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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1988-09-07, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, September 7, 1988 1 imes 1 stabb+hed Ili' i Adhiu(ale 1%Iablished 1881 Amatganrated 1924 BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1985 dvocate Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1SO Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. s Phone 519-235.1331 ROSS HAL CH tdilot PCNA 44: IIS( Ill( kill Publisher A Adbertning %tanager HARR1 Df\Rif S DO%S\UIH Composition +ianage r $us,nc%s S{anager - SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $25.00 Per year; U.S.A. $65.00 Who comes first? What came first, the chicken or the egg?. - "t'hat answer is hard to come by, but one -Woman in Cambridge, Ontario can testify that the government comes -first in any dealings when it -applies to finances. The woman in question, Rebecaa Rols- - -ton-Miller is owed about $85,000 in sup- port -payments::from a former husband and the only -chance she had to collect some of the back payments -was squashed by Revenue Canada. - After all else failed in trying to get sup- port payments,- she learned that her for- mer husband had. insurance policies with a total cash value of $8,400. ".Off to court she went -with_a request to - gee -hold of this insurance money, but the federal government had also -found about the. policies and claimed the husband "owed them some money. - • The tax -department seemed to be more interested in what is legally correct than Double Does the western- world have two stan- .,dards; one for judging white -ruled na- tions, affr ier for black govern - merits? • A massacre based on race is going on in the Nova -Scotia sized country of Burun- di in central Africa; and the few -outside protests are muffled at best. .World=wide outrage was expresed when South African .police killed 69 blacks in the Sharpesville massacre of I960, -and again during the Soweto riots of 1976 when 1,000 died. During that .period, the ruling Tutsi tribe in Burundi brutally put down a Hutu rebellion by systematically slaughtering every I tutu man, womat " and child with more than a primary school education. Human rights groups place the toll at over 150,000 people. Most nations gave a figurative shrug, and turned away. This time, liutu refugees fleeing into neighbouring Rwanda tell of thousands - being kit 1, and whole villages burned down, in anothcr bloodbath being carried out by the Burundi army. Where are the voices of outrage? No one has spoken up at the UN. No nations have threatened to withdraw aid, or im- pose sanctions. No respected world fig- ure has been delegated to give a first- hand" report of the situation. • . The only reaction by Canada to what is happening in Burundi was a mild rebuke delivered by external affairs minister Joe Clark, although Canada is a partner with What would you say if China pulled down the Great Wall because it needed space for a new railway line? Or if Margaret Thatcher decided to remove what's left of Hadrian's Wall to make room for yet another motorway? You'd probably be shocked at such vandalism. And yet the equivalent is happening in rural Canada. One day this summer I drove along the 5th Line and saw a bulldozer at work in a field. "Another house going up?" I wondered. The next day I passed that way again and saw what was going on. The bulldozer had dug a deep trench and was pushing the rocks from alt ancient stone fence into it. I wondered whether old Jimmy, the in what most people would consider mo- rally right. It has first -claim to the mon- ey, The situation was explained rather tact- fully by a government lawyer: "While this might not appear just in the circum- stances, as you are fully aware, the law is net always just". It appears from a moral point, the Cam- bridge woman's claim to the money would be as solid if not moreso as the government's. This is the second. time the government has won a similar case in the Supreme Court of Ontario. She _did receive some good news," but it certainly did not make up for the had news. The government is not asking her to pay for its legal costs. It doesn't seem fair that a situation like this should happen. It's time to Make the law "always just". - By Ross iiaugh standard Burundi in La Francophonie, and has contributed $20 million in development aid in the last five years. This country played .a leading role in r _ South Africa out of the Common- wealth beca at nation's reprehen- sible apartheid policy. • an `p�tfall�ls _ can be drawn between South Africa- and Burundi. The Tutsi tribe, comprising 15 percent of the five million population, imposed a feudal system on the majority Hutu when they invaded from the north four centu- ries. ago. The one-party dictatorship con- trols the government, the army, and the education system. Little of the wealth and privilege trickles down to the 85 per- cent of the population belonging to the Hutu tribe, who are asking for a fairer share in a more democratic system. Life is precious and valuable, whether a person is white, brown, yellow or black. State -sanctioned murder should be con- demned regardless of the colour of the killer's skin. Failure to speak out against the horrors happening in a little, unim- portant country where blacks are maim- ing and killing' other blacks is•discrimina tion in reverse. We, the so-called civilized countries, the often self-appointed consciences of the world, are saying by our lack of ac- tion that we do not expect the same ad- herence to a moral code of conduct from some nations that we do from others. . Yvonne Reynolds Fences fellow who owns this particular heritage farm, had gone off the deep end, and 1 didn't think much PETER'S POINT • by Peter Hessel more of A week later I observed the same bulldozer doing the same thing l another part of the township. This, too, was on a farm that had been in one family for well over 100 years. I became curious and drove up Ray's lane to see what he was up to. "We're finally gcttin' rid of the old stone fence. It's been a pain in the neck ever since I can remember. We're losin' a lot of land with these old. fences". I discovered that an enterprising contractor from a nearby town had been going around the countryside, spotting stone and rail fences. For a "reasonable fee" he agreed to knock the nuisances down, bury them and leave the land ready for the plough. I could believe that an entrepreneur without roots in the country would hatch such an idea, but I couldn't believe that our farmers Plcasc turn to page 15 Serving South Huron, 'North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published b, 1.W. Eedy Publications Limited "THIS WAS BOTTLED THE SAME yf.AR WA5 ElICTED WOt1WER W 1T'S GONE. 5AD AS WELL?" - Country oriented This week we will get back to a little more information on a subject touched on lightly a week ago. - Since that time we have re- ceived a complete rundown on the population of all Huron County municipalities from dep- uty clerk treasurer Bill Alcock. It's interesting to note that 31,757 people live in the town- ships, hamlets and police villag- es of our fine county while 23,832 make up the urban pop- ulation in the towns and villag- es.• Godcrich is the largest town in the county with a total of 7,348 residents and Stephen township heads the rural areas with a pop- ulation of 4,085. 'A—fcw-monthg-ago we_ran a story about the signs at entranc`Guess-whe-is-included-.in. that es, to the town of Exeter not agreeing on the population with one at 3,700 and the other at 3,800. Thc latest census figures shows the correct popualtion is 3,767 which is almost halfway between the signs leading to town. Almost 17 percent or 9,123 persons to be exact arty at the age of 65 and^morc and 924 arc list• - ed at 85 years of age or more. The number 21 years of age and less total -16,281. That leaves 24,069 of us In the in-between From the editor's disk by Ross Haugh -age-bracket-from 21 to 65. • Don't try adding up the figures to prove us wrong, because you could. There are 1,335 whose age is unknown. Also, in the next five years, 2,757 residents of Huron county will tum 65 and be eligible for old age security. group of fortunate people? The birth rate from 1928 to 1932 was very constant accord- ing to the latest census figures. For those born in these five years and are now from 60 to 64, thc numbers are 544, 589, 558, 523 and 543. . Thc highest figure for any five year period is 3,966 for those be- tween the ages of 31 to 35 with residents in the 26 to 30 years bracket close behind at 3,897. * ** r. Did Peter Pocklington- make any personal gain in the recent trade of Wayne Grctzky to the Los Angeles Kings? It appears as if he, may have made a few bucks. A report this week in a Kelow- na, British Columbia newspaper says Pocklington has purchased a magnificicnt five acre lakefront property in.the Kelowna area for $900,000. Don't be surprised" if Wayne and Janet don't bring Pockling- ton.a house -warning present: * * * * Thc state of Florida_ has an- nounced plans for an open sea- son on alligators after a 28 year ban as the -population is. getting out of hand. It could be a financially reward- ing`project with tflosc havin`gihc know-how and courage to land these sometimes less than friend- ly reptiles. - Thc current going rate for alli- gator skin is $42 a foot and thc meat sells at $6 per pound. -Thc average length of a Florida alliga- tor is about 10 feet and the mini- mum length for capture has been set at four feet. Good luck, fellows. Spies, like us 1 have been cruising at a com- fortable pace behind the transport truck for the last 30 kiloriretres. .An inconsiderate driver crawls out from a side road behind ,the truck forcing .me to stab my brakes, waiting while he- hogs the road. A glance in the rear-view mir- ror confirms there isn't another car behind me for miles. If the idiot had only waited a few sec- onds for me to pass he could have had the road to himself. I reach for the concealed button on the dashboard, firing The ma- chine guns beneath my front bumper. The idiot swerves to the side of the road, tires shred- ded and one spare short. Serves him right for getting in the way of Her Majesty's Se- cret... • Spy novels and movies arc per- renial favorites and I'm a major customer. Perhaps it's a fascina- tion we all share with getting away with otherwise illegal things, secretly, and all for the good of thc world. So it was with some interest I read Peter Wright's Spycatcher. Everyone knows all about how the book was banned in Britain, but who has actually read it? I was told Spycatcher is often slow moving' and dull, but I didn't scc it that way. I was fas- cinated with the realization this. was no fantasy novel, but a gen- uine exposd of the inner work- ings of the world's intelligence services. Thc chapters on bugging the Russian Embassy in Ottawa, tap- ping into French cipher ma- chines, and how interrogations Hold that thought... by Adrian Harte are really carred out, all make good intriguing (pardon the pun) reading, but perhaps the book's main surprise is its case for the necessity for the intcmational in- telligence network. Despite alarming intrusions into private affairs, intelligence services maintain a semblance of world stability simply because governments can hide less and less from each other. Thc use of disinformation is on the rise, but only intelligence communities can sort among what is true and what is made to look true. 1 Wright makes some startling claims, not, the least of which is 'his suggestion the Say of Pigs crisis was planned by Moscow to divert attention from their long-range missile buildup. Given the tensions and fear dur- ing thc crisis, Wright's claim seems farfetched. Nevertheless, he presents a convincing case. 1 find myself forced to realize we arc all victims of disinforma- tion from time to time, especially those of us in the media. Often a reporter later discovers what seemed like a hot news item at the time may have been deliber- ately leaked to promote thc inter- ests of a company, a union, a party, or a special interest group. You can't always prove it, but the suspicion remains. Thc real value of Wright's Spycatcher is to remind everyone to watch intcmational, national, and local events'with a more crit- ical eye. We should remember angry demonstrations only occur within range of television came- ras and we should wonder where opposition parties come across scandalous information. Secret omniscient, omnipotent organizations scare me, so I sup- pose I'm being innocent when I say I would liketo think some- how, somewhere, someone real- ly knows the score.