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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2006-05-11, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 11, 2006. PAGE 5. Other Views All the news that's fit to click A newspaper...like a fish, should be consumed when fresh; otherwise it is not only indigestible, but unspeakable. — James Reston S o there I was, sitting on a park bench in front of the ruins of a 10th century Moorish castle on the Costa del Sol overlooking the Mediterranean... And I'm reading a profile of Canada's newest PM. Stephen Harper, in that day's edition of The London Times. A miracle? Kind of. I was at the time deep in los boondocks of rural Spain — about 80 kilometres from the nearest Spanish city where one might reasonably expect to find an issue of any English-language newspaper. But here in my hand was an up-to-the- second edition of one of the best in the world. It was, of course, just an example of the ongoing electronic revolution of the Internet, a phenomenon that is transforming the world we live in. Fifteen years- ago, a copy of the London Times would have taken at least three days to reach me by post. In 2006. it's as close as the PRINT button on my laptop. Closer, even. I wasn't going cross-eyed staring at the flickering screen of a computer on that park bench; I was turning the pages of an actual newspaper. . I shouldn't have been surprised. After all, I live on a small island off the west coast of Canada — no bridges, ' no airport, no streetlights. On a good day I may spot bald eagles, sea lions,. even a pod of killer,whales. On the same day I can stroll down to the corner store and pick up that day's edition of The Globe and Mail, The National Post.— even The first MPP to suggest that wind power could help solve Ontario's energy shortage was almost laughed out of the legislature. This is hard to believe now, when turbines to harness wind are sprouting up faster than corn in many areas of the province and generally acknowledged to be a useful part of future electricity resources. But a powerful, entrenched and comfortable Progressive Conservative government scoffed at the idea when it was proposed by a little- known New Democrat backbencher in . the early 1970s. Fred Burr could not have received a less friendly reception if he had urged the Tories bottle all the hot air they generate in the legislature and use it to light residents' homes. This is worth recalling because Burr died recently at age 95 and it , is a supreme example of how a lone opposition backbencher took on all the brains and resources of government and proved it wrong. Burr was the NDP's environment critic, a teacher in his 60s, frail and unimpressive- looking in his shiny dark suits. The Conservatives' energy minister was Darcy McKeough, a former finance minister, young, . highly influential, considered by many to be heir-apparent to premier William Davis, but something of a know-it-all. Davis had put McKeough in energy because it was suddenly a key area with the province running out of new sites for water pOwer, its old reliable, and oil-producing countries boosting their piices. . , Burr read about alternative energy sources and tried to get McKeough interested, but the minister repeatedly shrugged him off. Burr asked McKeough if he would attend or send observers- to a conference on wind in Quebec and McKeough replied sarcastically he. couldnot reply on such an issue lightly and would have to ask Davis and managethent The New York Times. I can be reading the same news story in the same newspaper at the same moment as a reader in North York or Yonkers. Such an experience is about to get even easier. There's a company in Ottawa that's fixing to make it possible for you and me to walk to the corner, swipe our Visa or MasterCard through a vending machine and walk away with a fresh edition of...just about any newspaper in the world. The company is International Newspaper Kiosks Ltd.. an affiliate of Satellite Newspaper Corporation, which is based in The Hague. What INK Limited offers is the chanCe to buy any one of 135 (and counting) different newspapers any time of the day or night from a friendly automatic kiosk near you. And I mean different. Want to read the Shanghai Daily? It's as close as your credit card. So is Libero Sports of Peru, not to mention any of a host of papers in French, German, Italian, Spanish — even Iranian. These print-on-demand papers are updated - throughout the day, just like regular editions of yotir hometown daily. What the Kiosk honchos are homing in on is the comfort factor provided by an actual paper-and-ink newspaper as opposed to the board of cabinet if he or a representative could leave the province for a day. McKeough as a senior minister would not need to ask anyone for permission and Burr said it would be easy for him to send someone. McKeough then stonewalled that the matter had not yet been decided. The Conservatives should have known Burr would not give up easily, because he ran unsuccessfully in six elections, federal and provincial, before finally getting in the legislature. BUIT kept asking and McKeough eventually answered that the province would not send participants or observers, because the day of wind energy had not yet arrived. McKeough said Ontario should not spend public money on something not yet proven suitable for it. Burr asked McKeough if he knew of a study unveiled before the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in New York State, which claimed a wind turbine system near Lake Ontario could generate wind power equivalent to a generating station. McKeough said he had never heard of it. This reporter remembers the scene vividly when Burr asked McKeough if he would look into it and Conservative ministers and MPPs felt it was so absurd they almost fell out of their seats laughing and jeering "get all those windmills going, Darcy" and "the NDP has enough wind to heat the whole province." rather sterile on-line virtual experience. A couple of decades ago, in the heady first days of the brave new world of the internet, cyberspace gurus were confidently predicting the imminent Death of Newspapers. Dailies were doomed, they told us. People in the future would get all their news from their computer monitors. Pretty soon nobody would buy newspapers. Well, yes...and no. Millions are relying on the internet for fast-breaking news these days, but newspapers haven't gone away. The one thing the gurus neglected to notice was that reading anything lengthy on a computer monitor is a huge pain in the...eye. Computers are awkward and temperamental and hard to fold under your arm or stick in your back pocket. They are in a word, uncomfortable. Whereas newspapers are friendly. As Marshall McLuhan said "People don't read newspapers; they get into them — like a bath." Reading a real newspaper is a sensual experience. You don't haVe to sign on or log in to anything. There's no worry about passwords or Trojan viruses lurking in the background. All you need is an appositional thumb, a comfortable place to sit and a good source of light. And let me tell you, a park bench overlooking the Mediterranean ain't half bad. Nope, newspapers may have to do some fancy footwork but they're here to stay. Because they're cheap, informative, entertaining and just plain reader-friendly. Besides, you ever try to swat a fly with a laptop? Liberals, although rivals, interceded to say the government should give Burr a chance to be heard. Liberal Jim Bullbrook, an admired orator, complained "this is sickening" and NDP leader Stephen Lewis predicted Burr would be proven right in the end. McKeough eventually said he would follow the U.S. hearings with great interest, but in a tone that suggested he never wanted to hear any more on the issue. He never spoke about it again. Burr had the last laugh, because he lived to see wind power gain acceptance by later governments of all parties. Ontario new has 200 wind turbines and eventually wind will supply at least 10 per cent of its electricity. But Ontario still is behind some other jurisdictions, particularly Quebec, in using wind power and one lesson is don't put all your trust in the smart, young, confident- sounding guys in government. They don't know everything. Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only, Lettets that are not signed will not be printed. Subm ssions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed, as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise. Make her day i So, have you plans to honour your mother this Sunday'? If you don't might I suggest you start making some? Perhaps, you could say I'm a little prejudiced in this area, what with being a mother and all. But my sentiments also come from my position as a daughter. And the fact that I wasn't always an exemplary one. There are many blessings in my life, the obvious being my husband and children, health and a modest but comfortable lifestyle. But I am also fortunate to have had the years to make amends with morn. My mother was no longer a young 20- something woman when she found out her millionaire's family was about to become richer. I came along and for many years discovered myself coddled and indulged much as a cute, cuddly pet would be. By the time I had hit early adolescence, however, you began to recognize that the pet was a black sheep. And by my teens, you would likely have thought that the sheep was rabid. Most of that frothing at the mouth was directed towards my mother in those days. There was little it seemed that either one of us could do right for the other, and of course .as a know-it-all adolescent I had to assume the blame was entirely hers. Well, things change when you get older and what I didn't know then, I know now. What ,I have come to realize is that I was a bit of a challenge for mom. In addition to feeling perfectly justified in carrying out my misdeeds, I also felt perfectly justified in blaming mom for them. She may have had her faults, humans do. But since enjoying motherhood myself, I've come to see that Mom's faults sure weren't as plentiful as I thought then. Through time I have come to understand my mother more, to see why she behaved the way she did in some situations. They didn't make sense when I was 16, but they certainly did when I was the mother of a 16-year-old. There's nothing like having a few kids of your own to help you gain perspective on parenting. Now, years of pretending I was nothing like her are gone. These days I have fun discovering the many ways we are alike. We share a love for cookbooks and sunshine. We are happy when our family's around us and both of us seem to be the object of teasing when they are. So I am glad to have had the ensuing decades to try and make amends and enjoy a pretty good relationship with my mother.. And maybe even more than other 'kids' do, I like to give her a little extra attention when Mother's Day arrives. Even though there have been times when I haven't actually been able to see her on the actual day, I have made it a point 'to visit sometime in the week prior. And there will also be a gift because Mom, I need to say thanks. Raising Bonnie did not, I know, come easily. Actually, raising any child isn't easy. No one , holds your heart more solidly than your offspring, and even the most perfect angel is capable of breaking it at some point, whether on purpose or inadvertently. Parenting is about sacrifice, about humility. It is a job for which you are extraordinarily grateful, but which can be the most thankless. So take some time this week to show appreciation for your life by honouring your mom. She won't love you more for it, because more is impossible. But you will make her day. Wind pioneer has last laugh