The Citizen, 1987-01-21, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1987.
A sense of who you are
CBC television Sunday night did the kind of programming
that is really essential when it showed the television movie
“Island Love Song’’, a bright story of love on Cape Breton
Island.
Two attractive people fell in love in the story but the love
affair was deeper than that. The love affair was of people with
the land they lived in. It showed the people of the island as
tough, proud descendents of the Scots who arrived after the
“Clearances’’ in Scotland had driven them from their
homeland. These people may have been short on the material
possessions we take for granted today, they may have been
desperate forjobs, but they possessed something many people
today lack: a sense of who they are.
In that the Cape Bretoners are like Huron county residents.
While there are many people who are relatively new to the
county, thereisstillthefeelingthat Huron county residents are
comfortable with themselves, that they don’t have that urge
people in Toronto seem to have, for instance, to imitate New
York or California.
Our history in Huron doesn’t go so deep as Cape Breton and
we have been closer to the main stream urban developments so
we haven’t kept our natural character so deeply ingrained as
they have. If the movie is accurate, for instance, it is obvious
that the old music plays a much greater part in the lives ofCape
Brctonners than it does here in Huron.
But one thing seems to be the same in both places. A teacher
in the movie worries about the lack of leaders in Cape Breton,
about the fact that the best and the brightest young people must
go away to school where they train for jobs that will mean they
likely never come back to the island to provide the leadership
needed. Sadly, that is true in Huron county as well.
But unlike most television shows that make this seem
inevitable, there’s a ray of hope in “Island Love Song’’ that
make sit seem the young woman going off to university in
Toronto may come back to her roots. It’s a hope we can all wish
for.
Building understanding
How can we hope for peace and understanding on a world
scale if we can’t even have a little peace and understanding
between the regions of our own country? And how can we have
understanding in our own country if leaders and the media are
so sensitized to imagined slights that they promote
misunderstanding?
Take the issue of the federal government’s $1 billion aid plan
under the “Special Canadian Grains Program. ’ ’ The bulk of the
money from the plan will go to the prairie provinces but
“Graincws”, the publication ofthe United Grain Growers Ltd.,
still secs a rate in the form of favouritism ofthe hated east. In the
December issue it headlines a front page story. “Sleazeball
politics: $1-billion payout gives double $/acre to Ontario.”
The story then proceeds to show that a Rosetown, Sask.,
farmer, under the plan, will receive less than half what a Kent
County farmer in Ontario will get under the plan.
Nowhere in the article is there any explanation of the fact
Kent county farmer’slandissomeofthemost expensive
farmland in the country. Nowhere in the story is there an
explanation that the input costs of the Kent county farmer are
several times that of the Saskatchewan farmer. The only figure
dealt with is that the Kent county farmer will receive more per
acre than the Saskatchewan farmer. There is no attempt to
promote the understanding that Ontario farmers have to make
more per acre: that’s why an Ontario farmer measures his land
inhundredsofacres, and a prairie farmermeasureshis in
sections.
If a supposedly intelligent western publication can be so
ignorant of the facts of eastern farming, is there any real hope
the west will ever lose its chip-on-the-shoulder mentality
toward anything that happens in Ontario, whether in Bay Street
or Huron County?
Kudos to merchants
Those Blyth merchants who have gotten together to take on
tourist pro mot ion for shops and restaurants de serve best
wishes and congratulations.
Business communities tend to go through cycles of high and
low energy and, despite some obvious examples of individual
merchants who have forged ahead, Blyth has definitely been in
a low cycle for several years. There was a time when the biggest
problem Blyth faced was trying to find room if a new store did
wanttocometotown. Sadly that hasn’t been the case in the last
couple of years. Interested businesses have been able to take
their pick of vacant stores too often. Part of the vacancy route is
due to the move of some successful businesses to new quarters
butmorehasbeenbecauseofthegeneraldown-turn in the local
economy.
Blyth has been hampered in fighting the trend by the lack of
any kind of unity in the business community. The old Blyth
Board of Trade died of apathy several years ago. Merchants
were too busy finding things to disagree about to ever get
together and work to improve the whole main street.
The whole main street still isn’t acting together on this
project that is designed to promote the tourist-oriented
businesses most, but this is a good start. It’s to be hoped that
this initial movement will lead to a full-fledged business
association in the future. It’s also to be hoped that this revival in
main street energy will translate into a re-generated main
street shopping area in the years ahead.
BY RAYMOND CANON
Someone, who was taking a trip
to Europe, once asked me if there
was anything I could suggest
before they set out. Without
hesitating I came back with the
admonition to learn how to ask
where the washroom was in the
language of all the countries they
were visiting.
I have far too often to count been
asked by total strangers in abomin
able German, excruciating French
and incomprehensible Italian just
how they could get to the nearest
washroom. All of them had run
afoul of one of the little known
subsections of Murphy’s Law: just
when you most need somebody
that speaks your language, that is
precisely thetime when nobody
with that ability will be available.
If you don’t trust your fluency in
any language; write down the
necessary words on a piece of
paper and show it to the first local
you meet. That is something that
was drilled home to me in England
of all places. I was supposed to visit
a friend in a suburb of London and
unfortunately got lost on the way.
This doesn’t happen too often but
this time it did and I had to ask for
directions. Nobody seemed to
know the place 1 was asking about
and yet 1 knew that it could not be
toofaraway. Suddenlylgotthe
idea of showing the address to the
next person J met and sure enough
when he saw it in writing, he was
able to give me exact directions. It
seems that the place had one of
those quaint English pronuncia
tions which only remotely resem
bled the way the place was spelled
and, that being the case, it was not
surprising that nobody could
understand what 1 was trying to
say.
With that littleadmonition out of
the way, let me go on to the next.
Please do not expect washrooms
throughout the world to be up to the
same standards of cleanliness and
equipment that you find in Canada.
Most countries do not have our
ideas of cleanliness and for this
reason you are likely to find
yourself in a washroom that can
only be described as late Dark Ages
or early Bar n Yard. Somebody once
told me that there was an unwritten
law that stated that the f urther east
you went in Europe, the more
primitive the washrooms became.
While that is not 100 per cent true,
there is a considerable amount of
The International
Scene
Washrooms / have known
truth in it. Another good rule is that
washrooms tend to be cleaner in
Germanic countries than they are
in Latin ones, although there are to
be sure, exceptions to that rule as
well.
If there is one incident that
stands out in my mind, it is the time
that my wife decided to come to
S witzerla nd with me and see all the
places she had heard so much
about during our married years.
My old home in St. Gallen is not
that far from the German border at
Konstanz and so it was that one day
we decided to go across this border
and visit the little island of Mainau,
about 10 kilometres from Kon
stanz. If you have never been
there, it is worth visiting since it is a
subtropical oasis in a temperate
climate and the plant life is
something not to be missed. The
day we were there, I saw no less
than 30 foreign buses, all filled
with curious tourists.
However, I digress. Halfway
through the tour of the island, my
wife announced that she had to go
to the washroom. No problem
there. 1 simply took her to a door
marked FRAUEN and told hertogo
in. A minute or so later, out she
came again and informed me that
all the toilets inside were ofthe pay
variety. Again no real problem. 1
told her to tell me how much the
little noticeon the door said you
had Io pay to get in. "1 can’t read
German,’’ she replied. ’’All right,
go in and try to find a number on the
sign and then (ell me (he number
and what comes immediately
afterwards. ’ ’ That she did and in a
few seconds she was out again. “It
says 20 Pf.” Well, that translates
into 20 pfennigs which is about 15
cents in our money, I gave her the
right amount and in she went. A
few seconds later out she came
again. “There is a woman in there
who wants my money.” she
informed me as if I was going to go
in and represent her in any
confrontation with the woman.
“It’s probably just the attendant.”
Ireassured her. ’'Go in and give
her the money when she asks for it.
Then just play it by ear.”
That she did. This time I waited
for quite a while and was beginning
to wonder if my wife had managed
to lock herself in the cubicle. After
a while she came out and told me
the rest of the story. The woman
was. in fact, an attendant. Her job
was, in true German fashion, to
keep order and cleanliness in the
\\ ashroom. After each woman used
a cubicle, the woman went in and
made sure that it was clean. Then
and only then did she let another
woman go in. getting the money
from her in advance and putting it
into the slot. Unfortunately the
attendant spoke only German. She
had been told to keep order and
order she kept. Even my wife
admitted that the entire washroom
was as clean as any she had seen in
Sw it/.erland. which for her was the
highest of compliments.
Maybe 1 should give you a note in
my eight languages to hand to any
washroom attendant you encoun
ter.
[Published by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. 1
Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel,
Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships.
Published weekly in Brussels, Ontario
P.O.Box 152 P.O. Box429,
Brussels, Ont. Blyth, Ont.
N0G1H0 N0M1H0
887-9114 523-4792
Subscription price: $15.00; $35.00 foreign.
Advertising and news deadline:
Monday 2p.m. in Brussels; 4p.m. in Blyth
Editor and Publisher: Keith Roulston
Advertising Manager: Beverley A. Brown
Production and Office Manager: Jill Roulston
Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968