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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2000-07-26, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2000. PAGE 5. Other Views From the steward s perspective You need to be really careful about which words you allow to come out of your mouth - or your word processor. You might find yourself eating them one day. A few weeks back I am in one of my favourite watering holes nursing a liquid libation when I notice a chap - a stranger at another table, looking at me. Not kindly. I look away, being a polite Canuck, give it a five beat, and look back. He’s still staring at me. In another lifetime, say, 10 years ago, I would have^zoned into my Clint Eastwood- High-Noon-Eyelock-Stare-Down Whatareyoulookinat Bub mode, but life’s too short. I consign the voyeur to Anonymous Kookdom, take another sip and - oh, cripes. He’s getting up and coming over to my table. Let’s see now; who do I owe money? Did I ding anyone’s car lately? Whose girlfriend might I have innocently ogled? Now he’s standing over me. And he’s ... large. “Yer the guy that writes in the paper arncha?” I nod. It’s not really a question. “And last month you wrote about how much you hate ocean cruises.” I nod again. I had written that I thought most ocean cruises were ridiculously expensive and plastic and silly and that a honeymoon on an ocean liner must be, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, a young bride’s second greatest disappointment. 709 years and still counting When it comes to the middle of July my mind starts to concentrate on things Swiss, more specifically the celebration of that country’s national holiday on Aug. 1. Sometimes I celebrate it in Switzerland, sometimes here but it doesn’t really matter where, it is a day that I enjoy. This thought is helped along by the fact that the Canon family has a visitor from Switzerland, Stefan Sondeegger, who has just completed his law studies at the University of Zurich and is taking advantage of our hospitality to relax a bit. He brings me up to date on what has happened in Switzerland since I was last there and I do the same about Canada since his last visit. Back in 1991 the Swiss celebrated 700 years of nationhood; this year the number will be 709. That is surely some sort of record for continuity but the country as it was then is only a small portion of what it is at the beginning of 2000. There were originally only three cantons, Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden and, if you look at the map of the country, you will find that they are located right in the centre where the St. Gotthard pass crosses the Alps. Today there are no less than 26 of these cantons. There are still no cities in the original three cantons, only towns, with the nearest city being Luzern, located nearby on the beautiful Lake of the Four Cantons or Vierwaldstaettersee, to give it its German name, (which must be unpronounceable to all but German speakers). I consider Luzern to be one of the most Swiss of cities, lacking the businesslike atmosphere of Zurich or the cosmopolitan nature of Geneva but showing, nevertheless, many of the characteristics that has made the country famous. One of the most fascinating aspects of Swiss life is the holding of the Landsgemeinde, an early example of direct democracy, held only in a very few German-speaking cantons. Living as I did in St. Gallen, I was able to get “Yeah” growls the stranger at my table. “Well, I want you to know that I was a cabin steward for four summers on cruise ships out of Miami.” Oh oh. Reflexively, I draw on my martial arts training, surreptitiously tensing my muscles, ready to swiftly morph into an effectively devastating defense posture. Groveling, wringing my hands, begging for mercy - whatever it takes. “And I just want you to know,” continues the stranger (Lord, his hands are big!) “that it’s ‘way worse than you wrote.” The gist of his beef was that I didn’t talk about ocean cruises from the point of view of the poor saps who have to work on them. The pay, he told me, is crummy. The hours are insane, the accommodations Dickensian and the passengers.... Oh, my. The passengers. The stranger, whose name turned out to be Corey, had a theory about ocean cruise passengers. He figures each and every one of them has a mandatory lobotomy before they come aboard. How else to explain the stupid questions? Such as the woman sitting poolside one Raymond Canon The International Scene to see the one in nearby Appenzell. One of the most fascinating aspects are the official “counters” which are empowered to count the show of hands and officially declare whether the “yeas” or “nays” have won. That takes a lot of trust but I have never heard of any scandals in this important duty. Swiss immigration to Canada has long made up part of the Canadian ethnic mosaic. In southwestern Ontario it has been represented, for the most part, by farmers who have taken to the more level farm land of our countryside and have put their diligence and knowledge to good use. There have, in fact, been so many of them that their activities have been entailed in a book written by a former French-Swiss diplomat to Canada entitled “Canada et les Suisses 1604-1974.” In it there is a chapter on one of the southwest Ontario families named Freyvogel; I had the pleasure of translating this chapter for the media. If you are driving along Hwy. 7, you will see, just west of New Hamburg, the old Freyvogel Inn commemorating this family which arrived Final Thought Education ... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. - George Macaulay Trevelyan afternoon who asked the cruise director whether the ship’s pool was filled with fresh water or seawater. “Seawater, ma’am,” said the director. “Ah,” replied the woman. “That explains why it’s so rough today.” Or the passenger who changed his mind about his accommodation once he was aboard. The ship’s purser asked him “Would you prefer an Inside Cabin or an Outside Cabin, sir?” The man squinted his eyes and looked up at the sky. “Better make it an Inside Cabin. Looks like it could rain.” Or the newlywed couple who had just come aboard, and after viewing their cabin, came storming up to their cabin steward. The bride was crying. The groom was seriously cheesed off. “You incompetent boobs!” yelled the groom. “We paid for a cabin with a view! And we look out the porthole and what do we see? A parking lot!” And then there was the passenger - a dentist from Wyoming — who plied Corey with all kinds of inane technical questions, ending with “Well, tell me son, does the ship run off generators?” Corey looked at the man and deadpanned “Actually, no. We have this very long power cord running to the mainland.” Corey took a sip of the beer I’d bought him. “That happened on my last trip” he recalled. He was smiling at the memory. in the area in 1826. Check the hours when it is open; it is worth a visit. Perhaps the most famous Swiss company operating in Canada is Nestle, which makes a variety of projects in addition to chocolate. It has bought into a number of Canadian firms and I would imagine that few Canadians indeed realize that its head offices are “nestled” on the banks of Lake Geneva. But then few Swiss are aware that the engines of all their excellent aircraft production have their origin in Canada. But for any Swiss in the area who might be reading this, the current most important date on the calendar is Sunday, July 30 when the national holiday will be celebrated, as usual, at the Menzi farm between Brussels and Monkton, northwest of Stratford. John and Heidi Menzi are famous for their hospitality on this occasion and you will find something for everybody. Proceedings start at 10:30 a.m. with a tasty soup and I hope to see you there. Letter Continued from page 4 the ability to identify, apprehend and punish criminals for their intrusion into our community. The most positive part of the experience is that our benefactor, who wishes to remain anonymous, took it upon himself to actively help recover our property simply because he could. I am sure that if all criminal activity could receive the same amount of attention it would drive many of these scumbags back down their holes. If just for this one instance I would like to thank this newspaper and neighbours for contributing to this particular recovery and urge everyone to use that as evidence of the val e and effectiveness of participating in our own community policing. Chris Lee Bonnie Gropp The short of it Cranky folk your day is done I am tired of people making me feel bad. I am tired of being allowed no tjuman frailty, while having to accept those of others. I am tired of making allowances for the cranky and irritable, who forgive no one anything. To those who find it necessary to improve their day at my expense, I would finally after many years of abuse like to have my say. Mistakes in this business are not done, as there are those compelled to believe, to distress any one person. To the rational a typographical error is simply that, an error. They happen. It is not a diabolical plot to embarrass someone by misspelling their name or adding an extra decade to their age. Then there are the occasions when it has nothing to do with a mistake, but rather an individual’s interpretation of what should and shouldn’t be. They are all too ready to know what path someone must follow without ever stepping into their shoes. Working on a newspaper puts our shortcomings on public display for all to see. What they don’t see is what we often put up with over the telephone and in the office because of these shortcomings. Correct our errors, fine. But don’t attack us as people. As anyone dealing with the public is aware there are all kinds of people in this world, many of them I’m starting to believe, unpleasant. They come with a good (jeal of baggage. Emotional stresses, unhappiness, insecurities in their own lives can make them shrewish, paranoid. I have tried for a long time to rationalize their bad behaviour in this way, to try to understand what prompted such a vehement diatribe over what usually in the long-term is insignificant. I suspect at this point any of them reading this will scream, “Insignificant to you perhaps!” and in a way they are right. It’s all relative. However, there have been many times when I have had to look at my pain and with much force remind myself that the sun will come up tomorrow. In the ace of some of life’s tragedies, most things that upset us are, if we’re honest, indeed insignificant. All of this said, I don’t think for one moment that a person upset by something shouldn’t address the issue. However, I am a firm believer in dialogue and with an understanding that no harm was intended, an ability to accept an explanation generously and graciously. Not in making someone feel incompetent or foolish. To those who would feel it necessary to rant, to belittle, I hope it improves your day. I know that any time I have slipped and done the same the effect has been quite the opposite. I feel terrible and usually apologize. Until by some bit of magic I become incapable of human weakness, of possessing bad judgement or of making a mistake, I have no right to treat another person in this manner. It is another example of my human condition that from time to time I fail in this, and bitter irony that when I do I feel worse than when I am on the receiving end. So here, I must apologize too. After several years of bending in the hot air, I’ve snapped. At first I was reluctant, knowing some readers may recognize themselves. Then I thought what can they do, yell at me? Probably. But when all is said and done, I will go home to a family who continues to love me despite my failings. And I am determined that the cranky folk are done ruining my day.