6 - Wednesday, June 27, 1990 - North Shore News

Two-wheeled transit

ORTH SHORE cyclists are so

near to Vancouver City yet so far

from being able to commute reg-
ularly and safely to the downtown ccre.

And the SeaBus should be helping to
bridge that gap to give cyclists a safe
route across the water.

A trip across the Lions Gate Bridge
on bike or on foot is enough to con-
vince anyone of the danger presented by
the bridge’s narrow sidewalks. _

Runners, pedestrians and _ sightseers
have to hug the bridge railing as cyclists
edge past.

And while courteous cyclists <is-
mount, inconsiderate cyclists refuse to
slow down for people and try to pass
other bikes even though the barrier be-
tween sidewalk and car traffic ends
where the sidewalk is the narrowest.

In addition, the deep drop-off from
the sidewalk to the bridge’s roadway is

Everything Collins wrote

virtually impossible to negotiate should
a cyclist ever get knocked off the side-
walk.

Meanwhile, the SeaBus only allows
cyclists with their bikes, which are
charged a full adult fare, on Saturdays,
Sundays and holidays.

B.C. Transit, which should be en-
couraging the use of public transit and
alternatives to cars, need only set up
bike racks on the SeaBus to enable
cyclists to commute between the North
Shore and Vancouver. The benefits of
such a move would far outweigh the in-
convenience to other SeaBus passengers.

Tourists who rent bikes from Stanley
Park could get quick and safe access to
the North Shore, and cyclists, who
would otherwise take their cars to work,
would be reducing fuel bills, bridge
congestion and damage to the environ-

of Hong Kong ‘Is true’

lack of vegetation in Hong Kong?

Dear Editor:

Iam not normally a Doug Col-
lins reader; however, my husband,
an ardent admirer, asked me to
read Collins’ column in your April
25 edition. I returned from Hong
Kong, and a brief tour of
southeast China, last week and
unfortunately everything Mr. Col-
lins wrote of is true, and he ap-
pears to have toned it down.

Hong Kong is a filthy city.
People are unconcerned with the
earth, much less with ‘‘fellow
man.’’ Garbage is strewn every-
where, on every street and alley.
Open markets merely throw rot-
ting food on the ground and the
stink of rotting meat and food

Publisher

Associate Editor

Peter Speck
Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw
Noel Wright
Advertising Director Linda Stewart

made me gag on more than one
occasion. The air was so polluted
that my nose would be black by
the end of the day.

Construction jis incredible.
Older buildings are quickly being
demolished and new ones being
erected so landlords can justify
increased rents.

I did not stay in a luxurious
hotel, but rather with friends in
those endless apartments Mr. Col-
lins described. The apartments
thar the majority of native resi-
dents live in are tiny beyond
belief. They are difficult to clean
and the humidity leaves the smell
of mould everywhere. Did Mr.
Collins notice the comparative

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China was not any brighter.
People in the south country were
living beside garbage piles. Fac-
tories were dumping dyes directly
into streams which rai into the
Pearl River.

I arrived home a week before
Earth Day. There were no signs of
such a celebration in Hong Kong
or China. Instead there was in-
creasing evidence that, while
North Americans and Europeans
are fighting to extend our
resources, the Asians are destroy-
ing them just as quickly.

C. McLeod
North Vancouver

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 Lid. Ali nights reserved.

European food for
post-Meech thought

MEECH LAKE mourners might possibly draw some com-
fort from one aspect of the many events unfolding today
in Europe: the slow, relatively painless death of the tradi-

tional ‘‘nation-state.”’

Born in the early Middle Ages,
the nation-state was simply a tribe
whose members shared strong
basic interests — race, language,
customs, history and geography —
all of them distinguishable from
those of neighboring tribes.

When one tribe’s interests col-
lided with those of another, they
settled it on the battlefield, with
the loser often returning to fight
another day and reverse the score.
Hence, the noisy, bloody 800-year
history of Europe’s nation-states
— eventually culminating in the
Second World War, which finally
convinced them that war had
outlived its usefulness for resolv-
ing conflicts.

The nation-state was essentially .

a POLITICAL concept. Today, in
Europe, it is being superseded by
a more powerful new ECONOM-
IC concept: the marketplace in-
stead of the battlefield as the way
to provide the maximum number
of people with a secure and high
living standard — the ultimate
goal of every tribe since the dawn
of history.

The 12-member European
Community (EC) aims to achieve
a free internal market with a
single currency by 1992 and even-
tually political union, a super-state
of 341 million with a single gov-
ernment setting and directing
common policies. Under that
broad umbrella the old individual
nation-states — while retaining
their own cultures, languages,
taxes and non-conflicting laws —
will cooperate for the common
good on what will, in effect, be a
“savereignty-association’’ basis.

One other significant feature of
the process is the detailed atten-
tion being paid by EC planners to
Europe's many differing
REGIONAL, as distinct from na-
tional, interests —- an approach
which, for once, would command
applause from Robert Bourassa,
Clyde Wells and Gary Filmon
alike.

There’s interesting food for
thought here as Canada con-
templates life after Meech. Does
the European form of nation-state
we inherited in 1867 any longer fit
a country lacking all the tradi-
tional characteristics of a nation-
state?

Apast from our aboriginal pop-
ulation, no Canadian “‘tribe’* has
ever existed. In fact, we count it a
virtue to have come here from so
many lands and races with dif-
ferent cultures, languages and his-
tory. And certainly no country is
more starkly divided by geogra-
phy.

Watching the once proudly in-
dependent European states adapt
to today’s vastly changed realities,
one is tempted to ask what might
be so wrong, after all, about
remaking Canada as a federation
of basically autonomous regions,
each raising its own taxes and
sharing a free internal market in
sovereignty-association, with a
central government responsible
only for broad economic policy
and defence?

With the body of Meech not vet

cold, maybe Premier Bill Vander
Zaim showed a slight lack of good
taste Sunday when he rushed to
air similar thoughts.

But no Jack of logic.

GARY FILMON...with Bourassa
on regionalism. :

BILL VANDER
better than taste.

ZALM...logic

WRAP-UP: it’s red carpet Sun-
day, July 1, at St. Monica’s,
Horseshoe Bay, when the church
welcomes its new rector after 21
months without a resident priest.
Rev. Fred Thirkell, who takes
over after several years in an
Okanagan parish, is no stranger to
the North Shore community —
he’s remembered by many as
former rector of St. John's Angli-
ean Church, North Van .., 525
Pathfinder Air Cadets Squadron is
seeking a new C.O. for its Tues-
day evening meetings at West Van
*y’ and outdoor programs. Ex-Air
Force types or other interested
persons should call E. Van
Dishoeck, 921-7569 ... And the
time’s here again to get entry
forms for North Van City’s fun-
filled Clam Chowder Contest, Ju-
ly 22 at Waterfront Park. Phone
Rete McKay, 987-4120, pronto for
details.

WRIGHT OR WRONG: People
who talk about their inferiors
don’t have any.