HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1981-05-21, Page 4Pays 4
attains News May 21, 1981
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Drinker's rights shouldn't interfere
In our society a citizen has the right to drink
alchoholic beverages, the right even to drink
himself or herself silly if such be his or her tastes
and tendencies. But this right must always be
assessed in the wider social context.
A person's right to drink must not be exercised
in ways that interfere unduly with the rights of
other persons. If someone's drinking causes
behavior that endangers you or even seriously in-
conveniences you, you have the right to interfere to
some degree with his or her drinking. If that per-
sons drinks and then drives on a road on which you
are driving, then his or her drinking becomes very
much your buiness.
A bewildering varietyot statistics is available on
drinking -and -driving and an even more bewildering
variety of interpretations of those statistics. But it
is impossible to avoid the conclusion that in an alar-
ming proportion of all traffic accidents, especially
those resulting in deaths and serious injuries, there
is an alcohol factor.
Professor John Cohen, an English psychologist,
made some exacting investigations of, driving skills.
Here is one of the conclusions: "Moderate quan-
tities of alcohol tend to make most drivers increase
their speed, although they are usually unaware that
this is happening... Alcohol intensifies any driver's
tendency to overrate his ability in relation to his per-
formance."
This conclusion comes out of carefully con-
trolled experiments with real drivers and real
alcohol.
Two psychiatrists working in the same field,
Dr. Neil Kessel and Dr. Henry Walton, make this
comment: "The drinker is in the worst possible
position to make the decision whether he is safe to
drive or not." They add this warning: "The drinker
himself becomes progressively less able to detect
his own impairment."
The hands of the police and the courts must be
strengthened with respect to drinking -and -driving
matters. Breathalizer and other tests, it must be
recognized, do interfere to some extent with a
citizen's rights and liberties -- but surely we must
balance those against the rights and liberties of
other citizens.
Contributed
Majority face hungry world
For the majority of the people in the world to-
day the great dominating problem is a cold, empty
feeling in the pit of the stomach that is unlikely ever
to become a warm, full feeling.
Hunger is a primary stimulant of the
revolutionary discontent that could lead to total war
in our time. The external aid. programs of our
government may be , in the long run, far more im-
portant for our national security than anything that
can be done by our Department of National
Defence. Democracy's greatest enemy is not com-
munism or any other ideology it is the
dehumanizing poverty and hunger of so many of the
world's people.
If you and your children were destined to go
through life with that cold, empty feeling always in
the pit of the stomach, would you see any really
significant difference between the democratic style
of life and the communist or other totalitarian
style?
As Bertrand Russell once asked. "If one man
offers you democracy and another offers you a bag
of grain, at what stage of starvation will you prefer
grain to the vote?" What kind of political decisions
would you make if you and your family and most of
the people in your community suffered chronic
malnutrition?
Here our calculating self-interest is, uf errough
although political reality and psychoTogical in-
sight demand that we do not casually dismiss such
motivation. But compassion -- literally, "suffer-
ing with" must always be a dimension of our
nation's foreign policy.
There is, of course, at present a good deal of
authentic compassion in Canada's foreign policy,
but it must be extended and strengthened. And to do
what we may have to sacrifice some of our national
affluence, take a few raisins out of our fruitcake.
Contributed
Plimsellianeous
Rumbling
By
ROB CHESTER
Twice in the past couple of weeks, I've spent
my Sunday evenings in movie theatres.
Both films dealt with subjects which are'based
in history, and this gives filmmakers a solid
reference point for making a film that is true to life.
Both films also dealt with subjects whicji have
become elements of 'pop' culture --subjects
which everyone knows something about (and that
something is usually not true.)
Both films approached the problem of historical
films from two distinct directions, and the errors of
one would solve the errors of the other. In short, if
you could .combine both movies, somewhere you
cold strike a balance between history and story tell-
ing.
The first film was Zulu Dawn, the second, Ex-
calibur.
Zulu Dawn deals with the British invasion of
Zululand, South Africa, in 1879.
Historically, the incident was a bloody and
vengeance ridden 'small war' of -the Victorian era:
technology versus brute strength.
As the British and Boers expanded their
colonies in Sough Africa, they fought a series of
wars with natives of the region. the natives, `Kaf-
firs' as they were called, were mostly semi-
nomadic herdsmen, whose societies were often bas-
ed on warrior classes.
This was particularity true of the Zulus, who by
1879 were in the deline of their powers, but still
maintained a standing army of some 25,000 men.
They were primarily armed with javelin -like
spears, and hardwood clubs. By 1879, a good many
were armed with antique muzzel loading rifles.
The film takes a modern look at the invasion. It
depicts with the British defeat at a mountain named
Ishandalwana.
A Zulu army (Impis) caught the British un-
awares and slaughtered about 400 men of the 24th
regiment.
The film takes itself much too seriously. It also
overly stresses the theory of dominating im-
perialism exploiting the noble savage.
The Zulus were a highly organized society, but
they were also very savage. They fought amounst
themselves and as each new king took over, it was
expected of him to 'wash the spears' of his new ar-
my washed in the blood of his enemies.
The problem for the British was the very real
danger that the Zulus had run out of enemies, ex-
cept for the white men.
This leads to the second major flaw of the
movies-- the battle scenes. The Zulus believed a
man's pirit had to be released after death by
slashing open the body's stomach. They each
wanted to 'wash their spears' in •blood and they
hated the British. The result was a mutilation of any
enemy red -coated soldier who got within their
grasp. The film shows very little blood, but also
show very little fury of the battle or horror of the
aftermath. (It indeed goes backwards, showing a
brutal torturing of Zulu captives by the British.)
The battle scenes are pedestrian and hold no
drama.
The film does not address the contorversy of the
battle. It is believed a unit of native troops in the
centre of the British battle line ran off as soon as
the Zulus appeared. This allowed the British to be
surrounded and- overwhelmed. By showing the
blacks in the most favourable light, history and the
facts are glossed over.
Please turn to page 5
NIM ,,,,.,.0 WPM
Published Each Wednesday Sy J.W. Eedy Publkatlsns Ltd.
Member:
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OMerle Weekly Newspapers Association
News Editor Rob Chester
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