Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 1, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A12 Winn Pic tin us m Altai 2001 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights failure at versatile prime minister Jean Chretien and his govern ment invested heavily in Buhler industries Purchase of the versatile tractor Plant in fort the government has Little to show for the and the prospects of a Happy ending Are extremely the former conservative government of Brian Mulroney started government investment in the firm in 1987 when it provided a loan to lubricate Purchase of the Plant by Ford new hol that loan had been reduced to about Mil lion last year when new Holland and Case the Justice department allowed the two competing farm equipment firms to merge but required Sale of the Winnipeg tractor Plant in order to pre serve Buh Ler industries offered to buy Justice officials thought a Small scale farm equipment was not a Good Prospect As owner for Lloyd a Wor who was then foreign affairs lobbied on butlers behalf with Madeleine who was then Secretary of the Justice depart ment changed its mind and allowed Buhler to the Canadian government agreed to let Buhler take Over As Borrower of the government Buhler industries soon tangled with the Canadian Auto workers Union Over Job Security and seniority rules in the where a strike began mediation efforts sponsored by the province failed in John chairman of Buhler said recently he saw no Prospect of bringing the strikers Back to he has spoken of starting up a Plant in to take Over the the governments Aims in supporting butlers Purchase of the Plant and in continuing the lion loan have not been achieved because the Plant is effectively closed and is unlikely to the governments strenuous diplomatic efforts and its financial largesse allowed Buhler industries to Dou ble in size but they have not kept the tractor build ing jobs in Winnipeg or in the Aims of the Justice department May yet be achieved if Buhler opens a Plant in there will still be a tractor maker competing with Case new Axworthy was sympathetic to the claim that Canadas National interest required support for a Canadia owned tractor manufacturing especially one located in Axworthy own electoral the claim was of dubious most Canadian Farmers run their implements with trac tors from other the disappearance or Emi Gration of while sad for sentimental nationalists and hard for Winnipeg South would do Little harm to Canadian agriculture and none to Canadian National the versatile workers and the fort Garry property might by now have found work with a future if nature had been allowed to take its Lloyd decided that Buhler industries would be the Saviour of Winnipeg and Manitoba Are now stuck with the painful and unproductive results of his it is too late to unmake those there be time to recall them when the next fail ing Industry comes Forward seeking help from the the Bush budget americans Learned this week that president George Bush plans to retire trillion of Federal debt Over the next 10 reduce income tax increase child tax credits and increase deductions for charitable they Learned his strategies for education social Security Reform and health insurance Reform and strength ening of the armed there was some doubt that Federal revenues will in fact provide All the Money president Bush pro posed to spend in his first presented to con Gress tuesday his Revenue estimates May be too optimistic once the slowdown in economic activity takes Fuller at least he did publish estimates which commentators can now study and debate and he has charted a course related to current economic Condi its High time finance Paul Martin did the same for Martin has said he does not wish to present a budget until he is ready to announce major changes in this reflects a misunderstanding of the purpose of a annual budgets Are required because parliament and the country deserve a sin Gle statement from the finance minister that shows his Revenue and expense for the the choices he is making and the policy behind those canadians have not had a budget from their finance minister since they have not seen an update of that budget since eco nomic conditions in North America and in Canada have changed dramatically since president after five weeks in presented his Martin thinks he May be Able to come up with an update of the 18 update in the with a Little More he should be Able to make himself As accountable As president wrecks on the Dot Corn dump with All the gatsby like dotcom ers going broke its not difficult to imag Ine that schadenfreude that great German word for the malicious enjoyment of Aneth ers misfortunes is in the Little More than a year new Media Barons and technology Compa Nies could do no the markets definitely told them even if the same markets and analysts Are saying some thing decidedly different the tendency toward schadenfreude is not an admirable human but most of us fall victim to dark glee at some time or however guiltily or briefly it As most people when things seem too Good to be they almost invariably dubious web companies that received tons of investment for the Wobb Liest of business plans have revealed themselves to be a whole lot of hype and and not much for cynics who were sceptical Early on about the shelf life of some of these online there is some satisfaction in saying that they told everyone that smugness is of by evidence that the Economy is slowing and consumer Confidence is where the Economy the rest of the world new or otherwise cant be too far Given the current there will be More Dot Corn As a the Dot Corn Deathwatch has become a bit of a macabre Industry of its there Are several web Sites devoted to the including and another one that begins with a word not publishable in this in there May be almost As Many of these Sites As there Are failed web these Sites Are sources for Industry gossip and and also for advice for starting there is both Humour and wry bitterness expressed by former Dot Corn employees who have found themselves Laid victims of someone else empty some Dot Corn flops Are remarkably contrite about their As one poster lectured another this week at the moral Here is that you cannot create but instead must respond to mar of this is the lesson being Learned by All of the failed Dot Corn business including my there All helplessly con its an expensive Way to learn business but such is life one can or coun Sel others on similar mistakes already the above named site also has a game Compo where players can predict the next doomed the still in its mainstream infant has made some people amazingly wealthy and also created a Bunch of on paper million Aires who now take up residence in their parents but it is important that even As some internet businesses Are there Are researchers and developers who remain committed to creating viable models for Commerce and Content the possibilities for training and productivity enhancements still seem and people who believe in this have not abandoned even old Economy companies recognize the internet As another useful Channel for doing just because some dreamers with buckets of venture capital and bad business plans have crashed and burned Doest mean the internet is Matsushita in appears con Vinced the internet business is not entirely in the or maybe it is the japanese electronics company is developing something called the healthy toilet according to yesterdays Washington this online commode is designed to Monitor your body fat and blood sugar and can Send those results to or to anyone else who May need to know such intimate in the broadband your fridge May yet talk to your or Send shop Ping lists to your cell the ups and Downs of the tech sector have been a bit of a diversion and certainly a lesson in hyperbole and Good business for those on the musing about the next mos Likely Dot Corn failure and watching mar Ket gyrations May be alternately amusing and the markets have been exciting to watch when they were and hear stopping on the Way but this rollercoaster has also confirmed that the and so Many other emerging have become Central to our to the Way we do business and think about our and will not go grasping the narrative tool life is changing its a pos Indian a mixed up two thirds of the native Peoples of North America Are now under most now live in we Are telling their from the Urban nation web site i watched blood River which shows in Winnipeg today As part of the local heroes Festi because i wanted to know if i would get it being the trademark native Humour that apparently kept this 23 minute dramatic flick by former Winnipeg Ger Kent Monkman out of the Toronto film Festi Humour can transcend cultural but often it does i have sat Stone faced through Many minutes of the dead dog the antics of the frumpy Babas on attn Furrow my Ive enjoyed the easy mirth and wry wit of but i was starting to wonder if id Ever get the that apparently what the woman who was vetting the films for the Toronto festival Felt she didst understand Why Monkman handled the Street prostitution and other miseries portrayed in blood River with so Light a Tattoo Cardinal in a Blond wig Why cast a native woman As a White character i guess the Toronto arbiter of Good taste in movies Hast sampled much of Hollywood 1950s Cowboy and Indian i had a head sup from a review of blood River in the which profiled his Art and his films in but the Humour was abundantly is Cardinal does a wonderfully Woody rendition of a wide eyed sub Urban mom whose Earnest attempts to please Are painfully tolerated by her adopted and brooding the dark skinned White mom is about As real As the ital Ian american Savages that whoop whooped across the big screen a Hal Century it was that on dimensional stereotype Monkman sought to Mirror in blood gently Pok ing making mirth of but hardly an inside the is the icing on the the depth of blood River a Story of How Rose comes to first in her night terrors and then in her birth brother lies in Mon mans ability to let people be warts and Beauty and the image of forced to prostitute on the City washing in a Public is powerfully watching his Foster mom also played by struggling to keep her Home a Good is sad and reassuring at the same it is in the Richness of this the robustness of Good and that Monkman has found his Niche for native a nascent Industry in which a younger Genera Tion is showing the world their it Breaks with All of what has come to Bat the the stereotypes that have growing up Metis in River Heights and then moving to Toronto Heady ethnic knows stereo its unbelievable some of the things that you he peo ple have All of these preconceived he wants to deconstruct some of the divergent stereotypes of the alcoholic drunk and the Noble age living close to the theres very Little in his work tries to move closer to the state in Between where theres just so much More room for most of the peo people like him and blood Rivers producer Gisele with their company Urban Are at the forefront of or film but it is a slow birth for the Indus the first feature length film to be produced by a native Shirley Chee Choos Bac roads is out this Monkman he says that in Large part is due to the fact native people Haven had much Access to the Large pots of Cash required to make the development of digital technology which allows you to do a lot of Post product Tion editing on a Home computer will open the Field people wont see much of this stuff on attn because its just being produced and because attn can More readily afford the of style documentaries that have been around for Monkman and is Gordon Are pushing the but they Are packaging their product in a impressive is Gordon designs the web site hooking into numerous which include his artwork and their the most exciting is the Tunguska a document tar style film that will follow Floyd a Saskatchewan theatre to Siberia where in 1908 an Earth shattering celestial but unidentified mass no meteoric changed the lives and marked the mythology of the indigenous Evinski born in weaned in Shamattawa and raised in River is going the bounteous world of film will grow Richer the further he and As More native people take hold of the tools to Tell their own making sure the rest of us get blood River shows today at at Tattoo Cardinal Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free presses 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 no 8s 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 outta Manitoba press Council Rudy email Nicholas editor ;