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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1997-04-09, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, April 9,1997 1 Publisher & Editor: Jim Beckett Business Manager: Don smith Production Manager: Deb Lord 9drf LILing; Barb Consitt, Chad Eedy • News; Heather Mir, Chris Skalkos, Ross Haugh, Brenda Burke Production; Alma Ballantyne, Mary McMuriay, Barb Robertson . Brenda Hern, Joyce Weber, Laurel Miner .. Transportation: Al Flynn. Al Hodgert front Office & Accounting; Elaine Pinder, Sue Rollings, Ruth Slat Ruthanne Negriei. Anita McDonald. Cassie Dalrymple . - The Exeter Times -Advocate is a member of a family of community newspapers •"� providing news, advertising and information leadership ' 1',1)11ORI 11,S The information glut C• omputer technology -won't be= come cffective•until it's used tb destroy in- formation: not generate it, argues U.S. me- dia critic Neil -Postman. During • an interview with- the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Postman shared some of his views abut. television_ and contemporaryelectronic media. A . profes- sor ot. media at New York City University, Postman's hook," Amusing Ourselves To Death: .is an examination ofthe state of contemporary. culture. . Here are some highlights from the tran- script of the CBC interview with.Postman: "For anything to he legitimate,. it has to come through television and°in•that sense wc: have hecomc television people..Some-. time~ when I: go to the places and people ask inc. what Americans are like, I say :well. what .we do is watch television. That's our job here.', And indeed you have to- watch television in a sense to be an American in order to make contact.with whatever is happening• in the culture you have to he familiar with what's on televi- sion." -• 'Ronald Reagan was referred to as the great cornmuincator. Now this is a man who rarely talked accurately and never pre- cisely.: yet he was called the great com- - Yet in a sense, the name was probably rightbecause although he was riot articulate in language; he was magic on tel- evision. And when you asked people why ' do you. vote for this lean they would say be- cause I trust him or -I see somehow in this 'image on television that he understands my pain. My reply, to that was if you. Zook at his policies it's obvious he doesn't understand your pain." - "One of the major problems the West is suffering, especially in North America, is information glut. People have the computer all wrong. The .printing press created an. in- formation explosion and technology gener- ates the information explosion and basically solved the problem of how to, get reliable information to people. The computer at the moment is only complicating things by am- plifying the information glut. But the com- puter.in the end may save us in that its main function maybe to destroy information. to .eliminate. information rather ' than simply spitting it out." Fergus-F.lpro .News Frprevv Your Views Letters to the editor WI plans for convention "Thank you so much for all the kind words and the faith expressed in the future of the organization." • Dear Edit, 'r . Members of the Federated Women's Institutes of Ontario ha%t: been oerwhelmed.hy the support giv- en us by the media. particularly as we celebrated our centennial at our branch meetings in February. -thank you sig much for -all the kind words and the Lath expressed in the future of the organization. in luuire media releases you will be reading of 1-WID's plans to meet the needs of members and communities in the nest 100 years.. We are in the process of developing a vision for the future. re-. structuring to be better able to respond to challenges and setting coals and objectives for projects and programs to encourage both present and new mem- bers. One wag in which communication with the media .ould he improved is to use e-mail. If you have an e-mail address. please send it to me at: " pauljane@xcelco.on.ea. This should be beneficial to you as well as to me, in sending and receiving re- leases more promptly. in my January mailing. I included atopy of the highlights of the Centennial Celebration/Convention '97 program being held in Hamilton from June 17- 22. 1997. This includes a list of the keynote and theme speakers: Dr. Roberta Bondar (astronaut). Pr.. Linda Ambrose (historian). Norman Rebin (futur- ist). Rosalie Wysocki (motivational speaker) and • Lyndsay Hacket-Pain (President, Associated Coun- try Women of the World). This was your invitation to attend the convention. if you could advise me in advance-whether'you will be sending a reporter to cover some or all the convention. i will make cer- tain that your registrationrinformation kit is readily available. to avoid a delay at the registration desk: Once again. thank you for all your support. [ look forward to receiving e-mail addresses shortly. Sincerely. Mary Janes. Public Relations Officer/Public Relations Director, Convention '97, FWIO t A View From Queen's Park By Eric Dowd r ' at,ons Mail Registration Number 0386 SUBSCRIPTION .$ATE$: ' ne year rate for Ontario subscribers - 335.00 + OST T1A0 year rate for Ontario subscribers - 363.00 + OST CAMINA@l ADDRESSES .OUTSIDE WHAM One year subscription - 333.00 + GST Two year subscription - S119.00 + GST ollifJIRATFA Outside Canada - 3102.00 Published Each Wednesday Morning at 424 Main St.. Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S6 by J.W. Eedy Publications Ltd. Telephone 1-519-235.1.331 • Fax: 519.235.0788 smell address: dmes.advocatNeedy.com O.S.T. 10105210835 Simple Cruelties Brenda Burke Bugs in the house Our.horne has keen -swarmed. not with flies. cockroaches. . silverfish or fleas. but ladybug=s.. Too innoCdnt-looking to `. . squash underfoot and too • - colorful and round to disturb. 1 • just let them' tly.- around.' watching with .curiosity as they. buzz into our kitchen light or . creep up.the window screens. Not that there are thousands of . them. No'r are they biting- us. eating ourfood or floating in the tub. -There are, lust enough Ot - them to notice• Outdoors. nearly .iny bug is fascinating as they go about' their busing:, Once Fhey'r. in the house the:ugh:•panic strikes . the hearts of many. For some reason, people are -afraid of ' bugs. [ fear those huge wasps that swoop dramatically around your . head.bunking into -the ceiling,. . their long. barbed legs dangling • down. threatening to grab you. Last summer my; husband put on a pair of jeans and half way down the stairs. let'out a yell. A • • wasp had somehow snuggled its wa .inside the denim pantleg an stung him. three times in. the thigh. Talk -about a freak acc ident. • Spiders can. he terrorizing too.- especially oo.especially the big. fat ones that sit in their webs as if they own the world: I've always considered Daddy Longteg spiders to be wimps though. the , wag they sCurry across the floor . and seek refuge in a crack in the baseboard_ They don't waddle • with purpose like the fat spiders do. t=iles. on the other hand. are • pathetic. They land everywhere. tickling you when you sleep and lashing their little. tongues out -to .tiobhle up grains of food. • In my parents' kitchen. I used to watch the flies. giving them names andcomplaining when a tlyswatter would end my efforts. remember sticky tly tapes . hanging from my grandmother's farmhouse ceilings: t also recall , luring flies into old jars of relish and then closing -the lid on them as they unsuspecting devoured the (last) meal of their lives. As a kid, grasshoppers • amazed me more. Scooping them up in glass jars and _shaking them with.smallgreen "apples before letting them go. ' and watching them'sway dizzily,- • before hopping away. gave"Otte endless pleasure.,.More pleasure than watching a neighborhood kid.rip'wings off buttertlies. My scar•iest-interlude with bugs in the house ocurred when I visited a friend in Toronto. I reached over to turn on the bathroom tap and out crept a handful -of cockroaches. I:didn't visit the friend anymore, at least • not in her home. From a bug's perspective. it's really .not fair that people get ihat killer instinct every time they spot one scurrying across their carpet or clinging to 'their . wall. • Perhaps someone should start.a bug cruelty prevention hotline. We must protect our ladybugs. . Premier Mike Harris has made life so diffi- cult- for municipal politicians that few may want io run for such posts in the nett election. The, Progressive Conservative premier's con- tempt for his municipal counterparts. has shown throughout, his plans to amalgamate Metropoli- tan Toronto and other large urban areas and. - download costly new responsibilities on the municipal level. . Hares never consultedmunicipal politicians before announcing out of the blue he would amalgamate Toronto. While there had been re- cent studies, none recommended a merger. Harris also ignored municipal politicians in deciding municipalities should pay more of the costs of welfare and child and long term care and all the costs of social housing in return fot the province taking over the share of education costs formerly paid by municipalities. Municipalities had representatives on a panel appointed by Harris and headed by former fed- eral Tory minister David Crombie which stud - led division of responsibilities but it never rec ommended this swap. The Tories have to be accepted as having the legal power to do virtually what they want with municipalities which are. in a time-honoured phrase 'creatures of the province'. But Harris's Tories went far beyond by using every calibre of heavy ammunition at their command trying to mow down objections by municipal representatives, who also are elected and have a duty to speak on issues affecting them. The Tories blared non-stop the need for 'few- er politicians' which must have made munici- pal representatives across the province feel un- wanted. The Tories constantly portrayed municipal representatives as whiners, motivated only by desire to keep their jobs and salaries. although even many who disagreed with the mayors would concede they had views that deserved debate, including whether having fewer politi- Municipal politicians may want no part of fall election cians would make it•more difficult for resid..nts to make their views heard and whether amalga- mation would produce the savings claimed. The Tones appointed trustees saying they were needed to prevent councils spending fran- tically in last-minute sprees. a nasty and unjus- tified slur considering the municipalities did a fairly reasonable job of keeping spending down the last year or two and one the Tories eventu- ally were forced to withdraw. Municipal Affairs Minister Al Leach, with more cash to spend. put out biased ads praising amalgamation as if it was accomplished and drew an almost unheard of rebuke form the Speaker for being in contempt of the legisla- ture. The province used its extra clout with news media to leak views and some grateful papers. already sympathetic. returned the favour daily by presenting it in a flattering and municipali- ties in a disparaging light. Even when municipalities showed they had huge and possibly overwhelming support, Har- ris largely ignored this and made only cosmetic changes. - Harris has set up transition teams to look at how to effect exchanges of responsibility and has appointed municipal representatives but . • most are friends of Tories and include such buddies as Markham mayor Don Cousens, a former MPP who was Harris's environment critic. The Tories are now talking of selecting, train- ing and financing those who share their views to run under their aegis in municipal elections, which their party traditionally has shied from. Having failed to coerce municipal politicians to rubber stamp their plans, the Tories want to in- stall puppets. Some people will be attracted to run in To- ronto and elsewhere particularly to get their own back on Harris but many others will feel that, if this is the way municipal politicians are treated, they want no part of being one.