January 23, 2008 Vol. 33 No. 25

Time to start new Dawgs tradition

I know it was bitterly cold on the weekend, but I cannot wait for baseball season.
Usually, summer means golf season. However, this year, to me, summer means Dawgs baseball and Saturday’s inaugural Dawgs awards banquet had me itching like I had hives.
I have always enjoyed sitting in the stands on a warm summer day watching baseball, but there was something special about the atmosphere at Seaman Stadium last year that has me hooked. I thought it could not get any better than the 2007 season. Come on, a rainbow over the outfield wall on opening night; sold out crowds; children running the bases; face painting frenzied fans; a league championship — it was a dream come true.
However, after savouring the enthusiasm the Okotoks community has for the Dawgs on Saturday I am convinced 2008 can be even better.
Firstly, they have a good number of the team returning and the players who received awards on Saturday night all said their experience in Okotoks was among the best times of their lives. These are young men who hail from all four corners of North America and they stated unequivocally the people of Okotoks provided them with an experience they have not had before and now they are as addicted as I am.
Secondly, Dawgs managing director John Ircandia said they have sold about 900 season tickets already (some from as far away as Nanton) meaning the enthusiasm the community exhibited for the Dawgs in 2007 has not waned.
Jerry Howarth, the voice of the Toronto Blue Jays, was the keynote speaker at the event and during dinner he commented about what an incredible impact the baseball team has had on the community and vice versa — a marriage made in heaven.
(Howarth was one of the most genuine and personable people I have ever met and I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to not only hear him speak — although organizers left him too late in the evening — but also just to sit and talk sports with him. His memory for names and dates is simply uncanny.)
Now, I want to do my part to make 2008 even better by starting a new Dawgs tradition. I am going to start tailgating. By the end of the season a handful of people began tailgating at Seaman Stadium and I want to take things up a notch. Yep, I am going to buy a little Hibatchi grill, a new red cooler and some red lawn chairs in preparation for the 2008 Opening Day. I am so excited I am planning to head out on Friday after work to start grilling smokies and sip a cold beer. Does anyone know if the Dawgs sell parkas? Toque and mittens perhaps? Maybe Dawgs thermal underwear?
Of course, I am not sure what the municipal enforcement officers are going to think about this, so lets just keep the beer thing between ourselves.
Citizens on Patrol
It has to be beer, because I have sworn off pop. It has now been one month and I am still pop free.
I cannot take all the credit because apparently this has become a community project. I mentioned in last week’s column about no more Pepsi and some people are ensuring I do not cheat.
After leaving the gym one day I went to the concession to get a Gatorade. The arena employees were yelling at me, “No pop!”
The next day I went to lunch with some friends to seventy-nine and the server asked what we would like to drink. She then looked at me and stated, “No pop for you.”
Thanks for your help everyone, but some day I will learn to keep my mouth shut.

Editorial -

Playing costly game of chicken

The Calgary Health Region (CHR) and the provincial government are playing what could be a costly game of chicken.
Two weeks ago the CHR announced it is expecting an $85 million deficit in its 2007/2008 budget year. The cost overruns are being blamed on huge overtime costs related to higher demand on service.
Despite a substantial deficit, Alberta Health had been adamant it will not bail out the CHR.
“It’s against provincial legislation for health regions to run deficits, they have to balance their books,” said Alberta Health spokesperson Howard May. “They submit a plan to us and then we go from there.”
If any of the province’s health regions have a deficit at the end of the fiscal year on March 31, they will have to submit a deficit elimination plan to the province within 90 days.
In contrast, The CHR is confident the Province will step up and help cover the deficit.
“It’s unrealistic to think that we’re going to be able to address (the deficit) with our current budget,” said CHR spokesperson Mark Kastner. “I think we’ll be able to make our case pretty clearly to the minister and to the other senior officials in government.”
This is a frightening situation as neither the CHR nor the Province seem willing to address the problem.
The Province has discussed eliminating health care premiums and that would certainly help restore the premier’s popularity as an election approaches.
However, perhaps one option would be to direct premiums to the health regions in which residents live so the regions can spend that money as they see fit — on wages, equipment or services — instead of putting revenue from premiums into a general government account .
Regardless, no good can come from a game of chicken when both drivers have their heads in the sand.

Letters to the Editor -

Lottery winners should share their good fortune

Dear Editor,
One day this past week I was in Wal-Mart picking up a few items. When my turn came I quickly starting scanning my items and as I reached down for my bag I noticed some money in the cash back tray. I then took the money to the clerk. As I was bagging my items a woman came over to thank me as she kept trying to give me $20 for my honesty. I was shocked! To think in today’s world, basic human integrity comes at a price; that when an instinctual act is done money is offered. Needless to say I refused to accept her money, my integrity is priceless.
The lotto debacle, and the humiliating failure of these people to do the right thing astounds me.
When I moved to this town and met this group (and the two being denied their share is an integral part if not the reason this group existed), I was quite leery of “country folks,” but this core group welcomed and accepted me into their lives and changed my attitude towards “country folks.”
I admired their unity and neighbourly mentality; they were typical of a large and loving family. Dinners were always organized at the home of the two being denied. I have seen every one of that core group at their place enjoying barbecues, Boxing Day bashes and Sunday dinners.
When the person or persons were on the outs, it was a standing agreement to meet at a pub for Saturday lunches and exchange monies for lotteries. They were always pitching in for each other. Had this lotto not been won, nothing would have changed amongst them.
In a world of selfishness and greed they gave me hope for humanity.
Then the lotto was won and I saw how people are capable of debasing themselves by inexorably denying a part of your group their share. All of you disappointed and disgusted me, in that order. Already I see the ravages of this plague you have brought upon yourselves.
Friendships ruined, sicknesses and stupidity, daily negativity consumes your lives.
These are manifestations of your action of wrongdoing against your very family.
How many of you have gone to bed in the last few weeks without angst? For every action there is a reaction. My shame of you is tolerable, but will all of you ever recover from this? I sincerely doubt it.
Sam and Tess Bacchus
Calgary

Okotoks Chamber making excellent strides Congratulations to Cathy and all the members of the Okotoks and District Chamber of Commerce executive. The Chamber has changed a lot over the past few years and has a record membership at the present time. Past president, Beth Kish, had a lot to do with that success over the past couple of years as she remained president for two terms. Thanks Beth for the time and effort you gave the Chamber, you have left it in good hands with an excellent board. • • • • • The grand opening of the new Oilfields artificial ice outdoor arena will be held in Black Diamond on Feb. 9. An exhibition game featuring Calgary Flames alumni will be kick-off the event. This arena, which was built thanks to a grant from the Calgary Flames and the Seaman family, could become a model for many towns in the future. The facility could solve some of the ice shortage problems as an outdoor facility is much cheaper to build. Besides, how fun would it be to play outside? • • • • • Congratulations to past Calgary Chamber president and Foothills resident Irene Pfeiffer who has recently been announced as an upcoming Order of Canada recipient. • • • • • Fraser Farms was recently the home of a rather large bobcat. Seems Marg Fraser started noticing that the pheasants she was raising were thinning out. After five or six weeks she finally spotted a content bobcat sunning itself in the rafters of the pen. After several attempts Doug and Marg were finally able to coax the cat out of the pen and it was last seen waddling along the road heading west. At press time the cat had not come back for more pheasant and the Frasers hope they have seen the last of him. Marg has been raising and releasing the birds for about 12 years. To date more than 1,000 have been released around the area. Check out this edition of the Weekender for a photo and more details.

Hypocrites hopping on India’s Nano

The jokes about the Nano, Tata Motors’ new affordable car for the Indian middle class, were harmless, although very old. They told the same jokes about the Fiat 500 and the Citroen 2CV in the 1950s, when mass car ownership first came to Europe.
“How do you double the value of a Nano?”
“Fill the tank.”
“How many engineers does it take to make a Nano?”
“Two. One to fold and one to apply the glue.”
But the hypocrisy wasn’t funny at all.
The typical story in the Western media began by marvelling that Tata has managed to build a car that will sell for only 100,000 rupees (US$2,500). Everybody agrees that it’s cute, and it will take five people provided they don’t all inhale at the same time. It has no radio, no air conditioning, and only one big windshield wiper, but such economies mean that it really is within reach of tens of millions of Indians who could only afford a scooter up to now. And that is where the hypocrisy kicked in.
What will become of us when all those Indians start driving around in cars? There’s over a billion of them, and the world just can’t take any more emissions. It’s not the “People’s Car,” as Tata bills it, but rather the “People’s Polluter,” moaned Canada’s National Post.
“A few dozen million new cars pumping out pollution in a state of semi-permanent gridlock is hardly what the Kyoto Protocol had in mind.”
But hang on a minute. Aren’t there more than a dozen million cars in Canada already, even though it only has one-thirtieth of India’s population? Aren’t they on average twice the size of the Nano (or, in the case of the larger SUV’s, five times the size)? Does the phrase “double standard” come to mind?
“India’s vehicles spewed 219 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2005,” fretted The Guardian in London. “Experts say that figure will jump almost sevenfold to 1,470 million tonnes by 2035 if car travel remains unchecked.”
And the Washington Post wrote: “If millions of Indians and Chinese get to have their own cars, the planet is doomed. Suddenly, the cute little Nano starts to look a lot less winning.”
But practically every family in the United States and Britain already has its own car (or two).
Don’t they realize how ugly it sounds? Don’t they understand that everybody on the planet has an equal right to own a car, if they can afford it? If the total number of people who can afford cars exceeds the number of cars that the planet can tolerate, then we will just have to work out a rationing system that everybody finds fair, or live with the consequences of exceeding the limits.
“Contraction and convergence” is the phrase they need to learn. It was coined almost 20 years ago by South African-born activist Aubrey Meyer, founder of the Global Commons Institute, and it is still the only plausible way that we might get global agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
The notion is simply that we must agree on a figure for total global emissions that cannot be exceeded, rather as we set fishing quotas in order to preserve fish stocks. Then we divide that amount by six and a half billion (the total population of the planet), and that gives us the per capita emission limit for everyone on Earth.
Of course, some people (in the developed countries, mostly) are currently emitting 10 or 20 times as much as other people (mainly in the developing countries), but eventually that will have to stop.
The big emitters will gradually have to “contract” their per capita emissions, while the poor countries may continue to grow theirs, until at an agreed date some decades in the future the two groups “converge” at the same level of per capita emissions. And that level, by prior agreement, will be low enough that global emissions remain below the danger point.
If you don’t like that idea, then you can go with the alternative: a free-for-all world in which everybody moves towards the level of per capita emissions that now prevails in the developed countries.
No negotiations or treaties required: it will happen of its own accord.
So will runaway climate change, with average global temperatures as much as 6 degrees C (10 degrees F) higher by the end of the century. That means a future of famine, war and mass death.
Clucking disapprovingly about mass car ownership in India or China misses the point entirely. At the moment there are only 11 private cars for every thousand Indians.
There are 477 cars for every thousand Americans. By mid-century, there will have to be the same number of cars per thousand people for both Indians and Americans — and that number will have to be a lot lower than 477, unless somebody comes up with cars that emit no greenhouse gases at all. Otherwise, everybody loses.

Police methods should be scrutinized

Dear Editor,
Re: Emma Twamley’s Jan. 9 reply to Sheelagh Matthews’ Dec. 5 Western Wheel column.
Yes, the RCMP do need to look at their methods, and not just those involving tasers. Their actions involving all policy methods should not only be closely scrutinized, but tightly controlled and challenged when need be.
Police come under blanket immunity mandated by the state, therefore they can act with uninhibited impunity with respect to your rights whether you are a criminal or an innocent party. If your rights are violated by the RCMP your only recourse is the courts. That, Emma, is a long and arduous journey, all at your expense.
And where are these dangerous situations where the police are “running in?” Are you referring to sitting in a cruiser at a speed trap or chasing juveniles for misdemeanors or perhaps showing up at the scene of a crime long after the perpetrator has left?
No Emma, today’s police are not our heroes. Today’s heroes are the firefighters and military who truly put their lives on the line, but without pretense, without intimidation and without abuse.
Maybe you should try a couple of doughnuts with that Oreo.
Don Devore
DeWinton