HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1991-11-27, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27,1991. PAGE 5.
E2 Arthur Black
Where do we
get these
leaders
anyway?
This country could not survive with a
policy of unfettered free trade ... We'd be
swamped.
B. Mulroney, 1983
I have no interest in changing jobs at this
time.
B. Mulroney, 1991
That was quite a dance that Canada's 18th
PM led the national press last month — the
Mulroney Mazurka, shall we call it? We've
seen the man in a variety of elusive guises
over the years, but Bashful Virgin was a new
one.
He was quite good at it too — blushing and
aw-shucksing as rumours swirled about his
Gucci loafers that he was/wasn't/was/wasn’t
about to be picked to head up the United
Nations.
It was only a flitting minnow as
favourable PR goes, but The Mulroo played
it like a bluefin tuna.
And all the time it was going on, I kept
whacking myself on the side of the head and
asking: “Have I missed something, here?”
This is the same Brian Mulroney who, as a
front man for the Iron Ore Company of
Canada, arranged to turn Schefferville into a
ghost town?
This is the same BM who thanks to his
inability to resist the urge to brag (“I had to
roll the dice”) — managed to single-handedly
scuttle his own Meech Lake Accord?
We are talking, are we not, about the man
who has managed to alienate the Maritimes,
Ontario, the West and the far North? The
guy who gave Canada the GST — the most
loathed lax in the history of our country?
The leader whose gang of bumbling
nincompoops has gutted the national rail
system, infuriated public employees,
alienated small businessmen from the Queen
Charlottes to St. John's and left Prairie
farmers with virtual Himalayas of near-
worthless grain?
So let me see if I've got this Mulroney-for-
U.N. thing straight now ...
He destroyed a town ... then he mugged an
entire nation ...
And because of that they wanted to put
him in charge of the world???
Pretty scarrrrey, as Count Floyd would
say.
But then, who says that executive
competence has anything to do with
leadership? Look at Ronald Reagan. His
chief claims to fame before he took office
consisted of a Colgate smile, a string of
General Electric commercials and a credit in
the movie Bedtime for Bonzo - in which he
played second banana to a chimp.
American voters landslid him into the
Oval Office. Twice.
As I write, Sonny Bono, who was hitched
to Cher before she got famous — is trying to
decide whether or not he'll give the
American electorate a chance to vole him
into the U.S. Senate.
Not that we're Simon Pure on this side of
the border. Anyone out there remember Red
Kelly? Red was a premier defencemen for
the Toronto Maple Leafs back in the years
when the Leafs played hockey.
In fact he was such a first-rale defenceman
that the Ontario Liberal backroom boys
decided he'd make a dandy Member of
Parliament. So they ran him.
And the voters elected him. Twice.
A defenceman MP, a Tin Pan Alley
senator, an advertising shill for President —
why not Brian Mulroney for U.N. Secretary
General?
And the vacancy that would leave at 24
Sussex? No problem.
I'm sure Eddie Shack is available.
International Scene
By Raymond Canon
The tragedy
of Yugoslavia
BY RAYMOND CANON
I cannot help but feel a considerable
amount of sorrow as I watch events unfold
in Yugoslavia. It does, after all, hold a
particular place in my heart as it was one of
the first countries that I covered in depth as a
young journalist.
I went there shortly after President Tito, a
dedicated communist, had turfed the
Russians out for meddling too intensely in
Yugoslav affairs and my job was to report
on the road to the Marxian promised land
that this country was taking. It took a lot of
courage for Tito to do so since he was the
first leader to stand up to the Russians and
tell them that he, and not the Kremlin, would
decide what was the correct interpretation of
Marxist dogma.
I crossed the border from Austria and
gradually worked my way down to
Macedonia in the south. Along the way I
detoured into the Dubrovnik to write my first
set of articles and fell in love with the city. It
is surely one of most idyllic spots in all of
Europe and the thought of it being shelled by
the Serbs is not a pleasant one at all. There
must be other targets of greater military
importance if that is what they are looking
for.
When I was there, unified opposition to
the Russians as well as the imposing
personality of the Yugoslav leader, Josef
Broz Tito, were more than enough to hold
the country together but, since the death of
Tito, the fabric has gradually come
unravelled until we see the not surprising
disintegration of Yugoslavia.
While I am sad, I am not surprised. On my
shelves sits a book entitled “The History of
the Balkans” which, as you probably know,
includes such countries as Greece, Romania
and Bulgaria. It didn't take much reading for
me to realize that, over the centuries, every
country has fought every other one on a
number of occasions. In many cases, the
enemies of one war became the allies of
another and one can excuse the Balkan
people if they became a bit confused at
times.
To add to this confusion was the Ottoman
Empire, run by the Turks. The Ottoman
Turks crossed into Europe in 1353 and
gradually extended their control over what is
known as the Balkans until they occupied
land that is currently Hungary, Bulgaria,
Greece, Romania, Albania and Yugoslavia.
By 1529 they were hammering at the gates
of Vienna. It was not until the 19th century
that the occupied countries were able to
force the Ottoman Turks to withdraw.
Some idea of this occupation can be see in
such places as Nis in central-south
The Short of It
Safety first
for woman
on the road
The other day, while driving to work, I
noticed, as I crested a hill, a lone man
leaning against a broken down car. When he
saw my car approaching, he raised his arm,
and raised his hand, fingers bent, thumb
protruding in the fashion that all travellers
recognize, the signal that asks, "Buddy, can I
hitch a ride?"
I realized immediately that I was facing a
decision. Unlike many of the hitchhikers one
encounters on the road, this was obviously a
man who had intended to drive himself to
his destination, who ran into a little
difficulty, and found himself several miles
away from the nearest town. Also, it was
broad daylight and rural Huron County, so
what could possibly happen.
Yugoslavia. While I was there I visited the
famous Skull Tower where the skulls of
Serbians killed in the 19th century were
embedded in a small tower to remind the
population what would happen to them if
they tried to overthrow the Turks.
The Turks, however, did leave behind a
few things. Serbians tend to be Orthodox but
there is frequent evidence of Islamic life
especially in the areas populated by the
Albanians who form yet another of the
minorities. The Slovenians and the Croatians
of the north are generally Catholic and their
languages reflect this in the Roman alphabet
(which we use) while the Serbs say the same
thing more or less with a Cyrillic (Russian)
alphabet. Yugoslavia may mean the “country
By Bonnie Gropp
On the other hand, there was not another
human being in sight and I kept thinking that
things are not always as they appear. Many
innocent people have offered their help to an
individual, who appeared in need,
discovering too late, they had been duped.
Paranoia began to filter through sensible
thought. Perhaps, the disabled vehicle was a
ploy. Why didn’t he walk to the house, just
down the road to use a phone? Then again
maybe he already had and no one was home.
As these converse thoughts ran through
my mind in the brief instant I had to decide,
one remained clear, overriding all others —
no matter how much we may want to do
something we have to let common sense rule
beyond any desire to help. Society has put us
in the position where we must assume the
worst, to guarantee our safety.
When I took a comprehensive self-defense
course for females last year, the first lesson
was simply to not place yourself at risk.
Mother always warned us not to talk to
strangers and the words carry even greater
weight today, particularly for women and
children, who are, obviously handicapped in
situations where force is involved.
of the south Slavs” but there is little more
than that which the various minorities have
in common; there are even some which are
not Slavic at all.
Those who recall World War II may know
that, after the German invasion of
Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941, it is a good
question whether the Serbs and the
Croations fought each other more than they
did the Germans. It was out of this struggle
that Tito rose to be the leader of the country
at the end of the war but it can be said in his
defense that he did not try to impose one
minority on the others but attempted to get
them to co-operate. He must be turning over
in his grave as a result of 199 l's civil war.
This war in Yugoslavia may be a tragedy,
it is certainly no surprise.
In a quick call, I decided that if I stopped
to pick up this man, who was quite likely
your typical everyday guy, but turned out
not to be, the price I pay could be high. On
the other hand, by not picking him up, he
was faced with hanging around until
someone, preferably another male, which
evens the odds somewhat, happened by and
stopped to help. Or at the worst, he would be
faced with a walk of about six miles,
inconvenient maybe, but not a horrible
hardship for one who appeared hale and
hearty.
With this in mind, I passed by, and with
the probability that he was not likely a
dangerous felon, it was with no small
amount of guilt. Therefore, I wanted to take
this opportunity to explain the snub, which
I'm sure he quite likely understood. It is an
unfortunate, yet very real, fact of life today,
that some in society have made us distrustful
of most. That the desrre to help another
human being, must, more than ever before,
be given serious consideration, goes against
what we have been taught. That we must
suspect to protect goes against a natural
desire to have faith in mankind.