6- Sunday, September 29, 1985 - North Shore News Editorial Page it's up to us he United Way needs an extra million dollars this year. The Food Bank can’t keep up with all the hungry who have nowhere else to turn. Why isn’t the govern- ment doing more for the recession victims these charities serve? The short answer, of course, is that Victoria currently has no more money without raising taxes -- which the Socreds are no! about to do with the next election possibly less than a yéar away. Politically, too, many of the neediest citizens don’t rank as a major concern because they vote NDP anyhow. Critics argue that money now desperately needed for social services is being squandered on mega-projects like Northeast Coai and Ex- po. It’s quite true that virtually the entire B.C. budget (instead of an actual 61%) could presently be used up solely by the social ser- vices ~- and probably still not relieve all the hardship cases. No society, however, can grow and prosper by ‘“‘crisis management’’ alone. Governments ‘have a duty not only to cope with today but to plan for a better tomorrow. Even when they goof -- as in the case of Northeast Coal -- it ‘doesn’t alter their responsibility to budget for the future as well as the present. Meeting the urgent needs of the United Way and the Food Bank is ultimately up to us “anyway. If Victoria took over, we'd be FORCED to ‘‘donate” - in taxes. Our ‘gifts’? unacknowledged and devalued by _ passing through the. bureaucratic machine. In responding voluntarily to the appeals, we _ leave government. no excuse to flunk its total job. And for being our brother’s keeper we at least get thanks, plus a tax-deductible receipt. Up-down creek . ownstream, the Cypress Creek Flood ; - Committee blasts West Van council for postponing the flood control pro- ject. to stop their homes being ruined. . Upstream, the flood control project has been halted by the Cypress Creek Concerned Citizens to stop their views being ruined. Council should quit this comic opera battlefield and leave the opposing Cypress Creek armies to fight it out between themselves. " naveciormermanvesrvecece Display Advertising 980-0511 “ Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Circulation Subscriptions 986-1337 _ 1139 Lonsdale Ava., North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 SUNDAY ¢ WEDNESDAY + Vrenay Fublisher Peter Speck General Manager Roger McAfee Operations Manager Berni Hilliard Advertising Director Advertising Administrator Linda Stewart Mike Goodselt * Circulation Director Editor-in-Chief .Bilt McGown _ Noet Wright Photography Manager Production Divector _ so Terry Peters ; Chris Johnson Classified Manager Vai Stephenson North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban Newspaper and qualified under Schedule iH, Part I, Paragraph Ill of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to evety door on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Entlre contents © 1985 North Shore Free Prees Ltd. All rights reserved. - Subscriptions, North and West Vancouver, $25. per year. Mailing rates available on request. No esponsibility accepted for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope, Member of the B.C. Press Council iccab.| 56,245 (average, Wednesday SDA DIVISION Friday & Sunday} SN bf THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE 986-1337 A LONG WAY FROM HANDSWORTH ... Gabriela Godt learns weaving in a Daha cat- tage, watched by her Indonesian ‘“‘sister’’ and ‘‘mother.”" FOR BREAKFAST it was boiled rice, a fried duck egg and shrimp. Electricity came on only from 6 p.m. to mid- night. And the ‘“‘john’’ was the local river. But last winter and spring it all added up to a heart- warming experience in inter-. national goodwill and under- standing for an adventurous North Van high school grad. When Gabriela Godt finish- * ed grade 12 at Handsworth in June 1984, her ambition was to travel for a year and live in a culture completely different from her own before going on . to further studies. She was ac- - cepted for the Canada World Youth program’ which organizes seven-month ex- change visits between young Canadians aged 17 to 20.and their contemporaries from Third World countries — in this case Indonesia. The first three months wére spent on Vancouver Island where the 19 Indonesian visitors and their Canadian buddies paired off in groups, lived with host families and. worked together daily as volunteers, in local organiza- tions. Gabriela and her Indo- Nesian counterpart, Sulys- tyani, spent their time at Shaw Cable 10 and CHUB radio sta- ~ tion in Nanaimo where they typed, filed, learned about all aspects of the broadcasting business and even produced programs on the CWY ex- change program. Then, in rainy January, it was off to the steaming heat of Indonesia and three months of a vastly different lifestyle. After a hectic 10 days of ‘Meetings and courtesy calls at government offices in. the capital, Jakarta, Gabriela and her group were flown and bus- ed to the small village of Daha in the island province of Sum- bawa. There they were given an elaborate official welcome with costumed dancers and the entire village in attendance before being introduced to their host families and taken home. Every night of the first week the little wooden house, built six feet above the ground, was crowded with curious villagers. ‘‘Many of: the children,’’ said Gabriela, “Shad never seen a white per- son before and they came to sit and watch me. 1 felt like I was in a-zoo at first.”’ , She shared a bed with her adopted sisters ‘in half of the front room. The dawn serenade of ducks, roosters, chickens, goats and dogs made sleeping in impossible after 6 a.m. Lunch and dinner were similar to breakfast, with fish and local vegetables. added. She learned to make the tra- ditional dishes of the area and to weave — an all-important skill which qualifies the village lasses to become one of a village lad’s three or. four wives in this Mostem com- munity. And she quickly ac- quired a good conversational grasp of the Indonesian EASIER WORSHIPPING for the handicapped ... Helen et h language. ; Meanwhile, she and her fellow Canadians paid their way with work projects. They poured 2 badly needed con- crete floor for the new village mosque, held English classes - for children and adults, helped out with their host families in the rice paddies and finally constructed three toilets — the first that Daha had ever known! When the day came to leave, the entire village throng- ed around the bus to say good- bye, tears streaming down their faces. “I feel honored,’’ said Gabriela, ‘‘to have shared the simple joys in the lives of these warm people. I learned much because I was able to communicate with my host family and friends, and discover the way they thought and lived.’’ ; Overus, pushing Gillian Collins, demonstrates the wheelchair ramp recently installed at St. Ciement’s Anglican Church, North Van. The itch in her feet remains. Yesterday she was off again to learn still more about the world’s people — this time to Spain for a ysar of study at the University of Madrid, As the CWY folk know, the more Gabrielas there are around, the safer this planet will be. + © * WHERE ARE YOU, brother? The question comes from Mrs. Carole Lander of 6 Argyle Road, Kew, Victoria, Australia, who hasn't heard from her brother Steven Lewis Clarke since May 1981. A welder by trade, his last known address was #302, 115 East 6th Street, North Van. He married a Kwaikutl Indian lady called Emily and they have a daughter, now ap- parently four or five years old. Mrs. Lander has tried al! three S.L. Clarkes in the Van- couver phone book to no avail, but she believes her brother is still in B.C. Because their mother in England is get- ting old, she wants to contact him in case of emergency, ad- ding that she also misses the Lt. WARREN WIGHTMAN «+. Wings-winner ARLENE GLADSTONE .-family-booster brotherly, connection. If you're out there somewhere, Steve, over to you! xk k . WRAP-UP: Busy days com- ing up for Arlene Gladstone, executive director of North Shore Family Services, who’s _ coordinating activities for Na- tional Family Week, Oct. 7-13. Call her for details at "988-5281 ... Guest speaker at next month’s annual meeting of the British Properties ’ Homeowners Assn. won't have far to drive, reports BPHA president David North, This year’s celebrity is Proper- ties resident Jimmy Pattison ... Congratulations to North Van's Robert Mackay, elected to international office in the American Marketing Assn. as Canadian Region Vice- President ... And a smart salute to former Cap College student Lieutenant Warren Wightman, just awarded his “'wings’’ on graduating from the Canadian Forces Aero- space and Navigation School in Winnipeg. k * & WRIGHT OR WRONG: The trouble with people determin- ed to move mountains is that they usually want someone else to clear away the foothills first.