6 - Wednesday, January 8, 1997 — North Shore News

The rth Shore ies fs pubichad by Hath

Shore Free Press Lid., Publisher Petes Speck,

Bachar Hews Eft
“885-2131 (18)
985-2131 (147)

CREATION
RECORD 15
UNSURPASSED:

news vies wR Hine

IVE CREATED
TONS OF JOBS

IN THE U.S.A,
MEXICO, CHILE,

INDONESIA...

Re a ance eS STREP HAIER EN mS ce faa Renee hatte

ernment’ and business. Government is

I: fashionable to be cynical about gov-
run by self-serving boobs, slurping and

: jostling ata never-empty trough supported
. by.the groaning masses. You know the line of
thinkin

Ze
Business, well it’s not much beszer, run as

“itis ‘by: self-serving types only intersted in
\ the: bottom line and the unfettered play of
_market forces.

=-» Get business and government together and
you've: got the devil’s work.

Federal: trade “missions . are convenient

“repositories for ‘sneering ridicule. Prime

“Jean Chretien leads a third trade

: mission,’ this -one to South: Korea, the
‘Philippines and Thailand. The trip’ leaves
’ from Vancouver today and includes Canada’s

business people.

Many will see this venture as little more
than a taxpayer-funded romp through the
Asian cocktail circuit.

The Prime Minister’s Office estimates the
two previous Team Canada trade missions
eventually brought in $20 billion in business
for Canadian companies. Believe it or not,
such missions are essential public relations
gestures when it comes to the world beyond
our national borders. It counts mightily
when our intended business partners sce us
with the big bosses on our side.

Canada lives and dies by export and the
jobs such trading brings. Asia is booming.
Canada, and B.C. "specifically i is ideally placed
to reap ‘the rewards. In the instance of trade
missions, the partnering of governnent and
business is a good thing. :

Safety net
missing for
abused men

Dear Editor:

I've learned recently of a
faction of society that. is.
neglected and misunderstood
in our communities. .

Unless someone can tell me
differently, I believe that there.
are no emergency shelters and -
there is no financially accessi-.:
ble safety net for men (with o
without children) who are
abused, living in fear of their.
lives, or left homeless and’ pen
niless in this city. e:

There are ©

. Vancouver who are vbused

ls on anger and, a dente sioi
management .. problems,
tinue the cycle and abuse the
children and spouse. .-::

1 have many‘ questions:

_ask about this group of pe
‘and do not know where
- for the answers.

. looking after. himself, that’ he

should ‘know better,. “and ‘th:
he has no rights because h
angry and shows it? There: is
no excuse for violence towards:
others, bit is this the same
both genders?. Should: men‘
know better, act better, and
better than anyone else:

I believe we need‘ to
avoiding the problem and
it square on.-

Get. all the communi
and ‘agenci rogether
answer ‘some - of - the
tions. We must not
neglect this faction
Nicole Kohnert_ .

_ Vancouver’

premiers, territorial leaders and over 400

LITTLE of i importance except snow
having so faz happened in 1997, this
may be as good a time as any for a lit-
tle heavy duty philosophizing.

Specifically,
about that eternally
swinging pendulum
that reflects how
we think and
behave. After nearly
two decades domi-

‘nated by the eco-
aomic corics 5 of
largaret. Thatcher,
the Reaganites and
bottoni-line corporate boardrooms the pendu-
Jum is once again swinging “to the left.”

But “left” and “right” in politics and eco-
nomics are now, of course, meaningless terms in
our brave new automated, cyberspaced-out
world.

In the much simpler old pre-1980 world
“right” meant motherhood and apple pie, stand-
ing tall on your own feet, minimal government
and the paper-boy who becumes president.
“Left” meant godlessness, welfare bums, high
taxes, bullying unions and all the other tyrannies
of state socialism

Today, “right” means holes cur in the deficit-
laden government’s social safety net, 10% unem-
ployment (double for younger workers), and

stone-heartcd CEOs paid obscene seven-figure
remuneration to pi slash company work
forces in the holy name of profit. “Left” includes
anyone who reasons that there has to be better
ways than cither that or socialism for a civilized
society to organize its affairs.
Hence, the rapid growth during the closing
months of 1996 of what might be called the
“new left” thinking. Central to that approach is
the term “human capital” — the concept that
society’s total wealth can never be measured ~
solely in terms of dollar bottom lines.
Lean-‘n-mean corporations that enthusiasti-
cally embark on boosting profits through a
wholesale slash-and-burn elimination of jobs are
now being pointedly reminded by governments
of the cost to society overall of their exclusive
concentration on sharcholders’ dividends.
Unemployment and welfare benefits are
only part of that cost. Add the demoralizing
effect — especially on young workers — of
prolonged joblessness or, maybe at besr, uncer-
tain part-time employment at minimum wages;
the spin-off effects of growing poverty in terms
of sickness and crime; the inevitability, sooner
or later, of higher taxes to cope with those
social problems; not to mention the eventual
recessionary effect on consumer spending itself.
This social price is hardly likely to worry
corporate executives concentrating solely on
bettom-line bucks — unless or until Big You-
Know-Who finally decides to come after them

with a heavy : stick. 9

Meanwhile, the latter’s ‘ramblings about the
private sector’s lack of social responsibility are

coming louder all the time. And, of cor
never forget that immortal year-end quote by:
one of our own NDP cabinet ministers: :
“Government can do anything it likes!? f

How the gathering momentum in seafch of a”.
more civil, humane and compassionate alterna- “~~;

tive to naked capitalist greed on the one hand

and the faceless tyranny of socialism on the oth
will eventually play out we've yet to see.

“human capital” has components that have noth
ing to do with economics — some of which we'll:
examine on Sunday.

000
MAKING her debut before West Van Chamber ;
of Commerce at its 7:15 a.m. breakfast meeting -
Fuesday, Jan 14, in Hollyburn Country Club is.
fae el Pat Boname — reserve (926-6614) by
ay, Jan. 10, latest.

o00
WRIGHT OR WRONG: Experience is what
you get when you don’t get what you want.

— The North Shore News belicves strongly in —
freedom of speech and the right of all sides in a
dchate to be heard. The columnists published in the
News present differing hatae of view, but those
views are not necessarily those of the newspaper

itself.