6 — Wednesday, October 8, 1997 — Nortn Shore News

north shore news

VIEWPOINT

Noney maker

North Shore’s next econom- ic engine isn’t much to look at now, but when the Fullerton

land development comes on line it promises to be nothing but powerful.

A number of key needs could be met on the 68-acre (27.8-hectare) site.

-The North Shore is chronically short cf space for companies to grow in to.

We have a track record of being pret- ty good at nurturing start-ups, but when companics outgrow their facili- ties, more often than not they must choose to leave the North Shore. Ballard Power Corp. is a good example.

The North Shore, especially North Vancouver, offers woefully inadequate public access to the waterfront. Historically we have cluttered the shoreline with industry.

The North Shore is in desperate

THE North Shore News Free Speech Fund continues to grow.

- To press time Tuesday, donations from over 1,960 News readers and free speech supporters to the fund stood at $139,026. Legal fees expended thus far by the News have already exceeded $200,000. The final bill will be mitch higher. Ail funds received will help defray the legal

' ‘1 -. casts faced by the News in its battle with the Human Rights Tribunal over a complaint laid against the newspaper and its columnist Doug Collins by-the Canadian -Jewish Congress. The hearing into the matter, which began on May 12, concluded on June 27 with final arguments at the Century Plaza Hotel, 1015 Burrard St. The deci- sion from Nitya Iyer, the tribunal of onc hearing the complaint, is expected some time !s::r this

. year. Extra copies of the News’ Free Speech Supplement, which was originally published in the Aug. 20 News, are now available at the News

offices.

- More excerpts from the hundreds of respondents

to the cause:

Q00 “If there is anything I loathe, it is injustice. So I

Defence

need of more hotel space. We like the fact that tourists come over to visit us, but we can’t seem to keep them here.

Consider these tantalizing numbers from the Fullerton Land Use Study: the transformation of the vacant site will require some $45 million worth of building materials and $68 million worth of labor throughout the devel- opment period.

When complete, the site will gener- ate an estimated $72 million a year in employment carnings and contribute $3.5 million to $4 million annually in property taxes to government.

The future suggested in the land-use study prepared for Fullerton owner Greystone Properties is sound. A mix of industrial and business, with the potential for a hotel and a high-tech industry hub, would be a winning way to go.

sparking ideas on how to improve the human race.

But a word of warn- ing if you’ve not yet been there: Go soon. Westernization, espe- cially of the younger generation, is speeding up. Traditional Japanese lessons won't be around forever.

Not that the lessons differ basically from those of many other Asian nations, except in one respect.

to western culture.

footnote on the latter.

Since 1945 Japan — the most tech- nologically advanced of them all — has had by far the most intensive exposure

Which calls for a passing analytical

Mast of the achievements of western civilization — from democracy and

am sending you another cheque in the hope thar many small donations make the difference in being able to lead this fight to the rightful end with sne- cess.”

— Elisabeth M. Schwabe of Vancouver

B00 . "Nor do I wane us to lose this fight for frecdam, So here’s another cheque. And if this Orwellian thing goes ali the way «-. we will go ail the way with you. We have hardly begun to Sight.” — Wilf Blair of Surrey Donations to the fund can be sent to: 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, V7M 2H4. Cheques should be made aut to the North Shore News Free Speech Defence Fund. — trenshaw@adirect.ca

North Shore News, founded m 1969 35 an independent suburban newspaper and quashed under Schedite 311. Paragrapn 111 of the Excise Tax Act, s piolished eacn Weoneaay, Faday and Sungay by Korth Shore Free Press.

common law to gay marriage and kindergarten sex lessons —- have emerged from a clash between authority and freedom, between the communal discipline and the individual. Freedom and the individual are invariably the winners, In Japan, so advanced materially, the opposite is still largely true.

The group — be it family, schoo! or employing company — still dominates the individual to a degree unknown in North America, prescribing behavior, demanding group loyalty and shaping the thinking of all its members.

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To stroll along Tokyo’s famous Ginza or a trendy downtown street in any other large city — with its bars, dis- Cos, restaurants, store windows over- flowing with merchandise and young

crowds sporting the latest western fashions

Noel — you might be

" tempted to question Wright the reality of Japanese “group-think.” Undoubtedly it is slowly weakening, as the younger genera- tion enthusiastically embraces the outward trappings — clothes, music, night life — of their North American peers. Bur the group manners and disci- pline still, for the moment, predomi- nate. For western visitors one happy result is the relatively crime-free down- town city scene compared to North | American cities.

You can walk the streets of Tokyo, Kyoto or Kobe at night with virtually no fear of being mugged, raped or robbed.

Nevertheless, Japanese “group- think” comes at a price. For one thing it tends to stifle individual creativity.

It’s no accident that the Japanese excel in computer hardware — match- less machiues produced to set patterns ~- bur lag well behind westerners in creating complex software.

Meanwhile, on the flip side of the coin, there’s mounting evidence that North American infatuation with indi- vidual “rights,” which increasingly ignore community rights, is starting to

hither and yon

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sort

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4 Recipe for an ideal human being

TO a westerner there are few places better than Japan for

run amok :

The first rebel generation, the Bab Boomers, has spawned an even more rebellious brood — too many of th raised to challenge all authority, recog nize no obligation to society and believe in virtually nothing. :

One upside of this American-led co: setting of the individual, as distinct from society overall, is the dynamic, crez:9 ative US economy. oe

The downside: America’s:crime infested; decaying inner cities, rampan deug abuse and soaring welfare‘rolls.

Clearly, neither Japanese group: think discipline (and the exemplary pe sonal manners it breeds) nor North .. America’s unfettered worship of the. individual, no matter how rough-hewn. is the answer. ae

Each has considerable merits.. Both have serious flaws. ae

If only human beings were produced like bread, I suspect we could possibly get the best of both worlds with the ©. help of a master baker. We'd give him half'a kilo each of North American and:, Japanese dough, and ask him to roll: |.” them out together for at least 10 min-- utes, : : From the oven there might just emerge a pretty ideal human being!

o0o0 GOING FOR DIAMOND, happy 51st anniversary today, Oct. 8, to North. Van’s Bob and Bette Booth.

000 : WRIGHT OR WRONG: Never get so’. busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

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