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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1994-10-26, Page 5I:H Arthur Black THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1994. PAGE 5. The This horse still has some life I hate to flog a dead horse, but this one still has some life in it. It’s hitched to a bandwagon called Political Correctness. You know Political Correctness. That's where other people tell you what it's okay for you to think or say or do. It is Not Politically Correct for instance, to speak, as the author of Snow White did, of the Three Ugly Sisters. To be Politically Correct, they are to be referred to as the Three Cosmetically Challenged Sisters. I'm not making this up. A New York high school recently cancelled a production of Peter Pan because references - "redskin", "squaw" etcetera - were offensive to native Americans. In New York1? Similarly, Golden Books, the largest publisher of fairy tales on this continent, has created a non-violent version of that classic fairy tale, The Three Little Pigs. In the Golden Books rewrite, instead of falling into a pot of boiling water, the wolf sleeps outside, exhausted from huffing and puffing, and the pigs build a jail around him. After all, the wolf is an endangered species you know. The PC madness is everywhere. Two- ^International Scene Great quantities of gall When I was a young student struggling with Latin, I learned quite a few famous statements which are attributed to famous men of classical times. For a while when I was out making speeches, I used to insert one or two of them as a means of indicating that, whatever I might say in the course of the speech, I still had what might be called a classical education. I was pulled aside by someone after one speech and told to cool it. Most people he pointed out, not only had not studied Latin and, of those that did, few liked it. I would be better off, he concluded, to make my quotes in English. Ceteris paribus, he was probably right. However, having sneaked in a short expression, I am now going to use one in English that was attributed to Julius Caesar. All Gaul, he intoned, is divided into four parts. Gaul being the word at that time for France, it has been used on numerous occasions for leaders of that country with the spelling being changed to gall to give it a more modem meaning. If I remember correctly, Gen. Charles DcGaulle, leader of the Free French forces during the Second World War, was said to have enough gall for more than four parts; at least that is what Winston Churchill thought, but a recent event in France has provided ample proof that gall is still not in short supply in that country. The French airline, Air France, may look nice on the outside but financially it is a bust. It has something approaching monopoly power in France and is, in effect, still owned by the French government. thirds of British children's authors report that they have been censored on the grounds of Political Incorrectness. One author was asked by his publisher to remove a scene involving a grassy lawn on the grounds that many children do not have gardens. In Iowa last fall, students were advised not to wear certain costumes for trick or treating on Halloween. Gypsy, Native American princess, African, witch, elderly person, disabled person, East Indian, and hobo were specifically to be avoided for fear of offending the groups therein depicted. Which leaves - what? Pumpkin costumes? Only until the Society For the Empowerment of Large Orange Vegetables forms a protest group. Toronto has, of course, jumped on the Politically Correct bandwagon. A few months ago, city council voted to change the wording to O Canada. For the 16th (count 'em) time. Henceforth, when somebody warbles O Canada before a Blue Jay home game the worlds will be changed from "our home and native land" to "our home and cherished land". "True patriot love in all thy sons command" will become "true patriot love in all of us command." Seems some of the Toronto councillors found the song lyrics confusing. "I came to this country in 1966 and I've had to pretend I was a man and a native," groused Councillor Ila Bossons. By Raymond Canon According to the rules of the European Economic Community, such airlines had to learn to run on their own and not, in an increasingly competitive world, keep running to the government for handouts. All very well but it takes some gall to exceed the decision by the EEC's trust-busting outfit to permit the French government to hand over about $5 billion to Air France to keep the airline flying. Of course there were the usual conditions attached that were, it is claimed, designed to get the company back into the black within three years. Most of them are nothing less than window-dressing such as reducing the bloated work-force by 5,000 which would have had to take place anyway. In addition it will have to pay back a previous 1.5 billion dollar loan but the money to do this will come from the 5 billion loan mentioned above. All this comes at a time when one of Air France's chief competitors, British Airways, is expected to fly subsidy-free. In spite of this the Commission has the additional gall to say that the handout to Air France is completely "in conformity with the law." Really? The gall does not stop there. Recent cases of fraud within the European Economic Community have cost taxpayers the better part of a billion dollars. One of the biggest examples is the $200 million paid out to train Portuguese and Italians on data- processing equipment. However, the courses have never been taught and the equipment to teach them has never been seen. IRA terrorists are not the only ones slipping across the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Sheep are regularly herded back and forth from one part of Ireland to the other so that the EEC's subsidy premiums can be collected twice or more instead of the normal once. Italy, which seems to play the game with Poor thing. I trust she wears a name tag and her mother still pins her mittens to her coat sleeves. It's worse than that. Let me introduce you to Frank Balun. Frank's a 69-year-old grandfather who's retired and likes to work in his backyard garden down in Hillside, New Jersey. One day Frank discovered that a rat was eating his tomatoes. He did the sensible thing: he trapped it in a squirrel cage, killed it with a broomstick then called the Humane Society to come and take the carcass away. The animal control officer responded by smacking Frank with two summons, and the threat of a six-month jail term and/or a fine of up to $1,500. Frank Balun was accused of "animal abuse". The officer maintained that the rat "deserved a humane method of euthanasia." Fortunately they're not all loony down in Hillside, New Jersey. The public flocked to Mister Balun's defence. The head of the local health board said he deserved a medal, not a trial. "We encourage people to kill rats because they carry disease" he said. The charges were dropped, but Frank Balun's still steamed. "I want to have my day in court" he says. "I want people to know that this man (the animal control official) abuses authority and should be curbed." Amen, Mister Balun. I hope you get your chance to haul this meddling pea-brain in front of a judge. What's more, I hope the judge clobbers the rat. as much flair as any other member country, has managed to siphon off about $75 million by pretending that 90 per cent of its olive oil in storage was high quality when it was anything but. Perhaps the most complicated diddle saw Polish cattle, which had been shipped to Italy for slaughter, were then sent on to Malta and then back to Italy from where they were then exported from EEC territory; this one cost taxpayers about $70 million. According to one criminologist, who has been studying this type of gall, oops, fraud for a number of years, the total cost of all this activity to the taxpayer is no less than $10 billion. All this puts Canadians into the sainthood category where we will probably stay since the powers-that-be are showing no tendency to come to grips with such a colossal waste of money. Gall, it seems, can be comfortably divided among all the member nations and, as long as each one gets what it considers to be its share, nobody is going to complain too much. Letter to editor Continued from page 4 CMHA/Huron is also willing to train people on the computer and office equipment. We are looking for someone who enjoys helping people to volunteer for the Monday night Step Forward program. This program provides social interaction and activities for adults with menial health difficulties. Activities like movie nights, walks, trips around the community, swimming and more give the members a chance to get together for fun and friendship. Volunteering is a great way to give back to the community and help oneself at the same time. If you are looking for something to do or would like to expand your work experience, call 482-9311 and become a volunteer. Jodi Jerome Short of it By Bonnie Gropp Fun for all ages It's Halloween, the lamp is lit Around the fire, we children sit Atelling ghost tales bit by bit Till sister Jane says, "Hush”. Being frightened at Halloween is a big part of the fun, so I guess as a youngster I probably had a blast. I'm not a particularly brave soul and I do recall on several Halloweens being absolutely terrified by the scary creatures that seemed to suddenly abound in my safe haven. As I got a little older, however, I did catch on to how much fun it can be to spook and be spooked. When I was growing up Halloween was definitely not a grownup party. Perhaps as a toddler, my parents took me door to door, but for as long as I can remember Oct. 31 was always kids' night out. Parents were just not allowed. My friends and I would plan for weeks what we were wearing, which was usually a costume thrown together inexpensively from whatever odds and sods we could find at home. Then in groups of three or four we would wend our way throughout the entire town knocking on every door of every house with a light turned on. Then I reached high school age, when somehow it was made clear that trick or treating was no longer a cute thing and begging for treats just wasn't cool anymore. What did become cool was the tricking part, but fortunately my timid nature precluded too much participation in this Halloween past time from me, though in all honesty I must admit to a certain lapse at the age of 15, when a friend and I decided to give the window soaping thing a try. We snuck out of our homes and true to our luck got caught by the owners of the first place we hit. That pretty much ended my Halloween fun until as a young mother I dressed my own little ones in costume and took them out so people could see how cute they were and I could have a share of the booty. Now those days, too have ended and I have mixed feelings about it. Halloween is not what it used to be. The days of young children going out on their own are over as are the days of wandering randomly from house to house. Whereas the dangers of my Halloween were primarly in my imagination, today the dangers are all too real. Rather than going it alone as soon as they can find their way around, and hitting all the houses in the hopes of bringing home as much junk as possible, small children are accompanied now by an adult and all children are reminded to visit only the houses of people they know. Treats come home first to be inspected before ingested. To end their children's evening of fun, parents carefully check for razor blades or pins and look suspiciously at homemade treats. Tricking, too, is a little more sinister than my sudsy attempts, with fires started, windows broken and other acts of vandalism prevalent. Youngsters are urged to begin and end their evening early, to be safely home when the rabble rousers come out. There does seem to be a positive side, though. Whereas the generation before mine pretty much left it to the kids, parents today decorate, dressup and get into the spooky spirit. Though they have alerted their little ones to potential dangers, many adults have played up the fun and, it seems, are enjoying being part of it.