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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1989-08-09, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, August 9, 1989 Time% tstablished 18'1 Adnate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S0 Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 519.235-1331 �, eNA ROSS HAUGH Editor HARRY DEVRIES • Composition Manager CCNA TIM BECKfTT Publisher &. Adsefising Manager DO'. SMITH Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $27.00 Per year; U.S.A. $68.00 Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publicationslimited Four good years Whenever anyone completes a job or a tour of office in poli- tics, one usually tries to find good things to say about that person's performance. r Sometimes those good things may be hard to find. That's not the situation created last week when Ontario Premier David Pe- terson realigned . his cabinet and Jack Riddell lost his post as Agriculture Min- ister.. ' Riddell's record in the field of agricul- ture will be hard to beat. For more than four years his strong voice (which can be taken literally) was used to convince oth- er members of the cabinet that farming was the basis of our economy. If farmers are successful, then so will be most of the rest of the businesses and industries in our country, Farmers across the province. owe the former ag minister a lot of thanks for the -progress made during the past seven years. First of all, the amount of money spent in the Ontario budget on agriculture each year rose from $306 million in 1985 to the current $529 million. That's an in- credible increase of 73 percent. At the same time4he actual transfer payments to farmers increased by 100 percent. Since he was sworn in as Agriculture minister on June 26, 1985, Riddell in- troduced 86 new farm programs. That's a record that will.be hard to be equalled by y any forthcoming ministers. It's impossible to list all of these pro- grams in this space, but a number are worthy of mention. Farmers in Huron really took advan- tage of the Ontario Family Farm Interest Reduction program which helped thou- sands of Ontario farmers deal with high debt Toads incurred in the late 70's and early '80's when interest and land prices were almost out of reach. Just over 10 percent of total payout in this province - wide program went to Huron farmers. The Farm Start program whereby be- ginning farmers could get up to $37,000 over five years to get established in the business was oversubscribed in the first six months. Those farmers getting assistance from the effects of last year's drought are get- ting their cheques this week. This success is due in part to RiddelI's efforts with the federal government. He was highly responsible for getting tripartite stabilization programs for red ,meat and white beans and had been working hard for similar help for corn growers.. If anyone thinks being in Cabinet is a soft touch, think again. In a normal week, Riddell would put in as many as 80 hours on the job and in many cases more than that with a lot of travelling thrown in. During election campaigns he got very little rest. On many days he was at the gates of .manufacturing plants throughout the county as early as 6 a.m. The removal of Riddell from the Onta- rio cabinet is not really anyone's fault. He was the victim of governmental pro- cess where changes must be made from time to time and new faces brought in with new ideas. He will continue to be '%espected by. Premier Peterson and the rest of the cau- cus. This not intended to sound like an obit- uary. That's the farthest from the truth. Jack Riddell with his usual incredible stamina and tenacity will continue to do all he can for not only the constituents of his own riding of Huron, but all residents of the province of Ontario. He is a senior member of government. Only Bob Nixon has spentmore years at Queens Park. Jack will continue to be re- spected by caucus and cabinet and rest as- sured his thA`ghts and ideas will be lis- tened to by those in charge. Well done, Jack. You have plowed a lot of effort into making agriculture more identifiable as one of our most important industries and many farmers have been able to reap the harvest.. By Ross !ray,;h Questions, without answers You would almost think it was time to call a halt to medical re- search. • Medical science brings us many wonderful things, but that doesn't mean we have the brains to Use them properly. • u{a-F,ms_long after _the ".a decisions to disconnccT iFicm.' We use drugs and surgery to extend our lifespans even when our memories arc gone and we can't recognize our relatives. Hopelessly retarded and de- formed infants can, with help, survive enough to lead lives of questionable quality in institu- tions. This is not to say these attempts at salavaging human life are not noble, or without value, but somewhere we have lost our way. Nowhere has this been more obvious than on the front pages of the papers in the past few weeks. Not one, but two poten- tial fathers have sought to prevent ex -girlfriends from aborting their children. Both were shot down in court under the idea that it is • wrong to make a woman give birth against her will, especially since medicine brought us the safe abortion and safe birth con- trol. It doesn't stop here. In the r to march in the street, worried that women are becoming secon- dary to their breeding aparatus. Others will still have the right to complain that too many human lives are being erased before they everything was now functionin NES• /0 Should be happy According to -an article in a re-' cent edition of Maturity Maga- zine, most of us should be feeling very happy these days. The reason? There has been plenty of sun- shine in recent- weeks and re- search indicates our moods are affected by how much light we live in. It says people are happy when the sun shines and de- pressed when it's cloudy. We are like chickens in that food, air, water and sunlight pro- foundly affects physiological functions. It's important that the sun not only gets to your skin, but it. needs to enter your eyes. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) usually starts in October and ends in March, but some people are depressed any time the sky is overcast for three or four days. Now psychiatrists are instruct- ing patients to install very bright, sunlight -stimulating fluorescent 1ighp in their homes and sit be- fore them for three hours before dawn and three hours after dusk. John Ott, the former director of the Environmental Health and Light Research Institute in Flor- ida believes poor quality light is responsible for many cancers, among other diseases and is a pioneer in the use of heliothera- py for cancer patients. His research subjects were From the t, editor's disk by m} Ross Haugh If -1 asked to spend as much time as possible in the sun - without glasses, not even corrective lenses. Of the 15 subjects, 14 showed no further advancement of tumor formation and some showed improvement. Ott's research unwittingly started when he broke his glass- es one summer. He began to spend time outside under the shade of a tree, with nothing be- tween his eyes and the Florida sunslight, and amazing things happened. Not only did his vision begin to improve, so did his arthritis; and colds and sore throats be- came less frequent. When his friends tried the same therapy, they experienced similar good results. Ott speculates that lack of full - spectrum light causes hormonal or chemical imbalance, which makes the development of can- cer, for instance, more probable. It seems that sunlight, particu- larly the shorter, wavelengths, has limited ability to penetrate the body, but all wavelengths can enter the eye. Researchers say the normal tendencies to close our eyes against bright sun, and to blink, are all the protection our eyes need, except on snow. The bottom line of this is : En- joy the sun this summer, and re- member - When the sunlight gets too bright, wear a sun hat. Maybe the best solar therapy would be to sit in the shade with a cool drink. Pun of the Week: Sunbathing - A fry in the ointment. Live entertainment - or is it? We went to a concert in the park last weekend. On the make- shift stage was the usual array of hardware: electrical boxes, a maze of cables, microphones, amplifiers, speakers the sizc of outhouses, oh yes, and a couple of electrical guitars. Local cable -TV was there to tel- evise the event. The audience was ready, and the "artist" had been introduced. But he wasn't quite ready. The M.C., after try- ing to distract us with a few silly jokes, finally admitted that there would be a brief delay "due to mechanical problems". We should have Left right then, but the kids wanted to stay. Eventu- ally the buzzing, whining and scraping noises on stage stopped, and the M.C. announced that have known were impos- sible to create on that stage. I can't blame him for trying. But I do blame the audience for not protesting. For not even .notic- ing. PETER'S POINT • Unfortunately, this kind of thing goes on all the time. I'm sure, musicians have a term for it. Maybc they call it phoney - phonics, I don't know. But I guess it will continue for as long n as therrd.Ii ldicnces 7 -1 -round to pay for it. _The first time 1 encountered 777 i this ltenomenon' was quite_a__ fcwr'ycars ago when an entire musical was presented by a "pm- -' leNsivttal".t.utlltJdlly iii d iligii school auditorium. The sets -and costumes were the only genuine ingredients of the show. All the music - singing and instrumental - came over the speakers. No one left. No one .seemed to no- tice the fraud. Was it me? Was i too critical? Was I wrong to ex- pect live music at a live concert?. Away in a Manger (with the US Ghost Choir) A couple of years ago, our own kids were involved in a Sundt' school concert. Thcy had practiced for many weeks, and they knew all their sbngs. On the day of the performance, l couldn't believe my cars. The kids were singing alright, bless their timid little oiff-key voices. But they were overshadowed by - - Zft7%f ticgiiio Ecclesiastical atmiments aside, a lause _ � "artist' s loo c-liis uitar 1� Kim. At the mo- and proceeded to strum it. He t1 o t ght• .. - mcnt, some 23 -week old foetuses also sang, or at least he moved can survive without their motif- his iiiwuul. 'rwildi �ailic uvui lie ers. Given a few years, how far speaker system was an obviously down the scale will we go? Too pre-recorded song, complete with far, no doubt. dubbed -over voices and accom- The experts' opinions we don't paniment by drums and other in - want to hear. Philosophers de- struments. bate this stuff for a living, but An electronic swindle . some of them contend children It was as phoney . as a three - can be aborted some weeks.after dollar bill, but not as funny as,an birth, for humane reasons. They elementary school airband perfor= say it takes at least that long be- mance. however, the audience fore a baby develops the aware- loved it. They swallowed it hook ness and thought processes re- line and sinker.- No one stood up quircd of a "person". and yelled: "You're cheating!" Try that one on the supreme No one complained. We had paid court. for a live performance. What we But who ever said we value hu- were getting was nothing but an man life anyway? We say we electronic swindle. • do, but while some people The entire concert consisted of protest'abortion, others lobby for recorded music, with the man capital punishment. pretending to sing and play and Continued on page 5 produce the sounds that everyone Old than `t"ctwith what his he a g by Adrian Harte United States a man divorcing his wife doesn't want her to make use of seven fertilized eggs frozen in storage. We can create the technology to make these embryos potential human life, but what if we had to decide if these frozen things are "people", with rights? If they were, could we force the mother to give birth to all seven of them? I can tell you right now that even if the courts bring us "deci- sions" and "rulings" on such matters, they won't give us the answers. People will still have the right 5 an accomplished though obvious- ly southern US children's ghost ' choir singing along - you guessed it - over the speaker sys- tem. When I mentioned this to a couple of people afterwards, they didn't believe me. They had nev- er noticed, and they were almost insulted. I had to convince my- self that i wasn't going crazy, and I asked the lady in charge of the concert. Oh yes, she said, it was now being done all the time. The Sunday school had bought the "package" .(scores and cas- settes) from a supplier in Tennes- see who specializes in such things. 0 (electronic) Canada Elizabeth and I have a theatre subscription. At the beginning of each play, an announcement is made: --:F, , our National Anthem,". Every- body stands up and sings 0 Can- ada, while -a recording plays along. I'm sure it's the Mormon Tabemacle Coir, the singing is so majestic and lousing. it' drowns out the gravelly voices of the five or silt' hundred theatre, pa- trons. I thought everybody knew about that recording. Not so. In a recent theatre review, the audi- ence was praised for its "wonder- ful" singing of the National An- them. The reviewer never realized that she had listened to a recor d "enhancement". Many people in the audience don't seem to realize it either. They're aston- ished at the quality of theit+'own collective singing, but they never suspect that electronic wizardry is at work. Well,1 suppose we get the mu- sic we deserve. If audiences can't tttl the difference between Canned and "fresh" sound, why tyother giving them the real thing? 1 •