HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1996-04-24, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1996 PAGE 5.
Arthur Black
Humankind
not always kind
to lesser orders
I'm worried about Eddie. You know Eddie
— the cheeky little Jack Russell Terrier on
the TV program Frasier? For about four
episodes in a row last winter, I was pretty
sure that Eddie was not performing up to his
usual feisty best. The mutt seemed listless,
distracted. His usually impeccable comic
timing was definitely off.
Turns out I was right. A small item in the
newspaper last week revealed that the NBC
vet had to perform two root canals on Eddie.
Since then the pooch (whose real name by
the way, is Moose) has been, according to
his co-stars "a pleasure to work with".
Personally, I think Eddie (or Moose) has
every reason to be cranky and out of sorts,
even with a mouthful of perfect choppers.
What kind of a life is that — sitting around on
a stuffy TV set, under the hot lights waiting
fOr his cue to hop up on a chair, run across
the dining room or bark at the cleaning
woman?
Any self-respecting canine would be out
on the street, casing fire hydrants, biting
postman's ankles or greeting fellow canines
in that inimitable dog-to-dog, nose-to-butt
greeting that should make us all think twice
before allowing any mutt to lick our face.
Still it could be worse for Eddie, I
Regarding
foreign aid...
Almost every newspaper has, at one time
or another, a letter to the editor stating that
all foreign aid should be cut off simply
because there are people going hungry here
and, in the long run, charity should begin at
home.
One of my readers has asked me how I
would respond to such a letter; after a
considerable amount of thinking, my answer
would be something along these lines.
Compared to what we spend on attempting
to look after the less fortunate level of the
population in Canada, what we spend on
foreign aid is only the proverbial drop in the
bucket and goes, in general, to people for
whom poverty is a much more real concept
than anything we have in Canada.
In any of the industrialized countries such
as Canada, charity does, indeed, start at
home. However, there is no reason for it to
be the only place for charity to find its place.
For over 25 years I have been a member of
the Foster Parents' Plan; I started out
supporting a little girl in Italy, since that
time I have been looking after a number of
them in South America. It is only a small
amount compared to what I contribute here
in Canada, or else my tax dollars do, but it is
part of my overall plan to alleviate suffering
on this planet.
Sometimes when you read about some
suppose. He probably eats well, has his own
dressing room and generally gets treated like
a star.
Humankind hasn't always been so kind to
"the lesser orders".
Did you know that, back in medieval
times, pigs were put on trial? They were
routinely charged with offences like
disorderly conduct, or stepping on human
toes. In some cases the offending porkers
were even dressed in human clothes, tried by
a judge and sentenced to a flogging.
In 1499, a brown bear was tried for
terrorizing a German village. His lawyer
(this guy would have fit right in on the O.J.
Simpson Dream Team) called for a mistrial,
claiming that the bear was not being tried by
a jury of his peers. No soap. The judge
prbnounced the poor bruin guilty and
sentenced him to death.
A few years before that, a court in Basel,
Switzerland put a common hen on trial after
the bird laid a strangely coloured egg.
"Witchcraft!" cried the jury. The chicken
was found guilty and burned at the stake.
Back in 864 AD a live of bees suffered a
similar grisly fate. Officials of the Holy
Roman Empire ruled that the buzzy
inhabitants had stung a beekeeper to death.
The whole hive was sentenced to execution
by suffocation.
But you don't have to go back hundreds of
years to find evidence of man's inhumanity
to his fellow critters. In 1972, police an
Tokyo arrested a crow for swearing in
public. A Tokyo cop actually read the crow
its rights and let it off with a warning.
And in 1974, a dog in Libya was tried and
By Raymond Canon
Canadian funded project which is directed to
an overseas location, you fail to notice some
of the fine print. If you read carefully, you
may find out that there is a wee bit of a
string attached; to help is contingent on
some or all of the money being spent in
Canada to buy the products that are needed.
I recall a project in Asia where a specific
number of millions of dollars were donated
by Canada; most of the money went to buy
locomotives for the railways. The
locomotives were built in Canada, thus
creating jobs here. The money contributed
to the Canadian economy and did not
disappear, never to return, as is frequently
the case when we finance our deficits (some
of which is spent on social welfare
payments) by selling bonds to foreign
buyers.
The goodwill generated by Canadian
foreign aid comes back on numerous
occasions to help us later on. Part of the goal
of any foreign aid is to assist in increasing
that country's standard of living. It will then
be able to increase its trade, i.e. buy more
goods from other countries.
One example is that the first locomotives
may have been foreign aid; subsequent
purchases will be without such aid and to the
same company which provided the first
locomotives.
It should not be thought that Canada is the
only, or one of a few countries, that do
anything about foreign aid; it is an accepted
role of every industrialized nation in the
world that a small effort should be made to
help those third-world countries that have
either suffered a serious calamity or else find
found guilty of nipping a man in the behind.
The dog was actually jailed for 30 days and
put on a jailhouse diet of bread and water.
Not too many good stories in the old man-
versus-the-beasts file ... but I do know of
one. A turkey which was saved from the
usual fate reserved for turkeys around
Christmas time.
This turkey was a grand champion, plump
and healthy and ready for the roasting pan.
He was also Item 39 in a charity auction held
just before Christmas in London, England.
Each year, the auctioneers raffle off the best
turkey in all of England, to the highest
bidder. Usually it's some upscale restaurant
in London that buys the bird, performs the
dirty deed and features the hapless fowl on
its restaurant menu.
Not this year. Fate intervened in the form
of Linda McCartney, vegetarian wife of
Beatle Paul. She snapped the turkey up by
laying down $4,600. The turkey was taken to
the McCartney estate in Scotland to live out
it days in peace.
Come to think of it I know of one other
inter-species encounter where man came out
second best. Last fall, a Dutch goose hunter
was drawing a bead on an overhead honker,
squinting carefully down the barrel when
suddenly KA-BLAM! The guy was knocked
sprawling with a thunderous blow to the
skull.
It was a goose. A goose that had been shot
by one of his hunting companions and fell
out of the sky. The hunter sustained a
concussion and a broken cheekbone.
The goose was dead.
But at least he didn't go meekly.
themselves in such bad economic straits that
help is imperative. It is no use saying that
these countries should borrow money to tide
them over; as likely as not they do not have
the resources to service such a loan or else
they have borrowed all that they can stand
Even at current levels of aid, Canada
hardly stands out as a shining example; we
are at about the middle of the pack.
The last time I looked, Norway, who can
scarcely be considered to be one of the
richest of nations, gives twice as much as
Canada as a percentage of gross domestic
product, the economic indicator against
which such aid is usually measured. We are,
therefore, being encouraged to do more, not
less and abandoning our foreign
commitments would make us something of a
pariah.
To my mind the arguments against foreign
aid are feeble compared with the necessity of
maintaining our assistance to less fortunate
countries. Perhaps the question that should
be asked is how much more efficient we can
be in Canada in attempting to alleviate our
own poverty. It should be obvious by now
that throwing money at it is highly unlikely
to solve anything that would have any
lasting effects.
GOT A BEEF?
Write a letter
to the editor
The
Short
of it
By Bonnie Gropp
We could do worse
It was the late 60s, I was a student at
LDSS and a frustrated radical, too young to
surf along on the wave of anti-establishment
protests, but caught in the tide of romantic
ideology.
So when word spread that students were
going to stage a sit-in one afternoon, to say
that I eagerly climbed aboard to conquer the
breaker of materialistic oppression is an
understatement. Such zeal, such conviction
swelled within us as we poured towards the
main hall, a gathering surging forward with
purpose and power. As some participants
became antagonistic, however, apprehension
resulted in my leaving the building for a
more peaceful demonstration with others,
only to discover that those who remained
were dispersed and back in class shortly
thereafter. Those of us, who wanted to be no
part of what seemed to be becoming a
volatile situation ended up with a one day
suspension followed by a week of
detentions.
Interestingly, the feelings of trying to
make a difference, of being a voice heard,
and of making the wrong decision are what I
remember from the day. Do not, however,
ask me what the protest was about, because I
have not the vaguest recollection. The thing
that moved me to make a stand, has become
instead the secondary focus of an adolescent
memory.
And though the passionate ideal is gone, I
am almost certain it accomplished nothing. It
was, therefore, with mixed feelings that I
heard my daughter discussing a proposed
walkout to take place at F.E. Madill
Secondary School on Friday. Students are
concerned about the cuts to education and
how it will affect them. With children of my
own, I know this to be true; they can not
help but be aware, and mildly terrified, at the
picture of doom and gloom sketched for
them on a daily basis by the media, the
educators and, yes, their parents.
It's little wonder they wanted to make a
bold splash on the future's dreary palette and
for this I applaud them. My 60's sensiblities
still believe in caring enough about
something to take a stand and make a
statement. However, in the close to 30 years
since, I have developed a cynicism about the
romantic exercise, preferring instead
practical action to solve solutions. In a Letter
to the Editor this week, a reader expresses
disatisfaction with the walkout saying, "The
future belongs to those students who find a
way to manage these changes to their
advantage and not to those who protest and
complain."
I cannot disagree wholewheartedly with
the sentiment, but as the mother of one of
the protesters (which of course establishes
bias, but also a degree of expertise) I
recognize in all my children and most of
their friends a strong desire to make change.
However, in their limited years, they still
follow by example. If we look back over the
past few months I think we might have some
idea of how protest appeared the appropriate
course of action for them. The public service
union, hydro employees, auto workers and
educators to name just a few, have recently
all taken their arguments to the streets. What
other solution might one expect the next
generation to pursue?
Our young people are what we have made
them. While you may not agree with their
walkout, while you may think it was not an
answer, consider from whence the idea
came. Then take heart perhaps, that these
leaders of tomorrow- carried out a well-
organized, pacific rally to bring public
attention to their concern, that of receiving
the best education they can. This world
could do worse.
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