Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 24, 1999, Winnipeg, Manitoba Focus Winnipeg free press 4 4 August 1999 i i a lesson to be Learned from decline of the ottomans West should dust off history books by Michael Reynolds to the los Angel Stimes anew Constitution granting new rights and including the right to is people dance and joyfully embrace in the their coun try is moving joining the civilized nations of the Boris Yeltsin Russia in 1991 the ottoman Empire in the place ironically by Czar Nicholas ii As the sick Man of the multiethnic and Multi confessional Empire that few can or wish to remember including its main successor Western policymakers would do Well to dust off their history books and reread the sections dealing with the terminal decline of the after the new Start of the Reform movement faltered and the government Giddy optimism among ottoman subjects turned into bitterness and a sense of the Reform movement came to an end when the empires former subjects humiliated it in the Balkan wars of a frustrated Young ottoman Enver seized Power in a coup on thirsting to restore the empires he plunged ottoman Turkey into the first world War the following the Eastern ques Tion that dominated diplomacy in the late19th and early20th centuries managing ottoman decline was finally answered with the dismemberment of enters dream state in the worlds first global blood the similarities Between ottoman disintegration and the continuing col lapse of russian Power should be Dis the ottomans built their Empire fighting under the Banner of sunni their al encompassing islamic ideology gave the ottoman state More than a transcendent Pur pose it stamped its institutions with the imprimatur of eternal even tax codes were defined till the end of beyond the ottomans new and More powerful and new and More efficient forms of military and economic sprang when the empires military strength began to did the elites Faith begin to As the ottomans own chroniclers Tell state officials began to use their offices not for the greater cause of the Empire but for the greater size of their private Purs in addition to the military Chal a whirlwind of economic change in the form of an evolving global Market and Industrial revolution began penetrating the ottoman transforming the ottoman the states fossilized on the outside and rotting from the no longer performed their the farthest removed of ottoman lands Slid into the orbit of other Powers Domestic disorder set in the Balkan and Anatolian coun marauding some with political most pillaged the land with substitute the words marxism for information revolution for Industrial organized crime gangs for marauding bands and 1991 for 1908 and you have a Short narrative of the decline of Sovi now although this eurasian question has been with us for nearly two Russia policy analysts have preferred to fantasize about a Russia either resurrected to play a great Power role As a rival to the West or reborn As the wests lib eral democratic but As Shamil who led the chechen and his band of Dabestani Youj Shedeen Are Demon far from being rus Sia May be in terminal if the stakes were High at the beginning of the when failure to adroitly handle ottoman decline led the great Powers into a clash in the Balkans and the world the stakes today Are even russian territory stretches from in the to China and in the on which is located some nuclear Yeltsin and his newly appointed prime Vladimir seem deter mined to Lead Russia into another Mil itary possibly their version of the Balkan wars of 1912 the russians face a foe num Bering fewer than to there have been no a general ant russian uprising in but in the three years since Russia lost its War with its forces have evinced Little not Only cant they defend the Dabestani they cant even protect the Dabestani in May of last russian federation Security forces Stop a Maverick gang Ster and a few busloads of gunmen from Riding into the Dabestani Capi and seizing the republics parliament if Russia cant dig out Basay evs Small it Likely will attempt to contain the conflict by exploiting Dag stans ethnic this Means it will Back one or More eth Nic groups in the burgeoning civil Dag stans Hal million the largest single ethnic group in at on Quarter of the republics Are a Likely candidate for russian the Vars enjoy a relatively privileged position in Dag stans political life and stand to lose the most should Dagestad remodel itself along strictly islamic they Are also known to be wary of the but the chances of this strategy backfiring Are Dagestad so resisted the Siren song of self determination and ant russian rebel lion precisely because it is so ethnically none of Dag stans 30odd nationalities form a sizable and none feel secure with the dominant Model of statehood the the result is a peace underpinned by an ethnic mad mutually assured destruction this is also Dag stans Achilles the one identity that unites virtually All Dag Estanis is a Muslim it is a Strong identity one that is historically bound up with the struggle against russian although islam came to Dag stans Caspian coast in the 8th Century with the Arab it failed to Pene trate in a rigorous form into the mountainous regions until the 19th when sufi sheiks organized the mountaineers resistance on the Structure of their religious brother Bagayev does not need a spontaneous islamic insurrection to tri it will be sufficient to plunge Dagestad into a protracted civil As a populace already tormented by impoverishment and corrupt government wearied of the added strife of it will reach for a solution with the lowest common As in Radical islam can build on a common identity and pro vide a political order however is still some might object other than no not even mus Lim tatars an or the Bashkir re pub has pushed for a Complete and total break with but the Point if the Kremlin goes they might not have any oth ers might contend that the shared Lan culture and traditions of russians renders an ottoman style breakup such did Little for the political cohesion of the Post ottoman Arab and there is no reason Why they should keep such a vast country As Russia after the birth place of russian cultural identity is now the capital of a place called that russian caucasus has been in open rebellion for some eight years is alarming but the failure of the russian state to adapt and respond to this among Many signals a state doomed to no crisis has galvanized the russian state into Long awaited its response has grown steadily feebler and less far from worrying about balancing a resurgent the West had better begin preparing for russian letters to the editor Accident raises fears of elderly the Accident at Inkster and Keewatin which resulted in Seri Ous injuries to Trisha free no hero just mom has verified what a number of my elderly friends have been saying for at most Street Corners the time allotted for pedestrians to Cross is just not Long enough for those among us who Are not in the four minute mile it seems pedestrians no longer have the turning traffic with a Green Light will habitually swing in front of the pedestrian trying to thus using up precious seconds of the pedestrians crossing on but related older persons and any of those with some Are not Happy with the new easy Access transit upon entering and exiting there is nothing to hang onto for support except some straps beyond the reach of Shorter peo the distance is Only a few but just try to keep your balance As the bus starts or stops with its Cus Tomary the problem is not with the bus open space must be provided for it is with the Driver who cant wait an extra two seconds for the passenger to find a per haps that is not but the fault of whomever draws up the sched i have travelled by Public transit in other cities where buses did not move until passengers were seated or at least had something to hang on and passengers were not required to stand until the bus came to a full no doubt it will take another serious Accident or two before someone looks at these deficiencies in our transit sys Beatrice fines Winnipeg government blamed for state of trains with reference to your 5 Arti Cle on via Northern passenger train service shortage of seats on train leaves 24 May i first outline a Brief history of Why there Are shortages of seats on and the manner both Liberal and tory Federal governments have used passenger train service As a Polit ical election ploy to win Canadian sup port for their candidates in different parts of in promised new better ser vice for All regions of increased tourist traffic and so the fact of the matter and history proves that both parties once in Power have slashed and did not replace the 40yearold on the other the United states keeps investing in Amtrak passenger train services by ordering new sleep 1 How to reach us 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 May be edited or style and Short letters Are less Likely to be please address letters to letters to the Winnipeg free 1355 Mountain Winnipeg r2x 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 dining taking advantage of our Canadian the North line to As Well As the transcontinental passenger train now Only operate three Days a this reality is the result of the Federal government and the fact that is All the equipment via Man As Well As the i am Pray every Day that no equip ment pulled for repairs creates a Short age of the Point that nip la Oscar Lathlin makes on the service and How Vias or department handles the complaints is the fault lies with the Federal government and the Lack of action Over the last 20 years on ordering new train sets that meet All of our environmental con and passenger train while other countries move into modern passenger Canada sits Back and pretends to comply with All environmental Canada has the Means to build new passenger train sets for All regions of putting thousands of people Back to work and meet its obligations on reducing the threat to the and if Canada really wants to build on the tourist lets Start walking the this minister of transport seems to be on the right lets Hope he a Cerilli National president via rail Canada pensioners Winnipeg Victoria emergency obstacle course in the past 10 i on four occasions As a cardiac been wheeled on a Gurney through the Emer gency Ward of the Victoria general on each Nii week or Early morning of it was an obstacle with the emergency room Halls full of patients Ken free press Reader says the Accident at Inkster and Keewatin verifies what the elderly say about Street Beds such that we could barely get each of these hallway at a time of maximum is spending one night or Many wait ing to be admitted to a Ward upstairs for More private Fortu i personally was not one of those that had to sleep in the Halls and received excellent treatment from a skilled and cheerful staff in the ice like most in the general i had assumed that the reported Over crowding in Hospital hallways in the past few years was a sometimes principally in the midwinter flu sea son when emergency wards can be but August is not flu nor was there a bus or plane Accident anywhere to account for the overflow patients in the hallways of the my eyes were opened that this situation is a routine situation apparently at this Hospital and it is a situation one would expect in a third world not in the hallway bed situation is so Rou Tine at ugh that the emergency room roster Board has added nine strips of Sticky tapes on which is written bed to on which they can keep track of these hallway i noticed h9 was missing and was told that they cannot put a bed there because location h9 is a fire exit the Public would be Well especially during the current election if the free press were to print a daily tally of the number of hallway Beds in each of Manitoba hos that bed count should be juxtaposed with the number of empty Beds upstairs in the wards in the same Hospital Beds that budgetary Cut backs have closed to create this intolerable Wally Rooke Winnipeg leave opinions on editorial Page you have a Challenge before you in the next you can become a newspaper or continue to be what you have been since time the propaganda Organ of the Liberal party of you can do this by simply reporting the news in an unbiased manner during this election Campaign and keeping your political Agenda to the editorial from experience this May prove an insurmountable problem for your this will include your method of editorializing by Means of the so Many times have you printed an article with a damming heading against a party other than the Liberal party Only to find that later on in the article this headline is Only the Opin Ion of some obscure professor from an unknown i have kept a record of these abuses of the press and will continue to do if it you can look Forward to a complaint to one of the real lome Evans Winnipeg doonesbury by Garr Trudeau lunch you i Pont Napa quoth Pyou Soi in taking ;