6 - Wednesday, May 5, 1993 — North Shore News ‘Tube terror OST CANADIANS have surely had a belly full of American: vie- lence. 80 applause should go: to federal Com- munications Minister Perrin Beatty for his statements to an international conference .on television violence that Canada might approach the United Nations for help in regulating the gratuitous and obscene vie- lence filling. television airwaves from the United States. ! The culture of violence that is eroding America’s social fabric is replayed endiess- ly in ‘vacuous made-for-television dramas, sensationalized para-documentaries and disturbing televised crime're-enactments. Younger generations, weaned on televi- _sion, are the most ready victims for the steady parade of video violence t:at mar- i i I ches into their homes via ‘TV. Fer children, the perception of violence as commonpiace becomes reality. Problems are solved through violence; life’s. disappointments require violent response. Violent death is acceptable and often glorified. Video violence equally disturbs a child’s sense of security, as endless tales of ab- duction, residential break-in and assaule tell children that they are daily targets for random violence and terror. , The explosion of satellite and computer technology that is spawning hundreds of new television channels and services could be of huge benefit to international com- munication and knowledge. __. But that benefit will be lost if we don’t start tuning out the violence now. | LETTER OF THE DAY Intimidation has no place in process free, while the proposed golf : Dear Editor: They camein force, wore green to identify: their ailegiance' and carried clubs. They verbally abused the people handing out information sheets calling for a referendum. They applauded their ‘own speakers loudly and booed those with opposing views. ! This is not about gang warfare or the bully boys of the early, ’30s who happened to wear brown shirts, but about a public rezoning hearing at Windsor secondary school on April 20. ‘They came not only from’ the ' District of North Vancouver, ' but Publisher Managing Editor . Associate Editor. . Sales & Marketing Director Comptrolier ... Peter Speck Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright Linda Stewart .Doug Foot also from West Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver and even Richmond; ‘to demand a goif course — NOW! Some told heart-wrenching stories about the difficulty of fin- ding a place to play their game, a dilemma ‘shared equally by. local polo players. They. bragged about the thou- sands of dollars spent on their pastime elsewhere. They repeatedly said that the revenue from land sales to district residents could not be counted, since all parks account for lost revenue — forgetting the fact that anyone ‘can get into a park for Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising Newsrcom 985-2131 Distribution Subscripiions 986-1337 986-6222 Fax Administration 985-2134 B course would require a $30 green fee. The number of speakers with opposing views was surprising in this intimidating atmosphere. No fewer than three planners argued calmly and reasonably despite the hostile crowd. If for no other reason than this, North Vancouver District Council must send a strong message that shows of force and intimidation have no place in the decision- making process of our society. Fred Bigier North Vancouver i te This newspaper contains recycled fibre 986-1337 Ga 985-3227 p North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and quahtied under Schedule 111, Paragrapti ttl of the Excise Tax Act, is pubiished ‘each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press tta, and distnbuled to every door on the North Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreernent No. 0087238. Mailing rates available on request. Submussions are welcome but we canne! accept responsibility tor unsolicited Matenal including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. V7M 2H4 THe VOuE EOF MUITTH AND wEBT wencOUvER North Shore managed MEMBER = SUNDAY + WEONESDAY © FRIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation. Wednesday. Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1993 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. oney lessons Cana la can teach EUROPE HAS heen looking depressingly like Canada hitely. Consider the contentious issues at the recent Edir- burgh summit. Among them, the division of powers between the central and regional governments, the size of the European Community (EC) budget and the size of the transfers to the poorer parts of the grouping, and the move to yreater freedom of trade between the members — with wide agree- ment on the principle, but a cer- tain degree of foot-dragging on actual implementation, In particular, the Europeans can learn from Canada the problems associated with trying to manage an economy whose various com- ponent parts are In different states of economic health. The problems the Europeans fuee arise in the main from their determination to move to a single currency, There has already been a preview of the problem, The chaos In the European Monetary System (EMS) in the fall of 1992 was not, as some sug. gested at the time, the result of speculative attacks on the pound, the lira and the franc, but was in fact a preview of the problems Europeans will face if they com- plete the move to a single curren- — cy. Under the EMS, EC membecs agreed to restrict Muctuations in their currencies to keep them within a certain range of values around the German mark. ; When German interest rates are high, as they have been in recent months as Germany attempts to “manage reunification without set- ting off an inflationary spiral, foreign investors shift their funds into Germany in search of higher returns, This tends to raise the value of the German mark on world cur-. ‘rency markets and to depress the value of the currencies of the countries the funds are coming from. Clearly an upward move of the mark and a downward move of the pound would eventually lead to the pound’s dropping below the lower limit Britain agreed to when it joined the EMS. To prevent this currency outflow, the British government would have to raise its domestic interest rates. Britain chose not to do this and let the pound drop out of the EMS, The background to the currency crisis can easily be translated into Canadian terms. In the late 1980s, Ontario’s economy was overheating to such an extent that By Brian Ferguson Contributing Writer the federal government was afraid the inflationary pressurés being created would spill over to other provinces, setting off a general in- flation. To prevent this, Ottawa em- barked ona policy of high interest rites designed to slow Ontario’ $ economy down. Like the EC today, Canada in the late 1980s was not mn econom- ically uniform country, While On- tario, like Germany, was overheating, Atlantic Canada, like Britain, was ina slump, And {ike Britain, the last thing Adantic Canada needed was a high inter- est-rate policy. Ontario and Germany may have needed slowing down, but Britain and Newfoundland did not and both realized it. The difference between them was that Britain had an option that Atlantic Canada lacked. Britain could avoid punitively high interest rates by letting the © pound drop through the EMS floor. Atlantic Canada has no such option. A dollar is a dollar anywhere in Canada, and al- though the pound could degreciate against the mark, the New Brunswick dollar is locked into a | one-for-one relation with the On- tario dollar. The result is that when interest rates are high in one part of Canada, they will be high throughout the country. +. | Thus, not only did high interest: rates aimed at easing inflationary pressures in Ontario have a damaging effect on Atlantic Canada, but the benefits that will.; - accrue to Britain in the form of higher exports resulting from the cheaper pound are not available to Atlantic Canada. . ‘ Before the weaker tnembers of ; the EC embrace a single European | cunency, they should take a close look at Atlantic Canada. That’s their future. - Brian Ferguson is a professor in the Department of Economics at . the University of Guelph, Ontario. Noel Wright — on vacation NEWS photo Cindy Goodman . LIBERAL MLA Jeremy Dalton (right) presented Canada 125 medats to 25 local recipients (including Saron Biro, left, and ; Kitty Castle) in a ceremony held recently at the Cariyon House Restaurant.