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The Brussels Post, 1979-02-21, Page 244 A Cat in a basket MORSE LS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1979 ONTARIO Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. Published each. Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario By McLean Bros. Publishers Limited Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Pat Langlois - Advertising Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association • CNA Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $9.00 a Year. Others $17.00 a Year. Single Copies 20 cents each. itC; /111.111M111/14 N\ Brussels Post Good for Brussels The Brussels Lions, Leos and Optimists can proudly pat themselves on the back for another successful weekend. This past weekend at the Polar Daize and Poker Rally gave local residents a chance to see their service clubs in action. But not only does the credit belong to the service clubs. It also belongs to those people who participated in the skating races at the arena, those who enjoyed the pancake and sausage breakfast, those who participated in the Curling bonspiel and those who braved the cold to take part in the Poker Rally. Involvement was a key ingredient to the success of this past weekend and the general public should also be patted on the back for their participation in the events. So many small communities just sit idle and let opportunity and involvement pass them by. Brussels isn't like that. Soon the Interclub Figure Skating Competition and the Atom hockey tournament will invite new ways for Brussels residents to get involved. Brussels people deserve a pat on the back for their interest in their community. Sugar and spice By Bill Smiley Borrowing money Behind the scenes by Keith Roulston A cynical age Adiieetisilt, it accepted Oh the condition that In the event at a typographical error the, adVeilisirip,, Spate occupied by the erroneous together with reasonable' allOWinee toe signature, will not be'Sharged for but the balance of the advertisement Will be paid. Witt the ,e0PliCable While effort will be made to insure they are handled with O*6; the publishers cannot be responsible for the return of unsolicited `manuscripts or photos, Recently I've been teaching that peren- ial favorite, The Merchant of Venice, by ne Will Shakespeare. It's a light, romantic omedy, but through the pretty speeches nd comic complications runs an iron and aid irony that almost steals the play every me it is read or performed: the story of •hylock the money-lender and his insist- . :ice on his pound of flesh. That word and that phrase have become .; rt of our language!' You me[!' hat,c „heard .1meone say, "He's a regular • lock," ,r "He always wants his pounu of ,h." hey are synonyms of a merciless greed, ttred, and desire for revenge. For those who have forgotten the plot, or .tven't read or seen the play, I'll give a ocket synopsis. A rich merchant is approached by his 'est friend, a young man who has quandered all his money, including a „oodly sum the merchant has lent him. The o'ing fellow wants his friend to lend him .rout el• sum, about $35,000, so that he can get nga—elf all duded up and marry a t ealthy heiress, upon which he will return All the money he owes. For friendship's sake, the rich merchant says, "No prob- lem. All my cash is tied up in ships'at sea with rich cargoes, but my credit is excellent. Go borrow the money and I'll back your note." Or words to that effect. I am Will Smiley, not Will Shakespeare. So the young blade goes to a notorious money-lender, Shylock, who agrees to lend him the money for three months. Usually, he charges more interest than Household Finance, but this time he won't charge any. The plot thickens. In a few sneering asides, we learn that Shylock hates the rich merchant. He has reasons. The merchant has spat upon him, spurned him, called him dog, and hurt him badly in the pocketbook by lending money interest-free. Shylock can stand the spit- ting and the names, but he turns purple when he thinks someone is lending money with no interest when he could be copping 40 per cent. He sees his chance. Sure, he'll lend the young spender the money, interest-free, provided the merchant will sign a bond: that if the money is not repaid by a certain date, Shylock may take a pound of flesh from any part of the merchant's body. It's all a joke, of course, As Shylock points out, a pound of human flesh is not worth as much as a pound of veal, or even a pound of hamburger. (This was before inflation. I wouldn't bet on it nowadays. ) The rich merchant. agrees, airily. After all, his ships will be in with their rich cargoes a whole month before the bond is due. And nobody would take a pound of flesh. (Shhh! We in the audience know that Shylock will take a pound of flesh from the heart area, and that the laws of the city will back him up, if the bond is signed in quadruplicate.) Well, well. It is rumoured on the stock exchange that the rich merchant's ships have all been lost at sea, and he is (Continued on Page 14) Listen anywhere, radio, television, newspapers or the corner eoffee shop, and you hear nothing but complaints about government these days. It' a cynical age when every move, or even decision not to move, by a nolitician is looked on either as an attempt to gain more dictatorial power or to trick people into voting for him. There's hardly a good word said about a government today, whether federal or provincial. I'm often included in that group of cynics, I, must confess, but sometimes, I have to admit when the government has done something good. I thought about this positive side of government action last week when I watched the Grammy awards presentation from the U.S. Usually I don't even bother to watch such American shows with their flag-waving, "ain't we great" boosterism. This time I changed my mind mainly because I heard that a number of Canadians, led by Anne Murray, were up for awards. I soon discovered that the award show was, well perhaps not dominated, but certainly had a dis- proportionate number of Canadians nominated for awards. There was Miss Murray, of course, who was nominated for four different awards and finally won one. But there was Oscar Peterson from Montreal and Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass, and Dan Hill and Gino Vanelli. Despite the dominanace at the ceremony by Britain's Bee Gees, there were probably more Canadians up for awards than people from any other country than the U.S. Even here, by proportion to population, the Canadians were near the top. All this from a country that a decade ago didn't have a recording indu,. try, a country that perhaps wouldn't have one today if it wasn't for government action. It was one controversial move made by the Canadian Radio Television Commission under Pierre Juneau and Harry J. Boyle that had the greatest effect on creating a recording industry. In the past, Canadian radio stations simply picked up the American best-selling record charts and played the same records here. It made life simple for them. But the CRTC realized that something had to be done if Canadian song writers, musicians and singers were to get an even break. They imposed a quota system on radio stations that said 30 per cent of all records played on the station must be Canadian. The screams from the radio stations were long and loud saying that is was government interference in private enterprise, that there weren't enough good Canadian performers and the quality of Canadian records are poor. Yet today we have a wealth of young recording stars and the quality of our recording studios is such that huge international stars come here to make recordings. The trend has funnelled down to the grassroots where we even have a local recording studio these days to give local talent a chance to record. Oh Sure, everything isn't perfect. The ironic thing is that while big British and America stars come to Canada to record, Miss Murray and some other top Canadian stars now go to the U.S. to record, but at least the.trade off is there and it's probably healthy because the interchange will allow our people to learn from others and others to learn from us. Today the music industry is so strong in Canada that superstar Gordon Lightfoot, one of the few able to make it before the regulations changed, can be booked into huge Massey Hall in Toronto for something like nine concert dates in a row. Government action is also to be credited for the fact we have a strong theatre establishments in Canada today. There virtually wasn't Canadian theatre in the early 1950's when the St. Laurent govern- ment appointed Vincent Massey to look into culture in Canada and on the Massey Commission recommendation set up the. Canada Council. That move eventually prompted the provincial governments in several provinces to begin providing money for the arts. And it isn't just the money that counts. The money to keep a theatre going is important, but money isn't what makes theatres in this country go: they run on vision and enthusiasm of the people who dedicate their lives with little monetary reward to their work. It's the encourage- ment the government .has given the arts that has made more difference than the actual money involved. Government sup- port has let the musicians, the actors and writers, the dancers and other artists know that somebody does think what they are doing is important. Much the same policy and results have been seen in recent years in athletics. Government "interference" has often been badmouthed in sports but without the government, thousands of young Canadians wouidn't be out there in Brandon this week at the Canada Winter Games. The government seems to be the only body that cares about getting hockey back in the hands of Canadians by putting pressure on to get the NHL and WHA together so that major league hockey can be a tru :ly national sport. The government has been involved in a lesser way in prodding the Canadian Football League to• become more Canadian. The government has provided the funds and the en- couragment that has helped Canadian skiers reach the top; that's turned Canada into a major swimming power in the world, that has helped Canada go' in a decade from a perennial loser to a nation that can hold its head up proudly in international Spotting events;; All right, be cyncial about this if you want. What do musicians and actors and skiers and swimmers matter when the dollar is nearing 80 cents U.S and unemployment is soaring? My bet is that the thing that will be remember about the 1970's when the century turns is not our economic problems but the triumphs in the arts and athletics, We need the heroics the athletes and artists proVide, even. more so when times are totigh, I I le re a s( tl