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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2018-6-21, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2018. PAGE 5. Other Views Remember your place, Canadians hen U.S. President Donald Trump threw his temper tantrum at the end of the recent G7 summit conference and called Justin Trudeau a bunch of names, I was almost surprised he didn't include the accusation that the Canadian Prime Minister was getting "uppity". Those of us old enough to remember the seemingly never-ending conflict of the U.S. civil rights movement have images burned into our minds of burly white cops unleashing vicious dogs on black protesters and screaming "Remember your place, n !" I can't help thinking Trump is trying to put Canada, Mexico and his European allies back in their proper place — which he sees as clearly subservient to an all-powerful United States of America. Trump's 2016 election campaign slogan "Make America Great Again" touched a chord with a surprisingly large part of the U.S. population who have a fond, if not very accurate, memory of the days when they felt America was great — even if many of them weren't even alive during this supposed greatness. There's a lot of that kind of thinking going around these days. At least part of the appeal of the Brexit movement that saw Britain vote to leave the European Union was the desire to "Make Britain Great Again". Returning to that greatness included, for too many, halting the influx of immigrants who didn't look like true Brits to them: i.e. people with brown, black or yellow skin who speak in weird accents and worship strange gods. Meanwhile, Russians seem willing to put up with corruption and tyranny from President Vladimir Putin as long as he shows them hints of the good old days when the Soviet Union occupied the eastern part of Europe. Liti Keith Roulston From the cluttered desk The greatest threat to peace in the world over the last couple of decades has come from the militant fundamentalists among the Muslim faith who are trying to restore what they feel is the proper order — which includes women being acceptably uneducated and subservient to men. From Afghanistan to northern Pakistan to Africa, militants (with help of disturbed western recruits) are trying to impose what they see as the proper order on other "heretics" who think they can still follow the teachings of Muhammad while living in a modern world that allows women to be educated and not dress as they did hundreds of years ago. Most of us can fall prey to nostalgia now and then, reviving good memories of times past. The problem with people who glorify the past, however, is that they tend to have convenient memories. They remember the good parts of the past but forget the bad things that accompanied the good times. So those Americans who voted to make America great again dream of returning a certain part of the past without reviving all that went with it. Each one probably has an idea of what America's greatness was. For some bigots, it was when the blacks knew their place. For fundamentalist Christians it was when the vast majority of people went to church every Sunday. For others it was when the U.S. won the space race and any sports championship team could be crowned the "World Champion" even if no one but American teams had competed for the title. They don't want to remember that part of the package of those glory days was the constant fear of a nuclear war, the climax of which came with the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. They don't want to remember the grinding poverty that many, both black and white, endured in those supposedly good times. They don't want to remember when women weren't equal partners in society. Likewise, nostalgia -loving British voters don't remember that the cost of maintaining its glorious empire was bleeding the British treasury by the 1950s and joining the European Union helped rejuvenate their country's depressed economy. In Russia, people have forgotten how, under the Soviet Union, people who didn't agree with the government were sent to Siberian prison camps and shoppers had to line up to buy shoes or bread. We see the best of the past and forget the worst. We see the worst of the present and ignore the best. Those who want to make America great again seem to forget it's a pretty darned good place now, with more people working in better jobs than ever before, despite the shifting of the jobs of many unskilled workers over seas. In fact the greatest danger for America not being great (or Britain or Russia, etc.) is for men like Trump and Putin to mess up the good things of today (like peace) by trying to recapture the imagined glories of the past. Creating enemies by slapping down their closest friends, as Trump has delighted in doing lately with Canada, Mexico and Europe, is not a recipe for making life great. The concern in unmasking a symbol This may sound like an odd thing for a journalist to say, but there are a few mysteries that I really hope are never solved. There are the big ones, of course, like God and the nature of the universe, how many licks to the centre of a Tootsie Roll Pop and, of course, how they get the caramel in the Caramilk bar. But there are other questions that I hope remain a mystery throughout my life because, in all honesty, they serve us better as queries than they do answers. Questions like "Who is Banksy?" should be left to the imagination. Banksy, for those of you who don't know, is an artist best known for his "tags" or spray paint art. his work is usually a commentary on the world around it. Just an aside, I refer to Banksy as a masculine individual because that seems to be the common vernacular. There's no sexism inferred here. Banksy might be a woman, but for the sake of this piece, I'll stick with masculine pronouns. In a recent interview on CBC's Q, journalist Craig Williams revisited his notion that Banksy is a team of street artists led by Robert Del Naja, a member of the Bristol musical group Massive Attack. Williams isn't alone in fingering Del Naja — many people have pointed to the fact that Banksy's work, which pops up around the world, usually appears close to, both chronologically and geographically, Massive Attack concerts. As a matter of fact, Goldie, an English musician, DJ and visual artist from the United Kingdom, referred to Banksy as "Robert" during an interview. Del Naja himself, apparently, said during a show in his home town of Bristol that, "We're all Banksy", although he has also refuted the claim. Williams said he started searching for Banksy's real identity because it was kind of a SikDenny Scott Allib Denny's Den "Holy Grail" for journalists. His five-month investigation in 2016 resulted in his claim that Del Naja is connected to Banksy. During the interview, he runs down the evidence, including what I've cited above, and, as someone who values the mystery, that frustrates me. I like the idea that this subversive, world-renowned artist could be sitting beside you at a coffee shop and you'd have no idea who it is (since the only thing most people agree on is that he is a he and he is from Bristol). The idea of unmasking him, of making him somehow more human (and, if I'm being honest, a little mundane) is an unsettling one for me. This artist, whose works fetch high prices in galleries but yet he paints on walls for the world to see from England to North America to Bethlehem and all points between, seems to transcend humanity by his anonymity, as ridiculous as that sounds. Like I said, for someone whose job revolves around telling the stories of others, wanting someone so well known to be a complete mystery might seem odd but I just get the feeling that unmasking him would lead to a lessening of his impact on the world. As silly as this is, it goes back to the comic book heroes I idolized as a kid. Just as Superman is to Clark Kent and Spider -Man is to Peter Parker, Banksy's mild-mannered alter ego will likely not be as recognized as the Banksy people have built up in their minds. I will agree with Williams, however, on why Banksy's anonymity is so impressive. "We have access to everything now," he said during the interview, referring to social media. "You know what your friend on the other side of the world is having for lunch... People's brains nowadays can't accept that we don't have answers to everything... [To have] something so huge as well, so wide, so ingrained in pop culture [not having] a face behind the person and that confuses a lot of people." He says the anonymity lends to the attraction of Banksy. When asked if he was concerned about unmasking Banksy and the impact that might have, Williams said that we know what Picasso looked like and that didn't hurt him. He also said that Banksy has been at work for 20 years. He said that when Banksy started, hiding the artist's true identity may have made it easier for Banksy to weigh in politically on things. For me, however, I don't think the anonymity was a shield hiding Banksy from reprisal, but a way for him to provide an honest take on the world. Any time I write about politics, for example, I feel like I need to explain that my maternal family has very deep ties to the Liberal Party. I need to say that because I want all my readers to know I'm aware of the kind of bias that might create, and I want them to know I'm trying my best not to succumb to it. Banksy, however, can work without the worry of a past colouring the reception of his work. The message isn't tied to any particular political or religious ideology, at least not until someone unmasks him. That's why I hope Banksy's true self stays unrevealed. Some secrets are just worth keeping. Shawn Loughlin lab Shawn's Sense Unique like everyone There is something problematic about the debate raging at Huron County Council in recent weeks. In essence, a request from the St. Joseph's Kingsbridge Community project has cracked wide open an argument that had long been put to bed. To be fair, the St. Joseph's request was not unreasonable. It asked for a tax exemption for community hub projects in their first five years. Essentially, the request asked that the county enact a policy to help community initiatives like the St. Joseph's Kingsbridge Community project get on their feet. As a result, we've circled back around to the county serving up grants to community projects and the question must be asked: is this an appropriate and/or effective use of property tax dollars collected from county residents? As Bluewater Mayor Tyler Hessel pointed out, the St. Joseph's Kingsbridge Community project is worthwhile and successful. It's volunteer -driven and community -championed. No one is saying the project isn't great. The question is: what sets the project apart from the hundreds of other projects throughout Huron County that are volunteer -driven and community -championed — none of which ever have enough money? As Hessel points out, nothing differentiates one project from the other. Every community in Huron County has a Legion, a Lions Club, a Women's Institute, a Kinsmen Club or numerous other volunteer -run organizations like BIAs, food banks, hospital auxiliaries, agricultural societies, horticultural societies or committees behind annual events like Santa Claus parades or vacation Bible schools. Whether it's a small church group hosting a dinner or something like the Blyth Festival or the Belmore Maple Syrup Festival, all are worthy of praise and support. That being said, Huron County's coffers should not be the answer when a community project needs a bit of a boost. It was this kind of attitude, as pointed out by Huron East Mayor Bernie MacLellan last week, that led to council fielding two or three of these requests per meeting. And we're not talking a mere $3,500 to cover property taxes like the aforementioned St. Joseph's request. Some asked for (and received) hundreds of thousands of dollars during that period, which could only be described as a grant gold rush. If council is prepared to give this project $3,500 (which it is, because the grant was approved last week) councillors then need to explain to those representing other projects why they were turned down; why they are less worthy of the county's money than the St. Joseph's Kingsbridge Community project. So many of these community projects thrive thanks to donations from the public and volunteers giving of their time and not taking any payment in return. Volunteer -run events truly are the lifeblood of rural communities like Huron County. We need to support them as residents. We need to donate to them, we need to patronize them and we need to volunteer at them. Our tax dollars, however, should be ours to spend. When we pay our taxes, it's to keep up infrastructure and services in the county, not so councillors can make decisions like this. We all choose our own charitable causes and where we put our philanthropic dollars. Frankly, who is a councillor to discern a worthy local project from an unworthy one? When a Kingsbridge project receives county dollars, would a Blyth resident approve? What about an Exeter resident? Likely not, but those decisions are being made on our behalf.