& - Sunday, November 10, 1991 - North Shore News INSIGHTS GaREAT SIAM DEVELOPEMENTS OF OUR TIME NEWS VIEWPOINT A day to remember EMEMBER THIS: R You are not slogging through rat-infested trenches with bombs fearing up the surrounding earth and blasting away at your sanity; You are not cowerisg in fear as another wave of bombers p2sses over your city; you are not at war. Those who have been at war know that peace is worth savoring. They. also know that war is worth remembering, because to forget it is to forget its horror, its waste, its death and its futility. Tomorrow we will ali be asked to remember the two World Wars and the millions who gave their lives in those con- ’ flicts. We will be. asked to remember, but in- creasing numbers of peopie know about the two great wars only through histery books and the recollections of those who fought in those wars. And we forget so easily. This year, the world had another poten- tially cataclysmic wake-up call. We started 1991 with the Persian Gulf War, a conflict that teetered on the edge of another massive international bloodbath. It was a televized spectacular of the technological advances man has made in killing and desiroying. But the net results of the war were like all wars before it: thousands died; one country was set ablaze; one was left in ruins. We gained little and lost much. Our _ memories remain stupidly short. NEWS QUOTES OF THE WEEK “We have such depth we could put three cabinets together.’’ North Vancouver-Lonsdale MLA David Schreck, on the new NDP cabinet. dead. you.” ” “‘My house has been shot at and I’ve been told things like ‘you’re We have a bullet for Native peacekeeper and Nick Orchard, the West Van- couver producer of the Nor- thwood television series, on the reality of television reality. “The fire department. eventually chased them out of there. As long 4s you are on the right side of the fire hoses and clubs you’re in good shape.”’ North Vancouver resident Roy Whittle, acting reeve at the time of the 1966 Edgemont Village riot, describing the action and the best place to be in a riot. Publisher Associate Editor Advertising Director . . Comptroller intependent suburban newspape Peter Speck Managing Editor... Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright Linda Stewart Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an «and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph tll of the Excise Squamish Tribal Council acting chairman Sam George, on the reaction of some Squamish. Band members to the work of the peacekeeper force. **How can a character be realistic when he doesn’t have one hair out of place?’’ Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 ‘That VOCE OF WORTH ANID WELT VANCOUVER north shore Distribution Subscriptions cn Fax 985-3227 fe Administration “If we have another 20 co-op housing complexes going out here, te me, it sounds like why don’t we jest go out and get a major prison built?’’ Deep Cove Community Association (DCCA) president Brian Charlton, on the prolifera- tion of co-ops in the Deep Cove area of North Vancouver District. 986-1337 [ax North Shore 986-1337 [Re Managed 985-2131 MEMBER Tex Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome bul we cannot accept esponsibility for unsolicited materia! including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. V7M 2H4 Ley SN SUNDAY + WEDNESDAY + FRIDAY ) 1139 Lonsdale Avenue. Sorth Vancouver, B.C. SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1991 North Shore Free Press Ltd. A!l rights reserved. Viceregal words stray from the tested tradition NEWS LEFTOVERS of the week include quite a few eyebrows raised by Lt.-Gov. David Lam at the swearing-in extravaganza for the new NDP cabinet. He went well beyond formal congratulations and good wishes. Careful though his words were, his Confucian fable (‘‘Without the trust and confidence of the peaple no government can stand .., it must fall’) inevitably rubbed Socred faces well and truly in the mud — as a number of their indi- vidual faces undoubtedly deserv- ed. True, His Honor refrained from directly endorsing the Harcourt cabinet. But his ‘‘hope (that) this marks the beginnings of a new era, an era beginning with the healing of wounds’’ suggested just as inevitably that he himself was glad to see the new bunch take over. And why not? Simply because there’s a sound reason for the strict political neutrality that the monarchy and its representatives have observed for decades. When Her Majesty refers to ‘‘my gov- ernment" in her throne speeches, she must often be sorely tempted to cal} it “the government I'm stuck with for the moment.’’ But in deference to the voters — ALL of them — she and her viceroys traditionally hide any nint of private bias. That’s how the machine works, and why the monarchy still commands widespread respect. If it ain't broke, don’t fix it. LT-GOV David Lam... Confu- cian fable slaps Socreds. — CANADA'S 24% of French- speakers need to safeguard their language, right? Agreed — and they’re sure doing it in the 80 main departments of the federal government, which last year had 218,328 employees. The latest annual report of the Public Service Commission lists 62,694 (29%) as Francophones. But in many individual! depart- ments the Francophone percentage is much higher — more than 30% in seven out of 10 of the depart- ments. And in 23 of them the Francophone proportion runs from 50% up to the high 70% range. Relative to department func- tions, some oddities (with Fran- cophone percentages bracketed) include the Centre for Manage- ment Development (78.5%), the Space Agency (62.5%), the Law Reform Commission (74%) and the National Farm Products Mar- keting Council (60%). Noel Wright HITKER AND YON Then there’s the Chief Electoral! Officer (79.8%), the Governor = Generai’s Secretariat (65.8%), the § Competition Tribunal (75%), the - Secretary of State (68.3%), the Tax Court (66.7%) — and, oh yes, the Public Service Commis- . sion itself which is 61.2% Fran- cophone. If you’re a crusader for French, don’t waste any time in Ottawa. _ eee AND CHARITY (sort of) begins at home for everyone’s favorite union boss Jean-Claude Parrot of the Canadian Union of Postal | Workers — who recently led his” — legions out on strike for an 18.8% wage hike retroactive to August 1989 plus a rich packet of fringe benefits. © The CUPW has a unionized of- fice staff of 50. Generous M. Par- rot — reports Financial Post edi- _ tor Diane Francis — gave them a pay raise too. A miserly 2% in a one-year contract. DATELINES: Larco Group’s : chief planner Bob Heaslip wiil reli West Van Chamber of Commerce — § members all about the revitaliza- tion and expansion plans for Park Royal at their Tuesday, Nov. 12, . breakfast meeting at 7:30 a.m. in the Ambleside Inn ... Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the Centennial Theatre internationally-acclaimed yourg pianist Sergei Babayan performs in the North Shore Community Concerts series ... Guest speaker at the Ambleside and Dundarave Ratepayers a.g.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in ‘ Hollyburn Sail Club, 13th and Argyle, is Insp. Grant Churchill talking on ‘‘Safety in West Van”’ ... Also Wednesday, North Van Chamber of Commerce holds its 4:30-7:30 p.m. ‘‘Business After Business’ trade show in the BC Rail building, 221 West Esplanade ... Meanwhile, many happy returns of yesterday, Nov. 9, to West Van's Bert Fleming; ditto today, Nov. 10, to West Van’s Ed Fielder; and birthday greetings on Remembrance Day, Nov. 11, to City Alderman Stella Jo Dean and . West Van’s Bill Atkinson. WRIGHT OR WRONG: Beware of folk who go through life with a catcher’s mitt on BOTH hands. NERC AR os