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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1989-04-05, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 1989. It's Just a matter of time Capt. Joseph Hazelwood, captain of the Exxon oil tanker than ran aground and fouled the Alaskan shoreline with heavy oil, may be an easy target for blame for the disaster but the problem goes far beyond one apparently weak man. Capt. Hazelwood had a record of drunk driving in cars and apparently had been drinking when he left an unqualified junior officer on the bridge ofthe huge ship and went below to his cabin. The ship, asweknow, wasoffcourse, hitrocksandstartedspillingoil.The problem was compounded when Exxon was slow getting cleanup crews into place and, even with several days of favourable weather, was unable to round up the oil slick before it started doing irreparable damage. But even with the negligence of Exxon, the problem goes well beyond this one incident. The awful truth is that if we continue to take the risks of moving these huge timebombs around, we’re sooner or later going to have accidents like this. The more we move, the more accidents. It is easy to be pesimistic about the future of our planet with the trends that seem tobe going unchecked. In the name of efficiency, we are creating situations which are just too large for human beings to handle. The old saying goes that if you give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters, sooner or later one of them is going to accidentally write the great American novel. Likewise if we have too many huge super tankers or for that matter, too many nuclear bombs or too many atomic-powered electrical generators, sooner or later there is bound to be an accident. Mankind is fallible. People will make mistakes. They always have and they always will despite our best management techniques and despite the wonders of modern technology. The difference these daysisthatthemistakesthatget made are so hoorendous they endanger our very existence on this planet. Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, the gas leak at Bophal in India all are examples of disasters where human beings were playing with toys beyond their ability tocontrol ifthingswent wrong. We are uncomfortably close to playing God without the wisdom of God. Exxon was negligent in putting a man with such a record in charge of a huge oil tanker. But even if the captain of the ship is fully competent, the odds are that sooner or later in a world as uncontrollable as ocean shipping, accidentswill happen. The scale of the disaster is so large that it doesn’t taken many disasters to change our whole world. The problem is, how do we change? Private industry failed in this case. The re will always be the danger th at profits will override concern for the danger when private companies are involved. Yet if government is involved, budget cuts can have the same effect. There is no answer to the problem except to step back from the brink of such disasters, to get human endeavours in human scale. That would, however, take a major change in our way of thinking and our way of life. Are we willing to make these changes? eventually we’ll have to. It’s a case of paying now, and having a world left worth living in, or waiting for later when we will have poisoned our own planet to the point it’s unliveable. Why we're cynical The greatest danger to democracy is that people become too cynical about their government yet is there any wonder there is so much cynicism when you see the way governments act. Take a look for instance at the problem facing Huron County Council. The council has been debating what to do about a new Huronview for four years now. Back then the council had bowed to pressure from the Ontario government that the building needed to be updated so it voted to renovate the current building. Provincial officials, however, had other ideas. The cost of renovation was going to be so large that it might be as wise to build a new Huronview. The province wanted a committee set up to get the people’s feelings on the issue. After 10 months the report of the Seniors Care Facility Committee, which included provincial officials as w-ell as county officials and the general public, proposed a decentralized Huronview with units in Clinton, in the north and in the south of the county. But several months later councillors are now being told these plans are unlikely to get government approval. Another unit in the south would mean the south had two subsidized seniors facilities (the other being the private, non-profit Bluewater Rest Home at Zurich). Besides, the government says, now the ministry thinks the county should be looking at alternative housing to keep people out of seniors homes longers. Frustrated county councillors can be excused if they wonder if they will ever find something that will meet the provinces latest whim. Or take a look at the federal government’s throne speech. Priority Number One with the government is obviously deficit reduction. Yet we just came through an election where the subject went virtually untouched by government candidates. Meanwhile the Prime Minister went from coast to coast unloading costly goodies to buy votes. The Citizen P.O Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 Phone 523-4792 After a spring dip 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 Filibustering So­ ciety. MONDAY: Julia Flint said she’d heard that they would be designing cars in the future with microwave ovens in the glove compartment. Now, she said, women wouldn’t be able to get out of the kitchen even when they were driving. Can’t you just see it, driving along with the family and the husband asks the wife to cook him pizza and the kids chip in from the back seat they want pop tarts warmed up. Billie Bean said he just might give up driving if they put micro­ waves in too. Can’t you just see the harried businessman driving his car, he says. He’s talking on his cellular telephone and he’s sorting through his brief case so he can get out the proper document so he can send it over his portable FAX machine and he’s so busy he doesn’t have time to stop to eat so he starts cooking in the microwave. Would you like to meet this man driving down the road? Ah the wonders of modern technology Tim O’Grady was say­ ing. In all the cars he’d had lately the glove compartment was so small you couldn’t put a pair of gloves in it let alone the owner’s manual for the car. And here they are going to put a microwave in it. What aTe they going to warm up, a peanut? TUESDAY: Ward Black was saying he could understand the govern­ ment’s talking about closing down passenger rail service because people don’t use it enough but he had to admit he’d be sad to see it go. There was something special about riding on a train compared to taking a bus or a plane but what are you going to do if people won’t use the train. Hank Stokes said there’d be one way of getting more traffic for the trains very quickly: make the Prime Minister and all the MPs travel by train instead of by plane. Sure Ward said, but it would Continued on page 27 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, 4pm • Blyth We are not responsible for unsolicited newscriptsor photographs Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Editor & Publisher, Keith Roulston Production Manager, Jill Roulston Advertising Manager, Dave Williams Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968