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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2002-05-08, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2002. PAGE 5 Other Views 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