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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