The Citizen, 2001-10-24, Page 5Arthur
Black
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2001. PAGE 5.
Other Views
PC police target trick or treat
which is to say two balls of snow, some
charcoal buttons and a carrot nose - to be a
noxious presence. "A well-fed, dominating,
patriarchal male" as she puts it, adding, "The
snowman is of course, white and invariably
male".
Yeah, well, there's a pretty good reason
why the snowman is always white, Ms
Cusack, but I won't embarrass you by pointing
it out.
As for always being male - more research
please. The way I remember it, we kids made
snow women at least as often as snowmen - if
only for the pleasure of attaching the requisite
snowboobs.
Is it just possible that we are protecting our
kids too much? Some folks think so.
In other parts of the world, education
authorities are reversing the trend to 'padded
schoolyards' by putting in what they call "risk-
full adventure playgrounds".
Don't be alarmed. This mostly means putting
back the see-saws, slides and monkey bars that
were removed in the past few years as being
'too hazardous'.
Same thing in Japan, where kindergartens
are building playgrounds that include ropes,
high wooden beams and wooden walls.
Halloween is coming up once again, as it
has each year for the past two and a
half millennia.
Enjoy it. It may not be around much longer.
The forces of Political Correctness have
aimed their blunderbusses at Halloween and
are doing their twisted best to exorcise it from
the calendar.
Why are the Thought Police getting their
gotchies in a knot over a kids' night out?
They're concerned that the costumes worn
'make fun of minority groups like gypsies,
Indian chiefs, pirates and hobos.
They're also concerned that Halloween
encourages children to identify with
unwholesome characters like . demons,
vampires and warlocks.
An Edmonton writer even slagged
Halloween because, she says, witches'
costumes perpetuate the witch-hunting craze
and may even teach young girls unhealthy
stereotypes.
I'm not sure of the situation in Edmonton,
but there haven't been any witches burned in
this neck of the woods format least a couple of
centuries. I think the world can handle the
once-a-year appearance at the front door of
couple of grade schoolers dressed in black
capes with a broomstick in one hand and a
Unicef box in the other.
As for stereotypes, the first time I opened my
door last Halloween I was confronted by
someone giggling in a bedsheet, one clown,
one fairy godmother and two kids in _Bart
Let's brie
The Taliban has been constantly in the
news this past year; it has, to be honest,
become something of a household word
but its influence extends not only to the United
States but to countries that very seldom get
mentioned in newspapers, let alone reach the
front page.
One such place is Bangladesh, an Islamic
state that used to be part of Pakistan, the
eastern part in fact, but became a separate state
in 1975. Both before and after this date, it has
been one of the poorest areas in southeast Asia.
Like most Moslem countries Bangladesh has
been very much a man's world but efforts have
been made to improve the lot of women. One
such effort, in which I was once marginally
occupied and which was funded by Canada,
was to create a cottage industry for women to
make dress shirts for the international market.
I actually wore one of the first examples.
I was rather impressed by it but, when it
came time to find markets for these shirts in
this country, we ran headlong into a roadblock.
Canada was part of a multi-fiber agreement
which limited the number of shirts which could
be imported.
We estimated that at best the Bangladeshi
shirts would make up one per cent of the total
Canadian market but even this was too much
for the government and so the whole project
faltered. A beautiful case of the right hand not
knowing what the left hand was doing.
But another project is underway. Instead of
keeping out of sight as in Afghanistan,
Bangladeshi women are being encouraged to
go to school and learn English among other
subjects, all thanks to financial support from
the private sector which has foreign financial
sources especially the British government.
If the women graduate, they end up working
with a steady salary and a mobile phone.
Needless to say, the number of dropouts is kept
to a minimum.
In a nation which has such a high rate of
unemployment such a project might be
uniformly applauded. One thing it has done is
to help reduce the birth rate from an average of
Raymond
Canon
The
International
Scene
six children per woman to just about two. This
has a desirable. side effect; the nation is now
able to feed itself instead of being constantly
on the verge of starvation. It has also doubled
the literacy rate.
However, Moslem fundamentalists,
encouraged by the Taliban, are still a strong
force in Bangladesh and they are not very
happy to see the improvement of the lot, of
women. They support Islamic schools that
accept boys only, teach Arabic and Urdu, the
languages of Pakistan and concentrate on
vocational training as well as promoting a state
modelled on Saudia Arabia. .
The organizations that are attempting to
improve the lot of women have set up
thousands of more secular schools, where
English is the major foreign language taught
and whose courses -reflect more the western
core of subjects.
This change in direction is not without its
violence and the Taliban have been fingered in
a number of bombings. In one of the centres of
secular learning the offices of the organization
running the schools were burnt to the ground
and the women forced to wear the traditiona
Final Thought
Books are the treasured wealth of the world
and the fit inheritance of generations and
nations ... Their authors are a natural and
irresistible aristocracy in every society, and,
more than kings or emperors, exert an
influence on mankind.
-.Henry David Thoreaus
clothing. -
But Bangladesh still has free (well, relatively
free) elections. If the women show the same
initiative at the ballot box as they do in the field
of education, the secular parties may form the
next election and, in the eyes of one observer,
introduce a social revolution to combat the
medievalism of the fundamentalists."
When even Moslems are afraid of the Taliban
and its machinations, it is much easier to
understand why the latter can whip up support
for Osama bin Laden and his "holy war."
Letter
Letters to the editor are a forum for public
opinion and comment. The views expressed do
not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
THE EDITOR,
I reviewed a list of those who died in the
collapse of the World Trade Centre. They
seemed to have a component in common. One,
I think, I share. It would have killed me also.
I would not have left my desk given that the
planes hit 40 or so stories above me.
I mention this because I have no intentions
of being intimidated, yet plan to be more
cautious.
We will adjust. The terrorists make a big
mistake by continuing the attacks, if that is
what the Anthrax letters are.
I don't plan to change the way I live. I do
plan to "watch my back" more then I used to. I
plan to stay more alert, much as I do when I go
through unsavory parts of Toronto, Vancouver,
etc. or for that matter any city.
However, the probability of-dieing goes up
given certain kinds of inaction on our
governments part. In six to eight months I
expect to start routing myself through the U.S.
when I fly. I prefer the dangers associated with
having armed Sky Marshals on planes to that
of armed fighters trying to force terrorists to
land a plane safely.
Yours truly,
Charles B. School.
Celebration time
Celebration time. Lately it seems that
every time I turn around there is
another party, feast or occasion to
attend.
This past weekend was a particularly busy
one for my family, made more intereAng by
the diversity of the celebrations.
Things began almost virtually out the office
door, as Friday night was F.E. Madill
Secondary School's annual commencement.
Always a bittersweet event for this sentimental
mom, it was made even more so by the fact it's
the last my husband and I will be attending as
parents. Our baby has graduated and while we
couldn't be prouder, there is no question this
observance is underlined by a touch of
melancholy. I doubt too, that there was a
mother sitting in that packed auditorium
whose mind wasn't at least once on the first
day of kindergarten.
(For my part, Sunrise, Sunset kept
insinuating its way into the thought process.)
Graduating from high school is no small
accomplishment. As such the evening has all
the requisite pomp, back-patting and fanfare.
Parents sit in hard-backed chairs beaming,
sometimes bragging, as sons and daughters
cross that stage to get awards and diplomas. It
is enjoyed and endured, joyful and painful.
And I, having sat through four of them, am
done.
This time though after three hours of pride
and nostalgia we rushed out to attend a
birthday party for our son's girlfriend. Where
the earlier part of the evening had honoured
achievement, the latter event was
acknowledging the honour of knowing this
special person.
Saturday was a celebration of longevity as
the Brussels Legion Branch marked its 70th
yearof service. Though like commencement it
was a time highlighted by ceremony and
recognition, this one spoke not of beginnings
but of history. Where both were of
tongratulations, this one was collective, rather
than individual.
I attended professionally. Having covered
many of the Legion's events in the past, The
Citizen was being presented with an award.
While it is nice to be acknowledged for
doing our job, one cannot dispute that the
Branch has made what we do so much easier.
Its efforts in the area of community service are
newsworthy and continual. They work
tirelessly on behalf of the area and on their
own, a small group volunteering countless
hours to keep their organization viable and
vital.
As well, they do an excellent job of keeping
us informed of their goings-on.
I was proud to have been invited to help
them celebrate.
After two large events, however, it was
rather nice to enjoy a more low-key party on
Sunday. The day was one of family as we
marked the birthday of patriarch and child.
In our household personalities can and have
often resulted in more bickering than
bolstering. My kids are as different as they are
alike which can be tumultuous. Family
birthdays give us the opportunity to express
love and fondness, to show those close to us
how important they really are and that we
value our relationship with them.
Believe me, it's not just an excuse for
another party, because it's beginning to seem I
don't really need one.
Simpson masks.
Call me Stone Cold Steve Austin, but I
wasn't the least bit scared.
Maybe it was the fact that they were all about
three and a half feet tall.
The situation would be laughable if it wasn't
so serious. I'm sorry to say that it seems that
there really are people out there who have
nothing better to do than conduct full frontal
assaults on children's holidays - all for the
good of the children, you understand.
There's a school on New York's pricey Upper
West Side which has banned Mother's Day and
Father's Day. Rodeph Shilom Day Schcol says
it will not celebrate those days on the grounds
that they discriminate against children of same-
sex couples. 0, brave new world.
Last year, a British art historian delivered a
paper denouncing the presence of an insidious,
archetypal, sexist, rotund, white, male,* "The idea is to toughen up the children, let
patriarchal, chauvinist pig by the name of. . . them challenge themselves and find their own
Frosty the Snowman. limits" says a Japanese spokesman.
Honest to God. Kids allowed to be kids.
Tricia Cusack, who is on the faculty of the That, to paraphrase Martha Stewart, can only
University of Birmingham, considers Frosty - be A Good Thing.
women to the fore