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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1997-04-16, Page 5Arthur Black THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16,1997 PAGE 5. Want to? He has to! No man knows what true happiness is until he has a complete set of false teeth and has lost all interest in the opposite sex. Lord Roxbery 1847-1929 Ah, Lord Roxbery, thou shouldst be living at this hour. On second thought, no you shouldn't. As a man secure and comfortable in old age, you'd be a mighty lonely soul here at the butt-end of the 20th century. We've got precious little room for elderly people with elderly thoughts. We worship Youth here. We're into Grecian Formula and tummy tucks, face lifts and herbal body wraps. That wretched human being, the Duchess of Windsor, is famous for having said: "One can never be too rich or too thin." She might have added "or too young". In fact, she might have left her original statement in the jewel box and simply have said "One can never be International Scene By Raymond Canon From Greenland’s icy shore One time when I was flying back from Europe, the aircraft I was in decided to fly a more northerly route in order to take advantage of some strong tail winds. For the most part we flew above a heavy cloud cover but at one point we were in a section of completely clear sky. I looked down out of my window and saw below me the most wind-swept, desolate land I had ever seen. There were mountains and snow everywhere and what I was seeing was the interior of the huge island of Greenland. Immediately the title of an old hymn From Greenland's Icy Mountains came to me. Judging from the scene below me, there was no truer line ever written. I was thinking about that line the other day and decided to look up some details about Greenland. To my surprise I discovered that no less than 85 per cent of the island is to be found under a permanent ice cap and any charts of the region are marked "unexplored." To give you some idea how big this is, it is listed as about 700,000 square miles, or about seven times the size of Great Britain. Small wonder that all the towns and other settlements are located in coastal regions. There are no roads joining them so that the only two means of transportation are by air or by dog sleigh. All this means that most of the food, in fact, just about anything in the way of consumer goods, has to be brought in by air or boat, the latter only during a very short "summer" season. Can you imagine what it must cost to feed a family of four compared to what the same food would cost in southern Ontario? too young" - because with youth, the possibilities for richness and thinness are infinite. It's a merciless business, this eternal pursuit of the Sweet Bird Of...and a pointless one too. Gravity rules. None of us - no matter how much we spend on plastic surgery or sheep embryo injections - is getting any younger. That's life. But it's tough living in a world that refuses to let its inhabitants age gracefully. I remember when I was young and arrogant enough to actually believe the 60's mantra that said "Don't trust anyone over 30." Over thirty? Thirty-year-olds don't know diddly-squat about anything. I'm not sure 50-year-olds do either...but at least we've learned enough not to utter dumb cracks like that. Nope, the only effective age-retardant, wrinkle remover I've come across - the only one that really works - is the good old belly laugh. Laughter won't stop your hair from turning gray, but it will keep you sane. And it leaves you with the best Wrinkles of all - laugh lines. What travel there is around Greenland has a decidedly Canadian connection. The land is so bad that even normal-sized airports are out of the question and, of the eight landing fields on he whole island, only three are able to take jets. The others are small strips, 2,000 - 3,000 feet long and the only plane of any size that can get in and out of these runways are ones that were built in Toronto by the DeHavilland Company, currently owned by Bombardier of Montreal and the Ontario government. The company has a worldwide reputation for building what are called STOL aircraft (Short take-off and landing) and you have to see them to just that to believe it. All six of the planes used to transport passengers out of one isolated spot to another originated in Toronto. They have another important characteristic. The seats are easily removable and, as soon as the airline knows how many passengers will be on a specific flight, the excess seats are removed and freight loaded on. Thus you may find yourself on a flight with a pile of mail bags behind you or even a snowmobile. Needless to say, space is never wasted. The flight crews are not fussy about living on Greenland. Since most of them are Scandinavian, they like to commute to work from Denmark, Iceland or Norway. They work six days a week for three weeks, then they fly home for three weeks. Although there is not much to see on the island, there are actually a few tourists, especially during the summer season. The most popular trip is a morning flight from Iceland; the tourists look around for a few hours, then fly back to Iceland in the early evening. This sounds a little bit like the train trip from Cochrane to Moosenee. You go up in the morning, look at the few important sites and come back in the evening on the same train. Most of the population are of the Eskimo Reminds me of the story about an octogenarian running in the Boston Marathon. A reporter from The New York Times cornered him and said "You’re 80 years old! What are you doing running in a 26-mile marathon?" The old fella shrugged and said it was no big deal. He came from a family of long- livers. "Shucks" he told the reporter, "My dad still runs our 200-acre dairy farm and he's 102 years old." "And is he in as good a shape as you are?" asked the reporter. "Good shape!" scoffed the marathoner, "Why the only reason Pop isn't out here in shorts and running shoes is he had to be best man for my granddad who's getting married this morning." "Your granddad's getting married??? How old is he?" "He'll be 130 next July," said the marathoner." "A hundred and thirty!" said the reporter. "I wouldn't think he'd want to get married at 130 years of age." "Want to, hell," said the 80-year-old. "Granddad had to get married." variety and the names of the localities have been changed into Eskimo words just as they have in northern Canada. In fact, a number of relationships have developed between our Eskimos and those of Greenland; there is a weekly flight between Equaluit (formerly Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island) and Nuuk (formerly Goothab, the capital of Greenland). But for the majority of Canadians, Greenland's icy mountains remain just as remote as they were 50 years ago, surely a prime example of the old saying, "so near and yet so far." When I looked from 35,000 feet at some of that inhospitable terrain I was as close as I wanted to come. Letter to the editor Continued from page 4 for coping with career upheaval. These will range from financial planning to special interest groups, ways to thrive and the Canadian Nurses in Independent Practice (CANIP). Following a 6 p.m. dinner, guest speaker, Dee Preikschas will provide an entertaining talk on humour. There will be additional time for the exhibits followed by draws for the door prizes. Nurses wishing to attend are invited to purchase tickets from representatives in their local hospital or by calling Linda Balvert at 524-5240, CCAC at 482-3411 or 1-800-265- 5591 or the Health Unit at 482-3416 or 1- 800-265-5184. Thank you for helping us to get the message out to Huron County Nurses. Linda Balvert, Fran Hook, Marguerite Thomas. A Final Thought There is no ground more sacred than the one on which a past hatred has become a present love. Don’t sacrifice the future Parent/teacher night. An ugly premise for many students, a dreaded date when the scoop is dished. I spent this occasion at a local secondary school last week and the thoughts I came away with were interesting. While only a synopsis can be provided in the time most people allowed themselves, there are some conceptions formed. Most notably, from my brief visits with seven educators, I was impressed by a sense of real concern for my children, their education and their futures. From the many who remembered my oldest two children, and asked of their welfare, to the talks regarding my current attendees, I was pleased by what I perceived as genuine interest shown in my offsprings' academic success. Another discovery, is how very well, in their short association with my kids, they've come to know them. Describing personality traits, strengths and weaknesses, teachers could be almost scary in their dead-on characterizations. So what does all this mean? It means that when it comes to our children's education, as one might expect, their teachers generally are the ones who know what's best for them. Unfortunately when it comes to the big decisions they are seldom asked. Government mandated de-streaming, which teachers opposed. It is, most will agree, though perhaps with more diplomacy, a dismal failure. Challenged Grade 9s are frustrated by their difficulty in keeping up. Advanced students often become bored and don't work up to then- ability, thus making the transition to Grade 10 work more difficult. It is what teachers said would happen. Government didn't listen. More recently, the problem has been the cost of cutting. On Thursday evening Huron County Board of Education held a public meeting to discuss its budget, one which promises a reduction in spending of $1 million, despite a tax increase. While some municipal politicians argue the board should be able to freeze taxes as the county and local governments have done, Director of Education Paul Carroll, himself a former teacher and principal, knows the realities of such action. The only ones who would pay would be the students. Staffing has already been cut to the point that there are often as many as 40 students in a class. There are few programs left to be cut that would mean any considerable tax savings. The board has, Carroll believes, "hit the bottom". The only thing a zero increase would do is sell our kids short. Of course, some will argue the amount spent on salaries. The 1997 estimate for secondary and elementary teachers' salaries is $33,674,492. One local politician suggested that if the board is $1 million short, a thousand off each teachers' paycheque would solve the problem. Protected by union contracts this type of sacrifice is unlikely to happen. What is, is, and as long as they don't come asking for more, I can live with the salaries. Talking inconsequentials won't help anyone. What's important is our commitment that sacrifice doesn't come from where we can least afford it. Teachers know their students. Teachers know their needs. Teachers have said the quality of education in Huron cannot be sustained with less money. Would someone please start to listen before we sacrifice our future?