A4 - Sunday, October 23, 1983 - North Shore News strictly personal by Bob Hunter THE SYMBOL OF HONG KONG that will always haunt me was the sight of a pair of White-Eared Kites, a kind of sea eagle, gliding on the winds bet- ween steel and glass towers above the double- decker trams and little Izusi trucks. The cries of the birds couldn't be heard over the horns and tram bells, the rev- ving Of engines and the clat- ter of high heels and clogs along streets where old peo- ple played Mah Jongg in shops that sold pocket-sized video games. A gwai-lo from Canada created an eddy on the pave- ment as the frenetic Chinese surged around him in their haste to get on with business. The sea eagles had made their nest atop the ultra- modern 50-storey Connaught Tower, the bastion from which the British civil service tries to steer a course for this most profitable of all col- omes as it enters what ap- pears to be its dying days. The people of Hong Kong have made their nest on a lonely outcropping of rock in the South China Sea. The precariousness of their situa- tion can be sensed in the fragility of the pastel apart- ment blocks staggering up the slopes of Victoria Peak. It can be vividly glimpsed in the tarpaper and _ corrugated sheet metal shanties clinging to the cliffs at water’s edge. And in the sight of the sam- pans and motonzed junks and wallah wallahs lightly an- chored in the coves. There is a feeling of being perched, as if the island was a resting place for a gigantic migrating flock, more a rookery, really, than a city. Like the sea _ eagles, everyone is almost painfully alert. KUBE TELLS CHAMBER B.C. Fed wants ‘due process’ ‘**DUE PROCESS”’ in civil service layoffs — not restraint — is the gut issue that will decide whether B.C. 1s chairman Art Kube Addressing a crowded lunch mecting of the North Van Chamber of Commerce, Kube claimed the govern ment’s Bill 3 means taid-off pubhe employees will even receive the not same Ircal ment as private sector employces The government, said Kube, who ts also president of the BC bederaton of labor, had abandoned the ponciple of negotiation with its workers and = instead legislated away the working conditions including their tights to senionty and plunged next government-labor confrontation, told a North business forum Thursday. month into a major Solidarity co- Vancouver By NOEL WRIGHT gricvance procedures. The acceptance or other wise by the government of a rectum to *‘due process’ in the planned layoff of 1,600 public cmployces October 31 ts ““the bottom line’’ to the quesuon of a general strike after that date, Kubec dcctared Amplifying Solidarity’s stand on other issues for has Canyon Gardens audicnee of about 140, Kube attacked the goverament’s overall ur Hong Kong bond Waiting. Waiting for the Com- munists to arrive on July 1, 1997. This second Fall of Honz Kong is one of the great dramas of our time. The shock waves from the collapse of the third-greatest financial centre in the world will be felt in Vancouver, in many ways Hong Kong’s sister city on the Pacific Rim, and already the new home of some $2 billion worth of fleeing Hong Kong capital. Perhaps more to the point, iU is estimated that as much as 15 per cent of downtown Vancouver is already owned by Oriental investors, most of them nervous Hong Kong businessmen and families. In crude terms, Hong Kong’s doom spells an in- credible potential boom for Vancouver, aithough tt also contains a profound moral dilemma: Do we close the gates against the exodus that is sure to come, allowing in restraint package for ‘‘put tung the burden on those least able to pay” Because of more pressure on people in troubled umes, he said, the present social ser vice cuts could be cxpected to increase ‘‘social violence”’ Voluntary agenacs would not, in practice, pick up the slack, as suggested by the government, he claimed. Kube also accused the government of delibcraticly concealing the full details of its restraint program prior to the May 5 clectron Even without the detaals later revealed, the program was backed by only 49 per cent of the clectorate, he said **ht was already too conser vative for 45 pet cent of the voters"* What's up at area councils N. YVAN DAST. Cll, Monday, Permussive tan bylaw = Doltarton tclocation bylaw coatral bylaw development Capilano Libtary catension Donation for fireworks Crouse Moun tain Resorts subdiviston Keroning and development permit fees Business beocace rates Water and sewer use charges land matices Limon Board of Health cost sharing COUN 8:00 p.m. cacInptlion Highway Rodent Seymour N. VAN CITY OOUNCIL, Monday 7:30 p.m.: Public hearings on rezoning of 334 West 13th for three dweiling untt North Shore bus routes Setvicing and sale of City property at 28th and St. An dicws Lowa Lonsdale Pro mothon Committee grant Locomotive notse from Lynn Crech yard Watcrfront Park Rezoning applications 24S West 17th, 278 West 4th, 233 East Ketth, 266 272 fast 4h, 202 East I7th 1983 budget amcndment bytaw WEST VAN COUNCIL, Monday 8 p.m.: Tar cxcmp aon bylaws: Horseshoc Bay Retirement Socicty, Browndale Care Soctety, Mannevicw Personal Care Housing Socicty Zoning, 1473 79 Clyde Automaticd clection system Building scheme, Caulfaild Platcau NORTH VAN SCHOOL BOARD, Tecsday 7.30 p.m. Roofing upgrading 1983 84 capital budget Student slide tape presentation E-nrotment and staffing report only those with wealth? Or do we offer a haven? Long before Britain’s lease — wrested from Ciuna by gunboat at the height of the Empire —‘ runs out, 3.5 million Hong Kong Chinese who are technically British citizens will attempt to take wing en masse from their perch. The consequences of such an enormous addition to the ranks of the world’s refugees is difficult to foresee, but it is unlikely that the energetic, ambitious and talented citizens of one of the most amazing city-states in history will simply surrender to their fate without a struggle. Although nobody expects Hong Kong to be reduced to a physical wasteland like once-magnificent Beirut, it remains that the economic vitality that created the soar- ing condos and made such a stunning tmpact on world trade is already being sapped, despite increased exports, by Peking’s repeated vows to take over when the lease expires. This is a tragedy in which Bnush Columbians will have a role, like it or not. Hong Kong and Victoria share a historic bond as Pacific col- onies. In some ways, that bond is destined to grow stronger in the years to come. SCOUTING IS IN Time is short for new Tories IF YOU LIVE east of Lonsdale and want a voice in choosing local Progressive Conservative organizers, time is running out. tober 24, by calling Vern Taylor (299-3745) or Jim Warne (985-5820). Current members only can renew between 7 and 8 p.m. on the evening of the meeting at the Coach House. Guest speaker is former Tory cabinet minister Ray Hnatyshyn, MP for Saska- toon West. In order to vote at the Oc- tober 27 annual mecting of the North Van-Burnaby P.C. Association you must get a party mempbership card not later than next Monday, Oc- ‘‘DO IT YOURSELF”’ or HAVE IT DONE Uni-stone AND EXPOSED AGGREGATE CONCRETE PAVERS Also stepping stones, planters, curbs, bicycie stands SANDERSON CONCRETE PRODUCTS LTD. 310 Harbour Ave. Call us: North Vancouver 985-6108 DAVID H. 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