6 - Sunday, October 11, 1998 - North Shore News north shore news VIEWPOINT flaking waves “devastating” wake? Give us a break. Better yet, give the fast erry program a break. Following sea trials in and around the Burrard Inlet and Howe Sound this past week, the new catamaran ferry was criticized for creating a wake that lapped up against West Van’s mil- lionaire row. Some residents were up in arms about the waves the four- engined Pacificat created. A Horseshoe Bay marina owner report- ed his pilings were cracking. All pre- dicted a beachfront apocalypse. No doubt the prototype ship makes a big wake, but the waves hardly com- pare to the bad press this program has received since its inception. No sooner had the government announced the made-in-B.C. initiative than the critics began to line up like There’s a problem with the alu- minum construction. There’s a prob- lem with the engines. There’s a seri- ous problem with cost overruns and delayed launch times. At every turn the Pacificat program runs into criticism — some valid, some not. The wake issue is just the latest. At the end of the day, however, most of the above-mentioned prob- lems have been fixed. Likewise the wake concern will be put to bed. That’s why they call it sea “trials.” We often lament the lack of vision our government possesses, yet when it does something bold {ike the Pacificat program, a plan that is hoped will revitalize our once proud ship-build- ing industry, it is taken to task at every turn. Final judgment of the Pacificat venture should await com- rats fleeing a sinking ship. “It was like instant tsunami. It washed logs, all our stuff — we just ran.” North Vancouver resident Steve Cox, on what happened after the Pacificat fast ferry blew past Sandy Cove last week. (From an Oct. 9 News story.) Q “Ic is absurd. It’s surreal. It’s bizarre. You lose faith in the justice system. You wonder what is important in life now.” Danie! Bjornson, son of Bjorn Bjornson who was killed two years ago by an overloaded runaway dump truck. The driver was fined $1,500 last week. (From an Oct. 9 News wry) Q00 “J think our ice time programmer is having a nervous breakdown. But after waiting 10 years for a new rink I guess we can wait a few more weeks.” Longtime North Vancouver hockey administrator Dan Morrison, on the delayed opening Ice Sports North Shore in Seymour. (From an Oct. 7 News Story.) . aa “You put an ad on the TV and you've got a guy on a couch eating cheezies ... the message of the ad starts decaying right away.” Steve Boultbee, co-founder of Impulse TV Network, on the advantages of in-store TV programming with commer- cial messages geared to the product on the shelf. (From an Oct. 7 News business story. a go “There is no nobility in that once roval city.” Coun. Trevor Carolan, referring to the problems of drug addicts on the strects of New Westminster. (From an Oct. 4 News story.) ‘ 900 “Well it took a while (and) I just didn’t need the ressure. I was going to do what I was going to do. I just wanted to wait for the proper process.” . West Vancouver mayor Pat Boname, after finally releas- ing previously deleted material about herself that had been contained in a consultant’s report on the organization and management of the municipality. (From an Oct. 4 News story.) ; north shore Worth Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and quakted under Scheduly 131, Paragraph 111 of che Excise Tax Act, & published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by Nowth Shore Free Press, Uid_and drstnbuted fo every door on the North Shove. Canada Post Canadan Publications Mail Sales Product Agrsement No. 0087238. Wadang rates avadable on request. PEEEMIBSELRE: Sr =) Distribution Manager 906-1337 (124) 61,582 (average circulation, Weonesday, Friday & Sunday} pletion of its fall sea trial. THE world’s top financial and economic brains were running around last week like headless chicks, seeking a way to avoid a Dirty Thirties-type global depression. The curtain-raiser tight days ago was a mecting of the Group of Seven (G7) wealthi- est nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S.), immediately fol- lowed by meetings of the 182-country International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its sis- : ter agency, the World Bank. The net result, alas, of these high-octane gabfests: many more proposals than agreements or solutions. Since last fall che IMF (its chief con- tributor being the U.S.) has bailed out Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and Russia to the tune of $100 billion US. A further $30 billion US is being put together for the latest basket casc, Brazil. All of it with no sign that the economic “Asian flu” now infecting half the world has been either cured or con- tained — South America being its latest victim. The causes of the malady are no mystery: a combination of out-of-con- trol debt plus the ability of capital — in this electronic age — to move anywhere on the planet with a few computer key- strokes when it seeks a safer haven. Unregulated banks piling up ever more non-performing loans until scared PETER SPECK Publisher 985-2131 (161) 985-2131 (127) ‘ANOTHER ALBANIAN REBEL STAMPED. OuT BY SERBIAN SECURITY FORCES you said it. As i an fi aU , ; { Ss nee d a Va cci ne investors finally decided to grab their money and run are what brought about the collapse of those once so confident, high-riding “little Asian tigers.” Once private capital flees, a nation can quickly be reduced to surviving on IMF welfare, with strict conditions that inflict nasty side-effects on the entire population — the length of the punishment depending on how hard, or oth- erwise, everyone works to claw themselves out of the hole. Meanwhile, its curren- cy savaged, the coun- try can afford to buy few if any imports, which in turn quickly spreads the dis- ¢ase to exporting nations like Canada. That’s why a Canadian proposal at the G7 meeting makes more practical sense than most others. Once a country is hit by a financial crisis, the proposal calls for a “cooling- off period” during which commercial banks would be debarred from calling in luans and investors would be temporari- ly forbidden to move their funds else- where. That, at least, would give every- one — including the IMF — a litle time to think and figure, instead of resorting too quickly to knee-jerk panic measures. But there's another big merit to this Canadian approach. It aims at killing localized financial germs before they can flare into virtually incurable global epi- demics, such as has happened over the past year. By then, attempts at therapy are too fate. Preventive medicine for the world’s economics is the vital challenge now facing “globalization” which, with- out it, is doomed to continuing disas- ers. The model for such medicine — call it financial vaccination — is already there in the leading industrial nations; with their firm regulation of their national banking and financial sectors. This regulation allows large enterprises like Bre-X and Eron Mortgage periodi- ~ cally to go bust, badly hurting their own luckless shareholders but causing hardly a ripple in the overall national economy. ; : In the absence, so far, of an effective world government, such regulation on an international scale poses a daunting problem. For the moment the only hope of imposing some degree of finan- cial discipline in developing countries lies with such specialized world bodies as the IMF, the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). If they can't quickly develop the ceded vaccines, maybe we should for- - get about “globalization” altogether - until the entire globe is ruled from the -- UN building on New York's East River. Otherwise, we'd better brace ourselves —.. for continuing worldwide financial epi- demics of incurable “Asian flu!” a o00 * MANY HAPPY RETURNS of tomor- »:- row, Oct. 12, to West Van birthday boy Charlie Disher. OOG . WRIGHT OR WRONG: The proof of the desire is in the pursuit. : wre LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must include your name, full address & telephone number. VIA e-mail: trenshaw @ direct.ca Managing Editor 986-7131 (116) Entire contents © 1997 North Shore Free Press Ltd. Ail rights reserved. 985-2121 (114) Andrew McLredia - 985-2131 (247) The Sorth Shore Wews is published by North Shore Free Press Ltd., Publieher Peter Spock, from 1139 Lonsdale Avenue Borth Vancouver, 8.C.; V7M PT) a