HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-12-02, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1987.
Opinion.
The people must say
The old baseball axium that “you can’t hit what you can’t
see’ ’ seems to apply to the federal government’s arguments in
the Free Trade debate.
Whencritics sound off about something they don’t like about
the agreement they are told they don’t know enough to discuss
the issue properly. They should wait for the final text, they are
told by the government.
Yetthedateforthereleaseofthefinaltextgetsdelayed
longer and longer. When the provincial premiers met with the
Prime Minister last week there still was no complete agreement
for them to discuss.
But the deadline for signing of the agreement is not being
pushed back. We may be left in the situation where people have
one week for the consideration of agreement’s final details
before Prime Minister Mulroney, with his huge Parliamentary
majority to back him up, signs the agreement.
Yet the Prime Minister is showing no signs of compromise.
Dealing with the opposition of some provinces he basically says
it is irrelevent because he has the power as the head of the
federal government to negotiate international treaties.
Technically he may be right but morally he is wrong. Mr.
Mulroney was given his huge majority by people who wanted to
see the Liberals out of office after 20 years. He had until after
the election, been against free trade. It was only once in power
he had a huge conversion.
There are signs everywhere that since the 1984 election
Canadians have changed their minds too. All the polls for a
couple of years show Mr. Mulroney would stand a snowball’s
chance in a Florida heatwave of being re-elected. If he forces
through signing of this agreement without giving Canadians a
decent chance to read the fine print and debate the issue, it
would be the most dictatorial move made in Canada’s history.
There are two fair paths for Mr. Mulroney to take if he
believes in this agreement: he can hold a referendum or he can
stake his job on backing it and call an election. Neither may be
encouraging options for a man who apparently believes in Free
T rade with the passion of a new religious convert but they’re the
only fair ones.
The price of democracy
Democracy is something we in Canada take for granted. It
takes something like the happenings in Haiti on the weekend to
make us see just how precious the right to vote is.
Haitians were looking forward to their first free elections in
more than 30 years. They had lived in one of the poorest nations
in the western hemisphere during years when the Duvalier
family dictatorship amassed huge wealth. Finally the
dictatorship had been overthrown, and the military junta
promised free elections.
The election campaign had not gone peacefully, as is often
the case when nations struggle for democracy after years of
dictatorship. Dozens had been killed in election campaign
violence. Still there was hope the election could take place.
But as people stood in line to vote on Sunday, death squads,
determined to keep the election from taking place, slaughtered
at least 27 people while the army apparently stood by and
watched. With the violence spreading the junta called off the
election.
Knowing the violence that had taken place during the
election campaign those voters must have known there was a
chance of more trouble Sunday but they took the chance
anyway.
In Canada, where even the weather can make a substantial
difference on the number of people who go out to vote, such
bravery is remarkable. It would be nice if we could learn from
the Haitians and realize, without having to suffer as they have,
how precious democracy is.
XI good game
While confident Canadians are saying that our country is all
grown up now and can stand on its own, the national personality
at times seems more like that of an impressionable teenager
insecure in everything he or she does.
Take football. Those who do take football have more and
more been confining their interest to NFL football from south of
the border, available only on television. Carrying the certified
“big league’’stamp, backed by U.S. television hype, the
American game on its dinky little field has made many
Canadians turn away from their own Canadian Football
League.
Sunday’s Grey Cup game seemed to take many people by
surprise with its thrills from beginning to end. Yet the CFL have
been known for dramatic games for years, it’s just we’ve been
too busy looking south, blinded by the glare of publicity, to
notice. If Canadians could see clearly they’d know they should
be proud of the game they’ve got right here and support it.
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The International
Scene
Speak the
language
properly
BY RAYMOND CANON
How would you feel if it were
decided that the English we spoke
was not good enough and that only
a language spoken exactly as it was
in Wales, Scotland, Ireland or even
Georgia wasacceptable? Ithink
that we would get highly incenced
and demand that such an archaic
law be repealed at the earliest
possible moment. Yet what I have
described is exactly what is taking
place in Singapore. Let me explain.
A good percentage of the
population of Singapore is Chinese
and as such use that language in
their daily living. If you know
anything about Chinese, you will
be aware of the fact that there is a
different dialect for each section of
the country and that frequently the
people of one area cannot under
stand anything the people of
another area are saying.
I was forcefully reminded of this
in my youth when 1 found out I
might be going to China and
therefore proceeded to start study
ing the Mandarin dialect of
Chinese. This is spoken in Beijing
the capital and is generally consid
ered to be the official dialect of
China. However, most of the
Chinese we have in Canada come
from Hong Kong and for this
reason speak the Cantonese dia
lect. Needless to say the two are
totally incomprehensible.
There came the time in my
studies of Chinese when it was
decided by my teacher that I should
make my first speech in the
language. He said that he would
look after getting me an audience
to which I could make my speech
and on the appointed night he was
as good as his word. Seated before
me were about a score of Chinese
who listened to my efforts with the
inscrutability for which the race is
famous. When I had completed my
monologue, there was the normal
polite applause. It was then that my
teacher stood up and proceeded to
tell the audience in Cantonese
what I had said in Mandarin. It
turned out that he had not been
able to round up anybody who
understood Mandarin. Rather
than disappoint me, he assembled
a group of Cantonese speaking
Chinese who sat through my entire
speech not understanding one
syllable. They were polite enough
to applaud at the end and then wait
for the translation. Needless to say
I never forgot that.
However, I wander from my
subject. Back to Singapore. It turns
out that the majority of the Chinese
living in Singapore do speak the
Cantonese dialect but for the last
eight years they have been urged
by the government of the city to
speak Mandarin. “Start with
Mandarin, speak it more often’’ is
the somewhat less than catchy
Continued on page 6
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