pags 2, Faas 0, 1876 Nexth Shere News.

. Habitat.

In a couple of days it will
all be over. The solemn
resolutions of the official UN
Conference on Human Sett-
lements will be proclaimed in
the Queen Elizabeth Theat-

re. The closing counter-
blasts of Habitat Forum will:

echo .over. thewaters: from
Jericho. The captains and
would-be kings will depart,
and even Al Ci may be
heard of no more
: Vancouver will return to its

normal, peaceful mid-June»

lethargy.

This biggest conference in
UN history has been so
lavishly covered in every tiny
detail by the daily press,

television. and -radio that

there has been little a
conimunity weekly like our-
selves could usefully add to
the day-by-day scenario.

In. some ways the sheer
volume of reports and
commentaries that have
poured forth from the media
during the past two weeks

reflects the dilemma of .

Habitat itself.. The world's
needs are threatening to
become too big to cope with.
And, by the same token, the

r. awhile.

torrent of facts, figures and

- opinions about those needs is

so becoming too big to cope
ih

e ay snatey goes Habitat
fin nify for the average
intelligent and. concerned
citizen,. now suffering from
increasing mental indiges-
tion: as Co.

Many. fine words have
been spoken, of course,
about the future of man’s
home, planet Earth. As far as

the delegates to the official.

con ce are concerned,
we shall have to wait until
Friday to. see what the fine
words add up to. |

Canada—the host of Hab-

itat—is among developed [|

natlons@efusing to endorse
the basic UN proposal on
land control. Nothing reass-

uring has emerged about .

curbs on nuclear armaments
or nuclear power technology,

both of them with equally
tentials for human-

deadly
ity. PLO delegates have done
their traditional walk-out on
Israeli delegates.

Allin all, it seems so far to:
| politics as

be pretty much
usual at the UN in Vancouver
—as at the UN in New York

w wherever, I hope the

ouncements of

the con ce prove me
wrong. But frankly my hopes
are a littic faint. =

. Fortunately, ~ however,
there has been more to
Habitat than the professional
manoeuvrings of . govern-
mental spokesmen in the
Queen E.. auditorium. .

In terms of total atten-
dance -— figures Habitat
Forum, the  ‘‘counter-con-
ference’’ of non-governmen-
tal organizations over at
Jericho Beach, has not been

quite the box-office sell-out it

weeks ago. But among other
things it has provided a focus
on three remarkable: women

who, between them, have

talked more. solid sense
about ways to solve some of
the . horrendous problems

was billed to become several

- facing mankind during the

final. quarter of this century
than a ‘the other Habitat

orators put together.

Barbara Ward with her
plea for the specific, practical
goal had
people of
clean water within the next
10 years—at a cost of only
one-tenth of the present
expenditure of the super-
powers on armaments al-
ready capable of destroying
the planet 20 times over. -

Mother Teresa, whose
selfless work among the

verty-stricken masses of
india is living proof in this
cynical world of what the love
of one human being for
fellow human beings can still
achieve (she hushed even the
boisterous Forum crowd with
her opening words: ‘Let us

pray...’)

And Margaret Mead, with

her blisteringly reasoned

exposure of the hell on earth

that the nuclear technolo-

gists are quietly preparing
r us and our children.

knowledgable, art-
aad

champlons of the human race.
} would link one other
component of the Habitat
show that has created some .
real promise of future prog
ress: the Vrhour. daily ity
coverage by mMUn

Channel 10—in

audiovisual presentations of

the many nations represen: .

ted at the ceaference.

These presentations have
brought into ous living room,
in vivid and fascinating
detail, a picture of what
fellow human beings in many
corners of the earth are
already doing to build
themselves a better lifestyle,

represented in some cases by ©

as little as a 12 ft. by 12 f.
single-room adobe hut.

.

For them it is progress, a
weatherproof home for their
family at last, constructed
with the simplest of tools, the
sweat of their brows and the
skill of their hands.

For us it has meant new
knowledge and understand-
ing of neighbors in distant
parts of the global village—
and has demonstrated, inci-
dentally, the power for good

‘with these thies -
step towards.
tomorraw.

er... mixturenas-before Gelibera- -
its carrying of the film and tons ‘of the:

learned from three dedicated

ensable first. .
coping with

We haven't “got. -mnuch of

either. \so . far from |

confer
nce. As. far as -I am
i ve
achievements of
Habitat are the th -Thave

women and from the pictures
on my screen. of home
builders st work in. Yemen,
Singapore and Sri Lanka. .

1 only hope some of the
delegates. at the Queen E.
know what i'm talking about.

e ao

All in -all, a. somewhat
heavy. fortnight around
Vancouver. It will be quite a
relief to turn to the next
important event on the
calendar—the Vancouver
Sea Festival. Meanwhile,
may I offer. our * honored

vests: from: the United

ations: ‘an. : upside-down’ .
proverb to comfort ‘some of
them in the months ahead: -

“He who fights and runs —
away will live to run another

ay.” a ; .

EDITOR are welcomed
and we like to publish as
many as space permits
each week. This is your

points as possible,
helpful ff letters are kept
reasoush short. We
reserve right to edit

them for length, clarity,

legality and taste. —

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and include the

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a ie So
It is with dismay we read,

June 1, in the Vancouver
papers that you declared the
ederal ‘government of Can-
ada would continue the
policy of selling CANDU
reactors throughout the

world.

The problems of this
extremely dangerous tech-
nology have not beenpolived
by the sclentiats who inven-
ted it, particularly the safe
- of radioactive
wastes, injurious for thous-

- ands of years.

Plutonium, alethal residue
from the CANDU reactor can

_be used to make. atomic
- bombs. No matter how many

written safeguards © are
signed by the contracting

parties, sovereign states, in
. the absence. of

a wortd
overnment, who will on-
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The leader of the United
Kingdom delegation to the
Habitat conference also de-
clared that. the British
overnment.intended to con-
tinue exploiting nuclear
e. first nuclear
power plants were built in
‘Great Britain at the expense
of the British taxpayer

_ without any ‘previous debate

in the House of Commons.
Many British M.P.'s knew
nothing about this use of tax
money.

Concerned Canadians in-
cluding some M.P.’s, have
repeatedly asked that the
whole question of the buitd-
ing of such plants and export
of CAND reactors be

debated in the Canadian.
House of Parliament, since |

the industry is heavily

subsidised by public funds.

You ssy we must share our

with the under-

technolo
ay | countries. Our

.

An open letter to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau

u\\ Voice of women condemns
“4 Bd Ohi: ana | ,
~ O 1S82 Dear Mr. Trudeau: —

distinguished guest, Barbara
Ward, thinks nuclear tech-

nology would only add to _ .

thelr difficulties.

At the Women’s Inter-
national Year Conference,
Mexico City, a woman from
one of the underdeveloped
countries said, ‘‘We cannot
afford your expensive tech-
nology, please give us good
hand tools, better seed and

information, then we will

feed ourselves.”’

When governments pur-
sue misguided policies, in
this case we ask ourselves
who profits. The. companies
which mine the uranium,
which bulld the reactors, the
scientists whose careers de-

pend.on its continuance, the —

anks which foan funds for
carrying it out. Who is
expen able? The uranium
miners, the peo le of Port
Hope, unwittingly living on
top of radioactive wastes, the

_ peasants of underdeveloped

countries, utterly ignorant of

_ the dengers: of this tech-

nology, and all of us should a
major disaster occur—to be
predicted as the number of

such nuclear plants proflif-

erate.

Yours truly,

| Freda Handford

North Shore Voice of Women
West Vancouver

| Frustiated

by vandals

A fow weeks ano someone |

wrote about a child who spat

gathered the owner was
pretty upset. Well, I'm

~

pretty upset about another
matter.

My school was vandalized.

Everyone is pretty upset.

The principal’ made an
announcement over the pub-
lic announcement system
telling us how. upset he was
and how it was a waste of
taxpayers’ money.

Whoever did it did an act
of stupidity.

Luckily only two class-
fooms were vandalized—a
grade 7 and grade 3
classroom. The grade 7 room
was only mildly damaged
compared to the grade 3

classroom. -

The grade 7 classroom had
rubber cement poured on the
floor and also on a mirror.
One of the teacher's plants
called ‘“‘Oliver’’ had been
dug up and had its roots cut
off. Some dice from her desk
had been thrown into the
fibrary. This plant ‘‘Oliver’’
also had rubber cement
painted on its leaves.

I will now tell you about
the grade 3 room. It was
worse off than the grade 7
room.

The third grade room had
chalk marked all over the
floor, Over the chalk were
tins of red paint:
paint). The vandals then put

red painted booth marks on.

the chalk board, They hed
red paint powder all over the
plants. The desks had been
dumped over onto the floor,
School textbooks were ruined
and the gerbils were let out
of thelr cages,

Besides breaking about 10
windows, the vandals poured
beer Into the desks.

We the students
flano feel an
provoked,

at Cap.
ty, frustrated,

Signed oof
A Capilano student, |

. paraliel.

powder (art:

West Vancouver _

‘disgusted ‘and.
. ashamed of it: ° and,
on @ person's ‘bicycle. 1...

I would like to call.
attention. to a situation that
exists. in. front,..of | the
Municipal Library on. New-
market Street-in regards to
the recent. regulations on
parking of cars, which some
people who seem to think
they are too important: to
obey laws seem to ignore.

On two different occasions

I have been involved in near
accidents because some idlot
‘swung across the road in
front of my car in order. to
park ‘nose in’ just as I was
about to ir my own car
fhite 1 am: aware

that authorities: have been
issuing ‘some: tickets, per-
haps a few more would help.

Also, 1 would: iike to
suggest to Municipal Council
that the disgtaceful condition
of the. road shoulder, be
repaired and’ blacktoopped
and that the area be marked

‘ off with proper white parking -

spaces so that there, would be
no question in the minds of
the “‘scoflaws’’ who seem to
think ‘ they ‘are | ‘V:LP.s.’
Every time it rains, this road
shoulder is « veritable lake.

(Name withield).
North Vancouver

Thanks for

the scoopl
‘1 would like to. thank the
lady we met last’ week in

Chatwin Park, West. Van-
couver. She had two dogs, a

plastic bag, and a-trowel, 1

would like to express my .
appreciation for her consid: |
eration of the health and the |
rights of myself and my little

Camilla‘ Amundsen