Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 5, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free january Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights published seven Days a week at 300 Cartton Winnipeg r3c 3c1 by newspapers division of Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 9439331 a member of the Manitoba press Council Arthur Wood publisher John Dafoe editorial Page editor Murray Burt managing editor Rudy Redekop controller Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 a dilemma in Panama with the surrender of general Manuel president George Bush has proclaimed that All the objectives of his invasion of Panama have been panamanians Are Likely to find that the achievement of their objectives will be More they have got rid of a brutal and corrupt for which most of them appear genuinely grateful to the United but their problems Are far from the Victory Over general Noriega and the panamanian defence forces has left the country with much of its capital City in its shops its Economy in a mess and its Public administration in a in As in other Central american countries under the army has been the most powerful Force in government As Well As the greatest threat to civil the army which the helped to the has now the political mess it helped create Over the years and the physical mess its troops have left behind leaves Washington in a dilemma same dilemma which always faces an occupying if it simply walks away once order has been it risks the kind of economic and administrative chaos which is most Likely to throw up a new on the other it Sticks around to run the it risks overstaying its Welcome and fatally weakening the credibility of the civilian government it put in place on the Day of the first indications Are that the has opted for the stay it is organizing scores of professionals and administrators to go Down and run the that May be the Only immediate option Given the problems Panama but it poses Lon term the panamanians who welcomed the americans As libera tors last month May despise them As occupiers if they hang around too Long and Start behaving towards panamanians with the arrogance they displayed at the Nicaragua and Vatican the nations of Central America have Seldom Benefit Ted from Washington chief contribution has too often been distorted corrupt military dictators More nominally democratic governments which Are under the thumb of generals armed with president Bush owes a better legacy than that to the people of a threat to the fishery fisheries minister Tom Siddon has decided once again to overrule scientific advice and authorize overfishing in Canadian Waters of the North As he did last he is Fil Ching the future from Atlantic Canadas strongest a year the scientists who count fish and the inshore catch them warned Siddon that the stocks of cod around the grand Banks were seriously they wanted him to reduce the catch in Canadian Waters to tonnes in 1989 from the preceding years that advice was such a quota would Force the offshore fleets to Stop fishing and tie it would close fish plants and throw the employees out of rather than face the anger of the fishermen and fish Siddon set a quota of he justified that decision by saying that the apparent reduction in fish stocks might be just a two year not a genuine Siddons scientific advisers this year once again recommended a quota of tonnes to allow the fish stocks to Siddon again found that advice politically inconvenient and disregarded he is not he must balance the scientific advice against what he called the social and human he authorized a catch of Siddon does not pretend that the scientists and the inshore fishermen Are wrong about the number of Canadian and european fishermen and fishing authorities All admit that the stocks Are Siddon bad to decide whether to Cut Back the catch and allow the fish numbers to recover so that the catch can soon be increased or whether to keep depleting the stocks and put Atlantic Canadas fishery into Perma nent Siddon has decided on a Middle course neither restoration nor a Quick kill but a lingering death for the deep sea fishery of Nova Scotia and some who work in the offshore fishery and in the processing plants favor overfishing because they have few for All the talk of offshore Oil projects and regional economic Atlantic Canadas labor Market is still weak and cannot absorb thousands of people thrown out of fishing Industry the options Are unemployment insurance for the few who can still qualify under the Mulroney governments More stringent rules the bus to in those Many would rather keep the fishery going full tilt even if that course soon defeats Siddons Reading of the political winds in Atlantic Canada dictates continued he will be caught in the same situation next year unless he starts talking frankly to the Industry and the Region about the situation he he has made a great show of blaming foreigners for taking All the fish in International Waters and destroying the Canadian in the greater part of the grand Bank catch lies under Canadas Canadian overfishing is destroying the Canadian fish Siddon should make a clearer connection Between cause and effect if he wishes to gain More control of parliament warts and All for the past 12 canadians have been under the illusion that they could watch parliament in action on their Cable they have been what they have actually been allowed to see is a carefully restricted version of parliament which provides a fundamentally distorted version of what the maps Are actually up that May All change a parliamentary committee has proposed a change in the restrictions which ensure that canadians Are permitted to see Only a doctored version of parliament at it is about if canadians Are to watch their parliament in they should be Given a full and honest version of what is going they do not get that version the rules which govern the televising of parliament permit the camera to focus Only on the member who is or on the speaker of the House when he that Means viewers Are deprived of a View of any of the other things that might be going on the reaction of other the the arrivals and Depar Tures of the sight of a member crossing the floor to join another the sight of a member dozing at his All those activities Are As much a part of the parliamentary proceedings As is the asking and answer ing of questions or the delivering of not Only Are viewers deprived of a full View of parliament in the they Are Given is deliberately arranged to when a member rises to speak in a handful of his colleagues fill the seats behind creating the illusion that the chamber is filled with maps listening attentively to the since the camera is forbidden to Point at anything viewers Are not allowed to see the rows of empty seats which Are typical during All this stage managing and illusion is supposedly devoted to preserving the dignity of it has not parliament has Seldom been less Dignin that being the maps might As Well go the whole hog and let the people see if they they might then come to understand that the dignity of parliament is not threatened by it is threatened by its Power in a changing world by William Pfaff special to the free press Paris the Way we think about Power is challenged by events now changing the order the world has known for four military superpower is useless in the crisis in the soviet it was moral failure that decisively undermined the communist system in Eastern and economic failure finished it invulnerability to anything but nuclear attack has traditionally been thought the defining characteristic of a but physical invulnerability comes mostly from Geo Graphy and size neither military nor economic Power alone can prod uce nuclear Power while an undoubted nuclear super the soviet Union has no Seri Ous claim to rank As a world leading economic Power nor As an Invulnerable one quite the so Viet Gnu is estimated As Between and trillion in but the soviets themselves recognize that their Economy is in terrible Condi producing uncompetitive goods in conditions of great inefficiency and the american Gnu is nearly japans nearly and both Are innovative and efficient the european Community As a whole ranks economically alongside the United Well above both Western Europe and Japan Are of the debt and their manufacturing sectors Are powerful and compete while americas has been in who then will prove the economic superpowers of the or the new Century it wont be the soviet and certainly not in the 21st it might not be the United for three decades there has been a convention that China or is about to a Why is China important it in Remote a big but in economic Brit Ain alone is More than half again As on 1988 Gross National product assembled by the International Institute for strategic chivas Economy is roughly equivalent to that of Spain plus China is a nuclear with a strategic nuclear Force of exactly eight intercontinental plus 12 sea launched missiles aboard a single it has 60 Interne Diat Range nuclear missiles of consequence to its near of the soviet by nuclear criteria France is More than six times the superpower China with 64 Polaris missiles on four has four times chivas invulnerability would a United Germany rank As a superpower in strategic military obviously its convention Al military while consider confers no the West German Economy tril lion Gap in 1988 by itself is some 20 per cent larger than any other in Europe excluding the but adding the East German Economy billion Gap to it makes no dramatic a United German Economy would be less than a third larger than half again As Large As Italy but on the other hand it would be no larger than a Combina Tion of the French and Benelux econ it would approach the scale of the soviet and be of vastly better but France and Italy or France and Brit or Italy plus would be markedly larger than a United Ger Many in Industrial and military and More populous As no longer useful superpower simply is no longer a useful Way to look at the there Are different kinds of effective military which has counted most since the May now be among the less useful kinds of economic and Industrial Power do not Confer military i Vul but if you assume that what people want most today is material they Are the relevant forms of even raw economic Power is not easily translated into International influence or National Satis fac As the japanese Are finding there is a Power that arises simply from a nations knowing what it wants and directing its resources in that respect some of the smaller countries Are More impressive than the big there is a moral Power that comes from a country educating its peo ple and being serious about their Well being and the National Japan and the West europeans score by that none of these forms of Power provides but it May be the consciousness of vulnerability that confers seriousness on a that could count the most in the As the old order cracks hypocritical on 5 a new billion Hydro electric Deal Between Manitoba and Ontario trigger for the con Yawapa dam was Premier Filmon could be heard the next morning assuring us that we need have no environmental con Cerns about Conaw Apa we Are going to have environmental Impact assessments Eias on both the dam and the transmission which will thread across hundreds of Miles of Rock and and quiet one could be in this Situa for wondering what is was had when did they Tell us what Good an environmental assessment will do if the decision to build the dam has already been made As the dam is very Little use without a transmission Why Are we worrying about hearings at All Alice in wonderland was con Power transmission fronted with Many bizarre expert but none More strange than the truth of our govern ment and our bureaucrats care not at All for our opinion on their Machi the truth As John living Ston of York writing in Canadian the Eia option is a mugs game a grandiloquent while Sanctis Moniou sly reciting the catechism of it anoints and blesses the process of develop there is nothing and so far has been nothing remember Repa Manfor in our governments actions to refute such a damning in for governments to act in a hypo critical insulting to the intelligence of their electorate nothing we Are without we must make sure at future Federal and to elect those people who will see that these absurdities the polls that show a great major Ity of canadians As favouring More stringent controls on development have frightened our politicians into becoming cosmetic environment lets make the reality of elec toral defeat convince them we mean what we Duncan Stewart chairman Sierra club of Western Canada stereotyped feminists ought to be More care to judge by the letters to the they think and no doubt talk so much alike that there in danger of becoming stereotyped in Peu de diversity it original Ile a la Simons de Sil Vous Plait Hunter Winnipeg letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to rigid Dogma in reply to Murtaghh letter science let me say that i am a supporter of the creation theory of i am not highly educated but am always Curi Ous about and fascinated by the Complex highly organized Workings of our universe and follow carefully the developments which Are reported from time to scientific theories have changed so quickly and so often have been disputed by highly credible intellects that it has been difficult to give a great Deal of credence to them but i do have an open i was always led to believe that All scientific theories Are at least considered until irrevocably proven since no human being was present when our universe the proving of its origins becomes highly Murtagh in his letter reveals a depth of bitterness and hostility that would cast in doubt his scientific objectivity and cause me to wonder Why those who believe in creation would upset him so Why so vindictive his scientific theories have popular support we Are by far the so Why such energetic attempts to paint us As horrible monsters out to destroy our society is he Basing these comments on scientific objectivity the Burden of proof is with i Challenge Murtaghh rigidity of Dogma and his own following of real unless he has proven the creation theory of origin irrevocably he should leave us in peace to follow and teach to our children the theory we believe just As he wishes that right for if we try to prove our theory How different Are we from him out of line after having read Murtaghh splendid letter free i feel it necessary to write set the record Murtagh delivered a much needed defence to the scientific Community and rendered a condemnation which Many religious Funda mentalists Well Murtagh is Way out of when he fundamentalists cannot image the real process of science where questioning leads to if Murtagh believes so strongly in the Pursuit of knowledge via the and need for of a questing then is he not advocating that we should prove All things and that it is proper and right that people should buy the but look these admonitions Are of biblical text and Mur tags letter would imply that All religious persons Are intellectual fascists rather god warns his peo ple to conduct themselves with wis and to be though perhaps they Arent As Liberal for some Peoples the saints readily image question ing leads or does Lead gods people Are driven by a desire for knowledge and truth comparable to any scientist they certainly do not deserve to be implicated in the shenanigans of narrow minded fanatics 1 Scarf Mclarty Oak uncertainty Murtagh in his letter anti tied science free 13 states that there is no such thing As absolute certainty in Sci hence he attacks religious people for strictly adhering to cer Tain moral principles and staunch belief in he seems to imply that gods existence should always be considered Uncertain if one wants to approach life in Murtaghh theory that everything should be considered Uncertain is like shooting oneself in the the reason is that if every theory or belief is Uncertain and open to then the philosophy that everything is Uncertain is itself Uncertain and open to to the religious my religion is science is the work of god and religion the word of to study science and nature is the com Mand of Tahir Ijaz Winnipeg choosing sides let me begin by stating that i strongly oppose the excessive Taxa Tion that the Canadian people be it the forthcoming goods and services High personal income tax rates or the outlandish taxes placed on alcohol and i feel it is ridiculous that we live in a society that takes half of ones income to support out control government the problem As face today is that we must choose which Side of the Fence we wish to stand on a daily basis we find that the demands for the govern ment to fund a program or service Are rapidly it seems that every group or organization wants More Money or Infortuna almost All of these Are the same ones crying out in opposition to the goods and services tax or Are shopping in grand what we must do is sit Back and reflect upon what we either lower taxation rates or less govern ment spending and socialized pro we cant have As a i live in a situation Day to month to year to year where expenditures cannot exceed if they did i would not be in business very a persons household Bud get operates the same the government cannot continue to spend if its Revenue does not also without creating a massive deficit which we already have and ruining the although i do not agree with Wilsons methods i do agree that if we continue to demand All the ser vices we canadians must realize they have to pay for these what we canadians must do is make up our minds what we and live with the decision we Broughton Winnipeg Tell me How you and grandma Jane swung through things called ;