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Page 4, News, Tuesday, March 12, 1991 Editorial The Terrace Bay - Schreiber News is published every Tuesday by Single copies 50 cents incl. PubliSher............::::::cceee Sandy Harbinson WCNA Laurentian Publishing Limited, Box 579, 13 Simcoe Plaza, Terrace Bay, GST. Subscription rates: Advertising Mgr.............-- Linda Harbinson Ont., POT 2W0 Tel.: 807-825-3747. Second class mailing permit 2264. 518 por Year | Bann wie ai 2 e.......:-cid-. ee Robert Cotton Member of the Ontario Community Newspaper Association and the (local); $29 per year (out of Admin. Asst Gayle Fournier Canadian Community Newspaper Association 40 mile radius) $39 in U.S. eri crue ee y : Add GST to yearly subs. Production Asst............... Cheryl Kostecki The aftermath _ The battle has been fought and won but the shock waves of this war, like any war, will spread beyond the battlefield through both time and space. They will continue to be felt around the world in years to come by everybody. A huge oil slick in the Gulf, larger by far than the Valdez spill in Alaska, and burning oil wells point to environmental problems that could plague us for years. Many third world countries lost the hard currency being sent home by the hundreds of thousands who had been working for Kuwait and Saudi Arabia before having to return home. Great numbers of these workers are now at home looking for work in economies already suffering from massive unemployment. The Muslim government in Sudan has doubled food and fuel prices and imposed Islamic law. It was able to do this because of rising anti-western feeling generated by the war. This anti western feeling could grow in pro-western Arab countries and become a threat their political stability. On the edges of the battlefield Iran is believed to be encouraging brother Shiites Moslems in Iraq to rebel against Hussein's military regime. However, at the present moment an Iraq without a strong military would create a power vacuum that either Syria or Iran would seek to fill. . A Shiite Muslim government in Baghdad would open the way to removing King Hussein of Jordan and tensions between tival religious and political factions would increase. There are also reports that the United States is prepared to help the Middle East re-arm. Apparently there are plans to sell F-16s, smart bombs, cluster bombs and missile to Egypt, provide new military aide to Isreal, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and others. : The war is over and there is no peace. Robert A. Cotton North Shore unions oppose privatization of Canada Post Dear Editor: The following is a letter sent to The Hon: Harvie Andre, Minister Responsible for Canada Post, by the Marathon and Northshore District Council of Unions. It may of interest to your readers. town post offices by 1996. Job losses as a result of this decision could reach as high as 14,000 men and women who have served well. Fourteen thousand families! Any replacement jobs will undoubtedly be minimum wage jobs. Dear Minister, Re: Canada Post's privatization - post office closures Please allow me to introduce myself.. I am president of the Marathon and District Council of Unions with 2,500 members on the North Shore of Lake Superior. We have discussed the shocking trend of Canada Post's closures of our post offices across the country aand ~are voicing our opposition to these decisions. It is our understanding that Canada Post will shut down its entire network of public post Perhaps the Minister would better serve the interests of the country if time and energy was devoted to initiating new ideas on expanding the services of Canada Post. Some ideas on expanding the services of Canada Post may include: Electronic mail centre; catalogue sales; stationary sales; driver, hunting, fishing license centres, tourist information We ask and await a response from your office on this subject Sincerely, Don Lavigne President Finding Heaven on Earth ...a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, a flask of Wine, a Book Of Verse -- and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness -- And Wilderness is Paradise enow. ; The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Well, that sounds rather comfy. Ye olde poetaster Eddie Fitzgerald pretty well covered the basic human necessities -- something for the belly, a bit of bubbly, a few printed stanzas of doggerel for mental stimulation and a warm squeezeable partner . of the opposite gender to share it all with. That's not bad, as human Utopias go. Still, it has it's limitations. I mean, how long can you sit under a tree chugging Baby Duck, reading Irving Layton and listening to your True Love warble Feelings. What happens if it rains? Or some knuckle- dragger with a mega-decibel suitcase radio on his shoulder comes along and lays claim to an adjacent hummock? How about ants? That's the trouble with most man-made Heaven-On-Earths -- folks forget to read the fine print. Take Plato's Republic. Now, Plato owned one of the most brilliant minds ever to inhabit a human cranium. One would think when such a thinker bent his philisophical skills to creating an imaginary paradise it would be one swell place, no?" No. When it came to citizenship in Plato's Republic, only the elite need apply. were to be arranged according to genetic considerations. Sort. of like the "Perfect Nation" dream of that other chap -- what was his name? Adolph something? Thomas More's idea of earthly paradise wasn't a whole lot more appealing. In 1516, the British philosopher wrote a book called Arthur Black Utopia. It was all about a wonderful place -- providing you were free, white and male. In More's Utopia, slavery was to be practiced and women were to be kept firmly under the old patriarchal thumb. Even Shangri-La had warts. The mythical Tibetan lamasery where the living was easy and time stood still was alas, also less than perfect. Sure, folks got to live a couple of hundred years -- but only if they never left town. One trip across the county line for a Saturday night dance and poof -- biology plays catch- up. Inmates who enjoyed perpetual youth back in the compound suddenly resembled Heaven on Earth to do? Well, there's always the island of Nauru. : Nauru isn't the figment of anyone's imagination. It's a coral atoll in the middle of the South Pacific. It only covers about eight square miles, but that's okay because there are only about 5,000 people living there. And what a life. The average annual income of every inhabitant -- man, woman and babe in arms -- is $20,000 U.S. And here's the kicker: They don't have to do a lick of work to collect. Nauru is one big phosphate mine. (Bird poop, not to put too fine a point on it.) Australia mines the phosphate and pays the citizens of Nauru big bucks for the privilege. The result: Nauruans are rich beyond their wildest dreams. So rich they don't even have to bother shovelling the phosphate on to ships. Three thousand labourers are imported from elsewhere to do the dirty work. Which means all Nauruans have to do the live long day is lie around and spend, spend, spend. And they do. Most have cars and TVs, even though there's nowhere to drive and nothing much to watch. Nauruans are prone to alcoholism and suicide. They also have some of the highest incidences of obesity, diabetes and heart disease in the world. But there's some good news. The phosphate is running out. Some day soon Nauruans are going to be able to escape from Heaven on Earth and join the are, Sue OF