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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-08-10, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 198«. Opinion What about us? Donald Woods, the white South African journalist who was banned from his country because of his support for Steve Biko and other black leaders was talking on The Journal the other night about what it is like to lose your privileged class. His 10 years in England have been quite an adjustment for him and his family, he told the interviewer. Without the servants that white South Africans have come to expect, he was having to do some things himself for the first time in his life. “It’s part of growing up,’’ he said. “All South Africans must grow up sometime.” It’s easy for us in Canada tobe self-righteous and say it serves South African whites right to have to come down from their lofty position because they have been exploiting the poor blacks for decades. Their entire lifestyle is built on cheap labour just as the southern plantation lifestyle in the U.S. was built on slave labour. But in Canada our own lifestyle is built on exploiting poor people too. We buy more and more goods from poor third world countries where people are delighted to work for a small fraction of what workers would expect for doing the same job in Canada. We wear the clothes they made. We watch the televisions and listen to the stereos they made. We even sometimes drive the cars they’ve made. And of course we’re delighted to wear diamonds mined by poor black South Africans. There is a line in the Bible about removing the log from your own eye before you worry about the speck in your neighbours. Maybe we Canadians, while still promoting change in South Africa, shouldn’tbe toosmugaboutourown moral correctness. Manifest Destiny Observers were stunned at the recent National Transporta­ tion Agency hearing (into the bid to close the Listowel to Wingham Canadian National Railway line) when the CN representative suggested a Wingham factory move to Calgary if it was so dependent on the railway. Perhaps they shouldn’t have been surprised: it was just one more example of the urban professional view that small-town life is doomed. JustasthepeopleoftheUnitedStates once had a moral certainty that they would bring their brand of entrepreneurial democracy to all of North America (they called it Manifest Destiny) so urban Canadians today seem to have the feeling that it is just a matter of time before the universe unfolds as it should and everyone lives in cities. You can hear that tone in the media nearly every day. Projections of population trends years into the future that show more and more people moving from rural areas to big cities are treated as if they are carved in stone, as if the high cost of living in cities like Toronto can not someday reverse the situation and send people scurrying back to the country. In everything from advertisements to movies, rural life is treated either as a subject of nostalgia or as something to escape. Farms are depicted in greeting cards and cheese ads the way they were 40 years ago. Small towns are regarded, not as dynamic places but as living museums, the kind of thing W alt Disney would recreate in an amusement park. In a recent CBC radio report, a reporter drove through the drought-stricken area of the western provinces telling the story of farmers about to lose their farms and small towns likely to close because the farmers were going broke. You could almost see him shake his head as his sad voice predicted that more towns were bound to disappear, yet he seemed to say as well that that was the natural way of things, that these towns were bound to die in the survival of the fittest. Bombarded by this kind of subtle propaganda rural and small town people can often themselves fall victim of this belief. They can begin to feel there is no sense trying to save their way of life. They can give in to the railway in its efforts to pull out, give in to government when they seek to centralize (as with the recent moves to change conservation authorities) and shrug when the post office cuts service. It’s only when rural people get mad enough to fight back that they can prove the urban doomsayers wrong. Unfortunately that seems to be more and more seldom these days. Barley We evils Mabel’s Grill There are people who will tell you that the important decisions in town are made down at the town hall. People in the know, however know that the real debates, the real wisdom reside down at Mabel's Grill where the greatest minds in the town [if not in the country] gatherfor morning coffee break, otherwise known as the Round Table Debating and Fili­ bustering Society. Since not just everyone can partake of these deliberations we will report the activities from time to time. MONDAY: There was more than the usual crowd around Mabel’s this morning as all the guys who usually have to work decided to drop in because they had a holiday. Somebody made the mistake of calling it Simcoe Day. “It is not Simcoe Day,” Coun­ cillor Ward Black said, “There goes that Toronto syndrome again. Just because Toronto decides to call it Simcoe Day, soon they think everybody in the province calls it Simcoe Day. It’s just Civic Holiday and any community can call it anythingthey wish. Council de­ clares it a holiday and we can pick the name. If we want to keep it as good old Civic Holiday we can.” “Actually,” said Tim, “if it’s thetownthatcalls ita holiday, I don ’ t know what we ’ re doing here. I don’t think the town ever got around to officially declaring the holiday this year.” Not to be stumped Ward imme­ diately stood up and said he was officially declaring it a holiday. He received a polite round of ap­ plause, along with a request he do the same thing Friday morning. TUESDAY: Julia Flint said she was shocked to see on the television that people were complaining that their Mercedes Benz cars were dangerous. Seems people com­ plained the cars were accelerating out of control even when the brakes were on. “If you can’t trust a Mercedes to work properly, what car can you trust,” she said. “Well that does it,” Hank Stokes said, slamming his hand down on the table. “I was just thinking of getting one of those but if they’re dangerous, I’ve changed mymind. Ijustguess I’ll have to get along with my ‘72 Dodge pickup a little longer.” THURSDAY: Ward Black said he’d been reading an article in the paper about a museum in Alberta that tourists are flocking to to see dinosaurs. Ward said he thought he might go there himself the next time he was out west. “Who’s included in the dinosaur museum,” Tim wanted to know. “Peter Lougheed? Jack Horner? Don Getty?” FRIDAY: “This town just doesn’t do anything to encourage entre­ preneurial spirit,” Billie Bean was saying this morning. Billie had heard a good idea on the radio the other day and thought he’d apply it to the old hometown here but nobody seems to be interested. Seems that down in New York somebody has come up with the latest way to make money. Parking spots are so rare and so expensive thatthis guy has come up with a “car condo” where you buy a spot for your car in a renovated building and there are people on staff to make sureyour car is well taken care of. “This guy’s getting $29,000 a parking space,” Billie said. “When I started asking people around here what they would pay for a place to park their car they told me something that started with a four-letter word.” The Citizen P.O Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 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 $17 OO/yr ($38 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, 2pm - Brussels; Monday, 4 p m - Bl>th 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 Advertising Manager, DaveWilliams Production Manager, Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968