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Page 5, News, Tuesday, August 7, 1990 Malcolm in the temple of doom Roaming through my neigh- bourhood lately is a cast of class- less cats. They come for my Malcolm, now thirteen and thriv- ing despite the fact most of his vital parts are dropping off faster than an Edsel in an earthquake. One cat wants desperately to make love to Malcolm, two young turks want to beat him to a pulp and I suspect K.C. Colavincenzo, the Seal Point Siamese who is so dumb the breeder's association have taken the unusual step of revoking his papers, could go either way on this one. If he had a mind to, which he most definitely does not. William J. Thomas The rust-coloured, sweet-faced female that preens herself just outside every door and window in the house between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. every night does not realize that Malcolm's reproductive equipment was surgically altered a dozen years ago leaving him an unhappy but home-loving eunuch. The two young grey-striped usurpers to the community's cat crown have no respect for Malcolm's war record, they pay no homage to his limp, no regard for gnarled gums that once held teeth. They are upstart gunslingers looking to make a name. Malcolm's the sheriff who'd rather retire but the town won't let him. Because this is his town, his territory and instinctively he'll fight to protect it. He must. He's a cat. (Which is a lot more than can: "be: said. for... - KG; Colavincenzo, the Siamese that thinks he's a dog with severe behavioural disorders! ) But Malcolm's got class. He never goes near the road. He tried at first but repeated attacks by a hooded terrorist (that would be me) setting off cherry bombs in the ditch between him and the pavement have convinced Malcolm that that thoroughfare is not just a road, it's the Green Line separating Moslems and Christians in downtown Beirut. He never strays past his designed territory of my house and the three summer cottages on either side of me. He used to but after several ambushes by a wacko in a cowboy hat with a starter's pistol (that would be me again) Malcolm is certain that the city limits of Detroit start 100 yards to the west with Miami just continued on page 6 Generation gap more like chasm They aren't kidding when they say there's a generation gap these days. It's such a gap it's practical- ly a chasm, an abyss, difficult to bridge. So much has happened within the lifetime of us Goldie-Oldies, that sometimes it catches us up by the short hairs of surprise. Was there REALLY life before televi- sion, computers, V.C.R.'s, and all other such gidgetry and gadgetry which is taken so much for grant- ed these days by everybody, espe- cially the young 'uns? Well, I'm here to tell that world of young 'uns that there most certainly was - a world less complicated, without all such technological 'monsters' which scare the beejeebers out of an ole ignoramus such as yer ole Baba. And less complicated in many other ways as well. There sure wasn't this frenetic haste to try and cram every single one of life's experiences into one's own lifetime, for instance. We were content to wend our simple way through what proba- bly appears to the eyes of the young 'uns as having been a very hum-drum kind of existence, tak- ing life one slow step at a time Olga Landiak and not worrying unduly that something exciting and tantaliz- ing might be passing us by. Sure it took us a heck of a lot longer to accomplish things with- out the many electrical 'servants' and technological gizmos of today, but so what? We weren't going anywhere outside of our home or job environment. Except maybe on that once-a-year vaca- tion to some far-away exotic place like Duluth or Grand Marais. What is one supposed to be saving for us now-a-days? What do people do with all this 'saved time'? Try to cram more projects and activities into a life-style which is already careering madly down the fast lane almost out of control? Such a pity. It really makes us Goldie- Oldies sad to see the generation after us trying to do so many things at once, like little kids gulping down the cake, ice cream and candy before it runs out. What about a plain bread-and- cheese kind of living instead? you know, the Rubyiat's, "A loaf of Bread, a jug of wine and thou, beneath the bough" kind of thing. Real slow leisure time in the backyard with family and friends instead of all this mad dashing around to the Wonderlands and Funlands of the world. Also, what's the use of piling up materialistic goods and chat- tels because they happen to the 'in' thing, when there is no real appreciation of those marvels already under one's finger tips. Marvels such as light switches, hot and cold running water, inside bathroom facilities, laundry facil- ities, central heating, transporta- tion of all kinds, and the fantastic cornucopia awaiting one in the supermarket around the corner. To those of us brought up on hand-scrubbed clothes hung out on clothes lines, buckets of water toted in from the nearest stream or well, coal-oil lamps and can- dles, wood stoves and heaters, tight budgets which didn't allow for any frivolities but only the bare necessities of life, our own gardens and livestock, and maybe one old jalopy driven only on Sunday for prestige's sake and shank's mare the rest of the time, today's world is an absolute reve- lation. And so unappreciated. You read me right. It's unap- preciated! By Goldie-Oldies who were fortunate enough not to have come through the old-fashioned hard life-style which was the lot of their parents who came from some Old Country in the world, but mostly by generations which have grown up to take all such things as their accepted due. Poor souls, they don't know any better, so no use trying to tell them of an era where all such marvels and goodies did not exist. They can't even imagine it, let alone believe such a dinosauric time ever exist- ed. Surrounded as they are by rooms chock-a-block with toys, closets full of the latest designer clothes and shoes, and allowance money dripping out of their jeans, all they can do is moan, "I'm bored! There's nothing to do!:", and turn to drugs and drink to help them get through the monotony of their lives. Poor, spoiled, sulky children of the 'fat' countries of the world! It's too bad they can't switch places with some really poor Third Worlders for a month or two and so learn to really appreci- ate the life-style which they are so sneeringly sarcastic about. A little poverty might go a long way to getting rid of their boredom. And maybe help to turn them into real human beings instead of just parasites. Amen! Mansbridge on journalistic ethics It was a somewhat laid back Peter Mansbridge who spoke recently to about 70 people at the annual meeting of Quetico Centre, a think tank and confer- ence centre 30 kilometres east of Atikokan. He sported the out- lines of a bushy beard, and made jokes about the absence of hair on the other end of his head. He says he stopped shaving when he started his holidays in the Gatineau Hills, near Ottawa. You won't likely see the beard, because he says he'll shave it off before he goes back to work on THE NATIONAL. The Quetico speech was also a bit of a homecoming for CBC Television's Chief Correspondent. One of his first big jobs in the Corporation was as regional cor- respondent for CBC Television News out of Winnipeg. That job sent him into the western edges of northwestern Ontario for one week every month to tape stories for CBC Television news. By 1973, Atikokan was going through the traumas of losing half its economic base, because of the imminent closure. of two.iron. ore, NORTHERN INSIGHTS mines. Atikokan's leadership asked CBC Television to come in and do a story about that, and CBC sent Mansbridge. Vic Prokopchuk, who helped introduce Mansbridge at the Quetico meeting, remembers being very apprehensive about exposing Atikokan's situation to the media. As a member of the town's Economic Development Committee at the time, Prokopchuk had reviewed the way the media covered other shut downs. "The resulting damage that those stories did to the com- munities really upset me. Instead of helping, whatever the problem was, it really finished off the community by affecting the confi- dence by government or outside, . by Larry Sanders investors, and therefore the com- munity would die." But in this case, Prokopchuk's fears about media exposure were unfounded. Instead of doing a sensationalised story about a dying town, Mansbridge did a very sensitive piece - a half hour documentary instead of the usual quick fix news item. The docu- mentary portrayed Atikokan as a town with a lot of spirit, and as a place determined to survive, Prokopchuk thanked Mansbridge for doing that piece. "Peter's wis- dom and insight in producing the story in that manner turned out to be a very important element in Atikokan's survival." Mansbridge turned that com- .pliment around., "I appreciate-the, nice things you said about my part in doing that story, but in defence of other journalists who've been to other communi- ties who were in fact sent for the same reason - the dying town story - I don't think they encoun- tered what I encountered when I came to Atikokan, and that was a very deteremined group of people who were going to hang in there, and make their area work." Mansbridge demonstrated that same kind of sensitivity to the impact of television, and the role it can play in development, when he went on to talk about the role of CBC Television covering the Meech Lake story, and the future of Canada. He had been asked by ,Quetico Centre to speak about his personal vision of Canada, some- thing he said wasn't easy. "There seems to be something in politics, particularly Canadian politics, that demands that if you're a politician, you must have a vision, and you must be able to explain it. Now I'm not a politi- cian. I'm a journalist, a reporter. And quite frandly, I'm not sup- posed to have a vision. In fact, I'm PAID not to have a vision." So instead of describing his own vision of Canada, Mansbridge examined how televi- sion covered the great Meech Lake debate. He's obviously proud of CBC Television's cover- age, because he says "it gave Canadians a window on a closed door story." Mansbridge says that CBC Television covered the Meech debate "like a blanket." He says that's indicative of a new, activist role for CBC Television we will see more of, from now on. "There is no doubt that not only was the debate controversial, but so was our role in covering it. We were, quite unavoidably, part __ continued on page 7