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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1992-03-04, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4,1992. PAGE 5. (Arthur Black The Olympics are ------fixed, ! I Realize that it’s heresy, but I’m going to say it anyway: the Winter Olympics are over and I'm glad. It's not that I'm a sports curmudgeon. I'm pleased that Kerrin Lee Whatsemame won herself a gold medal. My heartstrings went as zingy as any other Canucks when Sean Burke put the leg scissors on that fmal shot to win the Germany-Team Canada shootout. It's all very thrilling but it's just getting too hard to take the Olympics --winter or summer - seriously any more. As a Sports Spectacle, you bet. As a Muscle Extravaganza, to be sure. But as an impartial gathering of the world's best amateurs competing on a level playing field under an unblemished nimbus of fair play and justice? Get serious. The Olympics are — there is no nice way to say this — fixed. Any semi-conscious viewer watching the Figure Skating finals couldn't help but see nationalistic judges shamelessly loading their ballots for the Home Town Kids. There's even favouritism within Teams. Kurt Browning skated like a wino lashed in banana skins and still placed sixth. Elvis Stojko delivered the most technically flawless performance of the Olympics, but Elvis is still a rookie on the international ■international Scene By Raymond Canon Change - a natural phenomenon BY RAYMOND CANON And you will cry, “I'm alone!” The time will come when that which seems high to you will no longer be in sight, and that which seems low will be all-too-near, even what seems sublime to you will frighten you like a ghost. And you will cry, “All is false!” That statement comes not from some contemporary thinker but from the writings of Nietsche, the German philosopher who lived during the last half of the 19th century and who, because of his influence on the National Socialist movement in Germany, has become one of the most misrepresented philosophers of all time. Nietsche, who was very much in favour of change, because he felt that the state had let its citizens down, would feel right at home today and the passage above relates to the person who is resistant to change and the traumatic experience that he or she goes through when it becomes crystal clear that change threatens to leave them all behind. It is not only Canadians who are having to face the spectre of a leap into the dark. People all over the western hemisphere are faced with the same challenge and no group more so than in what used to be the Soviet Union. I can perhaps relate to this feeling better than many people; I went to study in Germany in the aftermath of World War II. What I found there was a nation in shock. scene. They dumped him in seventh place. But Olympic officials have been hiding their eyes from improprieties for years. Look at those women's swim teams the East Germans used to send. They looked like U Boats in bathing suits. It was a standing joke that the Russian contingent had a floating drug store anchored off Korea for the Seoul Olympics. An entire naval vessel crammed to the gunwales with doctors, pills and sundry pharmaceuticals all for the purpose of whipping up chemical booster shots to help the Soviet competitors go faster, farther, higher in ways that wouldn't show up on Olympic drug rap sheets. Did the Olympic Overlords have any suspicions? Landsakes, Scarlett, how could you even suggest such a thing? Thing is, the Olympics have always been a bit of a shuck. Take the marathon. The legend goes that the big race is exactly 26 miles, 385 yards long, because that represents the precise distance from the Greek village of Marathon to the stadium in Athens -- a route of heroic Anthenia messenger was supposed to have run back in ancient times to bring news of an important military victory. The truth is, that nobody knows exactly how far the Athenian jogger actually ran, so for years the Olympic race was set at about 25 miles. Then, in 1908 the games were held in London. The Brits decided to start the race at The students I lived, studied and chummed with had seen all that their country had stood for during their entire life time come crashing down all around them. Nihilism was rife, confusion was the order of the day, but the Germany that I see today is a far cry from the unsettled land of post-war Europe. My own situation at the time was that I shared some of these uncertainties with them but, we all learned that change was an integral part of our life, that is, if we wanted to survive. I wish there was some way to program the ability to handle change into our school system since it is one of the characteristics that we are going to have to come to grips with as soon as we enter the work force if not sooner. For openers many of the jobs that we will work in some day have not yet been created. Nor will these jobs, when they do come about, necessarily be of long term duration. I advise my students to accept, as highly likely, the fact that they will all work in a minimum of three to five different positions during their lifetime and the life skills they have to acquire will be those which can assist them in making these transitions as smoothly as possible. Economists come in for their share of criticism because we do not have a high enough level of accuracy in our predictions to introduce policies in time for them to be any good. This may well be true but part of the blame must be put on the shoulders of voters who do not like the economic pain associated with such policies. However, one thing that is accentuating good and bad corporate citizens anywhere and that, by and large, we have a much higher standard of living than would be the case if we had little or no foreign investment. Because of this I am truly sorry to see Canadians being brainwashed by the blandishments of one Mel Hurtig in his Windsor Castle and to have the finish line at While City stadium — exactly 26 miles. The day of the race was exceptionally hot and humid, so the starting line was moved back to a shady grove of trees so that Queen Alexandra and the royal grandkiddies would be comfortable. Exact distance to the grove: 385 yards. And THAT'S how the distance of the marathon came to be. But it's not just the hype and the pretence surrounding The Games that's got to me. It's The Games themselves. They're getting sillier and sillier. Look at some of the events they expect grown adults to sit down and watch. The Luge. Falling down a tube of ice wearing a funny-looking suit that's three sizes too small, right? Speed skiing. SPEED skiing??? For the past twenty years I've been watching, what — SLOTH skiing? And what about this year's demonstration sport — curling? Aw, come on gang. No doubt leaning on a broom and throwing rocks up and down a sheet of ice is as good a way as any to work up a thirst and beat the February Blahs, but as an Olympic sport? Can you seriously envision Socrates, beard over his shoulder, sliding along on one knee. Plato and Aristotle whisking away to a Greek chorus singing “Sweep, sweep!” Have a care, you Olympic decision makers. Today, curling. Tomorrow, Naked Bungee Jumping. recent book, “The Betrayal of Canada.” Mr, Hurtig, who gained fame as a publisher, has seen fit to join the fray and to castigate those who have had anything to do with the large level of foreign investment. He claims, for example, that the high level of foreign investment would not be tolerated in other developed nations. As if that was not bad enough, he goes on to propose that a very substantial level of annual savings of Canadians should be used to benefit Canadians in Canada and not be allowed to be invested elsewhere. Where has Mr. Hurtig been all these years? Investment, and large scale investment at that, has been going on in this country ever since Confederation and has been carried out in conformance with Canadian laws. Would Mr. Hurtig have us turn back the clock, throw out the McDonald's, Pratt & Whitney's, 3M's and other foreign investors? Surely not the federal or the Ontario governments who seem at times to specialize in deficit financings or losing their shirts a la Suncor or Canadair. Is Mr. Hurtig so, so naive that he cannot foresee the huge flight of capital that would exit Canada at the first sign of any such control of our investment capital? Mr. Hurtig likes to consider himself as a true nationalist. By his definition I am not nor are those who cannot share his myopic view of what foreign investment has done for this country. Of course there are bad corporate citizens in the foreign sector; I have already pointed that out. However, to tar the whole sector with the same black brush is short-sightedness of the highest order. In his proposals Mr. Hurtig runs a great risk of becoming a betrayer of Canada. If we are having difficulty affording the social welfare programs now in place, what would it be like under his “nationalist” system? I shudder at the thought. By Bonnie Gropp Saying goodbye to the February blah-bs As I sit down to write this column it's Friday afternoon, and my mind losses and turns trying to stay on the track of something important and relevant. But, just one thought keeps spinning through my head, trampling any other that pops in- I WANT THIS SNOW TO GO AWAY. Now I know that we don't have any control over the weather and there's no point in complaining about things we can't control- (goodness knows there are enough real problems out there.) but, as the end of February approaches, I have quite simply had enough. Last weekend we visited my sister in Oakville and as my husband, who happens to be an avid snowmobiler, thus a snow worshipper, remarked on how depressing that area looked without mounds of white, fluffy flakes, I couldn't help thinking how nice it was to be able to get around. I remember as a youngster the change of season was refreshing, exciting. Now, it's just cold, damp and relentless. And the worst part is what option do we have? As a child when I first learned that like birds, humans migrate to warmer climates during the winter, I thought it was silly. Why would anyone want summer all year long? We are blessed with such wondrous variety here, why would anyone choose to miss part of it? Well, while I don't feel quite as strongly about that anymore, I still think it's unfortunate that to find comfortable temperatures in the winter, we have to enrich the American economy with our tourist dollars, especially now, when some of our arrogant southern neighbours have taken to biting the hand that feeds them. In one Florida resort, at least, the homegrowns are not impressed with the "beer-bellied Canadians in their bikini briefs" swarming their beaches. A local radio announcer, himself no contender for body of the year, called the tourists "lazy, cheap and disgusting" before adding that they aren't wanted. This is also the town that said "no" to the college students annual Spring Break Party. So let's get this straight - we have a tourist town that doesn't want tourists on the beach because they don't like the way they look in a bathing suit. Definitely a new approach to promoting the industry. Il would surely thin the crowd on the beach at Grand Bend during the summer. Now, I did see footage of the perpetrators committing the crime and I'll admit it's not a pretty picture. Actually, it borders on the obscene, but then again so does the amount of money spent in the U.S. by cold Canadians each winter. I can't imagine why anyone would wear a piece of clothing not much bigger than a kleenex when they looked like these guys, but if they were shopping in my town I sure wouldn't be the one to tell them how bad they looked. Likewise, if I were the insulted spender, I'd take my pot belly -and my pot of gold- elsewhere. The Canadians, who were largely (no pun intended) from Quebec were not impressed with the remarks, pointing out that being tubby is not a trait exceptional to Canucks. Yet, they weren't insulted enough to leave. I wonder if their tolerance to insult is higher south of the border. If not, their intolerance to cold is obviously even higher than mine!