HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1991-11-20, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20,1991. PAGE 5.
GS Arthur Black
Smoking
dangerous
to flyers' health
I've just been going over some old
newspaper clippings. Here's one of the
headlines I found:
EPP SUGGESTS SMOKING BAN ON
ALL FLIGHTS
And a rather more blunt one:
OTTAWA TO AIRBORNE
SMOKERS: BUTT OUT
What's surprising about these newspaper
headlines is that they're not that old. I
clipped them out of the Globe and Mail in
November, 1987. I find it hard to believe
that four short years ago, smokers routinely
lit up on flights as soon as the FASTEN
SEAT BELTS sign was extinguished.
Fact is, we all metaphorically “lit up” —
smokers and non-smokers alike. The flight
attendants tried to keep the nicotine addicts
bunched in a special “smoking section” two-
thirds of the way down the plane, but
cigarette smoke is a notorious non-respecter
of boundaries. If a smoker in 18B flicked his
Bic, it wasn't too long before a non-smoker
International Scene
Repent!
The end is near
BY RAYMOND CANON
I once saw a cartoon of a man walking
down the street with a sign to the effect that
the world would come to an end on a
specific date. The original date had been
crossed out and replaced with a number of
subsequent ones. The last one was a few
days hence but there was no doubt that, in
the area of predictions, the man was
something less than a success.
I must confess that this same approach
happens in the field of economics as well.
Every few years there is a book appears on
my desk which has a title something along
the lines of “How to Profit from the Coming
Depression”. If I remember correctly, one
economist in the States was so successful in
getting this point across that his book
reached the top of the best sellers' list where
it stayed for quite a few weeks. Well, the
depression may or may not come but I know
one person who profited mightily from it -
the author of the book.
If any of us in the field of economics were
to predict a financial holocaust and actually
see it come to pass, I do not think that there
would be loo many people thanking us for
being right in our prediction. I have been
routinely predicting for years that some
students will fail each of the exams of
Economics that I give, yet I do not have
hordes of the same students rushing up
saying, “O wise and wonderful master ( or
words to that effect), you were right as
always; some of us did fail. How can you be
so right so many times? Is it a gift from
God?”
In view of the current discussions between
the Arabs and Israelis which may or may not
still be in progress when you read this, one
in 3A was wrinkling his or her nose.
Nowadays of course, smoking is verboten
on all but international flights, and flying is
infinitely more pleasant for everyone.
Well, almost everyone. Let us observe a
moment of respectful silence (no coughing,
please) for those poor wretches among us
who suffer from two debilitating conditions:
fear of flying and nicotine addiction.
Can you imagine what it must be like for
them to endure a flight from, say, Moncton
to Vancouver?
Not pretty, I'll bet. Probably a bit like it
was for Oly Svane Thestrup. Mister
Thestrup is a Danish actor who boarded a
British Airways 747 in Vancouver not long
ago. He thought he was going to London,
England, but he woke up in a Winnipeg jail
cell instead.
And he owes it all to Dame Nicotine.
Mister Thestrup you see, is a smoker.
Imagine his consternation when he
discovered that he had been put in an non
smoking seat for the 10-hour flight. He
asked for a seat in the smoking section.
Sorry, full up. He ranted. He raved. Then he
went to the washroom.
Not long thereafter, sinuous tendrils of
smoke began to issue out of the lavatory.
And not long after that, the lavatory smoke
detector went off. Things on British Airways
Flight 347 got very ugly after that. Thestrup
took a swing at a flight attendant. He threw a
drink in the pilot’s face. He tried to open an
By Raymond Canon
of the current crop of doomsday prophets is
having his day in the sun. The man in
question, an American, has stated that the
battle of Armageddon will begin exactly
three and a half years after a dominant leader
in the West, which he terms the anti-Christ
(George Bush, take note) signs a treaty
guaranteeing Israel's security.
My first question is why the Americans, as
often as not, seem to have something of a
monopoly on this type of definitive
prediction. Why can't the Canadians, the
Swiss or even the Afghanistanis have their
share of ultimate truth or infinite wisdom?
No wonder we Canadians have something of
an inferiority complex when it comes to our
neighbours to the south.
At any rate back to the prediction. The
man in question, Hal Lindsey, has stated
from his home in California (where else?)
that the Middle East is “God's hourglass”
and that “whenever you see things
happening there involving Israel, it's always
important from a prophetic standpoint.” In
making such a statement Mr. Lindsey runs
against the grain of most biblical scholarship
rejects applying ancient prophetic
connections to modem events.
Mr. Lindsey goes on to say that the war
will last three and a half years and will pit
Letter to the editor
Cadets don't want
The local Brussels Cadet Corp 2967 would
like to be recognized as one of the many
groups and organizations that participated in
the Remembrance Day Services held in
Brussels. Other groups mentioned were the
Brussels Legion, Ladies Auxiliary, Girl
Guides, Brownies, Cubs and Scouts.
The Cadet Corp has been sponsored by the
Brussels Legion Branch 218 since 1979. The
Corp has always participated with the Poppy
canvassing in and around the area. The Corp
emergency door and step outside at 36,000
feet.
He became such a pain that the plane was
forced to make an unscheduled landing.
Which is how Oly Svane Thestrup, Danish
thespian, ended up in a Winnipeg jail cell.
The manic-depressive Dane is but an
extreme example of something flight
attendants are encountering more and more
often in the tobacco-free lanes of our
airways these days -- nicotine-crazed
customers doing everything short of
hijacking to sneak an in-flight smoke.
Despite the fact that they face a criminal
record, possible banishment from future
flights, a $100 fine and humiliation in front
of their fellow passengers, desperate
smokers are going to insane -- and
dangerous — lengths to soothe the tobacco
monkey on their back. Some have smashed
the smoke alarms in aircraft washrooms.
Others have tried stretching shower caps or
even condoms over the sensors.
You'd think the removal of ashtrays from
the washrooms might stymie die-hard
cigarettes being tossed into paper-filled
waste bins.
Scary. Scary enough to convince me to
toss a few extras into my carry-on bag next
time I take a flight.
Such as chewing gum, sunflower seeds,
some lollipops and maybe a can of snuff.
Not for me — I plan to leave them in the
aircraft washrooms.
the Soviet Union (or what is left of it) and
the Arabs against the Israelis, the Western
World and China. Yes, he actually said
China. Israel will be almost on the verge of
annihilation when the Messiah, Christ, will
come to save the country and set up his
kingdom of peace.
Well, there you have it. Such stuff should
get our minds totally off the discussion of
such mundane matters as the ordination of
homosexuals, the imposition of the GST as
the work of the devil or the concept of
Saddam Hussein (not George Bush) as the
anti-Christ. According to Mr. Lindsey, one
of the victims of this final battle is going to
be Mikhail Gorbechev. Having used up eight
lives already, he at least will know where the
ninth one is going.
While you arc digesting all this weighty
material, you can rest assured that I am now
preparing a definitive book, which I will
write in California, and which will be
entitled “How to Profit from the Coming
Holocaust in the Middle East.” (Hint: don't
buy Israel bonds.) If you want a prophecy to
tide you over, I predict that some of my
students will fail their Christmas exam; it
will not, however, precipitate the breakup of
our country.
to be left out
also takes great pride in participating at the
Remembrance Day Services at the Cenotaph
and the Parade to and from the Church
Service.
The Corp has continued to grow through
the years with an active membership of 30
Cadets. To join the Corp it costs nothing but
gives back to the Cadet a sense of self-worth
and a taste of discipline.
The Corp would appreciate having this
oversight recognized by your paper.
Lisa Glanville C.I.
Letter from
the Editor
By Keith Roulston
Do we learn
from history?
History has always fascinated me and i've
spent a lot of time reading and studying it
but there are times when I wonder if we
should bum all the history books and wipe
out the collected memories of all residents of
the world.
Most of the time, I think we can learn a
lot from history. This newspaper was bom,
for instance, based on a story I'd read about
how a salt well in Blyth was funded early in
the century. A meeting was held back then
and local people were asked if they wanted
to invest in the well (located on the property
that the G.L. Hubbard Rutabaga plant is on
today.) It seemed to me that the solution to
not having a newspaper in the community
was for people to invest in their own
community. With the help of Sheila
Richards and dozens of shareholders, The
Citizen was bom.
Similarly, I think Huron county residents
should study their past to seek solutions for
the future. This county was built on a
combination of individual initiative and
community co-operation. People set out into
the woods alone to carve out a new life, but
learned to help each other to bring that life
about. There was freedom for the individual
to start up a store or factory, but there was
also a realization that in some things, people
were going to have to work together and so
we ended up with co-operative creameries
and cheese factories, community halls and
churches and schools. There was no conflict
in those days between free enterprise and
community co-operation: no silly ideology
about socialism versus free enterprise. These
were pragmatic people who saw a need and
look whatever action they could think of to
fill that need. I think we need to borrow a
little bit of our ancestors' thinking if we're
going to rebuild our economy.
It's when I read about what's going on in
Yugoslavia or Northern Ireland I begin to
wonder if the history books should be
burned. History should enlighten people but
in loo many places in the world, it is used
instead to dredge up reasons to hate. Last
week the hatred between extremists of
Protestant and Catholic background in North
Ireland led to bombings and shootings that
took several lives. Just when you think
things might be settling down over there,
violence breaks out again.
In Yugoslavia, attempts of Croatia to
break away from the union are being brutally
battled by the central government, led by the
dominant Serbs. Serbs have been starving
Croats in two important cities and Croats are
in terror of what may happen when the
poorly-armed defenders finally have to give
in. Hatreds run deep between the peoples of
the region and helped trigger World War I.
We haven't heard much about these hatreds
in the last few decades because of the
Communist dictatorship in Yugoslavia that
kept them under control. Anyone familiar
with the ethnic neighbourhoods of Toronto,
however, could tell you how deep the old
hatreds went.
In these old arguments both sides can
name you off the atrocities the other has
perpetrated over the centuries. Each sees
only the bad of the other side, never of their
own side. Faced with the overwhelming evil
of the other side, they can justify almost
anything done by their side.
We suffer a touch of the same problem in
Canada. We're still fighting the Battle of the
Plains of Abraham, the Riel Rebellion, the
Battle of the Boyne. Many in English
Canada still resent the opposition in Quebec
to conscription during World War II and
many in Quebec will never forgive the rest
of Canada for forcing young people to go in
the army for a war they didn't feel they had
any part of.
History should teach us the folly of trying
to avenge old grievances but too often
people use it to dredge up reasons to hate
instead.