HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2001-02-07, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2001. PAGE 5.
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Extra! Extra! Rede all about it!
Somebody once defined journalism as
'literature in a hurry'. Close enough.
I'm not saying all editors would rather
'get it first than get it right', but I've known a
few who had that credo tattooed just below
their left aureolae.
In newspapering, haste is of the essence -
and that leads to more than the occasional
blunder. That's why most newspapers have a
Corrections Column - a tiny box on an inside
page where the editor confesses to errors made
in earlier stories (which usually ran under a
banner headline on the.front page).
The mea culpas are usually followed with
the stony journalistic cliche "The East Ridge
Clarion Bugle regrets the error".
One newspaper that treats its own foul-ups
with a certain panache is The Manchester
Guardian. Mind you, The Guardian is
somewhat famous in the. Halls of Journalism as
the Queen of Misprints 2 the satirical press
routinely refers to the paper as The Grauniad.
The editors, Lord bless'em, decided that if
the rest of the world is snickering, they might
as well join in. Hence The Guardian's
Corrections and Amplifications Column. Last
summer, this entry appeared: Aug. 21: We spelt
Morecambe, 'the town in Lancashire, wrong
again on page 2, yesterday. We often do.
And on Jan. 28: An item headed Bad Day:
Sportly after, our recent federal election,
which took four hours to count
compared to 40 days for the Americans,
I read about a speech which Prime Minister
Chretien gave in Toronto. During this homily
to the party faithful, he touched rather heavily
on the need to provide social justice to
Canadians etc. and the mere mention of this
word made me shudder.
Maybe it has some sort of nice ring for the
electorate, many of whom were
understandably feeling rather jaded when the
election was all over.
However, I should point out that "social
justice" is an expression that has been
employed over and over again throughout the
world as speeches are made about the need to
reduce the level of poverty and misery in just
about any country you can name.
It all reminds me of the expression
"democratically elected governments" that was
used to describe regimes that gained power
under conditions that were anything but
democratic.
What makes me shudder when I hear the
expression "social justice" is that in most cases
it pfesages another. round of throwing money at
a problem and trying to make people feel good
about it. The money will, you hope, be put to
good use by the administrators, all of whom
are supposed to be altruistic to the extreme.
It will be put to equally good use by the
recipients who will be expected to act as if they
had graduated summa cum laude from courses
in astute money management.
The trouble is that altruism is generally not a
word used to describe the administrators and
most or the recipients could not plan finances
efficiently if their life depended on it. Money
gets sidetracked for all sorts of spurious
reasons or else spent on goods or services that
have, no connection to the solution of the
problem.
I'm sure that you all know two people who
earn about the same level of income. One
manages to keep out of debt and maintain a
decent lifestyle while the other is up to his/her
neck in debt and thinks that -a budget is a car
rental agency.
Well, in the international world of social
Arthur
Black
Educashun, in a sidebar on the Policy and
Politics page, yesterday, derived mild
amusement from numerous spelling mistakes
in a Labour Party jobs advertisement carried in
the previous day's paper.
All the errors were, in fact, made by The
Guardian.
None of them was in the original copy
supplied by the Labour Party.
If it's any consolation to ink-slingers at The
Grauniad - we've seen worse. The Florida
newspaper, for instance that was forced to run
this 'correction': In criticizing the political
views of Patrick Buchanan, William Bennett
said , "It's a real us-and-them kind of thing,"
not, as we reported "It's a real S&M kind of
thing." •
Or the New Hampshire weekly that noted:
There was a mistake in an item sent in two
weeks ago which stated that Ed Burnham
entertained a party at crap shooting. It should
have been trap shooting.
Raymond
Canon
The
International
Scene
justice recipients, by far the larger number can
be considered as part and parcel of the second
group. Unwillingness to comply or doWnright
incompetence can make a shambles of even the
most heartfelt donation of money.
We haven't even got around to corruption
that is endemic in many areas of the world. I
have been reading recently about a health
centre in Manitoba that reportedly siphoned off
enough money from its federal government
funding to take 70 people on a pleasant holiday
cruise in the Caribbean, a cruise that had
nothing to do with the treatment of the patients.
This may be newsworthy in Canada; in most
other parts of the world it happens without
anybody being the wiser. We read of hundreds
of millions of dollars being transferred by
some corrupt political leader into his Swiss
bank account. This is frequently done on the
backs of the citizens of this country and just as
frequently comes from money that has been
contributed by the IMF, the World Bank or one
of the many welfare agencies involved in
raising the standards of living of developing
nations.
By all means engage in social justice. But, if
our government is going to preach such
involvement, let's make sure that the proper
mechanisms and safeguards are in place before
we talk of donating money to international (or
domestic for that matter) relief projects of any
nature.
Final Thought
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind
and won't change the subject.
—Sir Winston Spencer Churchill
Or the double pratfall executed by a
Massachusetts paper: Our newspaper carried
the notice last week that Mr. Oscar Hofnagle is
a defective on the police force. This was a
typographical error. Mister Hofnagle is, of
course, a detective on the police farce.
And the prize for all time most embarrassing
`Correction'? That honour must go to The
Manchester Guardian for a rarely seen triple-
ballsup that began to unfold in the Corrections
and Amplifications Column on... April 21,
1998: The home of Charles Darwin, author of
On The Origin of the Species, is Down House
in Kent. It was garbled in a news report on
page 12 on April 11.
April 22, 1998: In a correction published in
this column yesterday, we misspelt Downe
House, the home of Charles Darwin in Kent.
April 23, 1998: A correction to the
correction of a correction. Darwin spelled both
the name of his house and the village in which
it is situated, Down. The village became
Downe. The house is still Down.
Ah well. Take heart, ye editors of The
Grauniad, in these immortal words: "Don't
ever promote anyone who hasn't made some
big mistakes - you'll be promoting someone
who hasn't done much."
Herbert Dow said that.
Or was it Oscar Wilde?
Canadians work hard for the income on
which they have to pay taxes and it galls me to
no end to see these tax dollars squandered on
projects which are, to use the Biblical parable,
built on sand and tons of it.
Letter
Letters to the editor are a forum for public
opinion and comment. The views expressed do
not necessarily reflect those of this
publication.
THE EDITOR,
This is support towards Chris Cleave
,regarding the article in the Jan. 17/01 issue of
The Citizen. I also walk my dogs regulary and
I am shocked at the amount of dog doo-doo
around the Village of Brussels. I have gone as
far as-picking up other people's dog mess and
frankly this is ridiculous! I even see piles of it
on the main street.
I am not sure what reasoning those dog
owners who walk away from their dog's mess
use. Is it that you feel it will disappear? Or is it
that you feel it is small so it doesn't require
pick up? Do you think you're helping fertilize
the lawn come spring?
Whatever your excuse it is not acceptable. I
dread to think what the sidewalks and lawns
will look like once the snow melts.
This is a responsibility that is automatic
when one owns a dog. Or it is supposed to be!
I think there should be more awareness of
people with dogs and how they deal with their
dog's mess and if the WRONG thing is done a
stiff fine should be imposed on the owner.
Regardless of the amount it is still an awful
dirty thing to do. Wonder what their homes
look like if one is willing to leave dog doo-doo
on the sidewalk or lawn or curb or anywhere
that is not in a bag and toted off and put where
it should be. I hope to see more people doing
the right thing and if you need I am giving free
lessons on how to safely Stoop 'n Scoop so we
can all enjoy the Prettiest Village in Ontario
excrement free!
Sincerely,
Tammy-Lynn Naylor
%wets, ON.
Just have to laugh
/have a thing for Mel and Kevin. These-two
guys are my age and still sigh-worthy in
my book.
That said, having seen the new Mel Gibson
movie the other night and a recent magazine
photo of Kevin Costner, even these guys I have
to admit, are starting to look older. Those
glorious blue eyes may still be a Lethal
Weapon, and while he is certainly not The
Man Without a Face, it's weathered look has
proven that not even Mel can stay Forever
Young.
As for Kevin, it would seem there's to be No
Way Out of the thinning hair situation.
There's nothing like a girlish infatuation
with a movie star to make you feel youthful.
However, when you realize that your star-
struck idolatry is for an honest-to-goodness,
middle-aged guy, you have to admit you're not
a kid anymore. And for someone who's.
already fighting hard to forget that time's
passage is only going to further the alterations
of mind and body, this reality check was kind
of sad.
So having recognized the truth, my ability to
deny what's happening now completely
shattered, I awoke one morning this past week
further humbled by physical evidence. I was
weary all over, my back was aching, my head
pounding. To paraphrase an old saying, I had
the mother of all hangovers. The problem was
I hadn't been out the night before.
Tottering out to the hall, pathetic in my
acquiescence I stopped to check my e-mail.
And saw the Senility Prayer:
God, grant me the senility to forget the
people I never liked, the g Jod fortune to run
into the ones that I do like and the eyesight to
tell the difference.
The e-mail, which had come from my
brother-in-law, then listed things that one
discovers once older:
1. I started out with nothing and I still have
most of it.
2. My wild oats have turned into prunes and
All Bran.
3. I finally got my head together; now my
body is falling apart.
4. Funny, I don't remember being absent-
minded.
5. All reports are in; life is now officially
unfair. '
6. If all is not lost, where is it?
7. It is easier to get older than it is to get
wiser.
8. Some days you're the dog; some days
you're the hydrant.
9. I wish that the buck did stop here; I sure
could use a few.
10. It's hard to make a comeback when you
haven't been anywhere.
11. Only time the world beats a path to your
door is when you're in the bathroom.
12. If God wanted me to touch my toes, he
would have put them on my knees.
13. When I'm finally holding all the cards,
why does everyone decide to plarchess?
14. It's not hard to meet expenses... they're
everywhere.
15. The only difference between a rut and a
grave is the depth.
16. These days, I spend a lot of time thinking
about the hereafter... I go somewhere to get
something, then wonder what I'm here after.
What a nice reminder that when it comes to
aging, sometimes you just have to laugh.
Social justice another buzzword