‘ AG- - Wednesday, June 10, 1981 - North Shore News annie Near ‘the entrance: to Stanley. Park « causeway another: car, spinning: wildly out of control, damaged | ‘into igen. ee their: car is Not: go the young, tuxedo-clad male driver of the -other vehicle, who is rushed to hospital. ; Just. another true Friday night statistic. But “very ‘real perils. of the June. “grad party” - $eason.—--when scores of teenagers top off \ their: uel to seek which often include The ne ‘party night is a very * ecial occasion, marking, as it does, the transition from school years to young adulthood. No ™~ . . os should’ NOT lend the : eamally car for the night. . Instead, they should provide cash or.a credit _ card He Pai eat taxis until: their ‘charges are Ons ‘a on oes oe : riving safe these are small. prices to ‘pay for the safety of loved ones. Their own and others’. _ Ba Ta a Hope eterna . t ms = , _— 7 eee ey a wa ae : ‘ . - AU.S. couple who couldn’t get their price for their home because of h mortgage rates now aim to sell it to the new owner for petty cash — yet still collect their loot. They're raffling it through a charity, with 2 000 tickets at $100 each. Could be’ the smartest idea yet for wrestling housing inflation to the ground and keeping hope alive among home-seckers. sunday News north shore news 1139 Lonsdale Ave. North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 (604) 986-2131 AOVERTISING NEWS 080-0511 CLASSIFIED 985-2131 9 CIRCULATION 86-6222 986-1337 Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher Editor-in-Chief Robert Graham Noel Wright Managing Editor Nows Editor Andy Fraser Ghris Lioyd ’ General Manager Administration Bernt Hilliard Production Director Rick Stonehouse Advertising Director Eric Cardwell Sports Editor Patrick Rich Creative Director Tim Francis Photography Ellsworth Dickson Accounting Supervisor Circulation Olrector Purchaser Barbara Keen Brian A. Ellis Faye McCrae North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent. community newspaper and qualified under Schedule It! Part {ll Paragraph it of the Excise Tax Act. ia published each Wednesday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore Second Class Mall Regiatration Number 3886 Gubscriptions $20 per year. Entire contents © 1981 North Shore Free Press Ltd. Alt rights reserved. No responsibility accepted for unsolicited material inctuding manuacripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope VERIFIED CIRCULATION 63,470 Wednesday; 62,760 Sunday THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE There’s .a certain amount of justifiable anger on the southern prairies this spring, because. Canada’s eastern- dominated news media can’t quite seem to write about much else besides the constitution. Yet, in the wheat belt strip.» of the world, entire farms are being blown away by the «| dry, thirsty wind. In central Canada you'll find the odd picture of a.dust storm, or a ditch filled with top soil in the newspaper, and you > x NSS LY Va Dee: AS Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s technique of govern- ment is simple: if there’s something nasty right under the public’s nose, keep the public looking in another direction. For most of a year. he has used the constitution issue to divert attention from Canada’s multiple economic woes. Watch soon for the next big attention-diverting number by the magician of Sussex Avenue. A sneak preview can be expected at next month's economic summit of seven world leadet’ss in Ottawa. The official premicre of the new act will come in October at the “North-South” summit in Mexico City. The PM _ has _ been gathering momentum on North-South relations, otherwise known as forcign aid, for the past six months — sensing, no doubt, that the constitution would eventually run oot of- diversionary steam. You may recall his much- touted New Year's tour of disadvantaged “south” nations which got off to an unfortunate start when he had to pass up Algeria, the first country on_ his visiting list, after "pecoming snowbound in a_ posh Austrian ski resort. He sybsequently won headlines for his casual attire as an official guest of Brazil, where he preached north- south unity without a backward glance at the state of east-west unity in Canada itself. “ But minor irrelevancies like this never faze Pierre once he embraces a Big Idea to keep Canadian minds off silly trivia like unem- poyment, soaring inflation, 20 per cent interest rates, a sinking dollar and a 14- billion’ government deficit. The Trudeau agenda for July onward reads “North-South dialogue”. MYTHS DEMOLISHED To prepare yourself for intelligent participation I can’t do better than recommend a new study of the subject by Dr. Gerard Hoffman, a regular columnist for the Toronto magazine OUR CANADA. Entitled Foreign Aid? Yes, But ..., it demolishes all the prevailing myths about help to developing coun- trics, while offering a constructive alternative. The biggest myth which Hoffman tears to shreds is the alleged “guilt” of the rich North for conditions in the poor South. The wealth of the industrialized western nations, he demonstrates was not founded upon a rape of Africa, Asia and Latin America. On the contrary, the free market economy of the West produces the surpluses which alone make aid to the Third World possible. And for the most part. ‘anadian Comment BY PETER WARD might even see a television news item on the. drought, perhaps once a month. When a disaster the size of this year’s prairie . drought hits the Canadian west, it underlines the very thing about Canadian life which makes westerners - and maritimers, too - simply boiling mad. The dictum for Canada’s national news media seems to be based on the assump- tion that if it doesn’t happen in Ontario or. Quebec, it simply isn’t a major story which will sustain interest. They think maybe people are still interested in those reams of copy about the constitution? If disaster of the proportions of the sécond drought year in a row for southern Saskatchewan and Alberta hit southern On- tario, just ‘imagine how the national news media of the nation would respond. There would be hour-long documentaries on every TV ~ station. in’ Canada; full section features in ‘the Saturday papers and daily Noel Wright says Hoffman, it’s a pretty thankless task. Foreign aid does not win friends. It makes recipients more dependent on aid donors rather than less dependent. It does not spread democracy but frequently supports corrupt and inefficient regimes. It tends merely to rescue economies wrecked by imcompetence as distinct from building liberal economic systems from the bottom up. The main battle against poverty, Hoffman argues, must be waged by the developing countries themselves in four arcas — education, agriculture, nutrition and population control — with special stress coverage in the news sec- tions. In truth the larger newspapers, the chains and the radio-television net- works have tried to improve the caliber of their national coverage in Canada, to bring more balance to the way news is selected. It’s worked to a degree, but only to a small degree. The people who make decisions in the news business — who choose what story gets front page play, which item leads the national newscast, and which item gets cut because there isn’t enough space -- are still basically central Canadians. They operate out of Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, carrying with them to their jobs of making judgment calls the interest and prejudices of their central Canadian govern- ment. It’s not. an eastern plot; it’s an accident of circumstances. It’s also a situation which only time and effort can change. on agricultural development ahead of industrialization because “the capacity of a people ta bring about im- provements depends to a great extent on their health”. Malnutrition, he points out, is the leading cause of ill-health. Not only are “too many people chasing too little food, people do not get the right kinds of food”. STRINGS ATTACHED Aid, Hoffman contends, should come directly from individual donor countries not via international organizations where donors lose all control over the way their money is spent. It should be chiefly in the form of commercial credits, with donor countries lifting import barriers for exports from recipient countries. And it should have certain strings attached, including strategic cooperation with donor countries and no human rights violations. Dr. Hoffman's percipient and witty analysis is available for $3.00 from OUR CANADA, P.O. Box 843, Station F, Toronto M4Y 2N7. I doubt that Pierre — for whom any dissenting Canadian ‘is automatically wrong — will order it as required reading for his upcoming — international gabfests. But if you want an an- tidote to “guilt” feelings. while waiting for him to attend to Canada’s own problems, the book is three bucks well spent.