Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 31, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba A6 Winnipeg free press july brain bait Manitoba is going to need stronger universities and a stronger Telephone company in order to attract and hold employers in the knowledge based at the with the universities and the phone company we Winnipeg has trouble competing with other Canadian cities As a research and innovation the weakness of Winnipeg position came to Light in a review of Canadian cities by corporate location Consul Tant John Boyd of new Jersey for the Globe and mail report on business Magazine published Saskatoon and Edmonton were found to be the cities Best equipped with Industrial innovators supported by research universities and kept in touch with the world by sound telecommunications in a second tier of five Kitchener Victo Ria and Fredericton were Strong Winnipeg did not appear in either every year when Mac leans Magazine rates the University of Manitoba among the weakest of the country Large universe the University administrators prove that the rating system is misleading and unfair As it no doubt and where Are Winnipeg clusters of Industrial Compa Rable to the biotechnology researchers in Saskatoon or the computer companies in the Western suburbs of Ottawa a University cant be held responsible for a cites Industrial but there is a last years interruptions in Manitoba Telephone sys tems Long distance service already Cost Manitoba the Call Centre jobs that up and left the province because firms could not rely on the mass poor reputation of unfair because the interruptions of ser vice happened with the former chief executive officer and the old but the damage is hard to Manitoba including the Filmon govern have concentrated on keeping the University tuition fees and the phone rates which is astute politics in a Community where people Are notoriously careful with their but one result is universities and Telephone service that Are Only fair middling in a Canadian Manitoba families who put their Chil Dren through our cheap universities later have to talk to them by Long distance because the Good jobs Are in Kitchene Waterloo and its Nice that the prices Are but the strategy May ultimately be self the big Gamble the Chretien government is taking a tremendous political and economic risk with its plan to Cut nearly Public service jobs Over the next three Ottawa does not have much finance minister Paul Martin first announced his three year plan to downsize the civil service in his budget last the plan was designed to save billion through downsizing government or roughly 60 per cent of the billion Ottawa Hopes to Cut from its deficit during that at the Many economists and business groups praised the saying Martin was headed in the right direct but As the Economy slows and economists revise downwards their growth projections for the rest of some Are begin Ning to worry Ottawa Job reduction program could have a serious Impact on the perhaps even trigger a races some observers have already raised questions about the Wisdom of the governments and with Good the Canadian Economy is struggling to create jobs As it the addition of civil including an estimated in to the labor Market will not be easy to As a the government faces a bit of a dilemma pull Back on government restructuring and miss its deficit reduction or push ahead with its downsizing program and aggravate an already sluggish Martin and his Cabinet colleagues Are betting the econ omy is Strong enough to absorb the Laid off they better be if the governments projections Are the Canadian Economy could go into a slump just about the time the Chretien government is preparing to head to the the solution to the governments dilemma does not lie in scrapping its Job reduction civil servants Arent the Only ones losing their tens of thousands of canadians Are suffering the same kinds of difficulties As the Economy continues to undergo one of the most dramatic restructurings in recent Given the fiscal realities of the Ottawa must meet its deficit reduction targets on the Best the Chretien government can do for its Laid off employees is ensure they receive reasonable Early retirement and buyout the Best the government can do for the Economy is ensure that there Are programs and polices in place that help All canadians make the transition from old Job to Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy Duncan Mcmonagle executive editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Calvin Verne Kalichuk human resources 8tephan Majorki operations Perry Nixdorf advertising Glenn 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 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights 1 in it Case of Skand Dott and i minimum 10 w must be Urell anyone 10 deli6erajely takes it if of another person Musi face we wms men we for such an if motivated by Brian Cole 6977044 that person was sufficiently wheres the alloys class t t 7e seem to be surrounded by people who Are trying to change the world from what it is to what they think it should i suspect we Are expected to stand and cheer the in some Winnipeg to set up special girls Only classes to level out the playing Field for females who cannot tackle math and science As Well As their male because i firmly believe there Are differences other than the obvious Between girls and i cannot help but wonder where Are the special classes for boys who have been tested and found wanting in Reading and writing it has been established in count less tests conducted during the past 30 years that do bet Ter than girls in math and but that do a Heck of a lot better than boys in these studies show As Well that there Are More girls in the Middle of the scale in All that it is boys who Are More Likely to be found at the top and the Why then Are we setting up special classes for girls but not for boys if we really want to remedy the Situa then the fact that there Are More boys at the Bottom of the learn ing curve than there Are girls would dictate that the first special classes to be set up should be for num Bers dont and the numbers show there Are More boys in need of Spe Cial attention than there Are the first special classes to be set up will be for and we Are All supposed to nod knowingly and approve the efforts of those determined to right the wrongs of this is not we Are in the Middle of a revolution of sorts and As it usually is Fol lowing trends set in we have affirmative action pro Grams that Model those that Are just now coming under fire South of the Border no matter what words you such programs Are reverse discrimination under another i remember an encounter on a ferry going to Victoria when i struck up an acquaintance with a huge Indi Fred Cleverley visual i was a retired he had been recruited in Scotland along with 19 others by the City of which was in the need of More he he told the smallest one of the when he got to the City dressed them in Buffalo Coats in his they never got into any trouble because All they had to do to keep order was to walk Down the streets in this past summer i took some overseas visitors to tour the ramp Headquarters in there i Learned that the police training had changed and was now concentrated on teaching Small peo ple How to handle Large we Are hiring a lot of Small people to be our police these Days and i wonder would it not be better to hire peo ple who Are physically suited for the employment we offer than to at risk to them and to Correct what nature has been doing wrong according to today politically Correct authorities Ontario Premier Mike Harris is headed for a lot of trouble because he has revoked an nip Law requiring government departments and private businesses the Community they Why should they Why not hire the Best people for the Job using Merit combined with a Colo Blind and gender Blind we Are just wont past injustices my quotation Marks will be we should Wake up to the fact that Noth ing we do today will change what was done wrong in the we should use common it is not common sense to expect the same physical performance from a 110 Pound female that can be expected from a 250pound if it we would be hiring these females As football we have determined that girls do file photo police officers nowadays come in several different less Well in math and science than and that boys do less Well in subjects requiring extensive read ing and perhaps we should set up special classes to help the girls with their math and but not help boys with their after fair is or is that something nature got wrong too unless we set up similar classes to Fred Cleverley is a Winnipeg Jour his column appears on Mon islamic movement has peaked by Thomas l Friedman new York times Washington during a visit to Turkey in i met with a columnist for a Lead ing Ankara newspaper and asked him in passing How circulation he told it was growing what was their trick i More sports doonesbury Ann Lan Ders he its very Sim we Are giving away commentaries on the Koran with every new not Only in where the May ors of Ankara and Istanbul come from the islamic but else where in the Middle islamic fundamentalism seems to be either going underground or going main that fundamentalist groups Are either engaging in More hardcore and losing to the secular or playing by the rules of the game and being cooped by the secular political but whether their approach is the m16 or islamic fundamentalists no longer seem quite so threat their Power no longer quite so their Victory March no longer quite so for the moment and it May Only be a moment islamic Funda mentalist phenomenon has the reasons Are to begin the violent islamic groups Over played their their tactic of assassinating officials alienated Large segments of the Public in Egypt and Algeria and triggered a harsh counter reaction from these secular never underestimate the Power of the secular state in the Arab these regimes have used All their resources the army and ruthlessness to suppress the violent fundamentalists and to coopt the nonviolent since Muslim militants in Egypt almost destroyed the tourism Industry there in the regime killed 800 fundamentalists in separate As the islamic expert Martin Kramer Points every Arab ruler threatened by an islamic opposition has found a Way to con Tain it or confront i they have been aided by the Dis Mal failure of which has become a breathing advertisement against islamic islamic fundamentalism also seems to have lost some Edge in places where the secular authorities have done a slightly better Job of improving living the fact that Yasser Arafat today has people on his payroll in Gaza has weakened the Hamas fundamentalist which tends to draw recruits from the islamic parties that have joined the system Are under the same pressure to create jobs As secular the Hezbollah fundamentalists in Lebanon have gone into the tourism business in where a few years ago the Only foreigners were hostages who were bound and Progress toward settling the Iara israeli conflict also seems to have diluted one of the main sources of anger used by fundamentalists to mobilize Large constituent Jordans islamic action front was recently Defeated in important municipal elections by a pro gov Ern ment slate that favored peace with but is this the Start of a Lon term trend or just the pause that refreshes before Radical political islam surges anew a lot depends on whether governments use this pause to undertake serious reforms or avoid Arab world growth prospects today Are because few Arab governments have instituted the educational liberation of privatization of state Indus tries and downsizing of bureaucracies that countries from Brazil to Indonesia have done to compete in the 21st with 50 per cent of the Arab world under the age of that is not a healthy whether it is the internet or the glob Al investment the arabs Are not in the As Long As that con the Arab world will stagnate and the environment for Radical politics islamic or otherwise will Thomas l Friedman is a columnist of the new York ;