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The Citizen, 1994-09-14, Page 5B Arthur Black Si , A' 5 ................................................................. ......................................................................................................... THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14,1994. PAGE 5. The \ Where do you live if you’re really in the bucks? Went to a rich guy's party last night. Very nice, I suppose. Phoneys by the yard. Champagne by the bucket. Shrimp dip all over the place, like ashtrays in a bingo hall. But it got me to thinking - hey, this guy’s strictly nouveau. A carpetbagger. Where do you live if you're really, really in the bucks? I'd always heard Rosedale - that maple leafed enclave in deepest, darkest Hogtown. Rosedale is a district - a back yard really - about three rapes and a plunder north of the nucleus of downtown Toronto - which is to say Yonge and Dundas. You get no junkies in Rosedale. No panhandlers with dirty mouths or running sores. No street gangs. No hookers or beggars or winos. Rosedale is mercifully free of all such.. .distractions. And, not surprisingly, Rosedale is rather wealthy. Turns out that in 1992, your average Rosedale resident took home $48,000. It may not sound exactly princely, but it is about two and a half times above the national average of $18,600. Is anybody, anywhere in Canada, stilt able to live on an income of $18,600 a year? If so, I'd love to hear from them. Write this paper, wouldja? International Scene __________ ____________ _____ By Raymond Canon Now the good news From time to time there have been complaints that the news media is more intent on publishing the bad news than it is the good. It may be that the negative kind sells more than the positive and one has only to see the TV ratings jump when O.J. Simpson's ordeal finds its way on the TV screen to see the veracity of that. On the other hand, it would be nice to see more evidence that the world is not going directly to hell in a hand-basket and to that end I am going to bring you some items which can be considered as positive and which have likely not got anything but minimal coverage in the media. For openers, and I'll get the economic one out of the way first, it is a long time since I have seen inflation so low in the industrialized nations. While Canada has currently no inflation at all, and thus ranks first in the chart, no country has over five per cent and only one, Spain, comes even close to that. Next to us comes Switzerland and then Japan. Germany, the United States, Britain and Sweden all have price increases in the two - three per cent range. While these rates have certainly been achieved at the expense of unemployment since there is a trade-off between the two, it should not be dismissed as of no importance. A great deal of economic growth depends on low rates of inflation and the longer we can keep the average price increase under control the better. We frequently read that this or that country is on the point of collapse. The truth is that countries are generally much more resilient than the media gives them credit for. People everywhere have a remarkable Meanwhile...the cost of living. I checked the Guinness Book of Records and discovered that, well-healed as it is, Rosedale isn't even in the top 10 globe-wise. According to Guinness, the richest country in the world is Switzerland. Canada is not even in the top 10. But don't feel hard done by. You could live in Mozambique. The poor wretches of that African hellhole hold the title of world's poorest country. Average income per person: $70. A year. But the Guinness Book of Records is strangely incomplete. It doesn't give a rating for Brunei, an eensy-teensy flyspeck of a nation perched on the north coast of the island of Borneo. I'm not sure what the annual income of your average Bumeian is, but I know there's only about a quarter million of them, and I know their boss, the Sultan of Brunei, is officially worth about $37 billion dollars, give or take a nickel. Something tells me it's better to be a poor man in Brunei than a poor man in Berne. And another oversight in the Guinness Book of Records - not a word about Polaris. Perhaps you've never been there. Almost certainly you've never been there. Polaris is a tiny, hardscrabble settlement on the edge of Little Cornwallis Island, which is 100 kilometres from the north magnetic pole. Just 200 people live in Polaris, all of them dedicated to hauling as much lead and zinc as they can out of the frozen ground for ability to adjust to new realities, painful as many of them may be. To cite one case, Serbia is being subjected to embargos as a result of its role in the upheaval of what was once Yugoslavia. In spite of all this, the country is not even close to the point of collapse, although there are undoubtedly a great many hardships to be faced. When you read or hear, therefore, that this or that country is about to fall apart, take it with the proverbial grain of salt. For a while there was the danger that we might see another war in Korea, since the North and the South have never reunited and the North, with long-time leader, Kim II Sung thumbing his nose at just about everybody. The above mentioned danger revolved around the possibility that North Korea might have one or more atomic bombs. When things were at about their hottest, Mr. Kim died and so far his son, who is generally considered to have taken over from his father, has not shown the same tendency to rattle .sabres. The North, however, keeps a large portion of its army close to the South Korean border but so far there is no real evidence that they are preparing for an invasion of the South. Peace seems to be breaking out in the Middle East. The Israelis, after having come to an historic agreement with the Palestinians over the Gaza Strip, have taken a step further by sitting down with the Jordanians. In an equally historic meeting in Washington, Israel prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan brought an end to the two countries' state of belligerance. This brings to three the Arab countries with which the Israelis have done a deal since the Egyptians were prepared, a considerable time ago, to sit down with their their employers, Cominco Ltd and Teck Corporation, of Vancouver. It's not a glamourous life. Polaris is about as barren a spot as you could find on the planet. For 10 months of the year the landscape is pure, unrelieved white. Of course there are no night clubs, no Sky or Saddle domes. And Polaris is somewhat off the beaten track. The Blue Jays, the Vancouver Canucks and the National Ballet hardly ever pass through town. The work schedule is brutal too. Employees are expected to work 11 hours a day, six days a week. But there's an up side. Free room and board and catered meals - you never have to cook - and, oh yes...time off. Four months - yes, months - paid vacation every year. And a very healthy salary to boot. The average - average - income in Polaris is $92,800. And now just in case you're packing a haversack, heading for the highway and pointing your thumb due north - another down side to working at Polaris. The waiting list. "It's a mile long," says mine manager John Key. "Recently we had one job opening for a power house mechanic. It drew 92 applications." Oh well. I never liked long winters anyway. erstwhile enemy and attempt to live in harmony instead of discord. All this still leaves Syria and Lebanon out in the cold and the Syrians may prove to be the hardest nut of all to crack but, in the volatile atmosphere of the Middle East, three out of five aren't bad. Every once in a while the automobile industry does something that really contributes to driver safety. Apparently one of these positive steps is currently being installed in most cars. According to the American Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, driver deaths from frontal crashes in cars equipped with an airbag have been reduced by a remarkable 26 per cent which is a bigger saving than what was achieved by adding seatbelts. Drivers will be pleased to note that the industry is now working on side-impact airbags; the first cars should be outfitted in two years. See, there is good news out there after all. It is just a bit hard to find at times! Got a J. 'A/ 4" ^7 ''77;, '7/7 '^77/77 '7,'''' '4 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. _____________________________________________________ Short of it By Bonnie Gropp Accountable education The trustees of the Huron County Board of Education were presented with a report from the Ontario Parent Council. This report had been submitted to the Associate Minister for Education and Training, Mike Farnan for consideration. In it, the council outlines a legislated approach to the establishment of school parent councils in Ontario. To this time, the amount of parental involvement within a school has usually been determined by that school's principal. The council found that on the whole, parents want input and greater involvement on equal footing with schools across the province. One of the key elements of the report suggests that school parent councils, while not being involved in the day-to-day management of the schools, should have input into decision making. An advisory role should be adopted in the areas of curriculum and program development, development of school policies, participation in the approval process for school and school board budgets and finally, participation in the hiring and performance review of teachers, principals and other school staff. With the words "advisory role" and knowing the strength of the union, initially I couldn't get too excited by this report. However, after consideration given to the word "participation" and knowing the strength of a parent fighting for their young, I began to feel a certain satisfaction. This is still very much in the early stages; who knows where it will lead. But in a perfect world I see an end to a good number of wrongs which have been consistent in the field of education. And of which the children are the victims. Unlike other employees, teachers, principals and staff are not usually viewed by their supervisor on a daily basis. I remember as a student being warned by our teacher to behave as the inspector was visiting our classroom that day. It was many years before I found out she was the one who needed to look good, which we made her do by being intimidated into the model class. There is plenty of proof for the asking that this just isn't a good enough system for evaluating the people charged with our children's education. An acquaintance of mine told me of a former teacher, who turned C students into A students. Not a remarkable feat. An alcoholic, he regularly slept during class, a real bonus when tests were being written. No questions asked when once again the following year those kids went back to being C students. I have heard frustrated parents discussing verbally abusive teachers. One teacher allegedly threatened physical violence, made disparaging remarks about women and swore at his elementary school students. Administration was aware of the situation as was the board of education trustee, who essentially said nothing could be done. After the OPC report was presented to the Huron board, a Goderich trustee said he was concerned that councils wanted to be involved in the hiring of teachers. "Even we don't get involved in that process," he said. And does he think that's a good thing? As employees of a school board, teachers, principals and staff should have some accountability to those who pay their salary — the taxpayers. There are a good number of excellent teachers who won't be concerned about that, but for the ones who are quite frankly unsuitable, someone should make them sweat. If the trustees or administration can't do it, then it's time for the sake of our children, that somebody does.