HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1993-11-03, Page 5Arthur Black
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1993. PAGE 5.
The TO
we've come
to loathe
This is a story about two human
settlements. One of them is called Astakos.
It's in Greece.
The other one is known as Hogtown,
Zurich-On-The-Humber, the Queen's City,
Taranna The Good — or just Toronto.
I don't know a whole lot about the
settlement called Atakos. It's not listed in my
World Atlas, so I figure it's safe to assume
that it's smaller than Toronto.
In some ways, at any rate.
As for the other settlement, I know a fair
bit about that one. I was born there, for one
thing. And in the half a century since, I have
called it home from time to time. Worked
there. Studied there. Got married and
divorced and hired and fired and drunk and
happy and sad there.
I don't live in Toronto any more and I
never will again. But I still hop an eastbound
Grey Coach bus three times a week, a bus
that crawls in along Toronto's Lakeshore
underbelly to, deposit me in the bowels of the
burg; there to grub for my paycheque.
So I have my own hard-earned opinions
about Toronto — but then, breathes there a
Canuck from the Queen Charlottes to. Signal
Hill who doesn't? We all know what we
My cause
is just;
yours isn't
After watching the French farmers in
action blockading highways leading to and
from Paris, I am convinced more than ever
that the western world is fast turning into a
society of one-cause interests. The farmers
in France, a profession that makes up only
five percent of total employment in that
country, are protesting the deal which their
government made recently in connection
with the current round of GATT
negotiations, claiming that it would put them
out of business. The farmers, who are
already subsidized to the hilt by the
European Common Market, ($1 in subsidy
for every dollar in produce) are worried that
the reforms will reduce this dramatically; in
reality, they only scratch the surface of what
is the biggest handout in the western world.
But the farmers' voracity for subsidies is
only one example of the many that have
surfaced over the past decade or so as
interest groups fight for their cause with a
viciousness unheard of at the middle of the
century. I am not suggesting the French are
any more single-minded than any other
nation, simply that their farmers are an
eptiome of what ails us. We have only to
look at Washington to see the American
version of it. In the American capital there
are endless number of interest groups whose
sole purpose is to persuade the American
legislaturers in the capital to pass bills that
will be favourable to their cause.
No single group works harder than the gun
lobby which fights against any effort to
tighten up on existing gun legislation, all this
in spite of the fact that the Americans exceed
any other western nation by a wide margin
think about Ontario's capital. And generally
speaking, the farther away you live, the less
edifying the sentiments'?
It's an easy city to dislike. Toronto doesn't
have the easy beauty of Vancouver or the
joie de vivre of Montreal. It lacks the
architectural grace of Ottawa, the
mountainscape backdrop of Calgary, the
down home warmth of a St. John's, a
Winnipeg or a Windsor. To the outsider,
Toronto feels fast and brittle and cold and
more than a touch arrogant.
Toronto feels like it is about money.
Or perhaps even less. After all, Las Vegas
is about money too, but at least people enjoy
themselves there. Torontonians seldom look
as if they're having a good time. Oh, they fill
the seats in the Skydome and Maple Leaf
Gardens, but visiting sportsmen teams speak
with disbelief about the eerie quietness of
Toronto fans.
Torontonians don't take easily to new
cultural concepts either. Remember The
Archer? It's a sculpture created by the late
great Henry Moore, a vast, shining nugget of
burnished bronze that glows and catches the
sun in Nathan Phillips Square. Moore
wanted so badly to see it standing in front of
Toronto's New City Hall that he slashed the
price to a bargain basement $100,000.
Torontonians freaked out.
What is it, they squawked. Looks like a
chicken with it's head cut off. Can't tell the
front from the back. One city councillor
grumbled "How much art and culture...can
in the use of guns to kill people. Resorting to
the slogan "Guns don't kill people; people
kill people," the lobbyists totally overlook
the fact that people wouldn't kill people with
such monotonous regularity if it were
considerably harder to lay your hands on a
gun.
All this adds up to a point I would like to
make. It is all very well to be encouraged to
do your own thing, to protest free trade,
abortion, abuse of the environment and all
the other causes which are part and parcel of
today's society; however, what we are seeing
far too often is an encroachment on other
people's rights. It is all very well when
French farmers demonstrate against the
evils, real or imaginary, of free trade but
when they impede other people's rights to
buy foreign goods or drive on highways,
surely that is carrying the protest too far.
Several things could happen. You could,
for openers, infringe on other people's rights
to such an extent that you goad them into
carrying out their beliefs with as much
intensity as you have. Secondly, your single-
minded dedication to a cause may lead you
to overlook flaws in your own argument. Far
too often people take the stance that their
cause is pure; anybody else's is the work of
the devil.
Unfortunately this seems to be the way in
which the world is going. With individuals
or small interest groups being given or
taking much more leeway in making their
likes and dislikes known, we are coming
closer to anarchy. We can see this all over
the world where every ethnic group in a
specific area is prepared to go to any lengths
to get their point of view accepted. Just look
at Yugoslavia or the break-up of the Soviet
Union. Separatist movements are springing
up everywhere and somehow we have to
institute mechanisms that will keep this
centrifugal force from becoming too strong.
One of the things I like about Switzerland
is that they handle this phenonomen very
we have shoved down our throats?"
Well, that was more than a quarter of a
century ago, and Toronto has more or less
grown grudgingly accustomed to that
stunning bronze brooch pinned to its bosom.
It isn't loved. It just isn't talked about any
more.
Instead they're talking about The Rock.
The Rock is a massive slab of Muskoka
granite that's being installed in a downtown
park. Once again Torontonians are bleating
about the extravagance of featuring
something as unproductive as Precambrian
stone when the space could be used to make
money — another parking lot, say...or maybe
a McDonald's.
And if it must be a damned park, then, as
city councillor Tom Jacobek imaginatively
suggested "What's wrong with simply laying
some sod and planting a few bushes?"
Ah, yes. That's the Toronto we've all come
to know and loathe.
Which brings us full circle, to the Greek
settlement of Astakos, Greece, that I
mentioned way back at the beginning.
Do you know what they do in Astakos?
Every time there's a rainbow in the sky,
the city fathers serve free glasses of wine to
everybody in the town square.
I don't know how Astakso wracks up
against Toronto in other respects — garbage
pickup, sewers and sidewalks, public
transportation...
But I know which town I'd rather be
having dinner in tonight.
nicely and have for some time. If you have a
certain number of people who feel strongly
enough about something of interest to the
whole country, you can have a referendum
on it. When I was there earlier this year they
were having a vote on such a question as to
whether their Air Force should receive new
fighter aircraft before the turn of the century.
Those who instigated the referendum and
who were in favour of not having any new
jets before the year 2000 A.D. were voted
down by about a 60-40 margin but they can
at least feel that they were allowed to present
their point of view and have it voted on.
Perhaps the governments of the western
world are going to have to go this route in
order to get their near-anarchy under control.
In the meantime a lot of people are going
to get their toes stepped on. Pity!
Letter to the editor
THE EDITOR,
As you know, the county has proposed a
change in its voting structure, in part, to
reduce the number of individuals who attend
County Council and thereby streamline the
operations and cut costs. Exeter council
supports these objectives completely,
without hesitation.
We are, however, very concerned with the
plan to assign only one vote to each
municipality represented at council. There is
certainly precedence and existing examples
of this arrangement, but our county's history
has stressed the need for accountability and
representation to be assigned on a
proportional basis to be fair and just. Of
course no such arrangement is perfect
because geography, population and
economic factors all come into play, but the
plan of multiple votes based on population is
a reasonable compromise, in our opinion.
Exeter will oppose the plan, and we ask
for your support to meet the county
objectives while at the same time
safeguarding the principle of adequate
representation by the municipalities.
Bruce Shaw
Mayor of Exeter.
The
Short
of it
By Bonnie Gropp
Positive influences
good to keep around
During a recent trip to Listowel I took the
opportunity to combine a visit to my parents
with some fresh air and exercise by parking
the car several blocks from their home and
walking. When I got to my parents, my
mother was apoplectic when she found out I
had walked alone at night.
Perhaps, I should have shared some of her
apprehension yet as I strode along the
familiar route to the downtown area I
thought back to the many, many times I
made this same solitary trek as a teen. It may
come as a surprise to today's young people,
but the idle youth of my time are not that
unlike today's. After our popular teen hang
out closed, my friends and I began spending
our time on main street.
As I came to discover, however, this is not
a particularly productive form of social
interaction and if I remember correctly it
provided somewhat negative stimulation.
Teens need to have their free hours filled
with activities that provide entertainment
while at the same time allow them freedom
of choice. Boredom is a harmful affliction to
people of any generation, but an age group
bursting with enthusiasm and energy
especially needs an outlet.
That's why, when a local woman
approached me one year ago with her idea of
beginning a youth drop-in centre in Brussels
I was enthusiastic. I feel strongly about kids
having a place to be, or not to be, if that's
their choice as long as they know it's there
for them.
The exhausting number of hours that
Sallianne Patch selflessly dedicated to
making The Ark a reality, cannot be realized
by anyone who has not been involved.
Legislation, funding and some adverse
reactions to the ideas were problems she
dealt with until mid-February when with
gingerale and fanfare The Ark was launched.
In the almost 10 months since, the project
has proven itself and has, if not managed to
convert some skeptics, at least quieted them.
There has been little trouble; the kids enjoy
it and respect it; and while attendance during
the summer months was less than hot, the
cooler temperatures are now bringing them
back inside.
Funding, though, despite the wonderful
support the community has shown continues
to be a concern. Energetic fundraisers have
been undertaken by the volunteers, but most
have unfortunately not been as well attended
as hoped. The kids too have pitched in but it
would take almost continued fundraising to
meet the high overhead.
And while user pay is the way to go these
days, here again is a unique situation — the
users have little or no income.
Consequently, this is one time when
success doesn't mean a thing for the future of
the enterprise. It is quite likely that if
something signficant doesn't happen The
Ark has about three months to stay afloat.
It's too bad. In addition to what it has done
for the young people, the adult volunteers
have enjoyed a chance to interact with a
group that tends to get a bum rap,
discovering ultimately that the bad apples
are few.
I think, too, it's been a special thing for the
youths. They seem comfortable with the
adults invading their space and I have even
heard them talk to them like they're real
people. The good it has done for the village
is evident perhaps only to those involved,
but it is no less significant. It has had a
positive influence and those things are nice
to keep around these days.
International Scene
aynloild Canon