Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 23, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg id i free july 1997 irian editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil nights financing the games there Are two things lacking in the Panama games committees proposal to government for an additional million to cover the Cost of the Winnipeg games Candour and both will be needed if the committee expects Public support for its funding when Winnipeg won the right to Host the 1999 pan am the organizers said the project would not become a financial the games were to Cost million with the three Levels of govern ment contributing about million million from million from the province and million from the about million was to come from broadcasting rights and corporate things Arent turning out As the first hint of trouble came in june when organizers denied the games were headed for a what they didst say was that their financial projections showed the games would be in deficit unless government coughed up More Money or costs were drastically Cut a month commit tee organizers acknowledged they were having trouble balancing Cost and Revenue projections for the now pegged at broadcast ing and marketing Revenue is projected to be about million less than the Cost of running the games climbed about in part because the event will now feature More athletes and coaches than originally the committee needs to answer some questions Why did it underestimate broadcast and marketing revenues Why did it agree to add More sports rather than answer these questions or take a hard look at cutting organizers have opted for the easy Way out pressuring Federal and provincial governments to come up with an additional Mil lion million from Ottawa the commit tee and the province justify the request to Ottawa by saying it was always expected the Winnipeg games would be funded on the same level As the 1994 Commonwealth games in really if that is the Why want it in the original business plan and Why would anyone expect Ottawa to break its policy of limiting funding for such events to 25 per cent of the total Cost Manitoban want the 1999 Winnipeg games to be a and they appreciate the Effort volunteers have put into organizing the two week athletic event of the but they also expect the games committee to be More accountable for its business especially when it is asking for More forensic fiasco in the supreme court of Canada overturned the conviction of David Molgaard for the 1969 murder in Saskatoon of Gail in its the supreme court noted that one witness at the original trial had since that there was new doubt about testimony concerning an alleged con and that evidence concerning Larry Fisher As a possible suspect might have resulted in a Dif Ferent verdict had it been the court recommended a new trial but the government of Saskatchewan declined to prosecute Molgaard again and he was set despite the Many doubts that had been raised about the the government refused to order an instead it held an internal investigation in which it gave itself and its police a clean Bill of despite their own refusal to prosecute the Case both the Saskatchewan department of Justice and the Saskatoon police were Public and unwavering in their belief that Molgaard was despite widespread Public they insisted there was no up until last when the results of Mil guards Dan test became that was at least a Point of now it is no longer even we now beyond any that Molgaard was not guilty of the we know that at the original there was corrupted testimony and that there Are questions about the handling of the Fisher Evi now we have As Well the comments of the forensic scientist who oversaw the Dan test that exonerated the original forensic Edward Blake was incompetent and missed Large amounts of semen on the victims amounts sufficient to have allowed testing during the first such testing might have proved Mil guards innocence in but was never the scientists doing the Dan according to repeatedly asked the question How could this be that is the question that Mil Gaard has been asking for 28 it is the ques Tion that All canadians Are asking it can Only be answered by a Independent Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy email Nicholas editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Harry Brown circulation sales and marketing Laurie resources Perry Nixdorf Glenn Williams finance and administration 1997 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member of the Manitoba press Council vol 125 no 196 of underclass in rotation Ottawa the Only Good feature of economics is that if you dont like its prevailing you can wait a couple of months and some new ones will float this month has been particularly hard on some cherished economic the Demoli Tion work has been for the most by economists who do More research than talking about the among the theories they blitzed theory 1 Canada is building a permanent class of Low income people or underclass and this class is growing because our social programs encourage Leo ple to become dependent on go v eminent not exactly says statistics the Federal government Survey organization is tracking canadians for six this longitudinal the first of its is designed to discover How people wind up with Low incomes and How Long they stay that the results of the first two years of the study 1993 and 94 Are for one the Low income group is not Perma but in the two years in million canadians stayed in the Low income group climbed out of it and million fell into the the reasons Peoples incomes drop Are straightforward enough they include death of a divorce or Unzem and Peoples incomes increase when someone new joins the family a member gets a new Job or starts working longer one of statistics Canadas next challenges is to determine whether there is a Core group that stays in the Low wage Cate gory for a Long time if Why it cant better theory 2 Quebec and Atlantic Canada Are swamps of unemployment and Little can be done to help not the june employ ment the most show that in the four months end ing in employment jumped the biggest increase since and the Good news for Eastern Canada Quebec and Atlantic Canada accounted for almost half the added employment in the first six months of pared to the final half of 1996 when nearly All the Job growth was in Ontario and the theory 3 information technology known As it to those in the know is killing Bury that says a new study by the conference Board of it Cre ates some churn in says the but companies that introduce it Are better off than those that do Between 1986 and employment Rose in companies with and fell in companies without theory 4 the North american free Trade agreement Naftal benefits the United not Canada or you cant be dogmatic about says a Long awaited government report that studied the first three years of Freer during those Canadas Trade surplus with the Dou bled to billion from but Naftal want the Only Factor at the Economy was booming the Cana Dian Dollar was lower than that of the and the two economies have been largely integrated for some the reports most significant finding two Way Trade with its Naftal partners increased 44 per but its Trade with the rest of the world increased suggesting Naftal May not have had All that great an How is it that economists cant be More precise As my old economics prof used to say i could do a better but you have to remember in studying Tom Ford is managing editor of the issues new skills for the cellphone age by Russell Baker new York times i am sitting in a car trying to make a Telephone shame to the car is not Manoe Yering in heavy it is sitting on a parking lot with the motor for months now i have been watching people make Telephone Calls from moving cars in heavy and i want to learn How to do id like to be As Good at it As the woman who nearly killed me outside the supermarket last she spun the steering wheel so adeptly at the last millisecond that she left me despite leaving a Mote of fender dust on my what was remarkable was that not for an instant did she let con Cern about an imminent death disturb her phone what i murmured to myself As she sped Telephone in one steering wheel in the if Only i could Telephone and spread terror in the streets with such aplomb As Here i sitting in this ignition with Telephone plugged into the cigarette lighter dont Why the cigarette lighter if we get bogged Down in All the absurdities of this procedure ill never get to the the before i forget is about the prophetic Wisdom of Rube As everyone should Rube Gold Berg had a Genius for devising absurdly complicated Machin Ery to perform the simplest imagine a Maze of machinery More intricate than an Oil refine whose Only purpose is to drop a Marble into a tin and you know what Rube Goldberg was up he was a what made him funny was his grasp of the human instinct for complicating the the Charm of his work Lay not Only in the Absurdity of his but also in their Inge studying an infinitely Complex Rubt Poldberg Blue print for transporting a freshly Laid egg from the Chicken to the frying you you told it could prob ably work if you really needed a machine to get an egg to a anyone at grips with the machinery we now use for Sim ple jobs must Admire Rube Gold Berg As a the car Telephone illustrates the would any sensible per son make a phone Call from a car unless our electronic Rube Gold bergs had made it possible there Are Only two Good reasons for being in a car you dont have to encounter an Airport to get where youre going its a great excuse for being unavailable by sensible Drivers yearning for a Telephone Chat simply pull up to the next phone our demonic urge to fulfil the Rube Goldberg prophecy overcomes Good and so i sit Here on this Park ing lot studying two pages of instructions for making a Telephone Call from a two pages and two pages that cry out for a Rube Goldberg illustration the Power the unlock the entering of the pin the roaming the mind is stunned by the realization that millions of Many of whom dont even know who their Congress Man can do this complicated and do do it every it never occurs to them to laugh at How nutty it to despair at How dumb it is to let the Telephone into the precious private space behind the to shudder at How dangerous it is to be deep in phone chatter when an 18wheeler is making its lunge for the fast if we must have the thing in the Why didst it occur to the phone Guys to set it up so when it was taken in a voice would say oper Ator if you Are in trouble i will get help if get off the phone before you kill possibly car phones Are Only part of the for Rube Goldberg nothing can beat the com Puter macintosh fans say their machines Are simplicity so is the Light when did you last try to fix one the famous Bill Gates with which this is being com makes Rube Goldberg seem like a win Dows 95 is what Rube would have designed if hed studied cartooning at by the time you learn a Little of along will come windows and Well have to Start learn ing it will be even More absurdly and we will love it the Russell Baker is a columnist of the new York Rube Goldberg would Jive been proud of the person invented the ;