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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2000-11-15, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2000. PAGE 5. Other Views Will that be coffee, tea or me? This may just be the jet lag talking - I’ve been hopscotching by air all over the continent for the past several days - but... What is it about airports? A person ought to feel great in an airport - after all, it’s a slick, no-hassles city in miniature. You’ve got your restaurants, your bookstores, your newspaper kiosks - even your chapels and your lost and founds. At the really big airports you can get a shoeshine, a bottle of Dom Perignon and a massage. Airports are totally climate-controlled. Once you get inside those doors you don’t have to deal with heat waves, monsoons or black ice. You also don’t have to worry about being run over by a truck, getting stuck in a traffic jam or being mugged by a gang of Homeys. And the airport is ecumenical. Hardline Muslims line up at the check-in counter, cheek by jowl with staunch Catholics; fundamentalist Baptists, share leatherette couches with Unitarians; dreadlocked Wiccans, break bread with briefcase-toting burghers from the ‘burbs. Your average big city airport is nothing if not democratic. We should love them. Vast armies of the homeless and the dispossessed ought to be pressing up against the hurricane fencing around our airports, eager to get inside and set up camp. Names like O’Hare and Heathrow, Pearson and Nagoya ought to be mentioned in the same breath as The art of remaining Canadian There is a lot of concern expressed about the ability of Canadians to maintain a society that is distinct from that of the United States. Precisely what the nature of that society should be depends on the speaker but it is generally agreed that we have a “kinder, gentler” society with more universal social welfare programs. Our gun laws are much tougher and our distribution of income is more equitable. As far as maintaining this sort of society is concerned, I often think that the Canadians and the Swiss have a lot in common. Most Swiss speak German but just north of the country are over 80 million Germans, well over 10 times the number of Swiss of the same language. Perhaps we should mention the Austrians to the east, who are also German speaking. It is a battle to keep German influence to a minimum. If that were not enough, the 1 1/2 million French-speaking Swiss are across the border from 50 plus-million Frenchmen while Ticino, the small Italian speaking canton of Switzerland, faces 50 plus million Italians. You can just imagine the influence coming in from all sides. I sometimes hear people complain that most of the channels or programs on TV in Canada are of American origin. The same thing happens in Switzerland. That country is bombarded with programs from Germany, Austria, France and Italy. Yet there are good Canadian programs just as there is good Swiss programming. Add to that the complaint that we are overrun with Americans in the summer. While we can blame to a considerable degree for that, this observation is made as if such an influx was threatening our way of life. Again I can draw a Swiss parallel. I like to spend a few days in Ticino, the Italian speaking canton in the south of that country. For one thing it gives my Italian a good workout and I also like the place. But each time the canton seems to be overrun Arthur Black London and Bangkok; Vienna and Paris. So how come that doesn’t happen? Why is it airports make us nervous, antsy and eager to be just about anyplace else? Perhaps it’s the very Nowhereness of modem airports. Being in Gatwick is like being in Kennedy is like being in Dallas International. The same disembodied mechanical voices reverberating off the same marble surfaces. And it’s a false community. Sure, you’re surrounded by every hue and accent of the human race — but like you, they’re all going somewhere else - and soon! These people you’ve been thrown together with you’ll probably never see again. The airport “community” has the shelf life of a champagne bubble. Maybe something in our genetic makeup recognizes that and keeps us on Standby Alert. One saving grace is that most of us don’t have to deal with airports all that often. Pity the poor folks - the maintenance people, the caterers, the guys who have to hump our luggage around - everyone who has to work in airports, day in and day out. Raymond Canon The International Scene with Germans, few of which speak any Italian. The waiters have to cope with this but it isn’t easy. However, they might not have a job if the Germans didn’t come and the same holds true for Canadians. Can you imagine how many jobs are created by this tourism which is a labour intensive industry to say the least. Letter to the Editor THE EDITOR, The tragedy of Walkerton ... the constant closing of Lake Huron beaches this summer... They are warning signs that can no longer be ignored. Safe and clean beaches along Lake Huron from Sarnia to Tobermory can no longer be taken for granted. Safe and clean groundwater, rivers and tributaries in the whole Lake Huron Watershed of southwestern Ontario, our backyard, can no longer be taken for granted. We have choices. We can sit back and watch our water quality deteriorate further, we can point fingers and debate endlessly, we can conduct yet more tests ... more studies, or we can volunteer to roll up our sleeves and get on with a serious cleanup. Towards that end I see the need for a citizen groundswell, the need to mobilize every stakeholder living, working, farming, owning property, doing business and/or vacationing in the region. Every village, town, township and municipality in the watershed, farm organizations, conservation authorities, community and cottage associations, youth and service groups, environmental organizations, nature groups, Mind you, they occasionally have their revenge. Like the Canadian Airlines gate agent who had to process an entire daisy chain of disgruntled travellers when a flight out of Ottawa was cancelled. She was working her way through the line with as much grace as she could muster when a red-faced guy in a three-piece suit bulled his way to the front of the line. He slapped his ticket down on the counter and said, “I HAVE to be on this flight and it has to be FIRST CLASS.” The agent replied, “I’m sorry sir. I’ll be happy to try to help you, but I’ve got to help these folks first, and I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out.” The passenger was unimpressed. He asked loudly, so that the passengers behind him could hear, “Do you have any idea who I am?” Without hesitating, the gate agent smiled and grabbed her public address microphone. “May I have your attention please?” she began, her voice bellowing throughout the terminal. “We have a passenger here at the gate WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to gate 17.” With the folks behind him in line laughing hysterically, the man glared at the Canadian Airlines agent, gritted his teeth and hissed “Screw you!” Flashing her best flight attendant smile, the agent purred, “I’m sorry, sir, but I’m afraid you’ll have to stand in line for that, too.” Obviously both Switzerland and Canada are subject to intense foreign pressures; it goes with the territory. In the end, however, it comes down to the extent to which we want to go to preserve a way of life. It may be in the support we give Canadian artists, authors and the like, it may be the support groups that we set up in our various communities or even the standards that we set in individual families. Over a hundred years ago the Canadian government was trying to persuade European farmers immigrating to North America that the way of life was superior in Canada to that of the United States. In this respect very little has changed in the last century. businesses, government departments, academics, ‘Workfare’ groups, environmental experts should make a five-year commitment to collectively, cohesively and single-mindedly work towards making the total Lake Huron Watershed in southwestern Ontario an environmental ‘Area of Excellence’. I have a vision - a vision of establishing a continuous riparian forest of native trees and shrubs along the Lake Huron shoreline and along the banks of Ausable, the Maitland, the Saugeen River and the smaller rivers and their tributaries to reduce agricultural and « rban runoff. Of establishing buffer strips of shrubs, grasses, sedges, reeds, bulrushes and other plants along small creeks, ditches and irrigation channels. Of restoring weLands. Of installing fences to keep livestock away from waterways. Of upgrading sewage treatment plants, lagoons and storm sewers to achieve zero discharge and zero spills of raw or partially-treated sewage. Of identifying and aggressively dealing with abandoned waterwells, with leakage from sewage lagoons, septic tank systems, liquid manure storage ' > Continued on page 6 Bonnie Gropp The short of it Use it wisely I know I’ve said I don’t think this column is about serious thought, however, with three elections occurring in North America during November, politics has been hard to ignore. I’m not an aficionada of government and its workings. What I am is your typical every person, a voter who hears the news, reads the dailies and in an informal, non-absorbed way gives government some attention. Often we may not really wake up until a choice must be made, but it is to be hoped that that choice will be reached with an open mind. The fact that I’m beginning to believe that more and more it isn’t, has increased my level of cynicism lately to the point where a colleague needed to remind me that ultimately democracy is still the best way. I watched that mess in the south with interest over this past week, primarily out of curiosity, but mostly with concern, first because a misunderstood ballot and a system where the popular choice is not the winning choice, challenges my view of democracy. But there is another reason that added fuel to a recent fire. There are comments I have heard of late that really have me wondering if our capricious nature makes us deserving of the right to choose. And as we prepare for our own federal election at the end of this month, it is important that we understand when we select a leader exactly what we will be getting, not cutting off our nose to spite our face. In a recent issue of People, two of Al Gore’s daughters, campaigning for their father, were featured in a story which mentions, in reference to the one woman’s take charge manner, that when confronted by a snake, she killed it and skinned it. An appalled 'etter writer responded to the article stating the action had cost Gore her vote. And to think I always thought it best to judge the candidate on his merits, not on those of his family or the people who attach themselves to him. Presuming, that this woman was going to therefore vote for George W. Bush, it’s interesting his past history of drunk driving, and that his wife as a young girl caused a fatal car accident and feels it was unfortunate it came to light now, are points the voter could overlook. I have heard of federal or provincial candidates losing a vote because the elector disliked the handling of one particular issue. One remarked that when Huron Bruce MP Paul Steckle had stood by his convictions opposing his party’s gun control legislation, he had only represented one sector of society. While this is true; he certainly didn’t represent my beliefs on this; I respected that he held true to his convictions, which were admittedly shared by a good number of his constituents, and didn’t just follow the party line. I need to weigh what is more important to me — that he didn’t speak for me or that he did speak for others. Locally, there were people who remarked on what they liked or didn’t like about their municipal candidates based often on things that had little to do with what type of representative they have been or would be. I am not blameless. I’ve been led by heart over head, by gullibility over gut. But I have tried in the recent municipal and soon the federal elections to make my choice with a clear conscience, a choice that came from common sense, not a nonsense decision. Yes, we are fortunate to have the democratic process, the lesser of all other evils. Let’s use it wisely.