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The Citizen, 1994-07-06, Page 5Arthur Black THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 6,1994. PAGE 5. The The law is a ass? You said it, Chuck! The law is a ass, a idiot. Charles Dickens Is it just me, or are things actually getting weirder out there? I'm talking about all the lawsuits going around. A few years ago a guy in my neck of the woods got drunk, dove into a quarry, broke his neck - and then sued the township for damages. And won, I thought that was about as dumb as the law could get. I was wrong. As I speak, Black Flag, the insecticide people, have yanked a TV ad that featured the playing of Taps over some cartoon bug carcasses. A veteran's group had threatened to sue. A life insurance ad that features a haggy old witch with green skin and a chin wart has been publicly slammed by - but of course, a Witches-Rights group. Why didn't they just turn all the insurance adjusters into toads? Litigational lunacy seems to be the soup du jour. There's a guy in Forth Worth, Texas Haiti — land of misery There are plenty of countries deserving of pity but few more so than Haiti, the country which, with the Dominican Republic, forms half of an island in the Caribbean. While it is true that it has not been subject to the genicide which has befallen Cambodia and most recently Rwanda, it has something which is arguably just as bad - a slow lingering death. For over three years the Haitian military junta has thumbed its nose at the world. Things were not too bad in 1991 when the elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was in control but in that year he was ousted by General Raoul Cedras of the above mentioned junta and since then the situation has gone downhill. At one time a combination of American and United Nations' pressure got the general to agree to step down in favour of Mr. Aristride but that was as far as it got; he has dragged his feet ever since and has made it clear that he will neither step down nor permit Mr. Aristide to return under any conditions. Sanctions were imposed but they have been something of a joke. There are those who argue that these sanctions have been a success; they point out that the economy has been crippled, most industries are either shut down or are working reduced hours; this has also resulted in most Haitians being thrown out of work while the small group of military and business aristocracy has almost totally escaped. In some cases they have been able to benefit from the black market and have thus grown richer. Since May 21, tougher sanctions have been in force but they will probably not work either. Among the warships trying to who's suing Weight Watchers. He contends that the weight-loss company's refusal to change the way it conducts its meetings is illegal and an infringement on his rights. The guy bringing the suit, you see, is dea — oops - aurally challenged. So he figures Weight Watchers meetings should offer sign language as well as conventional conversation. We're getting so lawsuit happy that just the threat of legal action can paralyze whole communities. Consider the case of Jeffrey Klein and his burglar alarm. Last month, Jeffrey left on an extended trip to the Far East. Four days into his trip, a neighbour tracked him down by telephone in Singapore. It was the burglar alarm in his house back in Maryland. It had gone off on its own and had been jangling without a break for 48 hours. Would Jeffrey please grant permission to shut it off so the neighbourhood could get some sleep? Sure, said Jeffrey, go ahead. But nobody wanted to take on the job. Even though Jeffrey Klein gave blanket permission for someone - anyone - to go into his house and shut off his alarm, nobody was willing to do it. They were afraid of "liability". It wasn't just the neighbours. The police refused to go in. The public utility refused to cut the power. The burglar alarm kept ringing. One of Klein's neighbours went to court to get an order to shut the damned thing off - By Raymond Canon enforce the embargo is one Canadian destroyer, the HMCS Terra Nova, but, while its crew is on the lookout for such things as oil being shipped in, it knows that all the petroleum which Haiti requires is being smuggled in from the Dominican Republic. One of the reasons why it is relatively easy to do such smuggling is that the president of the Dominican Republic, Joaquin Balaguer, who is 86 and has just been elected to another term of office, does not want to make life too much harder for the Haitians since they might decide to flood across the border. Another is that his army officers are on good terms with those in Haiti and are thus probably benefitting as well from the smuggling. Finally, Mr. Balaguer and Mr. Aristide simply do not get along. In spite of the sanctions, the privileged will still be able to take airline flights out of the country to do their shopping, either in Europe or the United States. While they are indulging themselves, the poor, and that makes up the majority of the country's population, will continue to suffer and even die. Most of the country is out of work and even doctors are unable to make their normal rounds to localities that are somewhat isolated. There has been a decline in sanitation which, together with poor nutrition, makes the situation even worse. Not surprisingly, this deterioration of basic conditions has led an increasing number of people to take to the high seas in all sorts of decrepit vessesl to try to reach the United States. After all, word has got out that President Clinton is now prepared to give all refugees a fair hearing when they arrive in the States and not send them back unless it is felt that they will suffer political repression. This is going to be awfully hard to prove one way or another. Already the Ton ton but no judge would sign the order. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Klein was burning up the telephone lines from Singapore trying to find somebody intrepid enough to go into his house and flip a wall switch. He finally convinced a police officer to do it. It took the cop less than a minute to turn off the alarm which by then had been shrieking for six full days. Then there's the case of Steve Bowskill. He's a druggist in the town of Colborne, Ontario - a druggist who's been held up eight times in the past two years. Late one night last winter, Bowskill was awakened once again to the sound of smashing glass. He got downstairs in time to see two junkies throwing fistfuls of narcotics into a van. Which is when Bowskill, a marksman, raised his pistol, squinted down the barrel and fired. Blowing out the rear tire of the delivery van. Well, the wheels of justice, though notoriously balky, can positively hum every now and then. The powers that be wasted no time getting right to work on the Colborne break-in. Steve Bowskill was charged with careless use of a firearm and unsafe storage of a gun. As I speak the crown attorney in the case is doing his level best to jail a man whose biggest crime was protecting his property, and preventing - without bloodshed - a crime. The law is a ass? You said it, Chuck. Macoute, the dreaded terrorist squads, have made a re-appearance and are prepared to kill those who show any resistance to the current military regime. Many Haitians are of the belief that, sooner or later, a foreign invasion is going to have to take place if the current situation is to stand any chance of being reversed. Since the United States is unlikely to do it on its own, the impetus for such an invasion is likely to come from the United Nations. However, the U.N. is preoccupied in other parts of the world, notably Bosnia and finding the necessary troops and the will to use them in the above manner, is easier said than done. If an invasion ever does take place, there is little doubt that it will be helped by the long suffering Haitians themselves. How long the troops would have to stay is, of course, another matter and one which is certain to give the United Nations much food for thought. Since Haitians are French speaking, many of them in this country are congregated in Quebec. Most of them are there because of the intolerable situation at home and they would lend their support, such as it is, to any attempt to correct the situation. At the present time the blockade goes on and on and on! Got a beef? The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. They must be signed and should be accompanied by a telephone number should we need to clarify any information. w. Short of it | By Bonnie Gropp 1 They’re only human, after all To err is human; to forgive divine. This summer, for the first time in more years than I care to state here, I have decided to play on a ball team. In one inning alone, I can create more damage than I had previously done in my lifetime, no small feat if I do say so, and provide some comic relief. Though some people may find it a little hard to overlook another's mistake, for the most part we humans are willing to make concessions for boo-boos. While we may not always forgive immediately, usually time reminds us that we too are capable of error. Speaking as one who has made plenty and forgiven a few, I have always maintained that regardless of the faux pas, the sun will come up the next day. Unfortunately this was not the case for Colombian soccer player Andres Escobar. In a World Cup game against the U.S. recently, Escobar scored on his own goalie, causing his team to lose the game, which eliminated them from the competition. It apparently really was a do-or-die situation for Escobar who was subsequently gunned down this past weekend, allegedly by Colombian drug lords who had a large stake bet on the outcome. One man apprehended and charged with the crime says this was not the case, but rather that he was in a rage over the loss and acted on it. Either way a dozen bullets ended the life of an athlete, who was not a hero, but rather all too human. Many may argue that athletes get paid very well to not make stupid mistakes. Or that they excel at something that we other mere mortals can't do as well, so stupid mistakes are beneath them. That may be, but if a life is the price they pay for error, there may soon not be any athletes to pay or idolize. As Escobar's funeral ends his time in Colombia, the man who was soon to be the new head coach of the Colombian soccer team has decided to end his time there as well, opting to coach the Spanish team instead. Several Colombian players also feel that they no longer want to play if the price of a mistake must be repaid with their lives. Athletes in more civilized countries have had their share of fear too. Last year before Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Mitch Williams gave up the homerun to Blue Jay Joe Carter to end the 1993 World Series he had received death threats from 'fans' who weren't going to accept anything less than an all-star performance from their ace closer. Following his debacle in Toronto, Williams returned home to try and put it behind him. Unfortunately, the 'dead-heads' wouldn't let him and literally drove him from his home. Don't you think that maybe we've lost our perspective here a bit? Sports is entertainment; whether you play it or watch it, it's supposed to be fun. We are, perhaps taking it a little too seriously. Do our athletes really deserve to be heroes, or better yet, do they want or expect to be? If it's us placing them on the pedestal, is it fair then to not forgive them if they fall off? When you look at some of the sports world's shining stars — Mike Tyson, O.J. Simpson, both of whom have or may have committed unforgiveable crimes — it should be clear that a God-given talent doesn't necessarily make someone a hero and it certainly doesn't make them infallible. They are, after all, only human.