Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 28, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba A6 Winnipeg free 1997 Brian Cole 6977044 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights Polly after scientists at the Roslin Institute in Edin Burgh announced last february that they had achieved the first successful cloning of a mammal a sheep named Dolly they vowed that they would never use the technology they developed to attempt to clone a human there is no Rea son to disbelieve scientists at Johns Hopkins University announced recently that they had successfully isolated human cells in a process that could Lead to the creation of genetically altered human they also say that they have no intention of Ever doing and there is no reason to disbelieve that is not to say that no one if someone else wanted to use these techniques to clone or design in Canada today they could do it a Law regu lating reproductive technology and making cloning illegal died in the Senate when the Federal election was called in the new cell technology holds the Promise of benefits Down the line because it could be used to grow human tissue of every Type that could help facilitate the manufacture of spare parts for the human natural organs such As a kidney or bladder that Are grown in laboratories and used to replace defective ones in this has already been done with rabbits and rats using other like Many scientific it has a dark it might also be used to create genetically engineered scientists have already bred Many different kinds of mice for specific purposes and see no technical reason Why it could not eventually be done with to a certain kind of this concept has even More Appeal than Hitler embraced and enacted theories of eugenics and Stalin saw in Lysenko a genetics a twisted version of Lamarck ism which holds that acquired characteristics can be inherited the Hope of actually Breeding the new communist that Hope of tailoring a false one is a real one for most it is not a but a a Nightmare in which people can be bred to serve any number of new discoveries May As scientists morally but one of the functions of society is to regulate the application of those the breakthrough in cell technology underlines the need for a comprehensive Law setting out those Reg and if we needed a reminder that science is proceeding at such a Pace that even Alert Legisla tors cant keep it from the Roslin which announced last week that it has now cloned a genetically engineered sheep which carries a human a balanced View a group of Canadian aboriginals received a use Ful lesson on a trip to Russia this a Les son that should be of some service to All the group was there As part of a Canad an Aid project for indigenous attempting to help natives learn How to use the political system to achieve better living even though they Are All too familiar with life in native communities in what they found in Russia was a level of poverty and hopelessness that shocked a situation so bad that it in the words of one Canadian to cultural they discovered governments on All lev Els that were utterly indifferent to the misery their policies created in aboriginal communities across the russian in comparing the situation of natives in Russia with circumstances in researcher Violet from Davis Inlet in a Community that symbolizes the plight of Canadian commented in never going to complain about the Canadian government the lesson to be Learned is that if natives think they have it bad in they should see How bad it is in once Ford will not feel bound by that nor should this country aboriginals have too Many legitimate too Many needs that demand urgent for anyone to remain silent about what is intolerable Here does not become any better because things Are worse somewhere it is that when demanding changes that can make a better it is useful to acknowledge what has been accomplished in the Canadian efforts to improve conditions of native Peoples Are often regarded As an endless string of they Only there have been Many but there have been and in acknowledging All canadians can keep alive the Hope of a greater Success to Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune 1890 Rudy Redekop publisher email Nicholas editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Harry Brown sales and marketing Laurie advertising Verne Kalichuk human resources Perry Nixdorf technology Glenn 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 201 Conan a offs pfc beginning t6annov Indonesia next chapter by Thomas Friedman new York times Indonesia there is a fascinating Revo Lution going on in its not always but if it succeeds it could save this coun try from the dead hand of the Suharto which after 30 years in Power is a spent without Energy or Wimar a popular Jakarta talk show described the indonesian revolutionaries to me As those 20and most of them educated and work ing in the private who want to get Rich without having to be corrupt and who want to have democracy but dont want to go out in the streets and get killed for whats interesting is their the Suharto regime allows no space for a democratic opposition to so what the proc Leangos Ern ment forces Are relying on is not a revolution from not a revolution from but a revolution from their strategy is to do every thing they can to integrate Indonesia into the global Economy on the conviction that the More Indonesia is tied into the global the More its government will be exposed to the scrutiny and regulations of glob Al and the less Arbi corrupt and autocratic it will be Able to their in is to Gullive Rize the Suharto regime by globalizing indonesian As a military Juwono put it the global Market will Force upon us Busi Ness practices and disciplines that we cannot generate or As another reformer Here remarked to me my son and i get our revenge on Suharto every Day by eating at Indonesia include business school grads who want Indonesia in the world Trade organization to and spec and Asean Young entrepreneurs who Welcome foreign investment Here so that any move the Suharto regime makes with the Domestic and any shenanigans it might will have International implications and human rights activists who use the internet to get their Sto Ries out and whose hackers occasionally break into and alter government web the indonesian press cant directly rebuke the Suharto regime for its rampant so instead it reports with great relish on How the United states and Japan Are taking Indonesia before a to court to protest the fact that Indonesia National car factory by the presidents son is being protected by All sorts of tariffs out of line with to of have made a similar argument about China that the More it is integrated into the global the More open and pluralistic it will inevitably but what is interesting about Indonesia is that it int out siders making this argument to justify their business dealings it is indonesian reformers making the argument As a self conscious political so globalization has Many dark from environmental Degra Dation to widening the Gap Between Rich and but what you see in Indonesia is its most important upside the ability to generate pressure on autocratic regimes when no Domestic space is while everyone is focusing on the question of whom president Suharto will appoint As his next vice president and Likely Suc i would argue that it almost Doest the really interesting succession in Indonesia is already and it is the one being mounted in the private sector by the glob they Are plugging Indonesia into the world in ways that Over redefine both politics Here and the limits of whats possible matter who succeeds in the if the United states wants to promote this process of opening up and democratizing politics in South East Asia it needs a multifaceted it has to work with Mil itary officers who want to professionalize their give Protection to the nongovernmental human rights organizations when they come under attack for reasonable activities and find every Way possible to encourage countries like Indonesia to integrate with the global Economy and rather than cutting them which is it would be Nice if every democracy movement could be led by a hero like Andrei but you have to work with what youve and around Here the biggest agents of change Are the Thomas Friedman is a columnist with the new York let refugees return to Hecla since the provincial government has decided to allow privately owned cot tages on Hecla and has obviously abandoned the Origi Nal nip dream of a people free surely it is time to allow some of the original or their to live on the Island As there is plenty of opening the Island to the orig Inal residents would not Likely produce a flood of it has been 31 years since they were booted a fair and just Way of handling those who were shabbily treated in the first place should be found now that the government has finally realized that the Way to have a Park enjoyed is to allow people i was interested in the com ments of 80yearold Helgi an individual i interviewed Many times More than 30 years when the tree Hugger in the Parks department sold the government of the Day on the Hare brained idea of turfing everyone living on the Island out and build ing a tourist Industry based on a replica of an Earl Days icelandic fishing Back Helgi asked a most sensible if the government intended to construct an icelandic fishing Why did it not use the one it already and let the people there establish and run the tourist attractions i can remember Zelgis pet which was to offer two or three Day where tourists could travel out on the Lake to help set nets and recover them the next perhaps feast ing on the and other ideas to attract sure sounded sensible to they obviously offended the who had their own ideas about preserving perhaps they ran out of to give the bureaucrats cred Fred Cleverley nature has been preserved on Hecla since the Island was cleared of people tourists have been hard to come the main government the Gull Harbour resort hotel and its adjacent Golf has been nothing but a Drain on Manitoba taxpayers since it first opened its the bureaucrats have tried hard to hide the at one time just about every govern ment conference they planned was booked into the Hecla hotel and paid for with tax mainly to make the venture look better than it was and to present a less dismal Overall financial most the Parks department has been stripped of the profitable Falcon Lake Golf course which has been handed to the same Crown corporation that operates the Sharp increase in the Golf fees at fal con now serve the same purpose As the government conferences once did at Gull they help hide the Haemorrhage of Money that it costs to keep Hecla in much of the development at Hecla reeks of the province was still under the heels residents were forced off the land 31 years wings of the nip when bureaucrats ignored the Best campsite on the Island adjacent to a Beach and built a Campground smack in the Centre of a growth of mature Poplar Only the Tenderfoot and the inexperienced would pitch a tent in an area where even a relatively Moder ate Breeze could bring Trees top pling during the Early years even the nip had its doubts about what was happening on one of the stories making the rounds told of de schreyers provincial Cabinet arriving aboard the lord Selkirk when the ship was still plying Lake win As they stepped on the one Cabinet member who shall remain nameless is reported to have remarked so this is the place we Are trying to sink with there is Little real Chance that Hecla will be allowed to develop into a genuine tourist the cottage development now being consid ered is being opposed by those people who want absolutely Noth ing these Are the peo ple who will have no qualms about using the expensive cause Way we built to replace the orig Inal ferry service because it provides them with what they want a paved Road and Park ing at the Edge of the the Best we can do is to feel a bit of sorrow when we see what has happened to Hecla since the time when the province decided to steal what private property it could on the cheap and expropriate the As Helgi we had the makings of a tourist attraction which could have helped replace fishing As a source of Community then we kicked out the people who could have made it Fred Cleverley is a Winnipeg his column appears on ;