Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-10-17, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1990. PAGE 5. How not to get a job A lot of readers think I spend all my waking hours in a roach-infested flophouse garret, drinking cheap wine and eating mouldy heels of baguettes when I’m not throwing myself at the walls trying to come up with an idea for my next newspaper column. Not true. Once in a while I slip down to the local radio station to host a weekly radio show. (The station could be described as a roach-infested flophouse but that’s another horror story.) The reason 1 bring up my Other Life is that my producer recently interviewed applicants for a research job on our radio show. I found him the morning after, face down on his desk blotter, whimpering quietly. The job interviews had not gone well. The first applicant who showed up was a chirpy, energetic woman with more ques­ tions than answers. “This program - it’s kinds like a current affairs-type program, isn’t it?’’ Well, no, said my producer, not exactly. He asked the job-seeker if she ever listened to the program. “Afraid not’’ she The International SceneI Highlights of a summer’s travel BY RAYMOND CANON I have long ago given up being surprised at what questions people ask about other countries; they are interested in the strangest things. The operative word is “strange” since it may be to me but it obviously is not to them. However, with the goal of providing a few snippets of life in Europe this past summer that some people may find enjoyable, following are some observations which I made in my travels. The most novel sight is without a doubt the presence on the German Autobahnen of East Germans, after decades of being held behind the iron curtain. Most of them were driving a car called the Trabant which is produced in East Germany and which has a top speed of 100 kph. ... with a strong tail wind. You probably know that the West Germans drive like the proverbial bat out of the lower regions and so we roared by these cars almost as if they were standing still. 1 saw a number of them beside the road with their hood up as if 100 kph were even too much for them. Needless to say, when the Trabant comes in direct competi­ tion with western cars, it will soon be history. The most frustrated people I saw had to be a long line of motorists behind a Swiss farmer driving a tractor with two wagons of hay up the Brunig Pass in central Switzerland. He was only a short way up; the line-up was already over a kilometer long and it is a good question how long it was by the time he reached his destination. We all have frustrations on the highways; this one had to be the ultimate. Knowing Swiss farmers I don’t think it bothered him too much. We all have our likes and dislikes about an open Sunday and discussing that is beyond the scope of this column. However, I would like to point out that in both Germany and Switzerland, it is no problem at all. The vast majority of stores close down Saturday noon and stay closed until Monday morning. It is not that either the Swiss or the Germans are religious people; on any given Sunday there is a smaller percentage of both nationalities in church than in Canada. It is just that by replied. “I mostly just watch TV.’’ The next hopeful was a breezy, affable guy wearing a sports jacket that could halt traffic and a pinkie ring that Curtis Strange could have teed off on. He cruised through the office doors and hove to in front of a woman he took to be the receptionist. After eyeballing her approvingly from stem to gudgeon he murmered “Hi doll, is the boss in?’’ Alas for Lothario, “doll” was the boss. Director of the department and a woman whose subscription to Ms. Magazine has not lapsed. She asked icily if he treated all female office workers as personal flunkies. The guy, already up to his neck, dug deeper. “Hey, lady, no way. I know you gals are EVERYwhere these days!” And so it went. The applicants for the job grew more and more unsuitable, my producer grew more and more dismal. Well, I could have taken him out for a drink. I might have fixed him up with a pair of mid-stripe tickets for the next CFL game. But I did something much more appropriate. I went out and got a copy of the Robert Half survey. Robert Half Intermational is a well- known American firm that recruits execu­ tive and professional help for companies in the financial industry. Last year they contacted the personnel directors of 100 major corporations, and asked them one simple question: what was the most and large they do not see any point in staying open during the weekend. The chief exceptions to this are, of course, gas stations and restaurants. There is a great deal of talk these days in Canada about preserving old buildings. If you are one of those doing the talking you will be fascinated by a visit I had this summer in St. Gall, Switzerland. I was invited by a Swiss family to have dinner with them and to see the renovations to their apartment. To say that I found it fascinating would be putting it mildly. The apartment is over the family store in the old section of the city and the renovations have lasted over the past 18 months. I was informed that the building was at least 500 years old and efforts have been made to retain as much of the original structure as possible. To me one of the highlights was the murals on the walls of one of the rooms and which depict part of the story of the creation of the world. I have no idea of the Letter Helping parents grieve THE EDITOR, Children are not suppose to die: Nobody teaches you in Prenatal Class how to choose a coffin. None of the books on parenting have a chapter on how to arrange a funeral. No high school diplomas have a blank space to fill in the graduates’ date of death. There is a very simple reason for this. Children are not supposed to die. It is not anticipated, it is not right, and it’s not fair, but it happens. When a child dies, the parents are suddenly in unexpected and unfamiliar territory and they are totally unprepared. Their hopes and dreams and plans for the future are gone and there is little comfort in memories and momentoes and “might have beens”. A bereaved parent can feel very isolated and alone, thinking no one can even begin to understand the utter desolation they feel. Well-meaning family and friends manage with astonishing regularity to say exactly the wrong thing: “You can always have another baby” (would they say to a widower ‘Oh well, you can always get another wife!’). “I’m sure he’s happy unusual job interview you conducted. The responses were more astounding and hilarious than the folks at Robert Half International could have hoped for. Person­ nel directors recalled interviews in which: •Explaining that she hadn’t eaten lunch, the applicant wolfed down a burger and fries during interview. •Applicant with receding hairline left the office and returned minutes later wearing a toupee. •Applicant sat down with a Walkman clamped to her skull explaining that she could listen to the interviewer and her favourite music at the same time. •Applicant stopped the interview to phone his psychiatrist for advice on how to answer questions. •Applicant dozed off and began to snore. Still, a job interviewer can’t always take things at face value. Never forget the experience of the editor of a Nevada newspaper who looked up from his desk one day to see a stranger, covered with dust, a filthy hat on his head and a bedroll on his back. Flopping in a chair, the stranger muttered “My starboard leg seems to be unshipped. I’d like about a hundred yards of line; I think I am falling to pieces. My name is Clemens and I’ve come to write for the paper.” On a hunch, the editor hired him. Good hunch. The young stranger was Samuel Clemens, soon to give birth to a couple of immortal rascals named Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. cost of the renovations but it must have been considerable; to me it was worth every penny of it. The Fast er-Th an-a-Speeding-Bullet Award goes to the German oil companies in their rapidity in raising gas prices. Faster than you could say “Saddam Hussein”, up went the prices by about 1/5 of a mark per litre (14 cents). That in spite of the fact that the same oil companies have record levels of petroleum on hand. Fortunately I had completed most of my driving in Germany and so had to buy only one tank at the new price. After all this I hated to come back to Canada. At the end of my first trip the country was agonizing over Meech Lake; at the end of the second it was the Mohawks causing the excitement. Whatever happen­ ed to quiet, calm Canada. Maybe I should stay home next year and keep a lid on things. now” (what, he didn’t like it at home?). “Well at least you have other children”. (As if they can replace the one who died). Equally well-intentioned people will “tact­ fully” (they think) avoid the subject, hoping not to upset the parent (as if they will forget the child’s death if no one mentions it). This leads to awkward silences, stumbling conversations and unintentional insults. The death of a child (whether he is bom yet or already an adult) is the worst thing a parent must bear. Parents do not have to carry this heavy burden alone. On Oct. 29, 1990 a Bereaved Parent Self-Help Group will be starting at the Wingham Health Unit Office. The purpose of the group is to help bereaved parents cope with the death of their child. If you are a bereaved parent take that first step and come to the sessions. There will always be an empty chair at your table, a hollow feeling in your heart... but you don’t have to face it alone. Come with your spouse, come alone, come! Any questions can be answered by calling Connie Kuc at 357-2264, Maureen Thomas at 357-1614, or me at 529-7640. Jennifer Miltenberg Letter from the editor It’s tough saying no BY KEITH ROULSTON Bringing up children when there’s not enough money to buy them all the things they think they need to keep up with their peers can be difficult for parents but there are difficulties for parents with the affluence to get kids everything their hearts desire too. There are parents, particularly in these toughening economic times, who worry about keeping clothes on their kids, let alone just the right kind of blue jeans and running shoes to fit in at school. It hurts when you have to say no to kids, to tell them you can’t afford to get them the things they just must have to feel part of the crowd. But for those parents there is at least a bottom line. When you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it. There’s a different problem for the parent with money to buy the child what he or she wants who may feel that some things aren’t needed and doesn’t have a bottom line. Quite frankly, there are a lot of things kids think they need that they’d be better off without but telling them that, and making it stick, can be difficult when you have the choice to give in to prolonged pleading and whining. It must be a lot like that in trying to run government service these days. How do you tell people we can’t afford to do the things we’ve taken for granted we could do for years? Take a look at the constant complaint about underfunding for health care. We have a health care system today that would make a doctor of 20 years ago go goggle-eyed. Our hospitals have all ex­ panded and have spent millions on shiny new technology. That doctor of 1970 would think that nothing could be better than what we have to offer today. Yet today we read stories day after day about the faults of the system, the waiting lists to get cancer treatments, the shortage of beds and the spiralling costs. The problem is that we are running out of money to meet our leaping expectations. Premature babies, for instance, can be kept alive at an early stage of their development today that would have amaz­ ed the best doctors of a decade ago. The problem is cost. It’s tremendously expen­ sive to pay for the intensive care and special equipment needed to keep the baby alive for weeks or even months until it can function on its own. But how do you put a price on a human life? There are those who say there should be a user-pay system in health care but do we want a society where the rich person can have that premature baby survive but the poor person must watch it die? The same thing happens at the other end of life where people who would have died months, even years before, now live longer at far greater cost to the health care system and you the taxpayer. But who wants to be the one to tell a person that society has already invested too much money in him and it’s time to let him go? It’s the same in so many areas of society where the choices aren’t so clearcut. When a city is accustomed to the best of everything, how do you tell the arts lovers of Toronto they really can’t afford the new opera and ballet hall they think they need at a price that makes the SkyDome not look so extravagant after all? After all the government found money for other thea­ tres and concert halls. After all they found money for the SkyDome (and still are on the hook for more). How can you tell people they can’t afford to have more police when the crime rate seems to be swelling daily? The problem, of course, is that we’re no longer in the financial situation of the affluent family who has to say no. We’re really in the situation of the family who can’t afford to say yes but wants to keep buying anyway.