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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1973-09-06, Page 4PAGE 4 ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1973 Sport madness! The world is being taken over by professional sport. Remember gentler days of hockey on the radio and baseball, a game Dad and junior played over at the park? Football and basketball were something rich kids pursued on college camp- uses. But now -- WOW -- sport as big business is blared to the top of the news on radio, breathlessly front-paged in news- papers, and is endlessly played and instant -replayed on tele- vision. Church, fraternal groups, concerts and Home and School meetings have to fit their activities around "the game." Ministers don't dare hold Sunday evening services-- or anything else during prime hockey evenings during the week. Hockey players are paid millions to jump leagues. Baseball cards -are given away with bubble gum to hook the tots and busts of hockey players are packed in toothpaste cartons to ensnare the hygenic! The '76 Olympics is going to cost millions and the controv- ersy over it may divide Canada as separatism never could. Meanwhile, pinched school boards schedule only two periods of physical education a week, because they can't afford a proper daily program. Municipal recreation facilities limp along with inferior equipment. What all this means is the short end of,the stick for young- sters and adults who would rather play than watch --and fewer gold medals for Canadians in '76, because the big money goes professional --never amateur. Grain -growing countries can prevent world famine! As food prices keep rising, everybody's pocket is being hit. And little wonder. Ever since the beginning of this year, the wholesale prices of such basic commodities as wheat, corn, oats, rye, sugar, cocoa, coffee, also wool, rubber and cotton have been soaring. The upsurge in world demand for food and other commodit- ies has come at a time of crop failures and feed shortages around the globe. The United States Department of Agriculture recently warned that new figures showed this year's grain prod- uction would be far lower than had been estimated. But whereas the world food shortage hurts the affluent nations, it is a calamity for many of the developing countries. Vast areas just south of the Sahara are being turned into dust by a fearsome drought. Disaster and despair haunt countless towns and villages in Africa and Asia, where the hunger that is always present has become even more acute. Even national governments such as Japan, Brazil, China and the Soviet Union are afraid of the world food situation, and are paying the highest prices for grain. The most pressing question the world faces today in regard to food is this: Will the poorest countries be forgotten in the scramble for wheat, rice and other basic commodities? Will the poorest people in these poor countries face famine and perhaps death because richer, more powerful nations are too greedy? Will famine spread because we in the affluent nations are too intent on our own well -being --forgetting that our failure to spread resources more equiabLy could lead to starvation in many countries? Canada is one of the world's breadbaskets, and, Canadians always have been sympathetic toward the developing nations. Today, however, more than sympathy is needed. Canada -- and nations like the United States, Australia, Argentina -- must make a concerted effort to grow and ship as much grain as possible. Unless food -surplus lands make a greater effort to send grain to the needy, the world will be faced not just with inflationary prices, but with widespread famine. ZURICH Citizens NEWS PRINTED BY SOUTH HURON PUBLISHERS LIMITED, ZURICH HERB TURKHEIM, Publisher Second Class Mail Registration Number 1385 yte e stip �f,F Member: e'� �� � • Canadian Weekly. Newspapers Association 1 z. b Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association 4• Subscription Rates: $5.00 per year in advance in Canada; $6.00 in United States and Foreign; single copies l5¢ Bill Smiley THEY'RE ROBBING ME FOR LOUSY COFFEE BUT I LOVE THE PLACE Travelling is tiring. It's eleven o'clock in the morning, a perfect day with temperature in. the 80's, and any self-resp- ecting toursit should be out stomping around looking at a castle or something. But my wife is on the bed having a snooze, and I myself am almost relieved that I have to write a column and don't have to get out there and tromp. About tromping. If you're going to do Britain, bring along your oldest, most comfortable pair of shoes. That noise you hear in the background is the barking of thousands of tourists' dogs as the furriners wearily climb yet another flight of stone steps. We're in the middle of a heat wave here in Chester. Back hom it would be just pleasant beach weather, but the Brits, who suf- fer stoically through the normal rigours of their windy, rainy isle, can't take the heat. This morning's newspaper reports that millions are fleeing to the beaches, that resort hotels are jammed, that the sale of deordants is booming, and that it is expected there will be ten million cars on the roads this weekend. Thank goodness we're not touring by car. Highways are completely in- adequate for the volume of traffic. The cars are piled up in hundreds, about twenty feet apart, and when something hap- pens, there are usually four or five cars involved. An Englishman on the train told me that "The trouble with England is that we never do anything until our backs are to the wall." He was commenting on those same highways, which were built for the traffic of twenty years ago, with no thought of the future. Well, that's the way they've gone into every war, twenty years behind the times, but they've managed to muddle through, so far. Speaking of wars, it is driven home to the tourist, through innumerable plaques in castles and cathedrals and other public places, what a tremendous toll of British blood was taken in the two great wars. One plaque in the Castle in Edinburgh reveals that one Scottish regiment lost nearly 700 officers and almost 8, 000 other ranks in World War I. Edinburgh Castle is a fascin- ating place. My friend Dick Whittington, a history buff, would go right out of his mind and would have to be dragged away by the constabulary when he saw the magnificent displays of ancient and honor- able uniforms,, coats of arms, weapons and such. But I think he might turn purple with outrage had he seen us eating Chinese food up there on the great brooding Castle Rock. Even I had an uneasy feeling that William Wallace and Robert the Bruce would be rolling in their graves as I chom- ped my chow mein on the mass- ive rock where heroic deeds were done and the course of his- tory changed. Chinese restaurants are com- mon here, but I don't think their food is as good as that in Canada, on the whole. I detest the stuff, but my wife loves it, so I wind up hacking at an egg roll when I'd rather be getting into some Dover sole. Food prives here are a little lower than at home, but not much. There are thousands of tatty little restaurants, some- thing like our "greasy spoons" Poor food badly cooked, litter everywhere, and sloppy service. At the other end of the stick are the classy joints: excellent food beautifully cooked, eleg- ant surroundings and four waiters hovering. But you'd better be well fixed with travellers' cheques if you wander into one of them. There's not too much in bet- ween, though most hotels, even small ones, serve a decent din- ner for about four dollars. Bars have sandwiches, and the good pubs have hot and cold lunches. Something that irritates me no end is the coffee racket. You are served an enormous three -course dinner, so lavish you can eat only half of it. Then the robbers want eleven or twelve pence for a cup of coffee. Even though I'm dying for coffee, and the meal itself was reasonable in price, that bit of Scottish blood in me makes me refuse to pay about thirty cents for a cup of the worst coffee in the world. That's about the only thing that annoys me, and it's child- ish on my part. Generally, the English arid Scots we've come in contact with are the soul of courtesy and friendliness. We've not had a single unpleasant incident, though 1 must admit that the natives have a pen- chant for doing most things backwards. Example. In London, I booked a room in an Edinburgh hotel, I paid the agent the full price for two nights in the hotel. The hotel turned out to be the worst one north of the Tweed, but that's another story. O.K. Checking out of the Edinburgh hotel, I asked for a receipt. They wouldn't give me one. "But I've paid for the room, " I expostulated. "Na, na, sorr, we canna gie ye a rrreceipt because ye havena' gien us any monny. We hae only the vouch- er." I protested vehemently but came up against that indom itable Scottish spirit that has held the thin red line so many times, and had to retreat in disarray. Up the Scots! Meanwhile, it's time for a half of bitter and a crack of Chester's Roman wall. Haven't walked it for thirty years. VACUUM CLEANERS SALES ..8c, SERVICE FOR ALL MAKES BOB PECK ZURICH ONT- Phone Hensali 262.5748 Business and Professional Directory OPTOMETRISTS J. 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