HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2001-09-19, Page 5rr
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2001. PAGE 5.
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Time to jettison the jet ski
/f I had to choose my favourite spot in the
entire universe, I know what I'd pick. The
cottage.
Not My cottage or your cottage or Aunt
Gertrude's cottage, just...the cottage.
To many Canucks it's 'the cabin'. Or 'the
camp'. Or just `up at the lake'.
We're talking about the same place.
For a lot of city dwellers — and that takes in
most Canadians — 'going to the cottage'
represents an annual opportunity to escape
from just about everything that bugs you and to
embrace everything that doesn't.
At the cottage you breathe pure air,
laced with tantalizing essences of spruce gum,
pine needles and other scents succulent
but largely unidentifiable to the jaded urban
palate.
At the cottage you get to see a night sky that
looks like a cavalcade of diamonds strewn
across a cosmic black velvet cloth.
The normal city sounds of keening
ambulances, squealing tires and squalling
neighbours are gone, replaced by the ululations
of loons, the critch of crickets, the soughing of
breezes through branches, the splashes of
jumping fish and the splats of beaver tails.
Peace. Tranquility. WD-40 for the soul-.
That's what the cottage gives us. Or used to.
It's all changed in the past few years, and all
because of a single, technological abomination
called the jet-ski.
There is no temperate ground on the subject
/think when you live in a small town like
Blyth or Brussels you tend to consider the
world at large as having little effect on you
and your daily life. Foreign influences are
something that happen to people in big cities or
in • other countries; you believe yourself
relatively immune from all such nefarious
influences.
Think again! Let's start with your local bank.
You have to renegotiate a mortgage, or a loan
and are told by your friendly banker that the
interest rate has gone up; it is going to cost you
more than if you had come in last month. He
may 'simply comment that the bank's cost of
borrowing money has gone up or that the Bank
of Canada, our central bank, has raised interest
rates.
What he probably doesn't tell you that the
person most likely responsible for all this is
sitting, not in Ottawa or even in Toronto, but in
Washington D.C. and his name is Alan
Greenspan, head of _ the American Federal
Reserve Bank. If he decides to change interest
rates, you can be sure that the Bank of Canada
will sit up and take notice and probably action
as well.
Let's take the price of gassing up your trusty
Belchfire 8 that transports you and the family
wherever it is that you want to go. You are
annoyed or even angry at any increase in the
price of gas. Your station manager may
mumble some excuse but he is probably only
passing on what he has been told to say.
The real cause could be the policies of
OPEC, the international oil cartel that has been
around since the 1960s or it could be the
Americans and their energy policies.
You may be a farmer who lives outside of
town. You know that the selling price of your
crop is so low it is difficult for you to break
even let alone make a comfortable living. The
most probable cause is a glut of your product
on world markets, a glut that depresses prices.
However; very little is being done right now
by any country, with the possible exception of
New Zealand and 'Australia, to reduce the
causes of these gluts. a
Or you like to watch TV.
For openers let's remove from viewing all the
foreign (i.e. American) programs that you
of jet-skis. They are evil, stupid, insatiable
rapists of everything our splendid back country
waterways once stood for. They go where no
powerboat or off-road four-wheeler can go and
they make more noise than a choirloft full of
chainsaws doing it.
And in their wake they leave destroyed nests,
drowned fledglings, ugly skeins of oil and gas
pollution and God knows what underwater
disruption and devastation.
There is no upside. In the web of life, The
jet-ski disturbs and distresses every life form it
touches, save the moron in the saddle.
Not every jurisdiction is at the mercy of their
depredations. Switzerland has banned jet-skis
outright. They are not allowed in most of the
national parks in the U.S. or Canada.
But the sad fact is, it's open season for the
rest of this nation's waterways. Any number of
cottagers on any number of rivers or lakes can
have their summers mined by marauding jet-
skis because local communities get absolutely
no say in the matter. Navigable waterways fall
under federal jurisdiction and Ottawa shows no
inclination to step on the toes of the jet-ski
Raymond
Canon
The
International
Scene
watch in a week. What have you got left? Not
much!
The same holds true for magazines. Just
imagine if the local magazine store was to take
off all the American publications and leave you
with just Canadian ones to read. I asked that of
my local dealer and his reply was that he would
go out of business in a week.
You like fresh fruit and vegetables when you
can't get local produce. Again, cut off all the
supplies that come in from places like Mexico,
California and Florida.
Our diet would be a lot less varied that it is
Continued from page 4
that any terrorists remaining have long since left
Afghanistan for distant -places, if Afghanistan
was in fact ever their base. "Star Wars" type
defence shields would be of little value when
any terrorist could easily carry in a pill bottle
with enough deadly poison or disease-causing
organisms like anthrax to contaminate an entire_
city's water supply, killing millions before it
were even detected.
I do not believe there are any quick fixes. I
believe that the UN should be a forum for
countries to continue to reach agreements on
dealing with terrorists tr f, and when they are
actually identifi ed, notjust suspected. Co-
operation between police forces at all levels and
in all places should be the priority, rather than
between military forces. The difference in my
mind, is that police actions are, or should be,
limited in scope and force, focused, subject, to
well-understood rules, and accountable for
every bullet tired. Military actions on the other
hand seem so often to have no limits on the
amount of force used or who it is aimed at, and
little or no accountability.
manufacturing industry.
Ironic that the Feds should develop a
case of The Vapours when it comes to talking
tough on jet-skis, because it's a federal
politician who has done more than anyone else
to crystallize and focus public loathing of the
machines. He is Senator Hugh Jones and he's
been on the warpath against jet-skis ever since
a flock of them ruined an entire summer at his
cottage by screaming 'up and down the Red
River in south Winnipeg more than 15 years
ago.
"It's not just the noise and pollution," he
says. "These machines cause havoc for canoes
and other non-motorized boats. They take a toll
on wildlife, disrupting the nesting areas of
loons and other birds. And their big waves
erode the shoreline. I just think the last thing
you want to see on a lake or a river is one of
these things."
Actually, Senator Jones will have to share the
anti-jet-ski mantle with one other denizen of
Ottawa.
Stockwell Day.
The hapless Alliance poster boy sealed his
political fate forever the day he appeared in the
nation's newspapers flexing his pecs on the
back of a jet-ski.
Canadians instantly sensed that anyone who
was gormless enough to ride a jet-ski to a press
conference was far too stupid to be trusted with
the front door key to 24 Sussex.
now; we would probably get quite sick of it in
a short while.
Finally, you work in a company that exports
some or much of its product to the United
States or another country. Management finds
that, due to a business cycle over which Canada
has little if any influence, the demand for the
products you make starts to decline.
You get a little notice in your mail box or
with your pay slip saying that you are only
going to be working part-time, or you will not
be working for the next two months or you are
being let go with no indication of whether you
will be rehired at any time in the future.
I have not mentioned foreign vacations or
foreign visitors to Canada or even refugees
from other countries. No matter!
By now I am sure you are fully aware of the
pervasiveness of foreign influences.
But this works both ways. Just ask the Maine
potato farmers what they think of the
competition from Canada.
Be prepared to duck.
It is, and should be, much the same as the way
the Mafia is dealt with. There are no threats or
efforts to bomb Sicily, even if some Sicilians
benefit from the illegal activities of its more
notorious citizens. Likewise, one 'does not
eradicate a cancer with indiscriminate and
massive blasts of radiation or chemotherapy.
In the long run the causes of the problem must
be dealt with, not just the symptoms. Extreme
poverty, continuing injustice, lack of democratic
Options, hopelessness and utter desperation,
feed directly into terrorism. If you have
absolutely nothing to lose, what difference does
it make if you lose your life to kill others?
The human desire for vengeance creates a
vicious cycle-of revenge. One has only to look at
the history of Northern Ireland and so many
other places to see the truth of this. Is this really
what we want here? I for one, do not. For our
children's sakes, let's choose life. Those
responsible for terrorism must be brought to
justice, but revenge is not justice.
Brent Bowyer
RR2, Wingham, ON
NOG 2W0.
They've earned respect
As you read this it's been a week since
it all began. In that time so much has
happened, each day a new story.
Even the stories and faces which tept
repeating as we sat waiting for something new,
an assurance, a breakthrough, had the power to
rivet us. The tragedy that occurred at the World
Trade Centre in New York and at the Pentagon,
unarguably affected the world, not just
America. Lives lost were not only those of
United States citizens, but, as some have
predicted; those of some 40 nations.
Thus, for the first time perhaps, the
extensive coverage usually done ad nauseum
by CNN failed to disinterest me.
In the first few days after the Sept. 11
terrorism attack, words like horrendous,
horrific, evil played over and over again until
it felt the same sour note was being, repeated.
Then, a new development, a glimmer of hope,
a threat became breaking news and I was once
again mesmerized by what was happening,
compelled to keep watching.
The States, despite its convictions 'to the
contrary had stopped. Only a fool, as baseball
player Mark McGuire said, would think sports
(or anything else for that matter) could be
'considered important compared to What was
going on in New York and Washington. Each
day an announcement came that things would
resume, but days passed with the knowledge
that getting on with business as usual was not.
going to be easy.
And it was hard, to imagine when it actually
would. Until the lost were found, until the
dead were claimed, until families' final hopes
were gone and they could ,moum, each day it
seemed would be the same.
But we know time won't stand still. Though
it will take a good deal of fortitude to resume
normal day-to-day events there is much that
continues to happen in the chain of events. We
are by no means at the end of the story. And
that was, when I could no longer keep
watching. Dire predictions, at least for this
past weekend, I could no longer stand to hear
repeated.
However, in the early telling amidst the
terror, the sadness, that marked that day there
were stories and pictures that we will never
forget, many showing the courage, the
integrity, the pride and dignity of the people of
New York City. I know the image I had of them
has been altered forever.
As picture after picture appeared, story after
story was told, one could not help but be struck
by the bravery, the calm in this metropolitan
city. Devastation surrounded them, tear flowed
beneath the waves of grief and confusion.
However, what could have been a situation of
uncontrolled panic seemed anything but.
Certainly there were moments, they are after
all only human, but for the most part they have
demonstrated in addition to their familiar
staunch patriotism, a commendable _braveiy.
Cast into the middle of a story more often
seen on a movie screen, they have moved us to
tears. From the man who stopped to carry a
woman in a wheelchair down some 60 floors,
to the young man in a dress shirt and tie
helping an obviously injured fireman, this has
been an example for which all humanity
should strive. Putting the needs of others
before your own, hands that reach out beyond
the borders of colour, race or gender. While a
tragedy beyond imagination has given them
our sympathy and concern, they alone have
earned unequalled respect.
Hidden influences to small town
Letter to the Editor
4,4