The Citizen, 2006-12-14, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2006. PAGE 5.
Other Views
Now for the real news
After nearly 30 years of banging out
stories for dailies, weeklies and
biweeklies, this is an embarrassing
admission to make but...
I've never understood newspapers.
The way they're laid out, I mean. The front
page is usually full of stories about global
warming, spiraling inflation, car bombings in
Thehellandgoneistan, or mass murders in
Nebraska.
Stories in short, that have no bearing on my
day-to-day life and upon which I have not the
slightest influence.
It's not until I turn to page 17 and spy the
tiny 'this-just-in' stories that the newspaper
experience comes alive for me. You know the
stories I mean. The two or three-inch filler
stories that start off with headlines like: MAN
EATS AIRPLANE IN BRAZIL.
Those are the stories that make reading the
newspapers worthwhile. The ones that make
your eyes bug out, you jaw drop and your
brain go 'Huh?'
Such as?
Such as the story that appeared deep inside
an edition of The Times of London last month.
It told of a choir that assembled at Vauxhall
Cross interchange, one of London's busiest
and noisiest traffic intersections and sang
18th-century folk songs at the traffic..
Huh? Or, put another way, why would a
choir want to do that?
Because 250 years ago the highway
interchange was a popular public gathering
place called Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and
the music (by Thomas Arne) they-were singing
had been performed there at that time.
Premier Dalton McGuinty now knows for
sure who his two weakest ministers are,
but it is not certain how much he can do
about it.
Children and youth services minister Mary
Anne Chambers put herself very much in the
running when she provided one of the most
feeble defences by a minister on a key issue in
memory.
She was asked to explain why some
Children's Aid Societies have failed to help
needy children, while wasting millions of
dollars on luxuries for staff.
Chambers replied she could not discuss the
failings because they were described in a
report by the auditor general that had not been
released formally in the legislature and she
kept repeating it like she was announcing
which trains were leaving which platforms in
a railway station. .
But McGuinty's government every day leaks
policies to news media before presenting them
in the legislature, hoping to get them reported
twice, when leaked and again when officially
announced. No government has leaked more,
so it is bizarre it would ask not to discuss the
issue to respect the legislature.
Chambers also kept saying she was proud
the McGuinty government eventually would
reveal the problem and when opponents
pointed out it constantly volunteers
information on less crucial issues such as how
many eggs the province produces, objected
huffily to vulnerable children being compared
to eggs.
It was the most inept performance by a
minister since Harinder Takhar, then in
transportation and since demoted to look after
small business, became tongue-tied when
asked why he had a friend manage his business
affairs, which are supposed to be at arm's
length in a blind trust while he is a minister
and able to influence government policy.
Takhar also was caught outside the office of
the business in which he was required no
I realize it's not exactly stop-the-press news
but the image of a dozen doughty British
choristers serenading lorry drivers and cube-
farm commuters intrigues me far more than a
front-page account of Stephen Harper's latest
press conference ever could.
Also from a British newspaper (The
Guardian) a straight-faced report informing us
that Sean Combs has decided to change his
name — no, strike that — he's decided to
`rebrand his commercial activities'.
You see, Sean Combs isn't known by that
name over there. In Britain, Sean Combs is
officially Diddy Combs. He used to be Puff
Daddy Combs but he changed that to P. Diddy
five years ago.
Last year he changed it again to just plain
Diddy, but that caused a problem with a
London-based music producer Richard
(Diddy). Dearlove, who sued
P.Diddy/Diddy/Puff Daddy/Sean.
Whoever-he-is agreed to drop the `Diddy'
and the case was settled out of court.
Not sure what Mister X is going to call
himself next. I believe Diddley Squat is
available.
And a story from the Boulder County
Business Report tells the tale of Patrick
longer to be involved and the best explanation
he could give was he was there discussing his
daughter's education.
Takhar became the first MPP formally
reprimanded by the legislature's integrity
commissioner and the questions lasted almost
a year and he caused the most damage of any
McGuinty minister.
McGuinty might feel he would like get rid
of both ministers, but he is in a quandary
because the other link they have is both are
members of visible minority groups.
Chambers came from Jamaica and Takhar
from Punjab. To be fair both also have made
considerable marks in life outside politics.
If McGuinty were to drop either, the
minorities to which they belong would be
offended. They also are the only
representatives of visible minorities in his
cabinet.
Parties like to have representatives of visible
minorities among their elected members and
cabinets to show they have support among
them and promote some to their inner circles.
In recent years being in a visible minority
and elected to the legislature has been almost,
but not quite, a passport to cabinet.
But it is fair to say the record of members of
Final Thought
Reason often makes mistakes, but
conscience never does.
— Josh Billings
. . •
Murphy, a Colorado environmental consultant
with a thing about dog poop. Patrick is
specifically concerned about dogs that
leave their calling cards along a local hiking
trail.
And he has evidence. Man, does he have
evidence. By means of a global positioning
device, Patrick has documented and
pinpointed precisely 1,492 mounds of dog
poop on a one-mile section of the trail.
Patrick...have you considered stamp
collecting?
But my all-time favourite Huh? story of the
month has to be the saga of Scrappy the
Dolphin and his wardrobe malfunction.
Scrappy, a male bottlenose dolphin, is a
regular denizen of Sarasota Bay in Florida.
You could pick Scrappy out from all the other
bottlenose dolphins right away.
Scrappy was the one wearing- the black
Speedo swimsuit.
Well, not wearing it so much as...stuck in it.
Somehow, Scrappy got the suit over his head
and jammed against his pectoral fins. Officials
at a marine mammal research institute feared
that if the suit stayed on it could have
dug into his flesh deep enough to sever
arteries.
Solution? Take off Scrappy's Speedo,
obviously.
Easier said than done. It took four hours,
five speedboats and a total of 31 people to
corner Scrappy, net him, cut the suit off and
doctor his wounds.
Today, Scrappy swims the waters of
Sarasota Bay once more, nude and free.
Now that's what I call good news.
visible minorities in cabinet is not impressive.
Jamaican-born Alvin Curling, a Liberal who
became Ontario's first black minister in 1985,
was dropped from that cabinet because he had
a minor association with a questionable party,
fundraiser. McGuinty, when he came to power
did not feel him worth reinstating.
Bob Wong was the first MPP of Chinese
ancestry and a minister, but little noticed, in
the same Liberal government.
Zanana Akande was the first black woman
MPP and a minister in a New Democrat
government, but became discouraged and quit
elected politics after complaints she gouged
tenants. These were disproved.
David Tsubouchi, a Progressive
Conservative, was the first minister of
Japanese descent, and in a government that
slashed welfare benefits. He advised recipients
fo look for dented cans of tuna and bargain
down prices and is best remembered as Tuna
Dave.
This is not a distinguished list, considering
the enormous talents of those in visible
minorities, and political parties clearly are not
recruiting and promoting the right people.
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Charity begins at home what is a life worth lividg? What
kinds of contributions to this world
are most important? What is
required of us to be considered valuable
members of society?
We may look around us at the volunteers
who give countless hours to improve their
communities for the answer to at least some of
the questions. There are also the selfless who
give so much of themselves for the good of the
less fortunate.
They are all, without question, deserving of
our admiration and respect.
But are those who choose to dedicate their
life to a different goal- that of family, any less
so?
I recently read an article about a man who,
looking at the suffering of the poor in his city,
wept and felt ashamed. This is a gift he was
living, and what had he done in it to change the
world, he challenged himself.
In response, the man put himself through
medical school and now meets the medical
needs of those who could not afford it
otherwise. He has given treatment without
payment. He has gone beyond medicine to be
a counsellor and social worker. In reading this
I was humbled.
However, further into the article it notes that
his selfless mission at one point flung his
family into bankruptcy, that they moved out of
their suburban home into a rectory where they
now reside rent free. He was seldom home,
missing many important family events. His
daughter, now grown, stated that she often
resented his absence.
And while I admired his compassion and
generosity I couldn't help wondering why,
with a young family, he didn't feel he was
already offering something to the world.
Oranted this man sent a remarkable message
of what it truly means to be charitable. His
benevolence, his sacrifice are examples for his
family to follow. But at what cost? One always
hopes for more life than . charitable acts to fill
it. There would, one would hope, have been
time to prepare for his mission, to set himself
on a path that he could embrace once his
children had grown.
Our children need our guidance and our
examples to help shape them into the kind of
adults we would hope them to be. But,
sometimes I think people lose sight of the fact
that children need their parents too, not just as
examples, but as a physical presence.
There are many little ones who have been
denied the love of a parent through
circumstances beyond anyone's control.
Mothers and fathers can die suddenly. They
can be drug addicts or criminals.
And then there are the ones who lose their
parents to the work or charity. Little ones
raised by nannies while corporate mom and
dad work long hours to climb the ladder. I
often wonder why they bothered to have those
babies for someone else to care for them.
Charity, while it's desperately needed in this
world, is no more important than time spent
with a person's own family. I don't believe
anyone would expect the latter to be sacrificed
for the former. Charity, does after all, begin at
home.
There is no question that the gentleman in
the story has touched many hearts and made a
difference in some lives. But when he's gone
there will still be impoverished people. There
will be a handful who will remember him. And
his children will never forget that when they
were growing up, he wasn't there.
Minorities fail to impress