Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 11, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press january Page 7 focus Deal betrays Hong Kong by Kue Young special to the free press should a Foster child be re turned to its natural parents who have a Well known rec Ord of child abuse should Hong after Over 100 years of Brit ish colonial be re turned to the bosom of its Mother which surpassed its own sordid record of repression in Tiana men Square on june nowhere in the world was the reaction to the Slaughter of chinese students and workers by the peo Ples liberation army More imme massive and anguished than in Hong six months the events of june have receded from the hearts and minds of much of the world and it is now almost business As in Britain will hand Over Hong virtually the last of its Crown to the Peoples re Public of Hong Kong will become a special administrative Region of the under Deng Xiaoping principle of one coun two China will guarantee the maintenance of Hong Kongs economic system and varying degrees of its judicial and administrative the majority of Hong Kongs residents not those with the resources to buy up prime real estate in Vancouver and Toron to will be completely at the mercy of whatever political arrangements China and Britain will have opium War Hong Kong was the product of victorian gunboat in 1842 the treaty of banking concluded the opium War Between Britain and then under the qing Manchu it opened up five chinese ports for indemnified the British and ceded the Island of Hong then a Small fishing Village and pirates it is important to remember that the Island of Hong Kong was ceded for territory lost by China in an act of while held up As an unequal trea it was As valid As any of the treaties that used to conclude wars with the victors dictating the what the treaty of banking Sig naked to the europeans and the japanese was that China was Ripe for the it began a painful period of modern chinese characterized by repeated military territorial loss and eco nomic pillage at the hands of for eign for this period presumably ended Only in 1949 when Mao Tseung announced to the on Tiana men that the chinese people have stood permanently leased in 1860 the convention of peking concluded the second War with Brit the Peninsula of directly across the Harbor from Hong Kong was permanently leased to a few years in what were to become the new territories were leased to the British for 99 it is the new which con Sist of an Extension North of Kow Loon and All the outlying which Are supposed to be returned in the territories Are now very much part of the Hong Kong Mega where Rice paddies once massive new towns of mul to storied housing estates have economically and Mili Hong Kong is not viable without the new the question has therefore never been of returning Only the new if anything is to be returned at but the whole Colo Many in Hong Kong regard Brit Ains decision to return the entire Colony to China As both Britain and China assured the people of Hong Kong that their Best interests had been taken into con while Many people were prepared to take this Assurance on the whole situation changed on the night of june is there an alternative to 1997 can Hong Kong go it continue under join or become an International Cit state these of Are All forbidden by chinese of every political Stripe Are brought up to believe that there can Only be one China for All hence the continued illusion of one China subscribed to by both the pc and both ignore the reality that there Are in fact four chinese states in the world the Hong Kong and the last three of which Are now economic giants in Hong Kong has been politically distinct from China for Over 100 it has All the trap pings of a in in terms of economic output and Standard of it surpasses Many members of the United a a unique Hong Kong identity has developed Over the past three with increasing Prosperi the people cannot but realize that they have achieved adulthood away from their natural and with Little help from their Foster unlikely Miracle in the Best of All possible Hong Kong returns to the fold of a reformed and democratic Short of a China is unlikely to change radically before should Hong Kong still revert to with nothing but empty Rhet Oric from Britain that it will not let the people Down the ability of Hong Kong to influence and pro Mote democratic reforms in China is the status quo of continued British Rule cannot be sus As the British Are both unwilling and incapable of doing to declare Independence in 1997 would result in the Peoples libera Tion army rolling across the Hills of preceded by the cutting of food and water supplies which would strangle the the Tai wan option is but surprisingly few Hong Kong residents to Date have chosen to resettle in despite cultural and economic one could almost make a Case for Tai which claims to be the Republic of the successor state to the Manchu Empire that lost Hong this action would surely trigger off a hot War across the Taiwan the Only desirable option is for Hong Kong to become an inter nationalized a member of the Commonwealth and United bluntly the pc would be put on probation for 50 the same time Span As that stipulated in the current one two systems Hong Kongs Security would be guaranteed by International backed up by an International Garrison Force if Nec if reforms resume in there May come a Point when the people of Hong Kong wish to rejoin or they May get used to the idea of being both chinese and their own masters without having to be part of to be there Are formidable obstacles to this of most serious of All is the Lack of political will among the democratic countries of the but to massacre in Tiana men Square proves China is not yet tit to take Over control of Hong Kong simply hand Over Hong Kong to an unreformed China in 1997 would create a human disaster of unprecedented in the few years left before 1997 one can be sure of the collapse of massive economic Dis and unmanageable civil immediately prior to 1997 and for years the world will witness a lot More boat people and refugee Camps of unmentionable is this the scenario that the world wants to see increasing immigration quotas for Hong Kong people is not the the problem should be dealt with at and dealt with Kue Young teaches at the faculty of University of Man Iraq new Long Range missile makes Mideast More explosive by Robert Stone special to the free press Tehran few people appear to have amid the euphoria Over the wests Ideo logical Victory in the cold that Iraq recently launched a three stage rocket into Media reports of the event at first gave an impression of then a few Days later the state de which had earlier said an accomplishment was impose confirmed the Iraq now almost certainly has the capacity to hit virtually any target it it has announced a production run of its new Long Range splashes of devastation caused by iraqi surface to surface missiles during the War with Iran still figure As part of the Urban landscape Here in the iranian Iran used similar missiles against Baghdad and also developed locally produced the Hail of death that rained on the two capitals came to be known As the War of the but the latest iraqi achieve ment is a massive escalation that must be setting off alarm Bells ail Over this although Ayatollah Khomeini swallowed the bitter Poison and told his nation he was calling off the fighting in the summer of the War with Iraq has never really ended year and half after the guns fell a tentative truce prevails along the 550 Kilometre War none of the reasons for the War has been Khomeini leadership passed relatively smoothly to successors who share his ideology if not All of his commit in president Saddam Hussein is still in Strong armed control of his coun to Western observers a holy War Between two islamic Peoples seemed at first the passion on the iranian Side was nothing had the persian soul like this since Imam the prophets had fought for Justice against the mighty caliphate Only to be martyred in the Karbala desert in a 080 some 40 years after the prophets with billion Worth of arms that the Shah had purchased from the United Iran seemed a unstoppable Iraq stamina too was impress the War ground on for eight never once losing its capacity to the images will remain for the transfixed eyes of Young boys preparing to run through rockets raining on helpless the Poison Gas Clouds of Basra and the persian Gulf turning into an ecological Nightmare As flaming tankers spew crude Oil into the Turquoise death toll finally stopped at More than a million peace talks remain stalled at step the contentious issues that fuelled the fighting Are now complicated by political Bagh dad insists All prisoners of War be exchanged the iraqis quota the terms of the 1949 Geneva convention and cite the fact that the men still held in pow Camps have become an economic Burden to both but Tehran insists that which still occupies about Square Kilometres of iranian Terri withdraw to the Borders that existed before the fighting Iraq saying priority should go to dredging the War debris out of the disputed Shatt Alarab waterway to allow navigation to its main no except perhaps the arms won the the iranians who had sworn to overthrow Saddam Hussein and humiliate the United states before they stopped fighting certainly the iraqis who opened their invasion of Iran in 1980 calling it the whirlwind War didst for a while the Ira Iraq conflict seemed to have the capacity to set off world War As it pro the gulfs troubled Waters were patrolled by increasing num Bers of warships from both East and a confrontation began to look since the cracks in the Berlin Wall have ushered in a new Era of East West the persian Gulf is less important As a Buffer Between the but the iraqi launch of modified soviet scud rocket signals that much has been going on behind the so far economics and Lack of will have kept the two adversaries but if they can again whip up a National desire to resume their bloody Attri they will be very dangerous to costs not health care when health minister Don Orchard appeared on an open line radio show not too Long he mentioned that he had just had his annual medical what Orchard did not was that his depart ment recognizes no such procedure As an annual checkup and actually prohibits Doc tors from doing Complete physical examinations without specific Orchard May not have known that by getting a Complete physical he had effectively prohibited two other patients from getting similar one Complete physical for every three patients is the average in and any doctor who gives More is in trouble with Orchards it is no wonder Manitoba doctors Are up in arms Over the ministers intention to put an two percent limit on any increase in care or treatment they they Are already under the gun of a system that does not really care if the gets adequate medical what really upsets the bureaucrats is too much anyone of the ministers stature and place in the Community if he demands or even suggests get an physical the doctor will be left to decide which other two of his other patients can get by without this preventive medical procedure which the minis Ter thinks is available to it is not available to everyone because of a its Cost and b the fact on Only one in three Manitoba patients gets an health services commission Fred Cleverley worships at the shrine of average ser so does its medical review commit both get More than a Little help from modern which can spit in just How a doctors practice com pares to that of others in what health services Calls his Don Orchard sounded healthy enough when he talked to his radio audience about his annual As health minis he believed he was serving the system by having an annual catching prob lems so to at less Cost to his departmental no Manitoba doctor can get a straight answer from the government As to whether a Complete physical is or not a patients one doctor who tried put question quite he asked under Manitoba health services commission rules is every Manitoban entitled to one routine annual Complete history and physical examination regardless of need1 my pcs claims had this answer for the doctor who wondered at out the legitimacy of annual there he no reference in the health services insurance or physicians manual which referred to the entitlement of a Complete annual exam the doctor completed such an examination to so because he believed it was As Harvey put it in the Manitoba health services insurance act and the Canada health act describe insured medical services As All medical services that Are medically and Misc has decided As a Are Best Quali fied to determine that the services being requested Are medically what Harvey did not Tell this particular but what every Manitoba doctor is that doctors who give More annual checkups than the average of their bloc will soon hear from the medical review what does the doctor do he cannot refuse the Orchards who walk into his demanding their annual checkup so he guesses about his other a he is More Likely to refuse those patients who have no the doctors do have a Way around the bureaucracy that avoids turning people Down Flat when they mention those annual it consists of seeing More a particularly patients who Are not Likely to come Back for further the government likes to target the Walkin medical clinics As a Point of Haemorrhage of health care they Are also locations where doctors can see a patient and Tell him to go Back to his regular doctor for further the patients name on the doctors list performs its own bit of it reduces his aver age Cost per patient and gives him a bit of flexibility with the patients he knows deserve More care than the medical review com Mittee is Likely to the averages being spit out by the computer compartmentalize the doctors practices to the Point where bureaucrats with no medical training can provide an instant diagnosis of what is happening to Public funds without an accompanying diag Nosis of what May be happening to the health of Harvey when read provides quite an insight into the bureaucratic thinking under which doctors in Manitoba Are required to provide adequate it is Clear that the onus is on the doctors to determine what is adequate it is also Clear that the concern of the bureaucrats Clicks in Only if there is a perception of Over the Manitoba health services commission will not worry much if doctor sees a patient once a that particular statistic will drop off any list except the one that determines the doctors doctors who see an unusually High number of patients Only such As happens in Many Walkin Are not Likely to be called in to explain Why their average Cost per patient is less than of their peer doonesbury by Garry Trudeau my w95ioh a Sicam a w Well our v2 Youdith hav you Wpm Ojni kwmu6 ;