HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2004-10-28, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2004. PAGE 5.
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Come on! What's your phobia?
For my money, the best interview
question ever asked came from Oriana
Fallaci at a NASA press conference in
Florida more than 30 years ago.
The feisty Italian journalist was covering the
return of the Apollo 11 space flight in which
Neil Armstrong and company became the first
humans ever to plant a boot on another planet.
Fallaci. a wee mite of a thing. was almost
trampled by the hordes of big-shouldered,
slavering male reporters who peppered the
astronauts with abstruse, technical questions
about G-forces. oxygen ratios. orbital
fluctuations and the like.
The astronauts responded with answers that
could have come from well-programmed
robots.
Finally, the moderator noticed Fallaci's
waving hand.
"Yes," he said, "the Italian reporter....you
have a question?"
And Fallaci, all five-feet-nothing of her,
stood up and asked the astronauts: "Were you
scared?"
It was the question we all wanted to know
the answer to. Only Fallaci had the wit to ask
Ironically, the astronauts' reaction to the
question was....fearful. They were off their
turf. Out of their comfort zone. It made them
one of us again.
I would guess the fear that engulfed the
astronauts at that moment was topophobia —
fear of performing. We can all relate to that.
Fear is the primordial electric current that
hard-wires us all.
As a matter of fact, I had a grandmother who
was eiectrophObic.
She was convinced electricity was seeping
out of the wall sockets and pooling
dangerously on the carpets.
I myself was clinophobic as a child —
The sweetest sound in Ontario politics
has been that of whistle-blowing, but
the Liberal government is doing its best
to silence it.
This has been shown in the aptly named
"bullygate." in which a hospital official who
said government underfunding could harm its
services to patients was fired by the hospital
and Health Minister George Smitherman is
suspected of having had a hand in it.
The incident inevitably will discourage
others from speaking up, which will be a loss,
because residents have become more willing to
blow the whistle on inadequacies in public
services after decades of being reluctant to
take a public stand.
As a few examples of many, an informant
tipped off the province during the last days of
the preceding Progressive Conservative
government. that a meat-packing plant was
slaughtering and processing for market cattle
which had died before reaching the abattoir.
The Tories were accused of failing to protect
residents and this became a major issue in last
year's election and helped defeat them. It led
to stricter regulations throughout the industry
and a judge ruled the informant's identity must
he protected.
An anonymous caller notified the province
that long after tainted water killed seven
people at Walkerton a private laboratory still
was not complying with upgraded provincial
regulations on testing water and the province
charged the lab.
Two public-spirited nurses exposed physical
abuse of an elderly patient in a nursing home
through means that included filming with a
hidden camera. It helped push the province
into more surprise inspections and funding for
terrified of going to bed. That's because of the
alligator I was certain lived under my cot.
Most of us are at least mildly brontophobic —
we get a little apprehensive when we find
ourselves in the middle of a thunder and
lightning storm.
And I venture to guess the planet is currently
undergoing a virtual epidemic of cyberphobia
— fear of computers.
A. lot of well-known folks have lugged
phobias around on their backs. Famous nutbar
Howard Hughes suffered from a fear of.public
places (agoraphobia) and. a fear of germs
(mysophobia). Canadian comic David
Steinberg is deathly afraid of snakes
(ophidophobia) while Malcolm Lowry. the
novelist. suffered from pnigophobia — a fear of
choking on fish bones.
I wonder what Lowry ate during the 15 years
he spent living in a shack on a beach north of.
Vancouver? I sure hope he didn't suffer from
arachibutyrphobia (fear of peanut butter
sticking to the roof of your mouth).
The worst kind of phobia are the ones that
inspire ridicule in others. How can we accept
with a straight face that comedian Sid Caesar
suffered from acute tonsurophobia — fear of
haircuts.? Or that Queen Elizabeth I of Britain
was anthophobic — terrified of roses?
So what do you do to combat your phobia —
check into a hospital?
Not if your iatroPhobic, i.e. frightened of
doctors.
•
staff and a promise to make sure all homes
have councils representing residents and their
families.
A senior Crown prosecutor conceded that
some police use racial profiling, viewing
blacks more suspiciously than other residents,
although it was Tory government policy to
deny it. The government warned he had "held
himself out dry," but numerous events before
and since proved him right.
Some who blew whistles have been
punished. A citizens' group was given $70,000
a year by a provincial agency to help the
environment and raised concerns about
Conservative plans to allow housing on a
moraine north of Toronto.
The agency, supposed to be arm's-length
from politicians, warned it would cut funding
unless the group desisted and, when it
continued, ended its grant.
A lawyer and president of a human rights
organization felt a warm glow when the
province sent a letter advising she had been
appointed to the Order of Ontario, its highest
honour, for services of great distinction that
enriched its life.
But she received another letter saying it was
a mistake and concluded she must have
(Mended the Tory government when she spoke
Decisions, decisions. It's enough to turn one
into a raving decidophobic (a person incapable
of coming to conclusions).
Sometimes the gods who bestow phobias
exhibit a rich sense of irony.-Towards the end
of his life, billionaire philanthropist Andrew
Carnegie developed chrometophobia, the fear
of money. The sight of even a dollar bill
alarmed and nauseated him and he refused to
carry any cash.
Richie Valens had all the money and fame a
rock and roller could handle, but he also had a
crushing case of aerophobia — fear of flying.
He died in a plane crash in 1959.
The only thing that really frightened actress
Natalie Wood was deep water (aquaphobia).
She drowned off Santa Catalina Island in 1981.
Then there's the phobia that even the best
hotels acknowledge. Ever wondered why
North America highrises almost always skip
from the 12th to the 14th floor?
Triskaidekaphobia — fear of the number 13.
It's a fear that Romanian laborer Florin Carcu
could relate to because he had a bad case of it.
Carcu's fear was so strong that this summer,
on the morning of Friday, Aug. 13 he phoned
his boss begging for the day off.
"It was the strangest request," says his boss,
"but I ended up giving him permission to stay
home. He seemed to be really scared of
something bad happening to him that day."
Carcu should have taken his chances at
work. He died from a wasp sting while making
himself a 'cup of coffee in his kitchen.
So much for the bad news. The good news is
there are no more Friday the 13ths this
calendar year.
But come the second Friday of next May I
plan to be carrying a rabbit's foot, knocking on
wood and wearing a horseshoe where the sun
don't shine.
up accusing it of failing to protect English-
speaking residents against language
discrimination in Ottawa.
An administrative assistant at a caneer
centre was fired after she attended a news
conference there called by a Tory health
minister to announce more money for
treatment and had the effrontery to ask a
question in which she suggested waiting lists
for surgery were long, which was about as
secret as the use of radiation to treat patients.
Reporters interviewed her and she said the
long waits place extra stress on patients and
knew this because her mother had cancer. But
the centre said she was not supposed to talk to
media and hurt its image.
In "bullygate" Smitherman and the hospital
have denied he demanded it fire the official
who spoke up and the minister has conceded
only he is forthright and passionate in his job,
where he has comparatively few critics for his
policies.
But there have been other incidents where
the health minister has not shown the most
comforting bedside manner and the hospital
may have got rid of its official hoping to
placate the testy politician who• controls its
funds.
The Liberals in opposition used to praise
whistle-blowers because they benefited from
them, but in government the first time one
opposes them they are happy to see her shut
Final Thought
A good listener is not only popular
everywhere, but after awhile he gets to know
something.
— Wilson Mizner
Bonnie
Gropp
The short of it
Time for united voice
I t was the era of Haight-Ashbury, of
Woodstock. Man walked on the moon, and
American soldiers died by the thousands in
Vietnam. The struggle for civil rights
continued and the world watched sadly as two
of this movement's leaders were gunned down.
Coming of age in the latter part of the 1960s
was romantic stuff indeed for a headstrong,
confused adolescent. I was mesmerized by the
hope of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther
King. I was moved by the tragedy of Vietnam,
the young lives lost for a seemingly senseless
cause. The impact of scientific advancements
and its subplot, the race against Russia,
appealed to my competitive side. The images
of life as a hippie became idealized
enchantment to one so far removed from
reality. And I was inspired by the music,
words, it has been said, that spoke for a
generation.
But what possibly struck the deepest chord
with me was the passion everywhere to fight
for beliefs. In April of 1967 there were large
demonstrations against the Vietnam war in
New York and San Francisco. Oct. 21 tens of
thousands marched into Washington, D.C. to
protest Americas involvement in the war.
Feb. 8, 1968 an American civil rights protest
at a South Carolina bowling alley was broken
up by highway patrol. Three college students
died. On Feb. 13 there were protests at the
Universities of Wisconsin and North Qarolina.
March 17 there was a demonstration in
London's Grosvenor Square against the U.S.
involvement in Vietnam.
In Germany on April 11, 1968, following a
victory for the German left, students
blockaded the Springer Press headquarters in
Berlin. April 23-30 was a student protest in
Columbia University in New York. Students
took over the administration offices and shut
down the university.
May 1968 was the "symbol of resistance of
that generation". Strikes in Paris led many
young people to believe the revolution (take
your pick which one) was starting.
Aug. 22-23 Police clashed with anti-war
protesters in Chicago. Oct. 2 a students
demonstration at La Plaza de las Tres Culturas
in Mexico City ended in massacre.
And on and on...
Reviewing some of these past news events it
was not surprising to see very little from
Canada. After all, we didn't have the same
issues to fight against. Our young men were
not dying thousands of miles away in a lost
war. There was not such a strict line drawn
between black and white as there was south of
the border. We may have had our little
skirmishes, but they were typically polite.
It was certainly no training ground for the
battles facing one of our country's largest
industry's today. According to a speaker at the
Huron County Federation of Agriculture
meeting last week, Canadian farmers are being
ignored by the government. In addition to low
support levels for agriculture, the , industry is
now being crushed by the border closure to
ruminant animals.
As it was proven that there is no scientific
reason for the border to be closed, the U.S.
should be challenged under NAFTA. The
Canadian government needs to stand up for its
farmers.
And the farmers need to make sure they do.
It's time to stir up some of that 1960's
idealism, to believe that a united voice can
make a difference and not give up until it does.
• Liberals reverse on whistle-blowers