Wednesday, November 28, 1990 ‘The Castlegar Sun pags Page 7A Letters to the Editor 8 ( ee ee | ‘haunted' bookstore aisles’ No longer an honor to die in war i, f TheS stlégar Sun ZS 1S POLITICALLY INDEPENDENT AND A MEMBER OF THE STERLING NEWS SERVICE . ' Established November 28, 1990 " Published by The Castlegar Sun Wookly on Wodnosdays: RAY PICCO JON JARRETT PUBLISHER ADVERTISING MANAGER NANCY LINGLEY DONNA JORY EDITOR ADVERTISING REP. GRACE SHAULL LANA FEDORA OFFICE MANAGER ADVERTISING REP, FRANK DERBY DENISE GOLDSTONE POI ATS CIRCULATION MANAG! BARBARA TANDORY NICOLE BEETSTRA REPORTER PRODUCTION JOHN SNELGROVE CLIFF WOFFENDEN “PRODUCTION PRODUCTION Direct Department Phones General Office «ween 2365-5266 Ci ic 65-5266 Classified: 365-7848 Display Advertising 100109652278 965-5579 FAX seesessessseces 65-7762 Recycling in the fast lane drive-thru McDonald’s Canada, home of the Golden Arches North, has announced its intent to phase out foam packaging. The phase-out will begin before Christmas and will start with “foam sandwich containers, which account for nearly 75 per cent of our total foam use,” said George Cohen, presi- dent and chief executive officer of McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Ltd. : No longer will McRestaurantgoers be able to dump their fries in the handy top half of the foam burger box. No longer will garbage barrels spew forth their brightly colored McProducts. . Mcdonald’s is making this change even though “some sci- entific studies indicate that. foam packaging is environmental- ly sound" but “our customers just don’t feel good about it” said Cohen. Kind of like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Why do it if it's going to be painful and there's really no advantage to be had? : : In fact, the whole recycle, reduce, reuse thing is beginning to backfire, according to.studies that are being completed. Superfluous packaging, such as foam and plastic, is often under fire by those touting the new-age Three Rs. But gov- ernment intervention in packaging laws may even cause the cost of food to rise-because of the likelihood that more would spoil-while the quality and safety of this organic material would undoubtedly-suffer. = Glass betiles.can be returned and reused, -but at what cost of non-renable fossile fuel for transport and release of clean- ing chemical to make them sterile again? It is a proven fact that packaging accounts for only about ten per cent of the landfill “crisis”. The specially the ner that Ronnie's Place, is interested in “fast food”. Food that must be packaged for convenience. . Demanding a change from a packaging product that has been proven safe, efficient, and practical because it is the fashionable thing to do-even though there is proof that it may just not be the well thought-out intelligent thing to do-will quite probably defeat the whole purpose behind the up-and- y coming Ps we all need so desparately to develop. . And that would be a real McShame. One of the best-read features in a newspaper, especially a community newspaper, is the Letters to the Editor section. The Castlegar Sun encourages letters to the editor from our readers. “ay While newspaper reporting generally covers what is, Letters to the Editor comment on what the reader feels ought to be. Letters to the Editor carry the opinions of, you, the reader and usually echo the thoughts of other readers who have not been moved to write themselves. Sls It is best to sit down and write a Letter to the Editor as soon as the reader feels an urge to respond to cither a news. story or an editorial. Don’t wait until feelings havé calmed Syndicated Columnist returns. So do places, faces, moments, memories. | And I have another way of tracking’ time. When an old friend dies, someone I loved, some- one who laughed with me, sometimes at mo, I wait a month, two months, longer. Then I call at the house, hesitantly, because I invade the grief that still endures, and ask for a book, any book, from his library, but one that bears his name, Old bookstores are haunted places. Pale ghosts out of a remote and scumbled past prowl their crooked aisles or lurk, half-hidden, in dark, forgot- ten alcoves. And I’ve heard those go:s2ts a thou- sand times, whispering, there, in oozing cellars with stained and leprous. walls, in the spent light, amid the dust and debris of Time Lost. J listen to that spectral clan, always listen. They are honored friends and cherished companions: that Iong parade of pocts, novelists, philosophers, i istorians who ded the noblest of our dreams, the worst of ourdepravitics, : You know I'm not talking about the big, neon- fit, monster-in-the-mall stores that scll this year’s scandals and last year’s failures. I’m leading you down narrow, twisting strects to little, lost, single-~ bulb bookstores, where themycllow odor of decay is heavy in the air and only my phantom friends know whereWordsworth and Whitman can be found. The eccentrics who own those places know. : . But they won't tell, Why should they sell the patrimony and the heritage to any wandcring stranger come by chance? ‘And for something as corrupting as moncy? So I rarely, if ever, stop in any town without prowling the back streets in search of a haunted bookstore. I buy something, anything, then inscribed the date, the place, impressions, circum- stances, and moods P sometimes sad, usuallyhap- Py: ‘That's the way I keep my diary: the rough draft of life, Of a night, when the mind congeals and the words won't come, I pick a shelf, any shelf at ran- _ dom, a different one each time, sclect a book, open it and read my runes and hicroglyphs. Then time ' Slings and Nigel Hannaford * Syndicated Columnist .. ’ If it fell to your unhappy lot to have to arbi- trate the situation in South Africa, in effect to act as midwife to a new country (for rest assured, the South Africa we loved to hate is gone forever) you would want any ciues you could get as to who was a good talker and who was really a good guy. Nowhere would this matter be more pressing than trying to fit the African National Congress into the scheme of things. ‘We've all heard Nelson Mandela, You would have had to be backpacking in Greenland to miss the triumphal tour earlier this year. How the politicians fawned. How the media flacks sim- pered. Here was a hero, nay, a very saint, visited among us to our honour. ‘ Not unlike some of the other saints who from time to time-afflict our television screens - one thinks of Jim Bakker - this saint wanted paying in dollars, US dollars, as he reminded our Prime Minister..To our disbelief and dismay, our PM graciously acquiesced. Seldom brought to mind except by black- hearted rogues. like.myself was the fact that this Nobel Peace Prize recipient had been gaoled for trying to blow pedple up. Now there is a certain logic in somebody who ‘on the flyleaf. So down the years I've built a wall to commemorate those friends:-a , personal, private cenotaph mouming their deaths but celebrating their lives. : That's the way.I got one of my four copics of Roget, the writer's bible, I use it almost daily in my. scarch for the right word in the right place. Sometimes I find it. That book once belonged toa physician, painter, soldier and mechanical genius: he was all four. Of a Sunday moming, when I'd rumbied up his lane in my old asthsaatic car, he'd hunt through the debris on his desk for a stetho- scope. Then, scope on.engine, with full clinical rites and rituals, he'd dingnose its maladies. And he was always right. The medical specialist at the comer garage never failed to confirm his findings. He was a massive, robust, courtly man with the gift of laughter and an infinite capacity for under- standing all things human. Because his life crossed mine, I am a better, a wiser man. So cach ww WELL, THE FINANCE DEPT: SPENT OlER $413,000 CN POLLS INTHE LAST YEAR time, every time, I open that book, he comes into the room, We talk bricfly, sometimes at length and, far into the night. Depends on the mood and the moment. And then his wisdom, grace, and, running laughter are restored and renewed. ue ‘And over there, on the left, within casy reach, between a Hemingway and a Faulkner, there’s 8, frayed and tattered copy of The Robe by Lloyd Cy, Douglas, s i You don't hear his name these days, He’s,, joined the Lost Patrol of writers. But 40 years ago « he sold by the millions, Everybody read him, I should throw that one away. Its musty pages ! bear the liver spots of old age. The glue has gone from the binding. The. acrid, odor of decay invades the nose and throat whenev- er I open it. But I can’t throw it away. To open it to sweep away time and space and retum to anoth-,, er world, I found it in a ruined church in Holland, one night in May 1945. The battle had passed that. way. A soldier had left it behind. id He had recorded on the flyleaf the tattoo marks, the Amy gives to men: name, rank, number, regi-,, ment. And that’s all, Is he still alive? I wish to knew. I really ought to return. that book, It’s long | overdue: by half a century. .. and most ofalife. — RR, Jeffels is a Richmond freelance writer and, former principal of The Open Learning Institute, 4 APPARENT, THE US INDICATE HAT | PAKSANS CONT TRUST THIS GOFERN- fab RENT TO SPEND TAX REVENUE WISELY. pany that invented dynamite. But, as we all know, that wasn’t supposed to be the point of the award. The fact remains, howeve:, that our govern- ment has chosen to regard the African National Congress as a government-in-waiting, despite the limited ethnic appeal it enjoys in South Africa and its unrelenting commitment to a Marxist ‘armed : fe ; MM tioned against a ‘winner take all” attitude, All eth-,, nic groups had to be respected. He urged people,, not to get rid of apartheid by going to war with it; ,; as a descendant of Zulu. kings, he knew that it would be a pointless: war, a war without spoils. . ‘.~He rejected the concept of a one-party state - even 4 if it was his party. “We necd the whites and they: need us. They have no place to go, they are; indi Africans.” struggle’. Its towering P diminished the effect of this, but its failures owed nothing to a want of brutality. The notorious ‘necklace’. was their idea. ‘Mr Mandela never dropped his throw of the South~ Unlike Mr He enjoys considerab people who, being six million strong, some 20 per cent of all South Africans; His party claims a membership of 1.8 million, Although pre- dominantly Zulu, it accepts membership from other racial groups. Dr Buthelezi talked about compromise. He said Al One could argue of course, that this was a well, tailored speech, considering the black-tie, super-,, conservative audience to which he was speaking. 4; But one would also have to concede that Dr; Buthelezi has been as consistent in his views as has been Mr Mandela. The difference is that he, has never called for violence and has always) specifically rejected it as a way of ending: apartheid. d He is also a free-enterpriser, one who believes, in creating wealth, not destroying it Hu ‘And he didn’t ask for US$5 million. He didi suggest that those Canadians who wanted to assist, peaceful change in South Africa could find plenty; of opportunities to deploy their money. But that., was a rather Icss - how shall I say it - grasping ¥ tack to take. ° So you want a clue? I liked this fellow. There.; "was a humility about him which I don’t see in Mo: Mandela and he has stayed the course, worked; within the system and actually done something + for his peopic. a4 South Africa needs a few more like him, com-i promisers. Then there may truly be a nation built. Let's hope they pull it off. ern Sree ean cnre rent gerneere a an ~ oes: a Ameen at: To The Editor, “During the Remembrance Day ceremonies on November 11th I. ; sat before the television set as usual with “hat off” for the young men and women who made the * supreme sacrifice in tow world wars, But this time the mood seemed more tragic than usual - once again we have our scarcely grown up children’ mobilized on foreign shores ready to be sacri- figed in a war that is concerned mainly over greed for oil. ‘This is not 1914 or 1939. tis" 1990, a time of great progress on haman rights.’ We are too civi- lized no to accept thousands of our young people - yesterday’s children - coming home in body bags because of the shortcomings, belligerence and greed of adults who send them off to fight their Civilized people no longer cdnsider it an honour to dic in war - the idea “will not fly”. , Have we teamed nothing from the tngic, useless, wasted efforts of the forcign interventions in Vict Nam and Afghanistan? In both cases these meddlings pro- duced nothing but massive human suffering and wreckage of the environment. Then, as soon as the forcigners withdrew, inevitable history took its course. Are we looking at another Veit Nam? Have we forgotten so soon about the Hippie’s “peace rebel- lion” that had so much to do with the American . withdrawal? Young people will rebel again if pushed into another war. ‘The only civilized way to deal with the crisis in Kuwait is to Business as usual? To the Editor: As one of the Johnson Matthey workers who recently got notice of the Dec. 31/90 shut- down and layoff, I would like to tet my feelings be known. '- ds Most ‘of those affected hada secure future with Cominco — bat chose to: remain at the Warfield operations when bought out by J.M. Personally, I switched to J.M. because of threats of a layoff at Cominco, and J.M. was supposedly a more secure job in the future, Wow! What a mis- take! + It doubly hurts me, because I was offered a job back with Cominco about two months ago. I:decided to stay with J.M. because our contract had been settled and things‘ looked good. We had accepted less of 2 raise tHan Cominco to help J.M. sur- vive. Could not someone at J.M. irtthe “know” take me aside and recommend taking the Cominco job? ‘ Most of our workers are high- ly-trained and will find it difficult to'find a job in this area, This mieans a move they do not want to make — to 2 larger city, They community as a whole.loses in this scenario. Many workers have been on this site since they maintain the sanctic ng that, are. - already ‘in placo.- thanks the! surprisingly swift and ‘action: of many nations. Hussein is walled off-on.all ‘sides. In the long term he cannot possi- ble win. If the anti-Hussein con- sortium exercises the military ‘option now it will surely be acase “ of unnecessary “overkill” -‘ with. many thousands of casualties, both” military and civilian, and ‘particu- |" larly great risk to the-Jives of the hostages. aie I would urge Mr. Clark to con- centrate more upon his diplomatic role as Minister of Foreign Affairs and less as “minister of ‘war”.’ Although the people in our armed forces are second to’ none, Canada” is not amajor power and could not under any circumstance be a major player ‘in a showdown with Hussein, Therefore, our role should be one of trying to cool tempers down rather than adding fuel to the fire. . 2 Tis terribly tragic that while Gleven million people are facing starvation in Sudan, even a frac- tion of the cost and effort of the mobilization against Hussein Could’ save ‘their lives... Something is dreadfully wrong with our prior- itics! Both world wars were claimed to be “the war to end all wars”, “Yet we have seen one violent con- flict after another ever since. When will we learn that if we want an end ‘to this barbaric behavior we must completely _ change our ways of thinking and acting. Otherwise there is soon going to be another armistice day and another Flanders Fields some- where in the Middle East. Harry F, Killough ‘Tues, 1800-2050, Rm. B-16; “Wed. Start Date: Jan. 7 Somo prerequisites apply.: Don't delay register now. registration, contact Selkirk College, Admissions Office, Be ania Wed, 1800-1950, Rim, B-16; Instr. 1. Warner “Start Di ( ¢ Jan. 7, 1001: { ‘ }i 1800-1950, Rm. B-12, Instr, TBA Btart Date; Jan. 8, 1991 " Tues & Thurs, 1600-1750, Rm. B-17, Instr, J. Terral Start Date: Jan. 8, 1991 4: ‘Tues, 1900-2150, Rm. B-17, Instr. W. Sloan Start Date: Jan. 8, 1991 us \ ‘Thurs. 1700-1950, Rm. M-14, Instr. A. Shadrack Start Date: Jan. 10, 1991 Mon. 1800-2050, Rm. B-17, Instr. J, Rowell t Wod. 1800-2160, Rm. K-10, Instr. L. Dickerson Start Date: Jan, 9, 1991 Ht » CASTLEGAR CAMPUS: For details and 365-1208. Box 1200, Castlegar, B.C. VIN 351 365-7292 down, but write it while enthusiasm is still high. Leuers should’ not be overly long and should focus on a single point. A Letter to the Editor of approximately 500 words is a good guideline, but is certainly not a rule was manufacturing and placing explosive devices there was much worth preserving in South Africa. Then they ‘can come back and let Canadians. receiving recognition from the trustees of a com- The racist overlay just had to be removed. He cau- know how it’s done. graduated from various schools ay and institutions, These people are really shocked with the closure ‘Community Bake Sale engraved in stone. Begin the etter with “To the Editor’ and end with a hand- written signature over a printed or typewritten name. Please read the Letters Policy on Page 7. ” Ifa Letter to the Editor is not published, it may be for one - of a number of reasons: The letter may have found its way into the hands of a reporter who has been assigned a story based on the concem expressed in the letter; the letter fails to bear a signature or other information by. which the writer can be contacted; the letter contains libelous or defamatory remarks; or the letter simply is not legible.’ ‘The Letters to the Editor can only be written by you, our ers. = We're lookingforward to hearing your opinions. [WoRST.IDEAS OF WESTERN MAN | 21500 Creatas Syreacate, fe *Ministee’s Chief of staff Norm High-paying, challenging communi “Mike Duffy Syndicated Columnist his time as key advisor to British Columbia Premier Bill Bennett. Like Brian Mulroney, Bennett got into trouble with the voters. Spector is widely credited with having quarterbacked Bennett's political salva- tion. But while Spector labors over a comeback ° plan for Mulroney, one of the most important itions on the Tory team remains vacant. The prime staff responsibility for selling the , Raed sit Wanted: Senior journalist or, public i ive for’c i i Pay $100,000 plus. Lots of travel, bilingualism an asset, little job security. ‘The ad isn’t running in the career section of this newspaper, but that's only because the orga- nization with the vacancy doesn't want to be * The “organization” is the Prime Minister's Office, and the “challenging assignment” -is:as gov: 's pi 1 agenda rests with the Prime.Minister’s Director of Communications. But at this critical point in the life of the gov the di of Communications post remains vz ant. . ‘The last person to hold that job was Marcel Cote, a public relations executive who last sum- _ mer abandoned the trenches of Onawa for the ae _ good life in Montreal. Prior to Cote, the job was held by former CTV Brian Mulroney's director of - One of the highest paying jobs: in the federal “government is going begging. : In town where embition knows no. bounds, Bruce Phillips. ‘Phillips is now awaiting Senate approval of his appointment as Privacy Commissioner. i ".. An outspoken civil-libertarian, Phillips is ide- ally ‘suited for the privacy Commissioner's job, put his confirmation hearing has been delayed by the continuing Senate At, real power is n the Prime Minister's. Office Sad. with’ the Prime, “' Spector was Deputy Secrétary ta the‘cabinet for Federal -, Provincial relations, during: Mecchi Lake: But his real training for, the job comes from Office, it rests in: battle over the GST.\: ‘Cynics'scoff: when you ‘suggest there:isia | dividing: line ‘between ‘the political types and the ‘public. servants,:but’ you ‘only have to hear the complaints about."the +1” non-partisan bureau- crats to realize there are. many “political”. things the bureaucrats won't do.* ieikes y However there was approval from pros.on all : sides:when Dan Gagne was appointed Deputy >" cations job availabie: | Secretary to the Cabinet for Communications. ‘oh Gagne, a carcer public servant, was most! recently Chief of Staff to Ontario Premier David" Peterson. Prior to that he had served as a Deputy, Minister in Saskatchewan and eariier as a senior federal bureaucrat. ip Gagne.is a protege of Spector's from their? days in federal provincial relations, but while Gagne’s job in the PCO gives him control over® - the general thrust of the government's communi- cations, as a public servant he doesn’t get directly"! involved in the political side of selling thé® to Canadi: fl ‘About the only other senior person in the.. PMO with significant -media experience is Lue dent. . Lavoie is d Top Tories can’t find anyone w: ~ Instead, they try vacancy in a good now taking advice from a wide range of people, x i ing .in the polls, . But in the words of one former staffer, PR boss? That adds up to a disaster: the mak- ding!" 350007 wo aa EON gage UL \ Mike Duffy host Sunday Edition on CTV. 18 and are not experienced at finding One thing I can be thankful for. That I did not purchase from JM. one of their expensive plat- iqum watches with the company togo on the dial. This would be the ultimate insult to be reminded many times a day of what a mis- take I made! i “Lam writing this letter et 4:30 am, Wonder why 1 cannot sleep? Soon I have to report to work, go through their elaborate security system, then itis “business as usual,” Len Donald - sor Letters Policy ) Letters to the Editor are wel- ‘ome on any topic of local or ‘eneral. interest. Letters should be double-spaced, typewritten, or legibly handwritten, and no more {han two pages. if possible. Letters will be edited in the inter- ests of brevity or taste if, neces-: tory. All letters must be signed, ith address and telephone num- ber, although names .may be valid reason by the approval of the editor. Send letters to::The, Castlegar Sun, 465 Columbia Castlegar, B.C, VIN 1G8, them off at the office, EXTENDE Witheld from publication for]: ; ‘Most Photogenic Baby Salvation Army Hamper Drive Christmas Coloring Contest D SHOPPING HOURS (Dec. 10-21) Santa’s Arrival Contest Judging Open 9:30 a.m.-9:00 p.m. Monday to Friday Share the Joy that Christmas brings