of course we could ve gut it in pill form but this ig much more fun NEWS VIEWPOINT Cultural desert EST VANCOUVERITES have missed another chance to . establish a cultural Canada’s richest per-capita community. As reported in the March 18 News, the owner of the West Vancouver Odeon bowed out of a scheduled meeting with residents and businesses lobbying to turn the old theatre into a cultural/multi-media arts centre. According to a spokesman for AC- TION, the group spearheading the aris centre effort, the owner rejected the AC- TION plan because investors involved with a proposed banking centre for the site threatened to abandon the project if it in- cluded a cultural centre. ACTION was understandably disap- centre in pointed with the failure of its lobbying ef- fort. The rest of the community sheuld also be disappointed that the forces of comunerce have once again triumphed over the forces of culture in West Vancouver. West Vancouver Council obviously con- sidered the estimated $4 million pricetag for the Odeon site too rich. And that consideration appears to reflect the majority West Vancouver opinion that West Vancouver.cannot afford a centre for its arts and culture. Had there been the community or polit- ical will to establish that centre in West Vancouver, the Odeon site would be fast on its way to becoming a facility given over to the consideration of something more than money. NEWS QUOTES OF THE WEEK “It’s a closely guarded secret that there is no money l!eft.”’ North Vancouver-Lonsdale NDP MLA David Schreck, on provincial government finances. “What I see is a little fragmented piece of crud.”” District resident Rob Dalton, in reference to a conceptual sketch of the proposed Windridge Centre development. “The more hair-brained the Publisher Associate Editor Comptroller Subscriptions North and Peter Speck Managing Editor .. . Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright Advertising Director .. Linda Stewart Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualitied under Schedule 111, Paragraph i of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mait Registration Number 3885. fest Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing tates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept fesponsibility for unsolicited material inctuding scheme the greater the risk to life.”’ Mr. Justice K.E. Meredith, in imposing stiff prison sentences on two men in connection with a failed plan to extort $8.5 million from West Vancouver millionaire Jim Pattison. ““We were Wayne’s World, the blurry thing that came on. All there was was broadcast TV and us.”’ Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Newsroom 985-2131 SWE VORCE OF KONTHE AND WEST ANCOUVER ‘north shore: SUNDAY - WEDNEADAY + FRIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. Distribution Subscriptions Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax Administration 985-2131 eae, SF i> Shaw Cable 4 program manager Martyn Stubbs, on the early days of the community television sta- tion. “We never received s business plan. I spoke to Mr. Hazell once, and when I said ‘Who pays?’ he stopped phoning.”’ West Vancouver Ald. Pat Boiiame, on the failed effort of a community group to save the old Odeon theatre site for a West Vancouver cultural centre. 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 North Shore MEMBER SNS a SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday. Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. south Africa’s fat lady won't | e singing yet vote by South Africa’s whites to end apartheid doesn’t end that tortured nation’s problems. Too many minefields have still to be crossed. The immediate next steps lie with ‘‘Codesa’’ (Convention for a Democratic South Africa), the multi-racial forum which has al- ready sketched out a power-shar- ing deal covering the next several years. President Frederik de Klerk’s job now is to push negotiations ahead on the best terms he can get for the country’s 14% white minority. According to the script, it could mean an interim shared-power executive as early as June, with mixed committees overseeing the security forces, local government, the budget and foreign affairs. Next, within 12 months, could come elections for a constituent assembly to draw up, in about a year, 2 new constitution with en- forced power-sharing. That body might replace temporarily the present Parliament, making all decisions by a two-thirds majori- ty. Finally, elections for the first fully power-sharing parliament — leading in theory to a peaceful multi-racial future. But don’t hold your breath right away. “Could’’ is still the operative word. Having lost the referendum, the redneck Afrikaner faction and its neo-Nazi private army have nothing to Icse by employing vio- lence in a last-ditch bid to disrupt the reform process, especially if blacks seem to be winning too many tricks. And more than a few of South Africa’s security forces are believed to sympathize with them. On the other hand, de Klerk could spark trouble — again possibly violent — from the impa- tient, Communist-aligned African National Congress by using his- solid ‘‘yes’’ majority as a lever in Codesa to strike a harder bargain favorable to the whites. Then again, the political defeat of the pro-apartheid diehards might be taken by the ANC as a PRESIDENT Frederik de Klerk... reform hero with many minefields still to cross. Noel | Wright HITHER AND YON signal that it could now ride roughshod over the white moder- ates on vital power-sharing details. Two such details are crucial for de Klerk’s plan to prevent black domination. First, a dispropor- tionately large number of seats — allocated by regions — for minor- ity parties in the upper chamber of the new parliament (shades of “Triple-E Senate'’ thinking?). Second, the transfer to regions of many of Pretoria’s present . © - powers. As aresult, the ANC ~ could dominate a “‘stripped : down” central government, while in several regions whites could stiil control key areas such as fiscal policy and education. , : wo Desnite euphoria over the refer- endum — a major personal - triumph for de Klerk — it could yet be a long hot winter in South Africa. : The fat lady won’t be singing - there for quite a while. . TAILPIECES: For fundraising —_, tips try young Ben Ewing and his © . Grade 3 classmates at Larson Elementary. Sparked by teacher Kathleen Nielly, they set out last . weekend to earn money for the. |” f planned hospice for terminally ill.” children by picking up neighborhood garbage in return for pledges from householders. In. . three-quarters of an hour Ben and... his co-workers collected a cool $430! ... Learn about the many interests the West Van Museum &:. Historical Society provides for its 375 members at the annual general . ~ meeting Thursday, March 26, at7 7am p.m. in Cedardale Centre, 595 Burley Dr. — non-voting pro- spective members welcome ... West Van volunteer canvassers, — especially in apartment buildings, are still needed for the Cancer Society’s annual April fundraising “ - drive — if you can help, please cal! West Van Campaign Chair- man Jim MacNaughion at 925- 1952 or 926-9214 (home) ... And many happy returns of tomorrow, March 23, to North Van birthday boy Ken Poon on his 39th. WRIGHT OR WRONG — - Weiler’s Law: Nothing is impossi- bie for the man who doesn’t have to do it.