The Citizen, 1987-12-22, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1987.
Opinion
It's about time
As the problem of what to do with increasing mountains of
garbage grows more and more urgent, it is a relief to see that
municipalities are fighting back to try to cut down the amount of
garbage to be disposed of.
At least two local municipalities, Grey township and the
village of Bly th have both supported a resolution from the
Township of Peel (near Drayton) which calls on the provincial
government to curtail the amount of bio-unfriendly (articles
that won’t decay naturally) materials used in packaging.
The development of plastics and styrofoam has been both a
blessing and a curse on our society. These chemically-created
materials have many necessary uses but they have also been
adopted for things that, while they may be profitable to some
people, are costly to society as a whole.
Food packaging, for instance, has made use of these modern
miracles to boost sales. Take a look at the number of fast-food
hamburgers that are sold in Canada in a day then imagine the
size of the pile of styrofoam containers they came in. Think of
the number of styrofoam coffee cups that go into the garbage in
a day? Think of the number of egg cartons discarded once the
eggs are safely home; the number of plastic trays holding meat
or vegetables for more attractive displays in supermarkets.
A spokesman for Pollution Probe was saying on the radio
recently that we don’t know how long it would take modern
plastics tobreak down naturally except that it takes longer than
we’ve had experience with them.
The use of such materials boosts the profits of private
companies by making food more attractive or making sales
more convenient but it puts real costs on the backs of municipal
taxpayers. And that doesn’t even take into account the cost that
doesn’t show up in dollars: the harm we may be doing without
even knowing it, to our environment, the environment we have
to live in.
The Ontario government, which has tried to look progressive
in the protection of our environment, should pick up on this
initiative by the municipalities and clamp down on all but the
really necessary uses of such products. And they should act
soon before we have too many mountains of garbage that won’t
decay.
W/se man
bearing gifts
And there came from the east, a Wise man bearing gifts ....
It’s appropriate that it should be Christmas time when the
federal government announces its latest aid package for
Canada’s troubled farming community and even if it was the
Prime Minister, not Agriculture minister John Wise who
announced the package, it’s a wise move.
The $1 1 billion dollar price tag will no doubt prove an easy
target for those who think farmers are already too heavily
subsidized. Indeed the attacks began barely a day after as at
least one commentator argued that Canada claims everybody
else is guilty of farm subsidies but then we go out and give
subsidies too.
These are extraordinary times on the farm in Canada
however and they call for extraordinary measures. Canadian
grain farmers are the victim of an international subsidy war
between the U.S. and the European Common Market for a
larger share of world trade. The whole country will lose if we
decide to let our farmers stand alone and go out of business.
Someday this subsidy battle will end and we must have some
grain farmers still around so we’re ready to compete again.
Also welcome is the news that the government isn’t
abandoning the Farm Credit Corporation. The new funds
injected may not be enough to do the job that’s needed: only
time will tell that, but it does answer the concerns of farmers
that the government might be willing to just see the FCC
disappear as an alternate form of farm financing.
While $1.1 billion sounds like a lot, it’s really only a trickle of
what the farm community needs to dig out of its massive debt.
It’s a start, however, and a moral boost for farmers who need to
know the government isn’t prepared to abandon them.
Merry Christmas
to all
This is the time of the year when it is most enjoyable living
with our fellow man. Even in the midst of the Christmas rush
people show a softer side.
It would be nice if we could hold some of this feeling all year
round but we seem incapable of it. What we can do then is make
use of the good feelings we have at this time of the year and try to
make this the most memorable Christmas ever. Perhaps we can
capture a little of that Christmas spirit and carry it with us into
the new year to make our community and our world, a better
place to live.
One of the nicest parts of
Christmas is expressing our thanks
for your business in the past.
From the Board, staff and correspondents of The Citizen
Letter from the editor
BY KEITH ROULSTON
Christmas is a celebration of the
birthof a man who spent his life
emphasizing that money wasn’t as
important as love of God and your
fellow man and yet a modern
Christmas seems to be all about
spending money.
Perhaps we should stop and
wonder this Christmas how much
is enough when it comes to
material wealth. When does “get
ting by’’ become greed? Few of us
would admit that we were “rich”.
We can always find somebody else
that has more than we do and
doesn’t deserve it as much and so,
no matter how much our income,
no matter how many conveniences
and gadgets we have around the
house, we are always striving to
have more. People earning $20,000
a year aim at earning $30,000 while
the people at $30,000 aim at
$40,000 and the people at $100,000
know they could be happy if they
just made $200,000.
The mid-1980’s is a time of
unprecedented wealth tor a large
part of the Canadian population.
Expensive cars, clothing (at prices
that were once thought of as buying
cars), andvincredibly expensive
housing all provide ways for people
to spend their mountains of
disposable income.
Yet the mid-1980’s also is a time
of more real poverty than at any
time since the depression. There
are estimates that there are as
many homeless people wandering
the streets of Toronto, our city of
gold, as there are people living in
all of Huron county. These aren’t
just the people we usually think of
as “street people”, alcoholics,
mentally ill people and young
runaways. There were families
where the breadwinner had jobs
living in tents last summer because
in a city where rent is now $1,000
for a two-bedroom apartment and
you must be able to plunk down the
first month’s and the last month’s
rent before you can move in, they
just couldn ’ t afford a roof over their
heads.
Here at home we have hundreds
of families struggling to stay on the
farm, trying to keep ahead of bank
payments while still providing food
and clothes for children. There is
real hurt and sorrow around us.
Yet the concern of society at the
moment is not how to help these
people, not how to put more justice
into our system but in ensuring we
have more. One of the reasonings
behind free trade is that we must
have it or our standard of living will
fall behind other industrialized
countries.
But how much is enough? Will
we not be satisfied until we live the
lifestyle we see on Dallas and
Dynasty? When does our desire for
more good things become greed?
We live a life our parents would
have thought incredibly luxurious
but we plead we’re really not living
in luxury. We’re just “middle
class”.
Yet here at home, and even more
so for the 90 per cent of the world
population that doesn’t share our
bounty, we seem obscenely weal
thy.
Perhaps this Christmas we could
stop and look at our lives and
wonder if we’re really on the right
track. We could wonder if measur
ing our own self-worth by our
yearly income is really healthy. We
could wonder if spending more
time getting to know ourselves and
our family might be more reward
ing than one more shopping spree
to the big city.
Maybe we could remember what
the man who this holiday is
celebrating taught were the impor
tant things.
[Published by North Huron Publishing Company Inc.]
Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel,
Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships
Published weekly in Brussels, Ontario
P.O. Box 152, P.O. Box429,
Brussels, Ont. Blyth, Ont.
N0G1H0 N0M1H0
887-9114 523-4792
Subscription price: $17.00; $38.00 foreign.
Advertising and news deadline:
Monday 2p.m. in Brussels; 4p.m. in Blyth
Editor and Publisher: Keith Roulston
Advertising Manager: Janice Gibson
Production and Office Manager: Jill Roulston
Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968