HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2001-04-04, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2001. PAGE 5.
Other Views
I say bully for you, Conrad
Consider for a moment, the hot-air
balloon known as Conrad Black. Part
Press Baron and all pouter pigeon,
Black runs the third-largest newspaper
conglomerate in the world. He rides herd over
major dailies in Great Britain, the Middle East
and the United States of America.
Here in Canada the name Black is tattooed
on the editorial flanks of birdcage liners from
one end of the country to the other - including
50 per cent of The National Post.
At last count, Black was sitting on an ink-
stained empire worth more than half a billion
dollars. The man can buy anything he wants.
Not counting respect.
Not that he hasn't tried to buy that too.
Black moved to, England years ago, at least
partly to be closer to the levers of power that
could pole-vault him into a peerage. He
hobnobbed with the bluebloods and groveled
around the grounds of Buckingham Palace in
hopes that Liz would eventually whack him on
the shoulder with a sword, saying, "Arise, Lord
Black of Fleet".
Never happened. Black's elevation to quasi-
royalty required an approving nod from Ottawa
and Jean Chretien turned thumbs down.
But even a Lord in front of his name
wouldn't win Conrad many fans. He's too
obviously a plutocrat and a bully boy. The
grown-up version of the fat little rich kid that
D. you know or have you known
anybody who did some work for you
and asked that you pay your bill in
cash ("No cheques please!"). .
Some cleaning ladies seem to be charter
members of this club. I recall one incident
when my wife informed me that our
charwoman was leaving and we needed a
replacement. One day I was asked to stay at
home and translate since a Polish girl was
coming who spoke Polish and Russian but no
English. .
I duly did my bit of translating to and from
Russian and my wife inquired how the girl
wanted to be paid. I put this to the girl and
immediately came back the answer in Russian
"Ya hachew cash".
It turned out that was about the only English
word she knew and she used it even in a
Russian sentence so that there would be no
doubt in my mind the nature of her wages.
You probably know only one or a few
examples of this but will it come as a surprise
to you to learn that, not only is it wide-spread
in Canada, but in other countries as well. As a
matter of fact, it is considerably more prevalent
in some countries than it is in others.
In the field of economics we call the sum
total of all this underground activity the
"grossly deceptive product" which is a play on
words of the expression "Gross Domestic
Product" or the total value of all economic
activity in a country. The clandestine activity is
born out of the desire to avoid high levels of
taxation, equally high levels of social welfare
premiums or even to get out of any taxation at
all.
That may be combined with the belief that
there are too many government regulations
interfering in the lives of ordinary citizens. It
includes for the most part those people who are
considered to be self-employed and this runs
the gamut from the cleaning ladies mentioned
above to tradesmen and even prostitutes.
I don't know if it is the air or the water in the
Arthur
Black
nobody likes.
In fact, Frank magazine, in a stroke of
genius, dubbed him 'Tubby'. As in Tubby
Tompkins, the pudgy, cranky character in Little
Lulu.
I'll bet that nickname will follow him, to the
grave.
Or to put it in Conrad Blackese, 'Methinks
the sobriquet bodes well to wreathe him
inexorably e'en o'er the River Styx".
That's another thing about. Conrad - he
writes in a barely comprehensible porridge of
18th century British bombast larded with
adjectives that would make James Joyce go
cross-eyed. Conrad actually wrote to potential
advertisers cautioning them not to be dismayed
by "the stertorous -bellicosities of our
adversaries". -
An observer once noted that Conrad "knows
everything about the English language except
what it's for". In other words, communication.
But, one of the perks of owning a huge chunk
of the world's newspapers is you get your own
Raymond
Canon
The
International
Scene
Mediterranean area that does something to
people who live on its shores but countries sue'
as Spain, Italy, Greece have the largest-
percentage of such underground activity in the
western world. No less than about 30 percent
of all such activity in those countries goes
unreported.
In the same bracket is Portugal; that country
is about as close as you can get to the
Mediterranean and still not border on it.
Surprisingly the Scandinavian countries,
Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, with
their high 'levels of taxation, are in the second
level with about 20 per cent of all economic
activity of the unreported kind. The lowest
country (or should I say the most honest in this
regard) is Switzerland followed closely by
Austria, both of which are under 10 per cent.
Maybe it is that Alpine air that brings out the
honesty in people.
I have been watching these figures for a
couple of decades now and one thing is
obvious. The situation is getting worse instead
of better. Every one of the industrialized
countries of the western world has a higher
percentage of underground activity than it did
Final Thought
Government, in the last analysis, is
organized opinion. Where there is little or no
public opinion, there is likely to be bad
government, which sooner or later becomes
autocratic government.
— William Lyon Mackenzie King
bully pulpit to declaim from. Conrad often
whips up tendentious missives addressing
various bees in his bonnet and dispatches them
to his far-flung editors.
And - quel surprise — the next day, those
missives appear prominently on the op-ed
pages of newspaperi around the world. He was
at it again recently, berating one of his own
newspaper columnists (who writes under the
appropriate nom de plume 'Taki) for a column
he'd written criticizing Israel and the U.S.
"In both its venomous character and its
unfathomable absurdity,' thundered Conrad,
"this farrago of lies is almost worthy of
Goebbels or the authors of the Protocols of the
Elders of Zion".
All very laudable and noble - until you
compare it to a similar edict Conrad penned
about the same columnist a few years
earlier. In that piece, Conrad defended the
man he called 'my friend Taki' for something
he'd written about a different group of U.S.
citizens.
Taki had written that Puerto Ricans in New
York were "fat, squat, ugly, dusky, dirty and
unbelievably loud. They turned Manhattan into
Palermo faster than you can say spic."
Oh well. Boys will be boys - right, Conrad?
By the way, in the interests of journalistic
objectivity and full disclosure, I'm delighted to
report that Conrad Black is no relation.
10 years ago.
Now the question that you have all been
waiting to ask. Where does Canada stand in all
this?
Well, we come in just below the middle of
the pack. When I was tracking these statistics
in the period 1985-90, we were running at
about 10 per cent, it is now up to just over 15
per cent.
In terms of dollars and cents, what does that
add up to? The figure may surprise you. It is
about $100 billion of illegal activity.
Just think how much lower our taxes ,would
be if the hundred billion were switched over
into the legal category.
Or perhaps governments would just find new
ways to waste it!
Letter
THE EDITOR,
Blyth is competing in the National
Competition of Communities in Bloom again
this year. Last year the village was runner-up in
its population category across Canada with 10
other municipalities competing against it.
This year the committee is trying again for
top honours.
For anyone not knowing about this program,
it is a Canadian non-profit organization
bringing "People, Plants, Pride growing
together" Two judges will visit our village for
a couple of days and grade us on our
accomplishments.
This year as fundraisers and to help beautify
the village, the committee is offering some
interesting ideas, that make birthday; Mother's
Day, wedding and anniversary gifts. Gift
certificates are also available.
The committee, comprised of Luann Taylor,
Nancy Snell, Eleanor Babcock. Elaine
Scrimgeour, Anne Elliott or Bev Elliott would
be pleased to welcome any ideas or discuss any
of the fundraisers.
Bonnie
Gropp
The short of it
What happened?
I
t's something I should be getting used to
but the reality that yesterday's flower
children are today's business leadefs still
seems surreal.
The other evening I had the opportunity to
take in a 1988 movie I have been wanting to
see since hearing its soundtrack. 1969 takes
place you might have guessed, during that
pivotal year at the end of what was a turbulent,
passionate decade of change and altruism. The
story revolves around college grads Ralph and
Scott and the remarkable time in which they
were living.
I admit to a fascination with 1969. When
given to retrospection, when a certain face, a
certain tune recalls a certain memory, it is
those from 1969 that stir up my nostalgia. It
may have been my age then that causes
romanticized memories of that year, but I tend
to think it's much more than that. 1969 was an
incredible time, for everything from its music
to its politics, to its newsmakers.
Consider if you will. By 1969 the carefree
attitude of the earlier part of the decade had
been weighted by Vietnam and the deaths of
the Kennedys and Martin Luther King Jr.
1969 was the trial of Lt. William Caney. for
the My Lai massacre. Charles Manson and his
cult were charged with the murders of Sharon
Tate and three others. Ted Kennedy admitted
to a role in the Chappaquiddick accident
which took the life of Mary Jo Kopechne.
Add to this that the United States began to
watch . a crooked path lead to its president and
vice-president Richard Nixon and Spiro T.
Agnew, and it wasn't looking good for peace,
hope and understanding.
But there were still signs. On July 16 Apollo
11 landed on the moon and with the historic
words, "That's one small step for man, one
giant leap for mankind," Neil Armstrong and
the crew had peopLe'ai least, looking up.
The. flower children showed too that a
peaceful world can exist even in , extreme
conditions when 500,000 converged on a small
dairy farm in Bethel, N.Y. for the Woodstock
festival of music in mid-August. With
attendance far surpassing the expectations of
organizers, they were were not prepared. Mix
in the extra bonus of rain and plenty of mud,
and conditions could only' be described as
primitive. Yet, for three days this mass of
people "smiled on their brother."
The music of that year was a melodic
reflection of this diverse time. From
bubblegum to psychedelia to folk-flavoured
protest, artists' work appealed on a variety of
levels.
And I was a 15-year-old girl going through
all the typical adolescent cycles. I had good
friends, good times. And as the saying goes,
"If you remember the 60s you weren't there" I
suppose my memories are a little sporadic, a
little selective.
But I do remember that as an idealistic
young teenager I was appalled by the killing
in Vietnam, saddened by the forced
recruitment through the draft and the
subsequent inevitable loss of young lives. Too,
I was enchanted by the counter culture,
regretful that my age precluded much
paiticipation in most of what was happening.
But watching those young protesters I was
impressed by their passion for their belief-y00d
their convictions in trying to make a change. - „
And then I look today at those goy, t-r
children and wonder what happened.
On the grossly deceptive product