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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1996-06-19, Page 5Arthur Black THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 1996 PAGE 5. The truly dangerous species If you had to choose the most maligned species of the 20th century, would you pick: (a) cockroaches (b) sharks (c) lawyers Cockroaches arc out. They're just doing their job, cleaning up the messes we slob humans leave behind. Lawyers don't qualify either. They deserve all the malignity we can heap on their weaselly little heads. I would give the nod to sharks. They have never enjoyed a good press. Ever since man figured out how to put a barb on a hook, sharks have been hauled out of the sea and killed — sometimes for their livers, sometimes for their oil. Mostly just because they were sharks. Not just hooks either. Sharks are routinely shot, netted, poisoned — even dynamited. In an average week, American "sportsmen" haul close to half a million pounds of sharks from the sea. And it's a one-sided battle. In that same average week, fewer than two people are attacked by sharks anywhere in the world. We still hate 'em with a passion. A lot of the blame for this rampant Misery has company Shortly after Mike Harris was elected as premier of Ontario, I wrote that his position was remarkably similar to that of President Jacques Chirac of France. Both men were prepared to cut back on the social, welfare payments as well as reduce the level of the government sector in order to come to grips with an unsustainable budgetary deficit. Of the two, Chirac has fared the worse. He had to face a nationwide general strike that all but shut the country down. There were numerous cases of destruction and violence and the end result was a partial scaling back of the cuts which were scheduled to be made. The French strike was far more intense than the recent one by Ontario public service workers. As for the one-day strikes on selected cities put on by the Ontario labour movement, the French would consider them to be nothing more than some form of entertainment. Mr. Harris now has some more company, in the person of German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Mr. Kohl, who may be considered the dean of European politicians, has come to the conclusion that France and Canada are not the only places where some scaling back has to be done; it must be carried out in Germany as well. The Germans are certainly very generous when it comes to social welfare benefits; they are just as generous when you look at sharkophobia can be laid at the feet of Peter Benchley. He's the guy who wrote Jaws, the book about the monster Great White Shark that was subsequently made into a monster movie. What did we learn from Jaws? That sharks are malevolent, almost indestructible killers with an insatiable appetite for human flesh. "An eating machine" in Richard Dreyfus' memorable words. Well, hardly. Ninety per cent of the shark species in the sea wouldn't bite you if you lathered your foot in mayonnaise and dangled it in front of their snouts. As for the other 10 per cent, well they -- might take a chomp out of you, but you might win next week's 649 and/or get hit on the head by a meteorite. The chances are about the same. Mind you, when they do get a fit of the munchies, many sharks aren't fussy. Biologists dissecting the gut of one large Great White found the hindquarters of a pig, the front half of a dog, about 300 pounds of horse meat, eight legs of mutton — and one car battery. Poor old sharks. They don't even get any respect under the waves. A few years back there was a story from one of the American Marine World aquariums about a group of dolphins that shared a tank with a 12-foot shark. They co-existed peacefully for many months, until one of the female dolphins was pay levels in the private sector. Labour costs in that country are the highest in the industrialized world, an average of Can $43.30 an hour (Canada's is $24.30). However, what is noticeable about the German level is that close to $20 of that hourly wage mentioned above, is for such things as paid holidays and social security contributions. (Canada's is about $6). At any rate the German government has decided it can no longer afford such generous' benefits. Every so often the government, business executives and trade unionists sit down to discuss what, if anything, ails the country and at the latest chit-chat Chancellor Kohl suggested that there should be cuts in the country's sick pay which seemingly encourages a high rate of absenteeism. The unionists did not buy the argument at all and left in an angry frame of mind. Is there anything to this connection between sick pay and absenteeism? It is interesting to note that the country with the three highest rates, Holland, Germany and Sweden, all have very generous sick pay benefits and, with the pronouncement of Chancellor Kohl, all three countries are trying to do something about it. They are discovering, just as Mike Harris has, that once you give people a certain level of benefits, it is like pulling teeth to reduce them. Recipients consider it a right rather than a privilege. What is the German government looking at? It is not a very pretty picture to be sure and includes anaemic growth, record levels of unemployment, an unsustainable cost of social security and a budgetary deficit this year and next that could hold up German participation in the development of the European Economic Community. This is about to give birth. Whereupon the rest of the dolphins lined up at one end of the tank, then raced through the water, one at a time, smashing into the shark with their beaks. The shark lasted about five minutes. When the keepers hauled its carcass out of the tank, they could find no marks at all on the outside of the shark. An autopsy revealed all the sharks internal organs had been mashed to pulp. But dolphin gangs are the least of a shark's problems. It's humans who really do a job on them. Fishermen kill them because they're competition. Resort owners kill them because they frighten tourists. Sports fishermen kill them because it makes them feel macho, I suppose. You'll hear lots of kind words about humpback whales and bottlenose(' porpoises and harp seals, but not sharks. The irony is, sharks aren't even close to being the bitingest animal on the planet. You've got a better chance of getting bitten by a Pekinese than a shark. Or by a rat. Rats bite lots more humans than sharks do. Why, each year more than 300 people are bitten by rates in New York City alone. Mind you, each year more than 1,500 New Yorkers suffer bites from an even more exotic species. Other New Yorkers. Two-legged ones. Which tells you which species on this planet is truly the most dangerous one. nothing less than embarrassing to Mr. Kohl since Germany has traditionally been an exemplary leader. It is to be hoped that leaders on both sides of the ocean will have learned a very important lesson. Using deficit financing to provide voters with all sorts of goodies that cannot be afforded in the long run is tantamount to playing with fire. Trying to put out the fire is fast becoming a job that is going to stretch into the next century. Mr. Harris and Mr. Chretien, move over for Herr Kohl. Letters to the editor policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. They must be signed and should be accompanied by a telephone number should we need to clarify any information. Letters may be edited for content and space. The Citizen reserves the right to edit or not print letters. The Short of it By Bonnie Gropp Planning to study, not best study plan Studying. It's not something that for many comes naturally. It requires focus and a plan. It's a difficult task to begin, a challenge to stick with and a practice that when done well can determine the type of student you'll be. I, unfortunately, was someone who didn't do it well. Easing through elementary school, I managed passable grades with little reflection on the work to date during my early high school years. However, by Grade 11, I had learned two valuable lessons, the first being that to succeed I must study and the second being that I didn't know how. Determined to make the grade, I. sequestered myself in my bedroom, alone with my books. Amazingly, I discovered that the silence was more conducive to distraction than concentration as my dreamy intellect wandered fancifully in this chamber of solitude. My loves, my interests are literature, music, drama. In these I could find my focus. But when the analytical subjects required my attention they were an unwelcome intrusion, invaders that I was neither comfortable with nor with whom could converse. While English, French and the arts were absorbed in the classroom, maths and sciences were foreign languages to me. Though I could memorize the dates and events of history, the names and places in geography, I found there was no help for me with algebra. What I may have had a passing understanding of in September was clearly past understanding in June. 3x2y + 8y2 -9 was, for a young person so unenthused by the mathematical equation, useless information. This was part of the difficulty in studying. I knew my limitations so obviously I was not interested in any career that was going to require me to do much beyond the basics. However, as a five-year Arts and Science student (Now there's an oxymoron) it was mandatory that my mind be dizzied by a subject that ovewhelmed me. Let me add, subtract, multiply and divide. Teach me fractions and percentages, measurements and weight. That made sense and I knew it would come in handy. I am 41 years old and I have never missed what I could not learn. Sunday, I was helping my daughter study for her science exam. As we developed ways to remember the symbols for elements, I couldn't help wondering when she would actually ever need to know these things. Like her mother, her interests lie in the artistic, so I rather doubt she will use much of the information she acquires in science. But, while the usefulness of what she was learning may have been lost on me, the value of mentally cataloguing it in preparation for an exam, may have been the best lesson of all. It is building that muscle we refer to as the brain, exercising that mass of grey matter and cells that will improve your ability to learn and remember. As a daily fitness regimen will improve body and spirit, reviewing the day's schoolwork will improve the mind. While having a study plan may not have brought me an A in math, it might have made learning it less a failure. International Scene By Raymond Canon