A6 - Wednesday, February 8, 1984 - North Shore News Right to manage The demand by West Van School Trustee Margot Furk. that principals and vice-princi- pals be removed from the B.C. Teachers Fed- eration — and the automatic opposition of BCFF representatives to the proposal — raises fundamental questions about the responsibil- ities of management and labor in a unionized operation. The key issue is whether principals and their deputies are primarily managers or primarily teachers. Under our present public school system they are, by any definition, administrators rather than instructors. The school board and its staff formulate policies and directives for the running of the schools. But for the imple- mentation of those policies and directives at the working level they are entirely dependent upon individual school principals. Clearly, therefore,’.the latters’ main function is. management and this is reflected in their generous pay scales. Equally clearly, membership of the BCTF can put principals in an impossible conflict-of- interest situation in cases.of direct confronta- tion (including job action) between the teachers and the board. It is not enough to argue, in such cases, that the principal’s first duty is to his school. Under the existing system that is tantamount to saying that management of individual schools in accordance with the wishes of the electorate (represented by the board). should cease. This is not to deny the very positive role the BCTF can play in improving the system. But to deny, in- effect, management’s ultimate right to manage in the schools themselves can only lead to chaos for all concerned. Second thoughts Ald. Dave Finlay has criticized The News for reporting unfavorable public reaction to the original draft of West Van’s needless anti- smoking bylaw — which he had meanwhile quietly revised by letting restaurants off the hook. We congratulate Ald. Finlay on his se- cond thoughts. But if we always waited for politicians to think again without prompting, it might often take a long time for wisdom to prevail. sunday Disptay Advertising 980-0511 news Classified Advertising 986-6222 north shore Newsroom 985-2131 n ews Circutation 986-1337 Subscriptions 980-7081 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 Publisher Peter Speck Editor-in-Chief Noe! Wright Classified Manager Val Stephenson Associate Publisher Advertising Director Robert Graham Tins frances Personne! Director Berns Hiltard Circulation Director Ball Mc Ga0wn Production Director Chris Johnson Photography Manager Terry Peters North Shore News, tounded in 100 as an mdepENndant COMmMUCty Newspaper and qualified under Schedule HWE Pant li Paragraph tH oof the becuse Tas Act os published coach Wednesday and SuAday by Nort Shore Free Press Ltd aad distebuted to every door on the Noth Shuoce Second Class Maw Regatratian Number 3085 Entire contents 10984 North Shore Free Press Lid All rights reserved Subscaptonas Noth and West Vancouver availattoe of taquonl $e per year Madey cates No casponsibility accCoptod far uNPOhCted matenal wie decttny Manus ipts and pictures which should bo accompanied Oy a slapped HOU eeUued eNvelopE Member of the B.C. Press Council Led BDA Denn P oun yy eee omlPe 64,700 (average Wednesday & Sunday) sm OG THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE By W. ROGER WORTH FOR MANY Canadians, the Christmas hangover comes with the arrival of the December credit card state- ment that carries the final tal- ly of spending during a period when emotion, y OE An idea 10 perhaps, replaces a certain amount of sanity. Indeed, the use of plastic money has grown to such a degree that Canadians now owe a massive $3.6-billion to the banks and financial in- Stitutions that operate the charge card systems. In sim- ple layman’s terms, that’s an Pecnuw | average of $3,600 for every worker in the country. As a consequence of the 12 million cards now.in use, vir- tually every Canadian retail and service. business has been forced to offer the credit card option to consumers, and the bankers are smiling as profits from credit. card’ operations rise. oo, It has become a lucrative business, providing several sources of revenue. At present, for example, card issuers are charging the 50 per ‘cent of customers who don’t pay their bills on time interest rates of at least 18.6 per cent, using money they ““borrow”? from Canadian savers at interest rates of less than 6 per cent. ‘Many of the-banks using certain credit cards have also added a new “transaction try, or a flat user charge ‘of - about $12 per year. - Then there’s:the. onerous : fees paid by’ the businesses that offer credit card service. . Larger companies pay about 2 per cent of the value of the © sale, while- the -tiniest ‘firms are forced to cough ups 6 per cent of their credit card volume. | Not everyone in the coun- ’. try, though, has submitted to the high costs. of cards. . Quebecers, for example, have always been less. than. #3. enthusiastic about .the THE POLISH-JEWISH eye specialist whose brain- child was born 97 years ago had almost certainly never heard of Vancouver, then just one year old, where his invention will be honored this July by disciples from all over the world. Nor did he dream it would have to wait nearly a century, until the arrival of the com- puter age, for tts full poten- lial to be realized. The need for easier, quicker communication bet- ween people of different tongues and cultures was already apparent in 1887, when Dr. Ludovic Zamenhof first published his treatise on an international second language He called 11 Esperanto — from the Latin root word for “hope” — but for many years the hope was deferred. Una the end of World War 1! it was kept alive only by a small flock of faithful intellectuals Since the mid 1950s, when Esperanto was officially en. dorsed by the U.N Educa. tional, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), progress has speeded up measurably The language presently boasts a monthly magazine of wortd news (Monato) and an cxtensive literature, both translated and original. It is used tn over [00 international conferences and meetings each ycar (Iwo years ago these cven included a four- nation European drama festival). Radio stations in at least 11 European, Asian and South American countries broadcast regularly in Esperanto. It's also taught in 500 schools in 30 different countries, as well as in 30 Chinese universities and col- leges. In Europe alone Esperanto speakers today are estimated to number more than one million. COST CUTTING Even so, that figure is ob- viously still a long way short of the good doctor's goal. But the computer now pro- mises to change the situation dramatically. For a number of years scientists have been working on the problem of computcr translation of languages, though without much suc- cess. The complex and variable nature of traditional languages simply doesn't fit happily into the tidy, logical world of chips and bytes. Esperanto and the chip, however, were madc for one another. Esperanto is totally regular and free from idioms and ambiguities. Its vocabulary is made up of word constituents put together like building blocks, cach with a separate, precise and invariable meaning. It’s the idcal language for com. puter processing. The big breakthrough has come recently in the Euro. pean Economic Community whose cight official tanguages have led to horren- dous transtation costs. Eight seem to be changing | their by Noel Wright languages, cach translated in- to seven others, multiply out to 56 separate translation jobs for every piece of EEC paper. Now they're developing a computer translation system in which cach of the cight languages will first be translated into Esperanto and then from Esperanto into the target languages. Because of the insertion of this ‘‘com- mon denominator’’, the number of separate transla- tion jobs cach time can be reduced to 16 from 56 — cut- ting costs by 70 per cent after the hardware is paid for. The BEC scheme suggests that, in aumerous other ap- plications, Esperanto and the fee’? of 10 to 15 cents per en- | _ change-over from cash to - _ plastic money, and they don’t | ways. Consumers in La Belle Province have chalked up about. $600-million in charge card debt, while those in On- tario, ‘with a slightly larger population, owe a whopping $1.5-billion to charge card issuers. Nevertheless, charge cards do offer advantages. They provide convenience for both buyers and sellers, and con- sumers who pay their ac- counts on time don’t have to cope with those high interest rates. But in the wrong hands, the cards can become time bombs. Indeed, many con- sumers become overextended through impulse buying, creating hardship for themselves and their families. While credit cards are un- doubtedly here to stay, it is perhaps important to suggest a greater use of cash may be appropriate. For consumers there are savings, even if it’s only those obtained by not having to pay transaction fees. _ But for smaiier retailers, who are already paying three times as much in credit card service charges as their big business competitors, cash is especially meaningful. Who knows, by paying cash, you might even be of- fered a small break on the cost of the purchase. And the shock that hits with the ar- rival of the charge card bill would be eliminated. (CFIB FEATURE SERVICE) ears too early computer may have a long and happy marriage ahead of thém. Meanwhile, British Columbians will shortly have a chance to acquaint themselves at first hand with the possibilities. EASILY LEARNED From July 21 to 28, for the first time in Canada, Van- couver will host the 69th an- nual World Esperanto Con- gress at UBC. As many as 1,500 Esperantists from some 50 countries are expected to attend, and we locals are also invited to join in the fun — at the lectures, discussion groups and cultural events — for the price of one or more $10 day tickets (students $5). The entire proceedings, of course, will be in Esperanto. But that’s no problem, I'm assured by Jean Fremont of North Vancouver, informa- tion officer for the World Congress Committee of the Canadian Esperanto Association. Esperanto can be learned approximately ten times faster and more casily than any other language. If you start now, Jean promises you can be fluent cnough by the time of the Congress to enjoy it to the full. Beginners’ lessons are planned for the North Shore and there's also a= free 10-lesson home study course available. Call 298-6019 or Jcan at 987-0182 for details. Dr. Zamenhof (he died in 1917) was at least 100 years ahead of his time. Today, all the signs indicate that the moment for his idea may finally have arrived.