The Citizen, 2001-03-21, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2001. PAGE 5.
Other Views
Quail, quail, the gang's all here
Funny how life sneaks up and whacks you
upside the head when you least expect it.
There I was, my nose buried in the
newspaper, when I heard a terrific WHUMP
above my head.
Went outside, looked up on the roof.
Nothing.
Then I heard a rustling and looked down to
see a quail at my feet.
You familiar with quail? They're bigger than
a robin; smaller than a partridge and
look kind of ... well, goofy. They hang
out in bunches and they've got this
ridiculous thingmabob that hangs off
the top of their heads making them look like a
chorus line of flappers beetling through your
garden.
And they beetle a lot. In fact I think quail
periodically forget that they can actually fly,
because they'll often run for ages before they
take off.
The average quail is not the brightest bundle
of feathers in God's aviary, but they're
undeniably cute. Dumb, but cute.
Sort of like Dan Quayle, come to think of it.
But the quail on my front lawn was even
more confused than Dan. I don't know if a
hawk knocked him out of the sky or he ran into
a hydro line but something had crossed his
circuits. He was at my feet, running for all he
was worth.
Except he wasn't going anywhere. He was
lying on his side, his legs windmilling
Have your ever noticed how often
objectivity is cast aside when it comes
to trying to get at the bottom of an
economic or political fiasco?
Well, that is certainly the case in California
when it comes to determining what went wrong
in the matter of deregulating the power
industry. The ultimate result was blackouts
where, among other things, traffic lights
suddenly went out and children were trapped in
elevators.
If you opened your windows facing west you
could hear the anguished screams of
consumers trying to cope without any
electricity, not to mention the politicians
screaming just as loudly that it was not their
fault. Finger pointing became very much the
order of the day.
All this did have one bit of a silver lining as
far as our balance of payments is concerned. So
short was California that they had to resort to
buying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of
power from Canada. It's too bad a sign could
not have come on television stating that
viewers were watching a certain program due
to an emergency supply of Canadian electricity.
All this has a certain relevance in Ontario
where we are in the process of doing the same
deregulation to avoid any more of the multi-
billion dollar debt with which Ontario Hydro
has saddled taxpayers.
So far much of the' reaction seems to have
been something as follows. If you don't like
Mike Harris, you are prone to predict
catastrophic results if the province follows
through on its intention on deregulating our
hydro industry. If you do like him, you
probably feel there is nothing to fear by
pressing for full steam ahead.
As is generally the case, the most relevant
observation lies somewhere in the middle.
Perhaps the best thing to do is to see why the
California experiment went so badly wrong.
For openers the intention seems to have been
honourable enough but the state government
then proceeded to act as if it were writing a
fruitlessly. I righted him so that his feet hit the
ground.
The bird burned rubber for about three feet
and fell on its side again.
It was a mystery. The bird was alert,
unbloodied, nothing seemed broken - but he
couldn't stand up. Stayed too long at the office
party?
So I found myself looking up the number for
the Wildlife Natural Care Centre. I felt like an
idiot. it's Sunday afternoon, I'm calling about
a dizzy bird. And I'd be eating chicken for
dinner. Talk about hypocritical.
"This might sound silly," I said into the
phone, "but there's this ummm, quail on my
front lawn..." and I detailed the bird's
symptoms.
The man's voice at the other end responded
as if I was calling from Lotto 649. "Oh, could
you bring him in?"
Next thing I knew I was motoring up a long
winding driveway with a cardboard box full of
quail. Jeff Lederman was waiting for me. Jeff
is, I'd guess, in his late 40s, professorially
scruffy. With his beard and hair, he looks a bit
Raymond
Canon
The
International
Scene
script on how to screw up the deregulation
process.
Let's start with the deregulation part. A
competitive market in electricity at the
wholesale level was to be provided and
ultimately any cost savings would be passed on
to the consumer. The impression was that such
savings would be immediate which was
unrealistic to begin with since no new
generating plants had come on stream for quite
some time to look after an obvious increased
demand.
In fact any effort to build new plants ran
afoul of what is frequently described as the
BANANA plan (Build Absolutely Nothing
Anywhere Near Anybody).
However, at this point error was piled on
error. The government started by imposing
price controls at the retail level, regardless of
the above mentioned increased demand. In
fact, there was absolutely nothing to get users
to curb their demand and suppliers found
themselves having to satisfy this extra demand
by buying out-of-state electricity, including
some from Canada as mentioned above.
Needless to say the price of this extra power
was considerably higher than the permitted
retail price. Losses wasted no time in reaching
unacceptable levels. (How about $18 billion!)
Mix in with all this a bit of price gouging,
Final Thought
Nothing endures but change.
— Heraclitus
like Abby Hoffman, only with kinder eyes.
Jeff runs the Centre - and no one's more
surprised about that than Jeff. A few years back
he was an urban artist in New Mexico who
wouldn't know a whitetail deer from a John
Deere tractor. And then, "It seemed that one
morning I awoke in the body of a wildlife
rehabilitator".
Now, he spends his days at the
Saltspring Island Wildlife Centre, rehab-ing
busted-up owls, car-struck deer, orphaned
seal pups - hawks, 'coons, coyotes - just about
any living critter that can't qualify for
Medicare.
It's hard work and it's expensive. Lederman
could use more hours in his week and more
dough to pay for the food and the medicines he
uses, but he doesn't whine about it. Doesn't
have time.
About an hour after I dropped the bird off, I
was on the phone to the Centre again.
"How's my quail?" I asked, like a worried
father.
"Looking good," said Jeff. "We think it
might be spinal shock trauma. He's on
antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory in a nice
warm cage with plenty of seed and water. Call
again in a couple of days, we'll let you know
how he's coming along."
Imagine. All that fuss over a bird-brained
quail.
I'm going to phone right now. Forgot to ask
about visiting hours.
abnormal weather patterns, and more
government bungling. The governor of the
state, Gray Davis, has moved with all the speed
of a three-legged tortoise when it came to
finding remedies.
What is he going to do when all those
Californians start turning on their air
conditioners this summer?
Meanwhile, over in Great Britain, the same
sort of deregulation seems to have gone off
quite smoothly. One key move there was to
appoint an independent regulator to keep the
government at arm's length as much as
possible and to attract new private capital. The
result has been a drop in prices.
Back in California, the current joke is how
many governors it takes to change a light bulb?
Three! One to turn off all the lights in the state.
The second to stamp around in the dark yelling
that it's not his fault. And a third to switch the
lights back on.
So far Gov. Davis fits very much in the
second category.
There is, as is generally the case, a right and
a wrong way to go about deregulation. We now
have examples of both.
Let's hope that we learn where the pitfalls are
before we steam ahead in Ontario.
Letters Policy
The Citizen welcomes letters to the,
editor.
Letters must be signed and should
include a daytime telephone number for
the purpose r.1 verification only. Letters
that are not signed will not be printed.
Submissions may be edited for length,
clarity and content, using fair comment
as our luideline. The Citizen reserves
the right to refuse any.letter on the basis
of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate
information. As well, letters can only be
printed as space allows. Please keep
your letters brief and concise.
Back in the game
Ablazing sun transforms the field into a
torrid hot spot, more suited to leisure
than physical activity. Yet, the
participants stand, ready, waiting, unprotected
from the elements. It is a moment of
concentration, a moment of anticipation, a
moment of patience.
And then, there is the throw, the crack and
the moment is gone, altered by action,
urgency.
There is something about the game of
baseball that has enraptured me. I love its
poetry, its ballet. I love the smell and feel of
an old ball glove and there is nothing like that
sharp thunder clap which accompanies an
over-the-wall homer. (Not hit by me of course.)
Though I admit to being more of a couch
potato fan, preferring the comfort of my home
to bleachers, I did for many, many years
delight in watching my son's team play. And I
have on occasion found the time to venture
down to catch a local tournament game or two.
It was, therefore, with sadness last year that
on my nightly walks I passed a silent ball
diamond in Brussels. Having served on the
minor ball organization for several years I
watched the number of young people
interested drop as soccer gained in popularity.
Then last year with the current executive ready
to retire and no one stepping forward in time to
meet the deadlines for registration, for the first
time in a long time minor ball did not have a
season in the village.
I have nothing against soccer. My daughter
preferred it to baseball and that's great. I was
pleased that she had an option which allowed
her some physical activity during the summer.
But the demise of baseball is an unfortunate
situation that some may regret in yearS to
come.
Baseball is a game of finesse and
concentration. Its skills, though some acquire
them more expertly and sooner, are learned
over time. I recall an acquaintance deciding
when her son was about 10 or so that he
should play ball. He was good in hockey so
he'd be good at ball, right? Wrong. His
inability to field, to hit, to the level of his
teammates who had been playing since pre-
school, prompted him to give up quickly. You
don't just catch a ball because you want to. It
takes practice.
Certainly, while soccer also requires skills,
they are the type that can be picked up to a
modest level of ability in a short time. Without
some early development in the game of
baseball I doubt the same is true.
In a perfect world, parents would have the
time to introduce their children to both sports
and encourage them to develop their skills in
each for several seasons. However, schedules
conflict and, Of course, parents already have
more than enough on their plates.
And so, there continues to be a growing
number in the newest generation unfamiliar
with the finer points of baseball.
That said, there are also children who want
to play and this year, a champion for them has
come forward. An area woman has thus far
singlehandedly begun the work involved in
reviving minor ball in Brussels. The kids who
want to. play at least deserve the chance, she
said, and so registration has been and is being
held to see if some teams can be put together.
The last date is Thursday of this week.
Let's hope the Brussels ball diamond will
come to life again as young players get back in
the game.
The electricity fiasco in California