Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 5, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba A15 Winnipeg free press comment editor saturday August 5, 2006 Gerald flood 697-7269 and beyond the sixth War fighting in Lebanon galvanized the Arab world the economist t he Al Nazeera satellite Channel prime viewing for millions of arabs labels this the sixth War after the Arab israeli conflicts of 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, and the israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. On the ground it still looks smaller than those earlier conflicts. It pits Israel the perpetual protagonist not against massed Armour and multiple countries but against a single Force which though seasoned spirited and armed with rockets num Bers Only a few thousand men. Yet this War has produced a potential for change that is at least As great As those other wars. This is not because the fighting has struck Israel a own cities or because its toll on Lebanon a civilians has been so shockingly High or because it has now after three weeks gone on longer than in any Arab israeli War since the first one. Increasingly this conflict has come to be seen by the combatants As one of survival. For Hezbollah the aim is not just to bloody the nose of a More powerful adversary but to thwart the perceived evil intention of Israel a staunchest Backer the United states to dominate the Region. This notion of a wider dimension has taken hold around the Region. To Many it is a proxy War Between Hezbollah a main sponsor Iran and America. But it May also Herald the re Emer gence after a decades Long trend among Israel a Neighbours to accommodate the jewish state of a Broad rejection St front this time inspired by pan islamist feeling rather than the pan Arab nationalism of the 1960s and 1970s. Anger has risen steadily across the Region As the blood flows. This week in the Wake of the Slaughter at Ana it surged to new Heights. But Israel this time is not the Only target of fury. May god inflict on the children of Jordan Egypt and saudi Arabia what he has inflicted on the children of Lebanon said a placard bran dished by a protester in Beirut pointing to Amer Ica a closest Arab allies As complicit by virtue of silence and inaction in Israel a crime. People across the Region see Hassan Nasrallah As the Leader they be been waiting for for five decades says Marwan Kabalan a syrian academic of Hezbollah a turbaned and telegenic chief. With american policy now in tatters he ? like Many other observers ? foresees american influence in the Region being rolled right Back. President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt the first Arab country to make peace with Israel who now faces daily demonstrations calling for Nasrallah to destroy Tel Aviv Speaks of the imminent col lapse of any vestige of a peace process. In Iraq too pro american politicians give warning that As Lebanon a shiites suffer their iraqi Brethren May Well join sunnis in a full scale uprising. Even in stridently sunni saudi Arabia conservative clerics who denounced Hezbollah As an iranian tool have faced a furious backlash of Calls for Muslim Unity in jihad. In Lebanon itself the Large pro Western Liberal elite is palpably at a loss. Many have left the country their Hopes shattered after being raised by the drama of a year in which a movement with Broad support across the Many religious groups had United behind Calls for peaceful change and ended years of domination by neighbouring Syria. We were the Only people in the Arab world to truly and honestly believe in the american pro Gram for democracy says Osama safa a shiite analyst who has been critical of Hezbollah. Now we be driven into a Wall at 150 Miles per before the War Hezbollah had been increasingly isolated in its insistence on maintaining its Bel Lico sity to Israel. With most lebanese including Many shiites just beginning to taste the fruits of reconstruction and with a record summer tourist season in Prospect the islamist were widely regarded As a dangerous anomaly. Though Many respected its toughness and reputation for probity Hezbollah seemed to promote an Agenda that benefited Syria and Iran More than its fellow lebanese. Such doubts and fears have not gone but criticizing Hezbollah in Public has become a taboo. Commentators concur that in the Short run at least Israel a attempt to blame Nasrallah for Lebanon a destruction has backfired. Instead Israel a bombing of Bridges factories and traffic far from the front is seen As indiscriminate revenge. Israeli strikes against the lebanese army which represents All sects and has not joined the fighting Are Felt As a National humiliation. The wave of northbound refugees ? More than 800,000 people mostly poor shiites Are thought to have been displaced ? has prompted an out pouring of Cross sectarian sympathy and Charity. Lebanon a shaky coalition government Ham Strung by sectarianism has been weakened by its physical impotence in the face of Israel a onslaught and by its failure to win diplomatic support for an immediate unconditional cease fire. Many think the prime minister Fouad Siniora Brave and capable but doomed by too close an association with the West. Even if Hezbollah emerges militarily weaker it May become More popular and More extreme empowering those who now condemn Siniora and his allies As Trai tors. Barbering turning Grey t he first time i visited a Barber shop i was 16 and living alone in a one room apartment on Young Street near Broadway slowly acquiring a respect for the sort of Urban traditions that just did to exist in the sterile subdivisions of South St. Vital from where i had just moved. When it was time to get a haircut i had to break from inertia which would be sent me toward a pricey stylist at St. Vital shopping Centre to find a local bar Ber. It took some wrestling with the neuroses of my suburban upbringing before i ended up at italia Barbers next to main streets notorious Mclaren hotel where i got a clean looking haircut and an earful of stories about growing up ukrainian in Winnipeg a North end for just $10 ? one third of what i had been paying All those years at the mall. After that i decided barbershops were the Way to go. My reasoning want just economic but aesthetic. Barbershops i decided were a place for men and i walked out of the Mclaren feeling too grown up to return to the mall. The Bare unpretentious decor ? calendars of Bikini models or f1 race cars ? the decidedly masculine even politically incorrect nature of the Reading Materi Al lying about Playboy car and Driver the blood horse Magazine and the ancient Barber chairs contributed to an ambience that Felt As if this place belonged in another older better Era. Thus i be been visiting barbershops for More than a decade now and As much As each one is different each one is the same. The Barbers Are always men invariably Grey haired. Once Only once did i have a Barber under the age of 40 he was 39his shop located at the Cor Ner of King Sway and Knight Street in East Vancouver. This was about five years ago and during my haircut he said what seemingly All Barbers Are saying to me these Days that barbering is a dying Art there Are no More Barber col Leges no new Barbers. There is no such thing As a Barbers licence in Manitoba anymore says Ron of Ron Sbarber shop at 955 notre Dame ave., hidden in a tiny old building oppo site Burnell Street. There Are Only stylists. No Barber colleges left in Manitoba. The last one closed Down years Ron is 60, but looks a decade younger. Trim bespectacled with a neat haircut he charges $11 or a Buck or two More based on How much time the Cut might require. He a been trimming for about 40 years. His two chairs originally from Chicago were already decades old when they were in his mentors shop. Ron a experience impressive though it is does to come near to Matching that of my previous regular Barber in Van Couver Arlo Ehrlich who entered the Trade in Berlin in 1934 at age 14. Its been a couple of years since i be been to Van Couver so i Don to know whether he a still cutting but in the Early years of this decade Arlo explained to me Why As an octogenarian he shows up at the shop every Day. What else am i going to do with my afternoons sit at Home and watch to thus five Days a week Arlo would walk from his apartment on Harwood Street in Vancouver a West end to his shop at the Corner of Richards and pen Der streets ? about a two Kilometre Dis Tance ? to trim Heads at $12 each. One thing Arlo always did that Ron does to is shave the Back of my hairline with foam and a straight razor. I stopped doing that in the eighties As for the wider Region whether Hezbollah emerges As Victor or vanquished it has proved an inspirational Model for change. When the dust settles Well be facing a new strategic equation a paradigm shift says a gloomy senior Western Diplomat. Non state actors ideologically aligned to Hezbollah such As the Muslim brotherhood May Well get stronger. It is precisely because the stakes Are so High that a ceasefire has proved so elusive. Ron explains. Guys started asking me places cutting hair describing them but with no More Barber colleges ? not to. They were scared of selves As Barbers rather than stylists and consequently no More Young bar which demonstrates that while the eight in pre uni City Winnipeg six in St. Bers ? one has to wonder How Long it la decor of the Barbershop might seem Boniface two in fort Garry five in St. Be before the Barbershop and its Atten Frozen in time some things do change. Vital six in St. James one in East Kil Dant culture reaches extinction. According to the its yellow pages Donan two in West Kildonan and one in there Are still in Winnipeg plenty of Transcona. Thirty two in total. Farmers Grain companies Arent competitors Wade Sobkowich t he Western Grain elevator association Ygea has chosen to stay out of the debate concerning the future of the Canadian wheat Board. However the Ygea feels it must respond to certain notions from the recent announcement by the Cwb in particular its proposal entitled har vesting Opportunity which envisions a single desk wheat Board using $1.5 Bil lion in taxpayers Money to invest in Grain handling facilities to protect Farmers from existing Grain handlers. The members of the Ygea Are Dis appointed and frustrated with the suggestion that somehow the interests of Grain companies and Farmers Are in direct conflict. This propagates a false notion agricultural policies should be based on the belief that Farmers and Grain companies have naturally opposing objectives. In fact we cannot be a profitable Industry if Farmers Arent profitable. Grain companies All understand that a healthy value Chain includes a profitable producer base. The right solution is for All Industry players to work More closely to improve economic returns for All participants. A key overriding principle that policy makers must understand is that the agriculture Industry is not a col Lection of competing interests. It is an interrelated continuum that must be viewed and supported in its entirety. Agricultural policies that suppose a Divi Sive and conflicting approach say Between Farmers and Grain companies will prevent both from attaining their full potential. To imply that Farmers need Protection from Grain companies is quite frankly an insult to Farmers and ignores the fact that each Canadian Grain company strives to increase its Market share and in doing so vigorously competes for every one of its Farmer customers. The quorum corporation is an Independent and impartial Grain Monitor charged with measuring How savings Are passed through the system to Farmers. The Fol lowing quote is from Page 41 of quo rums most recent 2004-2005 annual report ? ? this result can partially be explained by the heightened degree of Competition that has existed Between the Grain companies themselves whether it be in terms of the deeper discounts they put Forward in their bids to secure ten dered Grain movements or in the higher trucking premiums they have been will ing to pay producers in order to draw Grain into their the Cwb a statement that the Grain Industry is controlled by a few Large Multi National companies simply ignores the Basic fact that the majority of Cana Dian Grain is moved by Canadian owned companies. Our members take exception to the Cwb a assertion that Grain companies cannot be competitive. Grain companies have built their Busi Nesses Over decades of significant Capi Tal investment and by enduring natural commercial Competition. They do not expect to be supported by the govern ment or taxpayers. They operate on a level playing Field with equal Opportunity. For a competitor with monopoly Power to be created through legislation and an infusion of 1.5 billion taxpayer dollars will distort the marketplace and is fundamentally questionable in its logic. Whether Canadian or . Owned we should be pleased companies want to invest in Canada and to remain sincerely interested in the future of our Agri culture Industry and the Rural Economy. These companies provide considerable employment across Prairie Canada they contribute to our municipal budgets through property and school taxes they Are involved in communities and strive to be Good corporate citizens. They Are partners with Farmers not opponents. To suggest otherwise is simply untrue. Each segment of the agriculture Indus try has the Challenge of demonstrating its Worth. This should be accomplished based on promoting ones own merits not by misleading Farmers and the Public about others. Wade Sobkowich is executive director of the Western Grain elevator association ;