Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 26, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Editor John 6977044 focus Winnipeg free press a 7 May Pavarotti imitation marred ceremony the 50th anniversary of be Day was an appropriate Occa Sion to stage a military Parade and hold an interfaith service at the where Many veterans had the rabbi provided an inspiring and his colleague read the familiar they shall not grow old in a voice which aroused a thrilling response from his if Only the major protestant representative had conducted himself in the same he tried to emulate leading the crowd in his own rendition of 0 valiant hearts devoid of any musical although there were several bands capable of pro Viding that the result was that he Sang a different variety of Sharps and Flats to each line of each verse and there were Sev eral verses then he compounded his Pompos Ity by doing the same thing with eternal Strong to it was with Relief that a bugler finally played the last and a the Clements air delivered a commendably Short and wreaths from Many organizations were the ceremony concluded with the veterans marching from the Cenotaph to a saluting base on where the Public joined the Parade to the Winnipeg just War a bad joke re remember a just War free May the title of the article surprises the slogan of a just War is a confusing term that raises More questions than it How can acts of violence and atrocities unfortunately committed by All warring nations be called meaning morally pure or or even righteous be fore god Britannica world Lan Guage unless our concept of god and religion has de generated to the Point of being merely a tool of political and Mili tary a careful but Well balanced study of mans unhappy history lends Cre Dence to the discouraging impression that in Many parts of our world the concept of god has become that of a helpless useful in the hands of irresponsible politicians the unpaid civil the unwilling author of the just has Ever a Victor had the decency and the courage to regret his wrong thus admitting that his War was unjust a different kind of warfare and mental cruelty is being inflicted to Day upon the vanquished for 50 years and May go on for another 50 years or longer since Humble and honest reconciliation seems to have been stricken from the minds of hardened just War a bad an escape from ones own guilt feelings whatever it May what can it lose since it never had meaning Wilhelm Reyes Winnipeg pats on the Back were unearned a recent free press article Cov ered a municipal tax increase in the Rural municipality of this obviously is of major concern to the taxpayers there and they have my my comments Deal with that por Tion of the article attributed to Lyle Schwark from the of this councillor went to great lengths to note that there had been no tax increases in his be cause of the work the Council unfortunately he neglected to men Tion that municipal taxes in his Ward increased by 77 per cent from 1989 to 1990 not including school Given this major it should be expected that a responsible municipal government would be Able to maintain taxes at that level for five years and much while pats on the Back May be expected by they will have to produce More positive results before they receive the accolades they Winnipeg the innocent suffer in response to Parks try booze ban free May 12 1 see that Natu ral resources minister Albert Driedger has Given the Public an other shining example of How the actions of a few Are dictating the rules for All of whatever happened to make canadians believe that it is a Correct and even responsible for government to enact regu to the editor the free press welcomes letters from letters must be signed and should include a clearly printed address and Telephone names will be published but not All letters maybe edited for style and Short letters Are less Likely to be please address letters to letters to the Winnipeg free 1355 Mountain Winnipeg letters can be sent to our fax number letters May be submitted through the internet at . Letters sent via the internet obviously cannot be but must include Home address and Telephone lations such As the ones which were in effect on the Long How Long will the majority of the Popula Tion tolerate being penalized due to the acts of a few what happened to dealing with miscreants and leaving the rest of us to pursue our unobtrusive happiness if there is flexible staffing to keep an Eye on the Why can i not sit at my campsite with my family and quietly enjoy a Beer Why dont the Park patrols evict the regardless of whether they Are inebriated or and leave me alone As a i remember the whole school class being punished because one person had broken a to this i do not under stand the rationale behind this Type of i also do not under stand Why we keep tolerating Yvonne Sharples Winnipeg collective madness in her column save the lose the City free May Frances Russell hit the Nail on the head by pointing out the collective madness and a potent brew of Hys Teria and irrationality fostered in this City by special inter est groups and the All in or Der to stick the taxpayer with paying for a privately owned hockey club to remain in it is interesting to note that the participants in save the jets demonstrations have for the part teenagers or people Only slightly overcome by enthusiasm whipped up by skilful Manipula they dont seem to realize that in the future it would be their tax dollars that would pay for the jets to remain in the they appear unaware that it would take maybe the Best years of their to pay off a truly staggering if they choose to stay in that the majority of a docile City coun under the questionable Leader ship of the has acted just As irresponsibly by agreeing to spend million of Public Money which would come from already brutally High realty and business our City fathers and mothers seem to have forgotten that once upon a time the Crest of the City of Winnipeg car ried the word Jan Kamienski Winnipeg what its like to be poor you know youre poor when q you cant understand the intensity of the jets fans sorrow youve never been Able to afford to attend a q you wonder How Filmon found the Money to put towards a new Arena and keeping the jets in Winnipeg when he still Hast addressed the Issue of poverty in Man q putting on the collection plate at Church on sunday morning represents 12 boxes of Macaroni and cheese o you put up with the ignorance and hostility of some of the people at agencies such As the welfare office and Pic they cant make you poor youre already there but they can Cut you off and make you q you Start sharing the meagre amount you have with panhandlers on the after you do have a roof Over your q you read the opinions of David Northcott from Winnipeg Harvest and realize that you agree with them and then realize that a year you didst know who he q fresh fruit and vegetables Are no longer a part of your u youve become a and it want by u you now understand the meaning of the world battered and know that its More than just a physical Winnipeg photo by Violeta the free press la Candon Leader carmelo Chan or Yuk uses a map to show Moore right the worlds encroachment on the rain Laca dons fight to preserve their Home deep in the rain people cling to old ways Mexico City we should have brought hammocks when we visited the rain but by the time we found that it was too so the women slept in the slept is not quite the right it they said like spending the night in a poorly designed but the alternative was the dirt floor of one of Kayus and that seemed they managed to doze off now and then through the was in a borrowed our Alonso and had hammocks for themselves and one to spare and Slung them in a Grove of Trees for the three of our aim was to find put to w the la Candon people live in the rain and this was one Way to find they live in widely scattered groups of wooden huts of rough Plank Walls with dirt Light and ventilation come through the cracks Between the the stove is a table with about a dozen centimetres of Clay on top and a fire atop the some roofs Are traditional some Are corrugated the Laca dons Are one of the mayan but their rain Forest Home for centuries sheltered them from Contact with Spanish invaders and the mexican while other mayan groups suffered genocide or went to work for the the Laca dons kept the old ways of farming and tortuous Chiapas state is the Backwoods of physically and linguistically closer to Guatemala than to Mexico the extremely rough terrain makes Access even the Best roads Are tortuous and subject to the bus trip from near the Gulf to Tuxtla the state capital located in the Central Terence Moore Valley of took us seven including a on hour lunch the la Candon rain Forest is the Backwoods of the there were no roads at All into the rain Forest until the the few visitors arrived by foot or on the la Candon self sufficient with the crops they grew in their Forest were not asking for roads and the government saw no reason to incur the followed roads there is a Road the logging companies needed to Start hauling out the then the cattle producers followed the logging roads to Graze cattle where the loggers had the main Road into the la Candon rain Forest runs straight and level through the lowlands of the us Macinta in Early it was a terrible improved last year by army engineers to Speed troop movements against the Zap Atista now pounded and pocked by heavier traffic than it was built but Road it nevertheless the la Candon Forest is no longer inaccessible and the la Candon people Are no longer sheltered from the Impact of Industrial we saw no military traffic on the for the Zapata Stawar was in the three checkpoints we encountered were sandbagged for defence against Light weapons but we saw no sign of Armor or most of the traffic we saw was trucks and buses serving the settlements of Small Farmers and cattle producers along the in the rain the Laca dons Are clinging to the old our Kay urn Yuk who had been informally adopted and raised by a City seemed entirely at Home when we first met him in the grand san Cristobal de Las Casas House where he grew now a rain Forest study he told us in Spanish How Frans and Trudi on a rain Forest rescued his father and his brother from crop failure and brought them to the City and raised the two sending them to he remains a regular and Welcome visitor in the at his compound in Latanja Chan he could if he wanted Lay a Wood floor in his House and install furniture and dishes such As he uses in san but he does he clings to the old he in a Shack about a Kilometre from his the citizens band radio that keeps the Community in touch with radio operators in Palenque and Tuxtla but he grows his hair the Way you see in pictures of the Laca dons from the 1940s and he keeps his dirt his wife grinds the Corn for tortillas in a hand grinder clamped to her unpainted Kitchen the la Candon people Are defending their Forest Home against the incursions of loggers and cattle they Appeal to government departments to find other land for invaders who occupy parts of the Forest and convert it to they Appeal to the army for Protection against invading cattle producers who threaten they negotiate with International conservation groups for help in preserving the rain they carefully plot on detailed maps the land that is theirs by mexican Law and the land where squatters have moved la Candon Community president carmelo Chan or Yuk had just finished burning the weeds and scrub from his Milia when we arrived at his he excused himself to Wash and then received us at the picnic table in the Little store where he Sells soft drinks and he unfolded his maps for us and showed in the transcribed satellite where invaders had moved he took us to his Kitchen Garden in a Small Forest Clearing and showed us How he grows Beans and Squash in a closely interwoven pattern according to the traditional la Candon the top strategist of the la Candon Complete with geographic information from outer is also feeding his family from the Forest floor by the traditional we met Manuel Chan or Yuk at his hut the next he wore his hair in Urban style but kept the traditional kind of la Candon wholly at ease he showed us around the new Community cultural with traditional thatch whose construction he had the following we set off Down the crate pitted Road to Palenque at 4 so As to catch a bus to san Cristobal de Las Casas at 9 for an afternoon we caught up to carmelo and Manuel that both seemed wholly at ease in both of were we had not the faintest idea How to grow food on the floor of the rain Forest nor How to prepare the food that is grown there nor How to live in the much less How to mobilize government the mexican army and the world conservationist movements to fend off invaders and preserve the rain we didst even know enough to bring a doonesbury by Garry Trudeau you i Pont qualify Kris army at be a sri at a m t09jppokt 9 ;