& - Friday, December 21, 1990 — North Shore News ITMES- CILGST INSIGHTS OK. GUVS..WERE CROSSING INTO EBEC...OPEN ALL THE PRESENTS ND SCRATCH OUT ANY ENGLISH LABELS OR INSTRUCTIONS. NEWS VIEWPOINT Powerless on the North Shore caused by in- clement weather underline the vul- nerability of local residents to the forces of nature. They also underline our dependence on a normally dependable source of electrical energy and the need for the incorporation of an emergency plan in the agendas of municipalities, businesses and the general public. When the winds and cold weather ini- tially struck early Monday night, power to an estimated 60,000 BC Hydro customers was lost. An estimated 50 per cent of those customers were on the North Shore. The biackout not only affected homes, but offices, stores and shopping malls. For some, the power loss lasted for over 16 hours; for others, there was a brief respite before they were plunged again into Te RECENT mass power failures the dark and cold on Tuesday night as temperatures dipped and the winds again began to howl. BC Hydro was swamped with calls for help; its phonelines were jammed for hours on end. The result was interminable delays in returning service to many. It underlined how ill-prepared most of us are to deal with a mass emergency. And it underlined our need, as the Boy Scouts say, to ‘‘be prepared.’’ Be prepared with matches, candles, extra blankets, portable cooking gear, flashlights, battery-powered portable radios. Be prepared because agai. Be prepared because the next time it might be more than just a passing storm; it might be a full-blown natural catastrophe like an earthquake. it will happen LETTER OF THE DAY Watershed ‘patient’ needs help Dear Editor: I am responding to the Nov. 30 article by Elizabeth Collings, en- tiled “GVRD to study water filtration.” The last referred to ‘logging in the water- shed areas,’ and | am assuming these areas to be the Capilano and Seymour watershed areas. Having resided, gone to school and work- ed in North and West Vancouver for more than 30 years, | am ata loss to know why, during all this time, no public reference has been made to logging practices in these areas. Great lengths are taken to keep Publisher, Associate Editor welcome Dut we cannot envelope sentence, ..........Peter Speck Managing Editor Tirnothy Renshaw Noel Wright Advertising Director Linda Stewart North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualitied under Schedule 131, Paragraph III of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid and disinbuted to every door on the Norin Shore Second Class Mai Registrahon Number 3885 Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 pet year Mailing tales avaiable on request! Submissions are accept respansibiity tor unsoliciied matenal imctucing manuscipts and pictures: 9 which should be accompanied by a staniped, addressed citizens out of these areas, even those who are responsible back country hikers. My experiences with logging practices (as I've searched for places to hike) range from dumped oil barrels, used frayed cables pushed into ravines, broken down machinery left to rust, old tires, and all manner of mess left in the wake of a clear- fall. I am wondering just what is happening in the watersheds that we don’t really know about. Is there current logging activity, to what extent, by whom, and how long has this practice been in THE VOICE OF NOMTH And WEST WaNCOULER SUNDAY + WEONESDAY « FRIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 59,170 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday) Coy SDA Division Display Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom Distribution Subscriptions place? The recent muddy water coming from my taps is the worst I’ve ever seen — the recent heavy rains and snow melt are not. If logging in the watersheds and mountginside development are allowed to proceed at breakneck speed, we won’t eventually have enough dollars to patch the hole in the dam. Band-Aids are becoming useless — the ‘patient’? is developing emphysema and wij! soon go into cardiac arrest. Stephanie M. North Vancouver Brawn 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 MEMBER North Shore owned and managed Entire contents © 1990 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. School condom logic raises many questions TRENDINESS is the hallmark of the present restless age — our attention span having been reduced io approxi- mately 30 minutes by TV sitcoms. As each trendy new fad or fear hits the headlines, the cue hefore sinks into oblivion — until even- tually resurrected and shown to be nonsense after all. Like decaffeinated coffee, proven in a recent 45,000-sample medical survey to be a bigger threat to your heart than the full-powered natural brew, U.S. cancer researchers have just discovered lung cancer deaths among NON-smoking women now exceed the rate for ALL women 30 years ago — leading them to look afresh at air pollution from cars. And even the ‘‘greenhouse ef- fect’’ is in trouble. It seems busy- body satellites which measure ocean temperatures have found no warming over the past J0 years. Is NOTHING sacred these days? All of which tempts one to a brief comment on condom coin- machines in schools. West Van's Janie Robinson wants to bring North Shore secondary schoo! fa- cilities up to skid road hotel standards in time to protect her two Grade 4 and § kids from AIDS. No question that the dread disease is spread primarily by sex- ual activity. But the figures and instant conclusions brandished by the classroom-condoms crusaders merit a little cool thought. The key numbers are the alleged 24 per cent of Grade 9 and 47 per cent of Grade 11 students in B.C. who are sexually active. Even if an ingeniously programmed sat«i- lite confirmed these numbers, i means three-quarters of the Grade 9s and over half the Grade ts still behave themselves. So the big question is how many of the latter would be temp- ted to fall from grace because supposedly sure-fire protection against boti: AIDS and teenage parenthood was just a corridor away — instead of the embar- rassment of taking the things to the drugstore checkout? North Shore health officer Dr. Brian O'Connor's answer is distinctly odd in its logic. Drugstores intimidate teens from buying rubber goods, he says. But ease of purchase in the school washroom will NOT increase sex- ual activity, he assures us in the same breath. Nonetheless, what school con- dom dispensers clearly say is: “It’s okay with us — only just take care!’’ A recent U.S. study, though different in context, may also be relevant. High school stu- dents taking a detailed sex educa- Noel tion course were found to be twice as active sexually as those who didn’t. West Van trustees are wisely taking Schools Superintendent Doug Player’s advice to look carefully before they leap — par- ticularly at the experience of the mere seven out of B.C.’s 75 school districts that have so far jumped into the condom-selling business. Even condoms, of course, are not 100 per cent safe. So the surest way to escape AIDS before graduating may still be simply to learn the two-letter adiective which is itself almost a dirty word nowadays for many teachers and parents: “No? ese WRAP-UP: Still climbing the hotel ladder in sunny California, former West Vancouverite David Patterson recently moved 50 commuter miles nearer work with a transfer as sales and marketing director from the San Bernardino Hilton to the Palm Springs Hilton... Treat the kids to West Van Little Theatre’s production of “Rapgedy Ann’s Christmas” tomorrow and Sunday, Dec. 22- 23, at 1 and 3 p.m. — call 926- 2228 for tickets... For deep post-Christmas relaxation check with 921-9946 about the Sahaja Yoga meetings every Thursday at 7 p.m. in the West Van Library... And happy 39th anni- versary tomorrow, Dec. 22, to North Van’s Al and Helen Johnson. eee WRIGHT OR WRONG: If you kicked the person causing most of your troubles in the backside, you wouldn’t sit down for a week. DOUG Player ... wise advice DAVID Patterson ... from the superintendent. miles to walk te work.