Douce CoLLins

© get this straight ¢

ROMANIA IS a country I used to know, if one can
know a country by being a prisoner in it. In any event, I
have some understanding of the place.

Today, everyone in it except
the ruling communist clique is a
prisoner, and conditions are so
bad that a dog would howl at
the thought of having to live
there.

Memories of a different
Romania have been evoked for
me by a Sunday Telegraph story
headed ‘Visions of a Marxist
hell,"* which showed once again
that while all dictatorships are
bad, the left-wing sort is worse.

the man is a tyrant and a bum.
He hands out jobs by the dozen
to his relatives, and the country
is reminiscent of the USSR in
Stalin's time. Grey, dismal and
hopeless.

‘Men and women, shopping,
are in a hurry by 6:30 a.m.,
already late for the queues, "
wrote Selbourne after visiting
Romania, ‘‘There are no eggs,
no cheese, very little fresh fish,
and no potatoes to be found for
love or money."

[, n 1977, 35,000 miners struck over bad housing
and working conditions. About 4,000 were fired _
and thousands forcibly transported to other areas.

The strike leaders ‘died in accidents.’

But no

Richard Attenborough has made a Steve Biko Cry
Freedom kind d of movie about them. ”

For some years up to 1944 the
fascist Iron Guard ran this state
and it's my guess that if the
Romanians of today had a
choice they would go back to the
old regime in a flash.

The country had a rich
agriculture. Even in war-time
there was no shortage of food.
There was little rationing and
even prisoners-of-war could buy
extras, Romania was not drab-
depressing, cither. Bucharest was
beautiful and known as the Paris
of the Balkans.

There was a dark side to all
that, but these days the dark i is
much darker.

King Michael sat on the -
throne, and now there's a new
‘*king.’”? He is a communist and
former cobbler called Ceausescu.

As Telegraph correspondent
David Seibourne makes clear,

Meat is also absent because
most of it goes to the USSR
under a meat-for-oil barter deal.
This even though the country has
its own oil fields. Talk about
colonialism!

People line up for blocks for
revolting bits of frozen chicken-
heads, wings and offal. The
more edible parts, states
Selbourne, are sent to the Sovict
Union along with the meat.

Communist terror extends into
every cranny. Anyone who owns
a typewriter must register it with
the police twice a year.

The purpose of that is that if
unauthorized typewritten pam-
phiets are distributed, they can
be traced to the persons who
typed them. In this hole no one
risks putting out an underground
press.

Last November, thousands of

DEVELOPMENT GETS GREEN LIGHT

Sahalee access not found

‘THE SAHALE 2B North housing development will go and Westport Place area.

‘ahead without inclusion of a second access in its 70 to 100-

‘ lot Proposal. MS

- Satisfied that’: a second’ ‘route in-

to the development could’ not be:

found, West ' Vancouver :: District
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-of-. operations ‘director Barry

Lambert, which recommends the ~
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By MAUREEN CURTIS
~ . Contributing Writer

The unsuccessful search for the
second access was conducted in
response to concerns from

- residents in the Westhaven Road

workers demonstrated in Brasov.
a city of which I have some
knowledge. We saw nothing of
that on our TV screens, of
course. Nor did the Romanians.

In 1977, 35,000 miners struck
over bad housing and working
conditions. About 4,000 were
fired and thousands forcibly
transported to other areas. The
strike leaders ‘‘died in ac-
cidents.’’ But no Richard Atten~
borough has made a Steve Biko
Cry Freedom kind of movie
about them,

News reporting in Romania is
so restricted that not even Pray.
da and /zvestia are available,
and the USSR's glasnost (alleged
“openness’’) goes unreported.

In the summer of 1944 I saw a
small band of communists mar-
ching down the main street in
Bucharest. The cobbler was pro-
bably among them. They could
come out into the open because
the Russians had arrived and
King Michael was a prisoner in
his palace.

Antonescu, meanwhile, was
waiting to be shot by a Red fir-
ing squad, and thanks to the
Yalta Agreement the communists
would soon be the government.
There were supposed to be free
elections but someone forgot to
hold them.

1 mention all this because it is
seldom that Romania makes the
news in Canada, It would be dif-
ferent if there were still a right-
wing dictatorship in Bucharest,
however.

If an fon Antonescu were run-
ning Romania today, the country
would be a by-word for tyranny,
just as Chile and South Africa
are. But King Ceausescu the
Cobbler gets the kid-giove
treatment.

There are villains, you see,
and villains.

Makes you think, doesn’t it.@

“In the event of that route being
blocked by a major accident,
whether automotive, fandstide,

flood, heavy snowfall, tree fall or.

other scenario, as many as 88 fam-
ilies would be trapped in the
Seo WY
Page 10

9 ~ Friday, January 29, 1988 - North Shore News

W. Van school grade
changes run smoothly

PLANS TO alter the grade con-
figuration of West Vancouver's
three high schools by September
are continuing with no problems,
two associate = superintendents
told the West Vancouver School
Board Monday night.

Associate superintendent John
Player said that after two commit-
tee meetings on staffing held with
administrators and teachers,
agrecable hiring guidelines for
West Vancouver School District
43’s new junior high school had
been formulated.

“Every (secondary) teacher will
have cqual opportunity to apply
for every position in every (sec-
ondary) school,” Player said.

District 45 decided last
December to turn Hillside Second-
ary School into a junior high
school, which will require massive
staff movements within the school
district.

West Vancouver Teachers
Association co-president Kit
Keieger had expressed concern that
teachers placed in a middle schoo!
might feel ghettoized, but under

the proposed plan only teachers
wanting to teach Grades 7 to 9 will
be in Hillside in September,

Player said the restaffing process
was moving very smoothly, ‘I ex-
pected more contentious issues to
arise,"’ he said.

Associate superintendent Bob
Overgaard said the committee to
examine the new school’s acadeniic
content was also moving forward
with no problems.

Overgaard said in order to allow
everyone a say in the process, two
committees had been formed: a
large general committee and a
Steering committee to implement
proposals,

Hillside Grade 1] students who
will have to graduate at West Van-
couver Secondary School next year
have accepted the school board’s
decision and are adapting, he said.

“They did talk about ‘our new
school,'*’ Overgaard said.

He said Hillside Grade 11 stu-
dents are miceting with the West
Vancouver Grade II students to
discuss mext year’s graduation and
are planning a joint leadership
retreat this school year.

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