth, French speaking or
English speaking Canadians might have
responded the same way at inconvenience
created by what many saw as lawlessness.
And it goes deeper. Many interviewed
speak of the fear they now feel with
armed men in the Indian reserve. Indians
in turn speak of the fear they feel because
of the daily violent demonstrations by the
whites of Chateauguay. The society has
been divided into “us” and “them”.
Whenever that happens it can cause
danger.
And that is the tragic flip side of trying to
establish a unique identity. We all want to
think we’re unique, want tu celebrate what
makes us different. Newfoundlanders want
to show how unique they are as do Nova
Scotians and Prairie residents and the
lotus-landers of B.C. Northerners know
they’re different. Even within cities there
are the unique racial enclaves or neigh
bourhoods.
But while it’s fine to say “I am
different” it becomes dangerous when you
say “you are different”. While it can be
healthy for the black community of Toronto
to celebrate its unique background in
something like the huge Carribana festival,
it becomes dangerous when people start
talking about “black crime”. It becomes so
easy to see any black person, because of
the obvious difference in appearance, as
something other than just another human
being with the same needs and fears, the
same likes and dislikes. When a group
becomes a “they” we divorce ourselves
emotionally from them and in doing so, we
sow the seeds that can lead to hatred and
revenge, that makes it all right to throw
rocks or attack people in mobs.
In Quebec the Indians and the whites
have become “they” to each other. Every
slight, real or imagined, can be blown out
of proportion and lead to even more
mistrust, more hatred.
The same “we” and “they” seems to
dominate the thinking of Quebecers and
the rest of Canadians. While some com
mentators have deplored the lack of
concern of English Canadians about whe
ther Quebec leaves the country or not, the
feeling of most caring Canadians outside
Quebec is that “they” in Quebec will make
the decision and there is little we can do.
We are no longer able to think of
Quebecers just as Canadians who speak a
different language but as a people who
want something entirely different from
what we want for our country. Tragically,
Quebecers see us as a “they”, a they
which doesn’t seem to care whether
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