4- Sunday, August 14, 1994 - Nonh Snore News Commonwea Doug Collins ON THE OTHER HAND A FEW months ago a Jewish city councillor over in Victoria got a newspaper banned from the sacred lobby of city hal! because it was running the Collins col- umn. Robert Friedman's view was that with so many people of differ- ent cultures coming to Victoria for the Commonwealth Games it would be better if Doug was not in the public prints available in the lobby. His logic was a little lacking. Would the pure-minded visitors from Bongo-Bongo be hurrying up to the hall to read what Adolf Collins has to say? Come to think of it, his logic was more than a little lacking because in the great majority of the Commonwealth's 51 countries, freedom of speech and human rights are as rare as cold beer in the Sahara. Try opening your mouth wide in Ghana. Or Nigeria. Or Malaysia. Or Pakistan. In most such countries you would end up in the clink or be fed to the croco- diles faster than you could say wealth, let alone Common-wealth. Only in the U.N. could you find a greater group of pirates, killers, swindlers, scroungers and hypocrites. Instead of being down on their knees giving thanks for the help they get from the West, the Commonwealth folk never cease howling that we've done ‘em wrong. The organization is an abortion that should never have been con- ceived and as far as [ am con- cemed they can take the Games and stuff them. : it wouldn't surprise me if half of the athletes decided to stay here s refugees. According to Amnesty International, 54% of its countries routinely practise tor- ture, arbitrary imprisonment and murder. Even if Amnesty is only half right, it’s still quite a total. The games in Victoria will be given a bit of glamor by the pres- ence of the Queen, of course. But she supports the Commonwealth Trouble. And money wasted on - foreign aid. They get no thanks for throw- ing their dough away, cither. instead, they are denounced as racist. Typical of what 1 mean was a statement by one calling himself Prince Nallo, late of Sierra Leone and now head of something called the Vancouver Istand Public Interest Research Group. He too is against the Games but for different reasons, if you can describe them as that. “The Commonwealth Games celebrate a history full of geno- cide,” he has been quoted as say- ing. “Great Britain brutalized and raped people... We give the Queen such respect but her power comes from genocide, blood and killing.” Get your ass back to Sierra Leone, Nallo. It needs you. Why do we have the Commonwealth? Because the post-war Labor government in the U.K. had the dumb idea that all men were brothers and that Uganda, Ghana, Sierra Leone. etc., would turn out to be just like Wimbledon on a sunny afternoon. It was also thought that it would be a force against commu- nism. Instead, much of it courted communism. Or became “non- aligned” so that it could screw funds out of both sides, like India. Some of them were so loyal to the Crown that they became republics. But that made no differ- ence to dreamers who supported the Grand [Husion. It was because of the Commonwealth that Britain became a multicultural country whether its citizens wanted that or not. As with them, so with us. Ith leaves Collins cold Canada did its politically cor- rect bit, naturally. As British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan wrote to his Australian counterpart Robert Menzies over 30 years ago, the Commonwealth couldn't have been restricted to its white mem- bers (which was what Menzies had wanted) “because our Canadian friends would not agree and it would be bitterly opposed by the Opposition here.” Even then we were on our way to becoming Wimpland, see. The Games leave me cold. The Commonwealth itself is just a game, And we always end up los- ing. Good fuck with your purity campaign, Councillor Friedman, And don't forget to give Uganda, Ghana, Sierra Leone and the rest of them a big hug. Fisherman’s Friend because she likes having her pic- ture iaken with all those dictators that are called presidents and prime ministers, Call it the [Mlusion of Empire. The money it takes to keep it all going would be better spent standing a few honest folk a drink or two. The Commonwealth is the decayed body of the Empire on which the sun never set. But the End of Empire should have been tr seems a long time since our trade delegation visited Toronto and we were hosted so graciously ut your headquarters. Having viewed your rogues gallery 1 had made a mental note to at least match some (By of the trophies displayed in photo form. — § Said Tilley Hat was suitably tested in terms of its fish attracting capability — shown are five grouper, of which the largest was 105 Ib. Murray Rae. } just that. Finis. Schluss and Goodbye! What have the white countries got out of the Commonwealth? in Coquitlam 1335 United Blvd. Tel.: 520-0800 in Richmond 7811 Alderbrid Tel.: Ht 276-8177 N. VANCOUVER “ 20 WARSOWS | BRIDGE a BURNABY in Way, aS wer canou c\ qin sw, SURREY POAT MANN epi : New Zealand Trade Commission OVEN TU RIE? 6