HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1995-10-11, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1995. PAGE 5.
Time for
an environment
quiz
Time for a little environmental quiz, folks:
where in the world do you think you would
find the world's highest concentration of
peregrine falcons.
Now remember the peregrine is a very
rara avis indeed. They need high mountains
and miles of pristine wilderness. Wealthy
Arab sheiks covet the elusive creatures,
often paying tens of thousands of dollars for
black market nesilings.
In the years after World War Two, their
ranks were decimated by DDT which
weakened their egg shells. Many
environmentalists predicted the peregrine
was on its way out.
So where would you go to find the
healthiest remaining stock of peregrines?
The high Arctic, perhaps? Somewhere in the
trackless wastes of deepest South America?
Perhaps high in the Rockies near Hundred
Mile House?
Nope. You would go to Gotham. Deepest
darkest downtown Manhattan. The New
York city area is awash with peregrines.
They streak through the concrete canyons of
Wall Street. They perch on the window
ledges of the Empire State Building. They
knock down pigeons in the skyways around
Cutting back
on welfare
From time to time I have pointed out that
Canada was not the only country having to
come to grips with its welfare costs; it was a
phenomenon common in both Europe and
North America.
How painful cutting back on such
programs can be was certainly evident when
the new Ontario government announced that
it was reducing its payments in a number of
categories. Once a recipient has become
used to a certain level of welfare income,
rightly or wrongly the same recipient is
convinced that nothing less will do.
Because of all this I thought it might be
educational for readers to find out just what
is being done in other countries to cut back
on this type of payments. I can assure you
that the screams of protest are just as large
regardless of what language they are being
made in.
First of all, not all countries have been
successful. The Swedes, who 10 years ago
had the highest percentage of welfare
payments when compared to that basic
economic statistic of a country, the gross
domestic product, are not only still in first
place, they have managed to increase it from
about 33 per cent to 40 per cent.
Denmark, which was in sixth place in
1985 has moved up to right behind the
Swedes and the Dutch who have had a
similar lack of success.
the MetLife Building and the Marine
Parkway.
A nest in the girders of the Brooklyn
Bridge recently disgorged two perfectly
healthy peregrine chicks.
The peregrine comeback wasn't entirely an
Act of God. Humans helped. Biologists
hand-reared peregrine chicks and eventually
released them to "the wild". The transition to
urban life was made easier by nesting boxes
strategically placed on nooks and crannies of
skyscrapers and bridges around New York.
Here in Canada, wildlife officials with
Environment Canada were pleasantly
shocked to discover a peregrine falcon nest
on the top of an office tower deep in the
bowels of Hogtown — less than a stone's
throw from the intersection of King and
Yonge streets.
"This is the first time in over 50 years that
peregrines have nested in southern Ontario,"
one official said.
We shouldn't really be all that surprised. If
there's one lesson we pink, two-legged,
mostly hairless creatures should have
learned by now, it's the near-endless ability
of our fellow earthly inhabitants to adapt to
the depredations we visit on this planet.
Take raccoons. Take coyotes. Take the
Canada Goose. Years ago, all these creatures
were associated with wilderness, or at the
very least, rural living. Nowadays you can
see raccoons dumpster-diving in the
downtowns of most of our cities. Coyotes
are moving into the suburbs and casting
France and Finland have held their costs
steady while Germany, Belgium and Ireland
have found themselves in a position of
reducing the percentage.
Workfare, an often heard word in Ontario,
is also up for discussion on the other side of
the ocean. It used to be that citizens were
entitled to a certain minimum income
regardless of how much work they had done
in a specific period of time.
Holland and Belgium have decided to cut
income support to an individual if he or she
refuses to accept training, does not look for
work or turns down a job. Germany is
thinking of cutting payments by a quarter to
anybody who refuses a job offered to them.
With regards to pensions, a number of
countries have either increased the
retirement age or are about to so. France has
taken a slightly different route, having
decided to increase the number of years it
takes to qualify for a maximum state
pension.
Another favourite ploy is to reduce what is
called the universal basic welfare coverage.
Even Sweden has gotten into the act in this
regard, having reduced unemployment
benefits from 90 to 80 per cent of the former
wage while trimming the basic pension by
two per cent.
Italy, another country with enormous
pension problems, has finally gotten around
to linking pensions to contributions. In
addition, the Italians, along with most other
western European countries, have decreed
that child benefit payments will either be
frozen or taxed, something that has managed
to push down payments by a full 30 per cent
during the past five years.
The British have led the way in
covetous eyes at Fido's dog dish.
And the Canada Goose? I can remember
when the news of a flight of Canada Geese
would bring people piling out. of the house,
craning their necks skyward for a glimpse of
the legendary Vee. Today, they stop traffic
on Toronto's Lakeshore Boulevard and make
a round of golf as hazardous as negotiating a
minefield.
We're getting new species too. Who ever
heard of zebra mussels a generation ago?
Today by the billions they besmirch boat
hulls and foul intake pipes from Cornwall to
Kaministiquia.
And watch for something called the Round
Goby. It's a fish — a tiny European import
that showed up for the first time in Great
Lakes waters this year. Some doomsayers
predict it will make the Zebra Mussel look
like a mild heat rash.
We should never forget the cardinal rule
of Life: Nature Bats Last. I'm reminded of
something Timothy Leary once said at a
press conference in England. Leary peered
into his chemical crystal ball and predicted:
"Deer shall graze on Charing Cross Road".
Well sure, he was probably on drugs, but
there was something arresting about the
prophesy. The idea of deer daintily tip-
toeing across a major intersection in London,
Eng., plucking on the grasses growing up
between the cracks in the pavement.
Deer shall graze on Charing Cross Road.
Leary didn't say anything about people
being there.
introducing a means test; about one-third of
all benefits in that country are now subject to
this test. The continental countries tend to
shudder at the thought of introducing such a
test, considering it to be an undesirable
product of Anglo-Saxon callousness.
This attitude, however, is in danger of
being ignored as the need to cut back
becomes more urgent; Holland, Norway and
Denmark are beginning to subject their
pensions to a continental means test while
the Germans are looking at a form of the
same testing for their citizens who are
unemployed.
In short, there is somewhat the same
situation as in Canada; whatever your
political philosophy may be, it can be
sacrificed on the altar of fiscal necessity.
This piecemeal reform is taking place at a
time when it is becoming increasingly
obvious that only a fundamental reform can
bring the welfare system into line with
revenues. If you wonder why such a
necessary reform is so difficult, look at the
attitude in Ontario when any change in the
system is introduced.
In Holland, which has carried reforms as
far as most European countries, a majority of
the people believe that cheating on the
system is widespread, but there is next to no
public support for changing the rules that
make this cheating relatively easy. In
Finland and Sweden there were prime
ministers who proposed a systematic reform;
they both lost elections. The lesson has not
been lost on other governments in power.
In essence it appears as if New Zealand is
one of the few places with the courage to
introduce wholesale reform. What a pity for
taxpayers everywhere!
,
The
Short
of it
By Bonnie Gropp
Fire!
Most of us like to avoid thinking of
unpleasant situations. While marry would try
to believe that by not thinking about
something it will go away or by pretending it
can't happen to us it won't, deep down we
know the opposite to be true.
Regardless of what the danger, few would
argue that bad things do happen. To know
the enemy, to know that he picks his victims
indiscriminately puts us on guard. Being
informed, being educated are the best
weapons we can use to protect ourselves by
decreasing the risk.
Fire. The all-consuming rage with which it
can destroy, maim or kill makes it a
formidable adversary. Fire is fickle, a friend
that can soothe, comfort and warm us, yet
when its fury is not contained, it's a volatile
force that becomes one of our greatest
enemies.
I was quite young when I began to
understand the power of fire and the tragedy
it can bring. A family friend had newspaper
clippings from decades earlier. The stories
told of a 15-year-old heroine, his sister, who
managed to rescue several of her siblings as
fire consumed their home, before perishing
with three younger brothers. Though the era,
the pictures, the tributes somehow gave a
romantic twist to this tragedy, particularly to
an impressionable youngster, the message
was no less clear.
When out of control fire is powerful,
terrifying and all too real.
This week is Fire Prevention Week in
Canada. The focus is on the ones with the
least awareness — children.. Every year in
Canada, some 1,300 fires are started by
children playing with lighters and matches.
Forty per cent of these are caused by
children under the age of five. These fires
kill an average of 20 people, with 150
suffering from burn injuries and property
damage estimated at $14 million.
Noting that prevention is protection the
Product Safety Bureau, Health Protection
Branch, Health Canada suggests discussing
lighters and matches with your children; let
them know they are not toys and should not
be touched. While the best prevention with
very young children is to keep matches out
of sight and out of reach, it is advised that
youngsters four and up be talked to about
matches and lighters and the dangers that
they hold.
If a child is unsure of an answer, use
another question to suggest the answer to
them. This way they must still give it some
thought even if their answer is simply a
"yes" or "no".
Begin by holding up a lighter and match
and asking them what it is. Ask them what
they're used for and who should use them.
Ask them if children should use them and
what could happen if if they do.
With young minds ever thirsty for
answers to the mysteries surrounding them
children are naturally curious. Yet quest for
knowledge and discovery may often get
them into trouble. Danger, therefore, comes
not just from matches and lighters. While
they may not start fires, household
appliances, barbecues and, hot water taps all
hold mystery, and the potential for serious
injury, for those with inquisitive minds.
Educating children is only part of the
answer. To protect them, adults must think
of the dangers, anticipate them and realize
their potential.
Arthur Black
International Scene
By Raymond Canon