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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1997-02-19, Page 5O Arthur Black\ Politicans lie and propser. Ninety per cent of politicians are giving the other 10 per cent a bad name. Henry Kissinger Hey, if you can’t take people's money and then screw 'em, you’ve got no business being in the business. San Francisco mayor Willie Brown I’ve figured out why politicians almost never have beards. All that chin fur would make it too hard to tell bare-faced lies. Not that we Canucs have any cause to turn up our noses at American politicos. We turn out a pretty hardy breed of truth stretchers on this side of the border too. Just recently, Glen Clark issued a public apology for, ahh, misleading the public prior to his election as premier of British Columbia last year. Clark and his Knee Dippers won the election largely on the strength of the $116 million surplus they said they had in the government coffers. But OOPs - after the voters were counted it turned out that the people of B.C. were International Scene By RaymondCanon Costa Rica — a tarnished star Whenever anybody asks me where would be a good place to go down south to spend a holiday, I reply without hesitation that by all means they should give Costa Rica a try. It is the closest thing there is to a paradise in Central America, which is perhaps, from some people’s point of view, not saying too much since instability has been something of a way of life in that region. However, while the other countries have had a hard time keeping even a semblance of democracy for any length of time, Costa Rica has known nothing but democracy. That is, ever since 1948 when then President, Jose Figueres abolished the army and took all the money that would normally have gone in that direction, as well as any more than he could find. He then built Costa Rica into a modem welfare state. Today the country has the highest level of literacy and life expectancy in all of Central America. Any Canadian who goes there has to enter by the capital, San Jose, which is situated in the middle of the country. This means that you have the chance of seeing a bit of the countryside before you get to the beach of your choice. There are policemen, of course, since the government has not been able to abolish all crime, but still definitely no army. However, the welfare state has not come without a cost, something that not only Costa Rica is learning these days to its sorrow. For openers, no less than 10 per cent of the workforce is employed in the civil service. These workers, who are unionized, tend to take their position and salary for granted. Such an attitude is slowly being altered as faced with a $369 million deficit instead. "The numbers kept changing," explained Premier Clark. Yeah, well ... creative bookkeeping can do that, Glen. Then there's the spectacle of the Prime Minister of Canada apologizing for the "misunderstanding" over the GST. Just because a guy promises that if elected he'll get rid of a tax, doesn't mean that, if elected, he'll, err, get rid of a tax. The tragedy here is not that our politicians lie to us - hell, most of them start out as lawyers - what do you expect? The tragedy is, we keep falling for it. Election after election, party after party, personality after personality. They promise the moon, we give them our votes and then ... Well, they give us a moon all right, but not the one we expected. And it doesn't seem to do them any lasting damage. There are no posses of outraged citizens burning crosses on Glen Clark's front lawn. If he manages to keep his Hush Puppies out of his mouth for the next few months, Chretien figures to get re-elected as prime minister. Politicians can lie and prosper. Most of us can't. Like, for instance the two university the country discovers that it cannot continue with such generous welfare payments when the economy is in recession. It got a warning about this back in 1982 but was able to get out of this shock without too much economic pain, thanks in part to the Americans who, delighted to see an oasis of democracy in a sea of civil wars, especially in next-door Nicaragua, poured close to $2 billion into the Costa Rican economy. The second shock came just after a new president was voted into office. His name was Jose Figueres which is not so much a coincidence when I tell you that he is the son of the one who brought about the remarkable changes in 1946. While vowing to keep his father’s legacy, he soon found that the cost of such an act was beyond the country’s ability to pay. He immediately raised both taxes and tariffs, as well as starting down the road to privatization of some of the government monopolies. This resulted in a replay of what happened in Ontario. The public sector unions along with their allies, mounted a campaign to counter the moves and in so doing used language that could have been borrowed directly from Buzz Hargrove or Leah Casselman. They can’t wait for the next election when they can get Figueres out of there and someone in who is more to their liking. To make matters worse, the unions are opposed to something else that Figueres is attempting to carry out - free trade, a move that will reverse the country’s traditional aloofness from its more revolutionary neighbours. Again the debate on this topic sounds remarkably like the one that took place in Canada when the FTA with the United States was still a proposal and not a reality. If free trade does come about, Costa Rica students facing their big final in chemistry. They weren't too worried. They'd both done well in the quizzes and the midterms and the labs. In fact, they were so confident that they decided to Party Down the weekend before the chemistry final, instead of studying. They partied big and hard - so big and hard that they were too hungover to even write their exam, much less study for it. They decided a lie was in order. They called their chemistry prof and explained that they'd been out of town for the weekend, had a flat tire, didn’t have a spare and couldn’t get anybody to help them until it was too late. The professor listened to their story, agreed that they'd had some tough luck and could write the exam the following day. The two students were ecstatic. They studied all night and met the professor the following morning. The professor handed each of them a copy of the two-page examination and ushered them into separate rooms. The first page was a snap. A simple problem worth five per cent of their final mark that they each solved in no time in all. Then they turned to page two. In its entirety, the question read: (95 per cent) Which tire? will have one comparative advantage over its neighbours. It has the best educated and most stable population in the area. It has, unfortunately, a social welfare net which it can no longer afford, unless, of course, reforms are carried out. Already the nation’s budgetary deficit has reached 40 per cent of GDP which, while not as high as Canada’s, still results in interest payments which are in the same bracket as ours. There must be an object lesson in all this. The next time a country, be it Canada or Costa Rica, introduces a new plan, they should work out as carefully as possible what it is going to cost and what the revenues are going to be. They should then automatically increase the estimates of the former by 25 per cent and reduce the latter’s projections by 25 per cent. In the long run this will probably be a more accurate assessment. In the meantime Costa Rica is probably keeping an eye on Canada to see how we go about solving our problems. A Final Thought One mother can care for five children, but five children cannot care for one mother. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19,1997 PAGE 5. The Short of it By Bonnie Gropp Take a bath, eat a cookie It's been a long, long week. And it came in the midst of the longest, shortest month of the year. February was conceived, I'm sure, as just another one of life's ways to test us. Then to make it worse, like a tenaciously difficult child that inspires others to misbehave, each week of this blah winter interlude appears to be getting progressively more stressful. I've had kids missing busses when I'm trying to get to work and kids stranded out of town late at night, because the ride I had arranged for them didn't pick them up. All this has been topped by cloying claustrophobia and a burning yearning for sunlight and warmth. I don't like to wish my life away. Yet, precious as I know it is, I am longingly anticipating this gloomy month's end. And admit it, I'm not alone. I know that most of you feel the same as I do. We're tired of wondering if we're going to be able to get where we want to go. We're tired of digging, shovelling and scraping. February — a month too far from spring and too long into winter. Generally, though, we don't think about it, but continue to put one snow-covered boot ahead of the other and make the most of it. I was reminded of this human adaptability the other evening while watching an episode of television's Frasier. The story focussed on the cute little mutt "Eddie", who was suffering from depression. During the attempts to cure him, his homo sapien co- stars found themselves pondering life's meaning. As they conjectured on mortality, shared their fears and insecurities, they were plunged down in the dumps, just in time to see Eddie rejuvenated after finding his long- lost favourite toy. As the humans continued to dig deeper and deeper into the darkness of depression, they were halted by the sound of the oven timer. At the prospect of homemade cookies, served with milk and ice cream the mood changed. The following day as Frasier spoke to a depressed caller on his radio talk show, he shared a simple analogy that carried a valuable message. "Take a lesson from our canine friends", he said, "and find your favourite toy. In other words, go eat a cookie." Thanks for the reminder. Full of uncertainty, no one promised life (or February) was going to be easy. Existence when you think about it can be pretty scary. Unseen dangers and unknown demons are part of each tomorrow. And if all that isn't enough to make the future a terrifying thought, now we have Mike Harris to contend with, too. So, yes, we know, life can be trying, or at times, even harsh. The trick is to not let things overwhelm you, put them at the back of your mind, and smile at the pleasures. The secret to sanity, I guess, is to do your best not to dwell on the problems, real or imagined. Spend time instead searching for the countless rewards available. Then enjoy them for all they're worth. Light some candles, take a bath... or, yeah, eat a cookie. If I have learned nothing else, I know a little self-indulgence is good for the soul. They may never change how I feel about February, but simple pleasures can at least soak away the little pains in life.