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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1989-05-03, Page 5HELEN GOWING Helen Gowing honoured for 15 years of service THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 1989. PAGE 5. Letters to the editor Thanks for the hearing BY LISA BOONSTOPPEL Mrs. Helen Gowing was presen­ ted a Volunteer Service Award for her 15 years of work to the Blyth Centre for the Arts (operator of the Blyth Festival) as a member of their Board of Directors. “I was surprised I won the award," said Mrs. Gowing who was nominated by Linda Lentz, official fundraiser for the centre. Mrs. Gowing was instrumental in opening the Centre 15 years ago. The Board of Trade for the Blyth businesses, of which she was president started a venture to clean up Blyth Memorial Hall and put it in use. "The Centre is certainly a lot greater than I ever imagined it" Family and Children’s Services elects board The 1989 Annual Meeting of Family and Children’s Services of Huron County was held on Wed­ nesday, April 26, 1989 at the corporation offices in Goderich. Family and Children’s Services is operated by the Children’s Aid Society and is responsible for the protection of children under 16 who live in Huron County. The Board of Directors, elected annually, consists of 15 people. Four people are appointed by the County of Huron, which provides 20 per cent of the funding of the $1.4 million budget. These appoin­ tees are Warden David Johnston, W. L. Mickle, Albert Wasson, and George Cantelon. The following people were elect­ ed to the Board by the member­ ship: Dorothy Coultes, Marian Doucette, Tom Flynn, Murray Hord, Roberta Kloss, Mary Mof­ fatt, Michael Park, Suzy Symes, Dr. Bruce Thomasson, Norm Tait, Paul Zurbrigg. Minutes of the last annual meet­ ing were approved. The financial report was presented by auditor says Mrs. Gowing who had origin­ ally planned to get the centre back in use for the community. Mrs. Gowing is involved in the fundraising for the theatre and also sits on the building committee of the board. She says she has enjoyed her 15 years of volunteer service to the Hall which was built as a memor­ ial to the soldiers who died in the First World War. "Tve enjoyed the people I’ve worked with very much, she says. The award was presented by the Ministry of Citizenship and the Ministry of Culture and Communi­ cations on April 20 in Owen Sound. Also receiving an award was Don McCaffery of Exeter, a volunteer for five years with the Festival. Eugene Bender. Reports of the Executive Director and the Presi­ dent were presented and are available on request from the office at 524-7356 or 1-800-265-5198. Burglar bungles Continued from page 1 in time to witness two men fleeing the scene on foot. Shortly after, Betty Maillot noticed two men trying to steal a van belonging to Gary Courtney of Blyth. She noti­ fied Mr. Courtney who ran outside and chased the subjects. Another neighbour, Ruth Stewart notified the police. While Mr. Courtney was able to apprehend one of the perpetrators the other managed to escape. Mr. Courtney explained that all of the stolen merchandise had been dropped with the exception of a leather jacket worn by the thief. Constable Graf of the Goderich OPP is currently conducting an investigation to discover the identi­ ty of the second suspect. THE EDITOR, Last Friday 1 felt like I had missed out on a very important opportunity. I’ll tell you why! The night before, Thursday, April 27, I went to a meeting in Walton Hall. The hall was filled with landowners from Grey, Mor­ ris, East Wawanosh, Hullett and Colborne townships. A lot of these landowners were farmers. They all had one thing in common. They all own land adjacent to the abandon­ ed Goderich-to-Guelph C.P.R. line along its length through Huron County. They had all come to voice their concerns about the future use of this railroad property. Two gentlemen from the Inter- ministerial committee, a group that will eventually decide on a future use for this land, had come to hear adjacent landowners concerns. These two gentlemen were Mr. Cikiah Thomas who is the secretary of the Interministerial Committee and represents the Ministry of Transportation and Mr. Tonu Tosine, who represents the Mini­ stry of Agriculture and Food. I wanted to get up and thank the United Groundhog’s Day Commit­ tee, especially Mrs. Jeanne Kirkby whose patience and diligent efforts played a major role in arranging the meeting. 1 wanted to thank Emerson Mitchell, Arnold Egli, Barry Hoegy, Joyce Bean and Don Sower- by for conducting a tour to give Mr. Thomas and Mr. Tosine a first hand look at the C.P.R. property across Huron County. I also wanted to thank the | The International Scene French in 30 days? How about 30 months BY RAYMOND CANON I have in front of me a little ad which encourages rne to "Speak French like a Diplomat." While 1 am at it, I can also learn how to speak Spanish, German, and Italian like diplomats too. What I have to do is to enroll in the course which the institute in question happens to be offering. All I can ask is where this institute was when I was young and having to grapple with another language about every other year. I would have been happy then to be content with speaking a number of langu­ ages like a diplomat’s son or daughter. Perhaps diplomats have changed since I was displaying my wares in the Dept, of External Affairs. Most of the ones I worked for had trouble getting beyond their native tongue and there were only a few of us who could be considered to be bilingual by any stretch of the imagination Whatever the reasons, Canadians seem to have a bad reputation for languages; this is perhaps some­ thing that is endemic in the entire English speaking world but that is perhaps due partly to the fact that it is generally expected that other people will learn English and that is that. What a pity! However, I digress. It seems to me that any ad, not matter how well intentioned, that claims to township councils’ representatives for supporting the landowners’ concerns. But 1 didn’t move from my seat or utter a word. 1 wanted to tell Mr. Thomas and Mr. Tosine about the problems we have had dealing with the railway in regards to fencing, crossings, weeds, drainage and many other nuisances and that 1 would rather bear the expense of buying their property than the frustration of trying to persuade another owner or agency to maintain it in a satisfactory manner. 1 also wanted to tell Mr. Thomas and Mr. Tosine that we cherish our way of life and our privacy and that we do not want these two important aspects of farm life endangered by apublic access through the middle of our farms, front yards, back yards, and laneways. I wanted to mention that 1 Ratepayers Assoc, needed THE EDITOR, Governing is a difficult job to say the least. Elected people should never forget that governing is a responsibility not a power. You are elected to carry out the demands placed upon you by the senior levels of government and also (and most important in my mind) re­ sponsible to the residents who elected you to act on their behalf. Only by carefully considering the decisions you have to make, can you carry out your mandate. You need to decide how to use the scarce tax dollars in the most EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT way have you speaking a language like a diplomat, or even like a janitor, in 30 days or so, is guilty of false advertising and the writer should be condemned to learn how to write Chinese in one week. After 30 days, even if you are in an immersion program, you should be able to carry out simple conversa­ tions but to expect anybody to conduct a conversation in the subtle nuances of the diplomatic world is the height of folly. You may get a passable accent in that time; the rest you will not! Let me give you a few examples. Language is made up not only of a number of complex grammatical concepts but is shot full of idioms. Both of these tax the ingenuity of even a well educated person. Even a language such as German which has so many words in common with English, drives English speaking people up the wall when it comes to word order; the two are at opposite ends of the pole. He said that he to the store on the corner quickly gone had. Does that puzzle you? How­ ever, that is precisely how the Germans, be they members of the diplomatic corps or not, would phrase a simple statement of reported speech. Try getting your tongue around that in 30 days. Then there are all the idioms! If you accuse someone in French of taking French leave, and translate it literally into that language, you will insult all the French speakers in the room. Their way of saying it is "partir a l’anglaise" or to leave in English fashion. In other words each nation accuses the other of walking out. Don’t try to translate the expression "deaf as a door­ nail" literally into French. Even if thought that people who are today trespassing on C.P.R. private pro­ perty and boasting about it would probably not hesitate to trespass on my property or yours as well. 1 wanted to point out that basic freedoms like our way of life and privacy are precious traditions that are easily lost but very difficult or impossible to regain. As 1 have written, 1 wanted to say these things, but having no talent for public speaking 1 was unable to utter a word. But 1 didn’t have to worry because all my concerns and others besides were capably cover­ ed by other people and intently listened to and carefully noted by Mr. Thomas and Mr. Tosine. Well, it’s time to tend my cattle, again. I do that twice a day, 365 days a year. Lucky for me 1 am a bit better at farming than speaking at a meeting or writing. A MORRIS TOWNSHIP FARMER. to get the best use possible for these funds. You are not governing for the select few but for the whole town. Let’s all pull together to make Brussels a POSITIVE town. We have good appointed officials, let’s give them a pat on the back for jobs well done. Tell your concerns to the elected and appointed officials. They can only govern RESPONSI­ BLY if they know we believe they are answerable to us. Perhaps it’s time for a Ratepay­ ers Association. Give me a call and we can discuss it. R. E. SAUVE BRUSSELS. you by chance happen to know the word for "doornail," it won’t do you a bit of good. The French expression is "deaf as a pot." To ask a Frenchman if he is full after a meal is to render the ultimate in insults. He uses a totally different word (rassasie). Even a slip in gender can cause you all sorts of problems. If you ask for a glass and use the wrong gender, what you really ask for is a worm. The same type of slip will get you a stove instead of a frying pan. French is not alone in this. A gender goof in German will some dew instead of some rope. Then again there are sometimes comic overtones when a word in one language looks quite a bit like a word in another. There is the story of a German who came to England for the first time, went into a restaurant and ordered a meal. When it was slow in coming, he called the waitress and informed her, "Twenty minutes ago I was to become a veal cutlet but I have not yet it become." The German word "bekommen" looks to a German about the same as the English word "become" if you change the k to a c but the German word never means "become," father it means “get". Small wonder that all the German got was a surprised look on the face of the waitress. All this is not to scare you from learning any other language. On the contrary go ahead but don’t forget that there is no easy road to the world of diplomats. Ads of this sort are definitely misleading. Just remember that, when a Frenchman tells somebody that they speak French like a Spanish cow, this is by no means a compliment. Just the opposite!