HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2002-05-08, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2002. PAGE 5
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An example of the real Olympic spirit
That was.sonne winter Olympics, eh? The
McKeever brothers standing tall and
proud on the winners' podium. Lauren
Woolstencroft bringing home the gold in
skiing...Pierre Pichette making great saves in
net for the mens' hockey team...
Not the way you remember the Olympic
Games in Salt Lake City? That's because I'm
talking about the other Games - the 2002
Paralympic Games.
They, too. took place at Salt Lake City, but
several weeks after the glory boys' and girls of
the Olympiad had packed up their gear and
their trainers and their managers and gone
home.
.The Paralympics are much younger than
their bigger brother — this is only the seventh
incarnation — but they're important. Important
enough to generate support from the
governments of 35 nations. They kicked in
dough towards the training and travel expenses
of more than 500 disabled performers from
around the world.
The Paralympics provide a place to shine for
athletes from six different disability groups —
but they don't focus on the disabilities of the
athletes. And they certainly don't obsess about
the gold-silver-bronze medal count.
Still, I'm not surprised if you haven't heard
about them. They don't get much respect, the
Paralympics.
Oh, some of the bigger newspapers send
their B teams of columnists and the games get
a few inches on the inside pages, behind the
latest NHL and NBA results. Occasionally
you'll see a fleeting clip buried in the nightly
TV newscast, but the truth is, the professional
sports world doesn't spend a lot of ink or air
time covering these Other Olympics.
A pity, considering what the original
Olympics have become.
When the modern Olympic Games were
launched back in 1896, amateurism was a
From a U.S.
The good people of the Michigan
community of Holland are not too
happy these days when the word
• Canada is mentioned. They have every reason
to be in that state of affairs since it was
announced that the owners of the company, the
giant corporation Kraft Foods Inc., are closing
the production line located there and moving
all its production to a plant in Canada.
The city's population is about 35,000 and it
is located in the western part of the state. It
relies to a considerable degree, on tourism, but
there are no less than 600 workers employed at
the Lifesavers plant, which has been part of the
community for the last 35 years.
Many of these residents consider Lifesavers
to be part of the American way of life. The
round candies with a hole in the centre was
created in the U.S. in 1912 and some idea of
their current popularity can be gleaned from
the number of stores that have them on sale
throughout the country.
The reaction of the highly-paid and
unionized workers at the plant is one of
surprise and indignation, not unlike that of any
plant in Canada that might be shut down for the
same reason with its production being moved
.to Mexico or some other place where labour or
suppliers- are cheaper.
It is very easy to sympathize with them; for a
number of workers it is the only job they have
known. You get out of • school, start to work
with a specific -company, get married, buy a
house and start to raise a family and all of a
sudden your roof caves in. The unthinkable has
happened! The company to which you felt so
much loyalty has decided to close up shop and
move away "for economic reasons."
compliment, not a sneer. .The venues were
austere, the conditions, for the athletes Spartan
and the rules forbiddingly strict: only amateur
athletes would be eligible to participate. The
only prize: a crown of olive branches.
A little over a century later, the games are
unrecognizable. They are awash with corporate
sponsorships and multi-millionaire pro
athletes. The Olympics have become a mega-
billion-dollar industry.
Municipalities spend kings' ransoms for the
privilege of hosting the Games, hurling
themselves into whirlpools of debt building
arenas and stadiums they can't afford in
exchange for a 15 minute civic cakewalk on the
world stage. Networks shell out hundreds of
millions of dollars for the broadcast rights.
Journalists descend by the thousands, often
outnumbering the contestants five to one.
And presiding over it all, the International
Olympic Committee. The most bloated and
corrupt gang of bagmen, grafters and
freeloaders this side of Caligula's entourage.
These guys hold the keys to the Olympic
kingdom and they know it. They get to select
the host cities, and they spend the years
between Olympiads swanning around the
globe, gliding in limos from five-star hotel to
five-star hotel, being wined and dined and
bribed and massaged by prospective and
increasingly desperate civic supplicants.
As for the athletes, they are - aside from a
tiny handful of events — hardly amateurs.
When Team Canada and Team USA lined up
on the ice before that famous hockey game last
There is another thing that has become
crystal clear over the years of trade
liberalization. When you lose a plant such as
the people of Holland, Mich. are about to do,
there is something wrong .with the system.
When you gain a plant such as the people of
Quebec have done, perhaps to their surprise,
the system is working wonderfully well.
I recall vividly when it was announced that
General Motors Diesel in London had lost an
order to supply locomotives to the Canadian
National Railways. There was a round of
screaming and wailing of high decibel level
that such a thing should not be allowed to
happen; the local MPs should all go back to
Ottawa and force the government to step in and
right the obvious wrong.
A short while later another announcement
was made public that the same company had
won a bid to supply an American railroad with
a far larger number of locomotives. Was there
any sympathy with the U.S. community whose
company had lost the order?
Not one iota! There was a monumental
silence. Our government wisely decided to
keep its distance from the whole matter:
The reasons given for the Lifesaver move to
Canada were lower prices for sugar and
corrugated paper. This price advantage is, not
winter, the money that was standing around on
skates would dwarf the gross national products
of some Third World countries.
The U.S. Olympic Committee makes no
pretense of honouring amateurism. It offers a
flat cash gift to any American athlete who
brings home a medal — $7,500 for bronze,
$10,000 for a silver, $15 Gs for a gold. USA
swimming, the federation that oversees U.S.
aquatics, pays $50,000 to every swimmer who
wins a gold medal.
That's not to mention the endorsements.
Advertisers line up to sign Olympic champions
to lucrative advertising contracts - especially if
they're blond, with good teeth and a winsome
smile.
Nothing succeeds like excess.
Then there's the Paralympics. Their entire
budget probably wouldn't match the travel
expenses of the German contingent to a "real"
Olympics.
They do things differently. They dispense
with the breast-beating pomp and ceremony -
no national anthems are played. Why, they
barely keep a tally of which country won the
most golds.
And the athletes - that's where you see the
real difference. Perhaps it's something to do
with the extra physical challenges they live
with, but paralympians just don't seem to have
the same competitive, win-at-any-cost fire in
their bellies.
At the Special Winter Olympics held in
Toronto and Collingwood, Ontario back in
1997, there was a moment when a Canadian
stood at the podium about to receive his second
gold medal for downhill skiing. Just before the
awarding of the medals, he turned to a U.S.
skier who had placed second and said: "I've
got one gold medal already, but no silver. You
don't have a gold medal yet. Can we trade?"
Now I ask you - what kind of an attitude is
that?
surprisingly, disputed in some quarters in the
U.S. but the American Coalition for Sugar
Reform, which wants to change their
government's sugar price-support system, has
come forth with the information that the
wholesale price of sugar was only about 60 per
cent of that in the United States.
In the end the bottom line is Kraft has made
its decision and there the matter will rest until
the next time that a plant, either here or in the
United States, will be closed under similar
conditions. Then the old arguments, pro and
con, will be trotted out once again.
Even assuming that the Lifesavers can be
produced more cheaply in Canada than in the
U.S., can we expect a reduction in the price we
pay at the corner variety store?
Don't count on it! Tim Horton's even
managed to raise the price of a cup of coffee at
the same time that world coffee prices had
been dropping for some time and were
continuing to fall.
And even if the price does not change, have
you ever had the feeling that there is less in the
package than there used to be?
Oh, so I'm not alone!
Final Thought
The time which we have at our disposal
every day is elastic; the passions that we feel
expand it, those that we inspire contract it;
anti habit tills up what remains.
;kit . — Marcel Proust
Bonnie
Grope
The short of it
Paying off our debt
As Mother's Day approaches I--find
myself thinking about parental roles
and the parent/child relationship.
Our babyboomer generation has reached a
challenging time - nurturing now bigger
children with bigger problems and giving care
to our one-time caregivers. As we look at our
emptying nests, we are confronted as well with
subtle reminders that our world as we knew it
is changing on every level. .
For the middle-aged faced with the reality of
parents who are aging, albeit in some cases
with grace bur, aging nonetheless, emotions
race rampant through our core. There is loss
for what is gone, fear for what will be,
frustration for what is expected, guilt for what
can't be done, compassion for who they are,
respect for who they were. We love them for
themselves, as well as for ourselves.
One of the most common stories heard from
boomers is about a parent's struggle to
maintain some level of independence.
Refusing to move from a house that is too big,
too isolated. Or attempting jobs they no longer
have any business doing. Driving when it
would probably be safer if they put the wheel
in someone else's hands.
The problem is first about recognizing one's
limits and accepting them. Many older seniors
are more than capable of doing all of the things
mentioned above. The hard part comes in
finding the strength to admit when it's best to
stop.
The second problem is that with that change
comes the reality they must accept help,
usually from their family, the very people for
. whom most of their life they have been the
support, provider and comforter. Even for the
well-adjusted, the most willing to adapt, it has
to be a somewhat humbling experience.
It's too bad that circumstances, or that
parental generosity of spirit, makes it difficult
to put this situation into perspective. The truth
of the situation is that it's really about time.
I am fortunate; my parents remain in
relatively good health and are able to do most
of the things they want. However, in case the
day comes when they can't I offer some
memories, not exclusive to them but to all
parents I'm sure, which may make the
transition smoother.
How many sleepless nights did we put you
through as you waited into the wee hours?
(My brother gets the prize on this one with his
trip to Buffalo for coffee.) How many times
did you sit by our bedsides caring for us,
worrying about us, when we were ill? How
many times did you take up the battle cry,
running in to defend us when others would do
us wrong? How many times did you drop what
was important to you to come and give us help
when help was needed? How many times did
you find the money when the money was
needed for that coveted winter coat or that
perfect Christmas present? How many times
did we reject you? How many times would we
have been easy to stop loving, but you never
did?
So with Mother's Day approaching .and
Father's Day just around the corner I ask all
Moms and Dads to think about these things.
not to see yourselves as reluctant martyrs. but
simply to remind you that your time has come.
For years we leaned on you and even
occasionally weighed you down. In return >ou
did your best to give w, everything you could.
Thus if your later years cause you to depend
on us a bit, rather than feel guilty, think of it as
doing us a favour. It's the only way we have of
repaying at least some of what we owe.
to a Canadian lifesaver