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The Citizen, 1997-10-15, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1997. C itizenTheNorthHuron P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOU 1H0 Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G1H0 Phone 887-9114 FAX 887-9021 E-mail norhuron@huron.net Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie Gropp Advertising Manager, Jeannette McNeil The Citizen is published weekly In Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable In advance at a rate of $27.00/year ($25.24 + $1.76 G.S.T.) In Canada; $62.00/year in U.S.A, and $75.00/year In other foreign countries. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. We are not responsible for unsolicited newscrlpts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Publications Mail Registration No. 6968 A different country Who are these people and what country are they living in? Last week Gordon Thiessen, head of the Bank of Canada, announced central bank rate would be going up, thereby increasing interest rates to all those people who buy houses or cars or household appliances. The economy, the top banker was saying, was booming and inflation was a fear. Economists and bankers continue to say the economy is booming, but this must be the most silent boom in history. There is the boom in the world of bankers and the investment industry but, shut up in their own little world, these decision makers don’t seem to realize that most Canadians are not gaining anything. We’re seeing a giant shift of the country's resources from the many middle and lower income people to the few in upper income brackets. While bankers worry about the return of inflation, a million and a half people worry about finding a job. Many more, particularly young graduates of universities and colleges, long to be able to get a job that matches their training and leave behind the minimum wage jobs they've taken because they have to buy food and pay back their student loans. Small businesses struggle to keep the doors open. Whole towns and villages worry about their futures. One wishes there was a way in Canada to do what Mao Tse Tung used to do in China where for a few weeks each year, the administrators were assigned work out in the real world. It would be wonderful to see top bankers out slugging it at minimum wage jobs so they could see how difficult it is to live on those wages, and how soul-destroying it can be for young, well-educated people to not be able to employ their real talent and skills. It would be interesting to have the cheerful economists and the politicians make the rounds of employers seeking work, only to be told they either have too much education or too little experience — or there’s no job available at all. Perhaps if we could give these people some real-life experience in the everyday Canada, not in the never-never land of high finance, we might fina.’ly begin to solve the problems that face the vast majority of Canadians. At least it might shut them up about how wonderfully everything is going these days. — KR Two sets of rules The U.S. government was dealt an embarrassment last week when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the leaders of a movement to ban the use of land mines. That movement, through the drive of the Canadian government, has resulted in a treaty among more than 100 countries to no longer use the terrible weapons. The U.S. is among the most notable countries refusing to sign the agreement President Bill Clinton argues that the U.S. is a special case. It is the world’s peace enforcer, he says, and in places like Korea must retain land mines to protect its troops. The U.S. is the strongest advocate of international rules but it often seems to want to stand above those rules. It has been pushing international trade agreements, but when it doesn’t like the rules it tries to find a reason why it shouldn’t have to obey. Take the case of the west coast salmon dispute, for example. Canada has proposed the dispute be settled by binding arbitration through an international abitrator. The U.S., however, claims it can’t agree to this because only U.S. lawmakers should be able to make decisions that affect the lives of Americans. It would be undemocratic, and unconstitutional, for an outsider to have this kind of power. That is exactly the kind of argument that many Canadians made in opposing the Canada-U.S. trade agreement and NAFTA. But the U.S. was delighted to enter those agreements because it felt it would eventually set the rules (take a look at the pressure from Canadian farmers to accept U.S. pesticide regulations instead of re-registering the chemicals in Canada, and you’ll see it’s working). When the trade pacts bites the other way, however, the U.S. wants to fight the rules it agreed to. The Americans are again taking on the Canadian dairy industry, for instance, even though it lost the earlier challenge to our supply management system. Sometimes, as in the case of the land mines issue, the world decides it doesn’t want to let the Americans set the rules. It’s nice to see President Clinton left to squirm. — KR Photo by Janice Becker Letters THE EDITOR, I'm writing in response to Amy Jordan's Sept. 30 letter to the editor in The Beacon Herald. She said she was writing to express a student's view on the issue of education reforms. I'm a Grade 9 student at St. Michael and her views are certainly not mine. Fact: Ontario high school teachers spend 3.75 hours of their working day in the classroom. The national average is 4.5 hours. Fact: Only 50 per cent of Ontario's students passed the third international math tests and approximately 55 per cent passed science tests. That's the lowest in the country. Fact: Ontario spends the most per pupil in the country but is still getting a failing grade. Why? Fact: in 1996, the Ontario teachers' pension fund sucked $943 million from the Ontario government's budget. That's enough to build 70 elementary schools. Fact: 27 per cent of all students will drop out before graduating high school. Fact: Among those who do graduate high school, as many as one-third of them will fail math and literacy tests. Fact: Ontario is the only province that still has Grade 13. Fact: There's far too much fat and waste in the system (i.e. Teachers' pension fund, $100,000 plus salaries and perks, etc.). These are the facts. Indisputable and unchallenged by Ms Jordan and even by the unions. The scary part is that this is only the tip of the iceberg which is why I'm going to throw all 100 per cent of my support behind this government. If the teachers are truly fighting for us and not for their fully indexed-to-inflation pensions and perks then why in the world would they want to fight the government to the bitter end and strike, depriving us of our education? If they really wanted us to get a good education, then why wouldn't they sit down peacefully with the government and keep the schools and their minds open. To directly answer Ms Jordan's question, she asked "who will be the creative thinkers and leaders of tomorrow?" The answer to that question is the Alberta students who beat us by a country mile in test results. She also stated that "the vast majority of teachers spend countless hours providing services for students without asking for extra pay." She was talking about the government's reform to teacher prep time. Alberta's teachers have less planning time and they too provide extra-curricular activities. The bottom line is simple. Our education system is broken and it needs reforms. If the teachers do strike, it will prove only one thing - the desperate shape our education system is really in. Ethan Rabidoux St. Michael Catholic Secondary School student Stratford.