inning ait

Dear Editor:

Celtic Shipyards on the Fraser
River, owned by, the Musqugam
Indian Band, acting as ils own
local government, has just hinded a
contract for five high-speed, hi-
lech aluminum fire bouts for two
southern Chinese customers:

* New China, shipyards in
Guangzhou;
* Shende Shipyards on the Pearl
River Delta.

The Chinese will use the Robert
Allen-designed boats as fireboats

cand passenger craft,

Also, according to the press,
follow-up contracts are expected
involving a more technical and
sophisticated craft,

The reason this is so interesting
for North Vancouver, but frustrat-
ing! to me personally, is that
through economic twinning with
an tippropriate Chinese city, there
were excellent opportunities to
secure similar or even iarger con-
tracts for North Vancouver.

Frustrated by the plight of our
own shipyards and high unemploy-
ment among our youth, 1 personal-
‘ly worked very hard to establish
appropriate contacts.

Economic twinning is the most
promising way to break into the
Chinese market.

This method enables municipal

: ities and cities on both sides to act

as the initial: brokers’ for establish-

ing niore direct finks between their
respective industries.

Chinais now considered to. be’

(he most dynamic economic region
in the world, with American
‘investment alone in excess of

‘Tolerance is
the message

- Open fetter to Doug Collins:
“Doug, read your column and just

had to laugh. What exactly was yout :

point?.~ :

OK; OK, so you are tired of the
Holocaust and I know you sweren’t

\ saying it didn’t happen. After ‘ali,
“there are pictures, documents, testi-
mony — even actual death camps.

So, there is the’ question of the
six million? Would it make any dif-
ference if we knew the precise num-

“ber of victims? What if it were 2.5

‘million or 6.5 million or 1.2 mil-

lion? Would that change the lesson’

of: history, or the horror of death
camps; the ovens, the medical
__ experiments?
“2 The question of how many died

is academic and asking the question
: is like the defence lawyer at a mur-

der trial saying that his client is not.
guilty because the prosecution:

elaims 45 stab wounds and he con-
tends there were only 42,
. Incidentally, my 17-year-old
daughter saw Schindler's List at
scheol, as will most of the high
school kids in the Lower Mainland,
and she thought it was fantastic.
You may be tired of the Holocaust,
but there is,a whole generation so
far removed from war who need the
lesson of this movie.
~And_ you know what,
Scottish-German Christian, father of
‘three Jewish boys and [ honestly
concur that you are not anti-Semitic.
You are a guy who, once a week,

has to fill a column with words. -,

Words that stir the pot and sell
newspapers. Hey, it’s your job and
~ you're good at it.

I know you'll join me in wishing
my children a future of tolerance,
devoid of anti-Semitism, and 1 sus-
pect that somewhere down deep you
realize that, just maybe, Schindler's
List has added te that tolerance.

Doug Deans.
West Vancouver .

Pm a’

USS1009 billion,

Local governments and city
councils in China have virtually
complete jurisdiction over eco-
nomic development within thet
respective borders,

Canadian local governments, in
turn, can and bave initiated and set
the stige for political contacts nee-
essary for economic ventures to
get off the grauad,

The City of Calgary was instru-
mental in securing a $3 million
contract for ils industries,

They did thal with a city in the
Russian Far Bast — another area
of momentaus economic activit
according to U.S. Business Week
—- and also accessible only
through economic twinning,

Unfortunately, all my efforts to
bring such a partnership about

twinning

were turned down by North
Vancouver District Council in the
past.

This, despite the prodding of

the Federation of Canadian
Municipalities and the encourage-
mentof the federal government,

The result is that instead af the
shipyards in North Vancouver
being busy, tbey are largely empty
with hundreds of shipyard workers
unemployed —- notto speak of the
missed opportunities for other
industries, |

The question is, have we Finally
learned what others already know?

Tam hopeful that the new coun-
cil. will prove mare enlightened
than the last,

Coun, Ernie Crist
North Vancouver

PETER

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2300 KIRKSTONE RD.
NORTH VAN.
V7) 1Z6

has limited times available for ice rentals April
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SPECK

In celebration of cur 25th Anniversary,
Publisher Peter Speck's Speckulations' column
returns for a once a month limited engagement.
Reflecting on the past quarter-century, and
commenting on he next, Speckulations will
appear in the Lifestyle section on the second
Sunday of each month during 1994,