HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-01-14, Page 4E 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1987.
Opinion
Bigness has cost us
more than it saves
A few million people in the Toronto area had mail service
threatened last week because thirty-six cleaners went on strike
and nearly sh ut down a whole plant responsible for mail sorting
in Toronto. Such is the cost of bigness for efficiency.
Ask many people what the biggest problem with the
Canadian economy is in the 1980’s, and once they’ve blamed
big government, they’ll likely name big unions next.‘Yet it is
our search for efficiency through bigness that has given unions
a chance to wield the power they have. Canada Post, by
centralizing sorting into fewer and fewer, larger and larger
plants, has made the entire system more vulnerable to
economic blackmail by smaller and smaller numbers of
workers.
Here in Huron county many small business people, farmers
and non-unionized workers deplore the salaries made by
employees of the Huron County Board of Education from
secretaries and teachers to top management. Yet how much of
the union strength would these groups have if the county board
system had not been adopted in the first place?
It was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the
time. Efficiency meant larger units in the 1%0’s. There was the
idea that central buying of supplies could help keep costs down
for the schools. Perhaps it has, but at the same time it brought
everybody from teachers to janitors together in larger
bargaining units, made unionization easier and drove up salary
costs, the biggest expense in educat ion. The re suit is th at
education costs keep rising by more than the cost of living, and
at the same time we see enrollment declining in county schools.
The post office has become more and more centralized to take
advantage of advanced technology and modern management
beliefs in the advantages of larger units, yet the post office has
never been less efficient and losing more money than it has in
the last two decades.
Perhaps it is time for people to rethink the accepted wisdom
of the post-war era, to see that there has been a terrible cost in
both dollars and reliability to thinking that we must centralize
everything.
1/1/7?/ can't we be
rational to Russia?
If ever there was a definition of irrationality it must be
relations between the Soviet Union and the “West”.
While Canadians can usually shake their heads in wonder
over the foolishness that passes for diplomacy between the
Soviets and the United States, this past week we’ve seen our
own lunacy in Canadians’ reaction to the hockey brawl between
Canadian and Soviet players at the World Junior Hockey
tournament in Czechoslovakia.
At first some Canadian commentators were worried that the
young Canadians were going to come home to universal abuse
at the disgrace they had brought to their country. What
happened was just the opposite. As people realized that the
Soviet players, already out of medal contention, had nothing to
lose and Canada was prevented from gaining not just a gold
medal but any medal at all because both teams were thrown out
of the tournament for their misbehaviour, Canadians began to
talk about a plot.
One gets the vision that, as the score of the game mounts in
Canada’s favour and a gold medal looks possible, the Soviet
coach feels a strange buzzing in his foot. He takes off his shoe
and, like Maxwell Smart, turns it into a telephone by removing
the heel. It's Soviet Premier Mikail Gorbachev or at least the
head of the KGB. Something must be done to stop the
Canadians, he is told. Start a fight.
Sounds stupid, but then so is much of the paranoid thinking of
North Americans. We have allowed ourselves to be
brainwashed into thinking that all 300 million Soviet citizens
are automatons programmed by a computer in the Kremlin,
that their every action is part of a government masterplan.
Nobody would suggest that a bunch of teenage Canadians who
got into a fight were part of the planning of Brian Mulroney or
his ministers, yet we refuse to think that the Soviet youngsters
and our own just got frustrated and started fighting.
This kind of thinking and the thinking that makes Soviet
plotting part of half the American movies and television shows
makes a mockery of our supposed freedom of information,
freedom of expression, and all those other freedoms that are
supposed to make us different from the poor Soviet
citizen-slaves. We have become just as propaganda-ized, just
as closed-minded, and ill-informed, as a state-controlled media
in the Soviet Union could wish. And in doing so we become
exactly like the propaganda masters in the Soviet Union portray
us to be.
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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] gather for 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: Julia Flint was telling
the good news this morning. The
Russians, she said,are pulling out.
They’ve had too much of war. It
went on too long. They can’t stand
the dirty tactics of the opposition
any more and they are going home
to peace.
“You mean they’re finally gett
ing out of Afghanistan?’’ Tim
O’Grady asked.
“No, they’re taking their hockey
team back to Moscow. Those
Canadian teenagers are too much
for them.’’
TUESDAY: Poor Ward Black has
been taking his licks for nearly a
week now over the deal the
Mulroney government struck with
the U.S. over softwood lumber
imports.
Tim said with all the lumber we
have in this country, you’d think it
could be us that spoke softly and
carried a big stick for a change
instead of the Americans. Billie
Bean said Mulroney had better not
go into the woods today or he might
be sure of a big surprise. He might
get lumbered.
Ward said people are belly-ach
ing about how the forest industry is
going to behurtbyallthisandit
may be true as far as the people
cutting wood for house building
goes, but the people cutting for
pulpandpaperhaveneverhada
betterfuturc. “And the longer this
debate goes on with the amount of
paper the newspapers are wasting
on it, the brighter the future will
be. Why do you think the paper
company stocks have been going so
high on the market this week?"
WEDNESDAY: Tim was telling
everybody this morning that as far
as he could see, most of the time
we’re paying town councillors for is
to drink coffee. He said he was at
council the other day on business
and every time he turned around
somebody was up making another
pot of coffee.
Ward said dealing with people
like Tim was so boring the
councillors had to drink a lot of
coffee to keep them awake.
Besides, he said, at least they kept
on working. He was at a Board of
Education meeting a while back
and they break for 10 minutes
every hour for “personal com
fort’’. “They even have a proce
dural resolution on it,’’ he said.
Good grief, Hank Stokes said,
his kids go to a highschool that has
70-minute classes without a break.
That started speculation on why
the trustees couldn’t hold out as
long as the students. Julia, a
reformed smoker, said some of
them couldn’t go any longer
without a cigarette. Billie figured
maybethey had weak bladders.
But no, Tim says, he figures it’s
just that their attention span isn’t
as long as the kids.
THURSDAY: Billie Bean says he
always has trouble keeping track of
his money but at least he’s better
than the Canadian Mint: at least he
can’t lose it before he’s made it.
They were talking about the fact
the mint lost the molds for the new
Canadian one doll ar coin some
where between Winnipeg and
Ottawa. Andnowwehavetopay
the penalty, because we get a loon
on the dollar instead of the
voyageur that was supposed to be
on it.
Oh well, says Tim, at least there
won’tbepeoplecomplaining about
the French taking over that way.
Hank Stokes says the biggest
problem is that the mint sent the
mold by courier so people can't
even have any fun kicking the post
office around for this one.
Wingham youth wins
citizenship award
An 18-year-old Wingham youth,
Barry McArthur, has recently been
awarded an Ontario Junior Citizen
citation for his heroic action in
rescuing two young children from
drowning at the Gorrie Dam in
September, 1985.
The rescue in itself would have
been enough to secure the award
for Mr. McArthur, but what makes
the story even more remarkable is
that the former resident of Gorrie is
developmentally handicapped.
An accomplished swimmer, Mr.
McArthur learned to swim while he
was a student at the Golden Circle
School in Wingham, and has won a
number of regional swimming
competitions. He is now a student
at the F. E. Madill Secondary
School in Wingham.
The award is presented annually
to deserving young people from
across the province who have made
a significant contribution to their
community or to the welfare of
others. The awards are sponsored
by the Ontario Community News
papers Association (OCNA) in
conjunction with Canadian Pacific
Airlines.
Next March, Mr. McArthur will
receive his award from Lieutenant-
Governor Lincoln Alexandera at
Queen's Park. He will also receive
a cheque for $200 and a portrait
taken with the Lieutenant-Gover
nor.
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