Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 25, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba A6 Winnipeg free press july 1995 editorials Brian Cole 6977044 time for action the weekend shooting of 13yearold Joseph Spence and the escalation of Street gang violence in general raises the inevitable question can anything be done about it the answer is the solutions Arent nor do they necessarily entail the expenditure of vast sums of Money on new programs or the hiring of civil servants to run they require leadership and commitment on the part of some politicians and Community leaders the kind of leadership that has been lacking Over the last few Winnipeg has experienced a dramatic Rise in youth related crime particularly violent crime since the Start of the car purse muggings and assaults Are All up substantially Over the numbers recorded just a few years police attribute most of this increase to the growth and evolution of youth gangs in the inner police no longer refer to them As youth there now called Street the police say these gangs have become More organized and actually control Feder Al and provincial jails in and what were City and provincial government officials doing while the youth gang problem worsened Justice minister Rosemary Vodrey held a youth crime Summit a few years ago and decided the solution was to talk about harsher Boot Camps and cancelling Drivers licenses of Young the has done even As noted on this Page last City Council has Given mayor Susan Thompson a budget to hold conferences on youth but nothing to help people actually do something about the in other words the two Levels of government closest to the Issue have done virtually everyone knows Why Winnipeg has a gang kids in the inner City mostly native Are growing up in sometimes without Strong parental support and often with a sense of alienation and Short term solutions Are the City and the province have to make youth crime a priority and develop and fund the kinds of programs like sports and recreation centres that can give Community workers a fighting Chance to reach kids before they get into Trou in the Long the Filmon government has to address the underlying causes of youth it has to develop programs that reduce child poverty and make these kids believe they can have a that Means making sure they have an Opportunity to get an Educa Tion that will Lead to a decent it also Means building a society that is tolerant and one where native youths can feel included rather than if the prob lems of the inner City will continue to grow and peace delayed the sound of shattered Glass and the smell of burning flesh have yet again challenged the peacemakers in the Middle their resolve had better remain stronger than that of the today deadline for israeli and palestinian negotiators to finalize details for a withdrawal of israeli troops from the West Bank and to set a timetable for palestinian elections passes with no talks and no this the israelis halted talks after the militant Wing of Hamas claimed credit for a deadly suicide bomb in Tel yesterdays the first attack on israeli citizens since april should Speed the talks not slow them if the Bloodthirsty Are to be denied their most israelis favor a negotiated troop withdrawal from occupied territory in the West most palestinians look Forward to the first truly democratic elections so that whichever party wins will carry the moral authority of a democratic even certain elements within the islamic fundamentalist movement those who allow a dose of reality to penetrate the Wall of religious zealotry accept the inevitability of a jewish state next to a palestinian yesterdays suicide bomber blew up a bus in the heart of Tel a ivs financial District to make the Point that nobody can feel Safe in Israel As Long As palestinian prisoners remain locked up in israeli jails and As Long As jews occupy Arab there will be palestinians in israeli jails As Long As murderers kill innocent people on commuter there will be israelis occupying Arab lands until a palestinian government can be democratically Yitzhak Rabin says he has Only halted talks for a Day or two until the dead have been he knows that any other strategy plays into the radicals hands and gives Hope to those who want violence and death to scare the israeli people away from the peace the talks will go on and the peace will finally the waste of innocent lives in yesterdays carnage sent another six martyrs to join hundreds of others lost to both a durable peace will silence their assassins is Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1b90 Rudy Redekop publisher Duncan Mcmonagle executive editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Calvin James circulation Verne Kalichuk human resources Stephan Majorki operations Perry Nixdorf Glenn Williams finance 1995 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson newspapers company limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member of the Manitoba press Council pensions bore the Young by Susan Winkelaar Thomson news service Ottawa Grant Schellen Berg is an unlikely expert on a Youthful looking he has the air of a tall ungainly teenager who thinks life is pretty but make no Schellen Berg knows his he has recently completed a Book called the Road to a collection of statistics and observations about How and when canadians and their financial health when they do leave the the research he did for the Book has left him a staunch defender of the Canada pension he argues that people like me a 30yearold woman just getting settled into a career path who has not even begun to Start a family should already be going to Battle for my old age pen the Federal government is plan Ning changes to the currently available to All canadians Over and will Likely Issue a discussion paper this then the debate will but Schellenberg fears it will be the people in their sos who will do All the like Many others in our age my husband and i have accepted that the cup Premium coming off our pay cheques is an automatic expense Over which we have no its gone before we see but we dont expect to get anything from by the time we the fund will be Well scrimp and borrow to put a few thousand dollars into rasps each year and Hope that enough to live on in 35 and if the government decides to triple the pension Premium Well probably yell and scream and what for in the govern ment of the Day could decide to scrap the plan by ignoring the debate around the future of the people in their 30s could be making a fatal Schellenberg i dont understand Why people in their 20s and 30s and 40s Arent mad As hell about he its a great Why Arent they rallying to make sure its there for them rather than having such cynical expectations there Are lots of of theres the lost Faith in the political the sense that jump ing up and Down in defence of a pro Gram wont do much Good since politicians dont listen to the theres the fact that younger peo ple Are diverted by the usual preoccupations of that stage of these theres another reason More people Are experiencing a delay in entry to the How do you think about retiring when youre still looking for a suitable Job or going Back to school to upgrade your skills Schellenberg says the new Economy provides even More reason for Young people to Start fighting for the real wages have been people Are working harder and longer hours and relying on dual incomes to maintain their family Standard of there trying to make ends meet in All these nonstandard there trying to find jobs in Peri ods of High unemployment and on top of that there supposed to save More and More for retirement because old age Security is now on the the debate Over cup Reform has already begun in the government offices of when the discus Sion goes Public later this Young people should realize its their future that at stake and get on the other we could All just run for Federal office and be guaranteed a healthy pension after six years Susan Winkelaar is a reporter with Thomson news Frances impulsive president by Thomas Friedman new York times now this could get Jacques Chirac has Only been president of France for two but in that Brief Span he has demonstrated that he is going to pose a very different Challenge for Washington than his Chirac has signalled that he wont be Content playing the traditional French role of annoying the by ostentatiously asserting French Independence but ultimately falling in line behind american Chirac is Hunting bigger he aspires to supplant Washington As Leader of the Western full hand Over the with the end of the cold War Dimin Ishing the importance of the Security and with the miss in inaction Clinton administration leaving a yawning leadership vacuum on the world who to say Chirac wont succeed As the French president pointedly pointed out two weeks ago i believe the Atlantic Alliance does not have a got any Jacques this could get inter so who is this Man who would be King Chirac is not your typical French unlike his cautious and calculating a reduces Francois Chirac is impulsive and impetuous a Gam Bler in his own whose instinct for snap decisions can Border on the As one Diplomat in Paris remarked to me Chirac is a Bull Dozer without a steering and when one of those is on the Road everyone else should put on their seat consider his first two months he dominated the g7 Summit in he ordered a resumption of French nuclear test ing in the without consulting any of his european Union and when they protested he sniffed that his decision was Chirac startled his country by becoming the first president to acknowledge French responsibility for the deportation of thousands of jews to nazi death Camps during Germany occupation of and it was Chirac sudden Ultima Tum to the allies either reinforce the Safe havens against further ser it Adilino French president Jacques with Senegal Abou seeks to Lead the Western Bian attacks or France pulls its troops out of triggered a decision to threaten massive air strikes to deter the How far can Chirac Lead that depends on two Chirac needs to be Able to Lead the european Union before he can Lead the he needs the eur Power base As a multiplier of French Power and right now Many eur Mem Bers particularly Britain and Ger Many Are wary of Chirac and Uncertain whether there is any real strategic vision behind France has per cent and it is that num not that the French pub Lic is obsessed it is Worth recalling that Charles de Frances last president to really Chal Lenge Washington was brought Down not by foreign policy but by the 1968 student worker strike in the streets of there is an Opportunity Here for the and a at a time when Washington is tired of leading it has in France a presi Dent who wants to Lead As much As de but is like de is congenitally Chirac Speaks English and has warm feelings toward the from his summer working the soda foun Tain at Howard he is a rare Breed a gaullist base Ball 10 maybe he could be to Bill Clinton what Margaret Thatcher was to presidents Reagan and Bush an assertive european Leader who encourages while acting As Washington full the danger is that Chirac impulsiveness will Wear thin on washing ton and his european allies and there will be total incoherence in the Alliance with Washington refusing to Lead or be thirty some years John Kennedy and Charles de Gaulle also vied for Primacy in the Western com but that was a clash of two titans each with a very Strong vision of his country role in the for Bill Clinton and Jacques Chirac look like Pale one Hopes that they will find a Way to live with each others and still work if they could give living proof to Karl Marxs Dic Tum that All great events and personalities in world history appear twice the first time As the second time As Thomas l Friedman is a Colum nist with the new York Frances Russell Frances Russell is on her column will return in Tom Oleson Tom Oleson is on his column will return next ;