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OPINION Ian Oliver Publisher Robert Glasbey Advertising Director Norman Alexander Editor Geoff Hill Circulation Director Teri Casas Office Manager Tim Coles Production Manager P e se e e o e e Et Rd., Oakville, is one of the Metroland h’ming,ePlbisling Distributing Ltd. group of suburban newspapers which includes: Ajaxâ€"Pickering News Advertiser, Barrie Advance, Brampton Guardian, Buninglon Post, Collingwood Connection, Etobicoke Guardian, etown Indegen lent Acton Free Press, Kingston This Week, Lindsay This Week, Markham Economist and Sun, Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune, Milton Canadian Champion, Mississauga News, Newmarketâ€"Aurora Eraâ€"Banner, North York Mirror, Oakville Beaver, Orillia Today, Oshawa/Whitby This Week, Peterborough This Week, Richmond Hil Liberal, Scarborough Mirror. All material published in the Oakville Beaver is protected by copy%Any reproduction in whole or in part of this material is strictly forbidden will the consent of the publisher. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize and reject advertising. In the event of typographical error, advertising goods or services at the wrong price, goods or services may not be sold. Advertising is merely an offer to sell and may be withdrawn at any time. Only now has Ontario Health Minister Ruth Grier suggested people who received blood transfusions during the critical seven year time frame, be tested for HIV. Even more alarming is the fact that as of this week, the ministry reported that only a couple of the province‘s 200+ hospitals have so far made an effort to contact patients who received blood transfusions during that same period. It was a disgraceful episode. Bad news for Bob Even though the National Advisory Committee on AIDS nine years ago recomâ€" mended HIV tests should be given to those who had received blood transfusions from 1979 to when blood screening was initiated, nothing was done to warn these people. If this simple step had been taken, it may not have saved those who have or will likely die from AIDS but it may have saved their spouses the same horrible fate. That neglect is inexcusable. And while little can be drawn from this result, on a provinceâ€"wide basis, it‘s clear there is great dissatisfaction with the Rae government. And time is running out for the premier. Ontarians will be heading to the polls next year to elect a new government and unless he‘s got a magic rabbit in his hat, Rae will not be returning to Queen‘s Park. His fate could well be that of the federal Tories. Time will tell. Thursday, voters in the Victoriaâ€"Haliburton riding elected Progressive Conservative Chris Hodgson in a byâ€"election. Trailing the field were the Liberal candidate and the New Democratic Party hopeful who garnered just six per cent of the vote. Te political news continues to be bad for the Bob Rae government. On It‘s not much for a human life and what‘s really gutâ€"wrenching about this case is that not only were the guiltless victims infected, spouses of these victims were also unwittingly infected. The entire episode has, unfortunately reflected poorly on the Ministry of Health, the Canadian Red Cross and some physicians. In order to put the matter behind it, the province has agreed to pay those who accepted the package a signing bonus of $22,000. and payment of $30,000 a year commencing on April 1st. When the infected person dies, the spouse will receive $20,000 per year for four years and each child of the surviving parent will receive $4,000 a year for five years to the age of 16 for a $20,000 total. acs receive HIV contaminated blood in the early 1980s is a truly black periâ€" od in the province‘s health care history. It‘s not known how many of the 158 Halton residents infected with the HIV virus are hemophiliacs but their number would appear to be significant. Te soâ€"called tainted blood scandal which saw 351 severe Ontario hemophiliâ€" EDITORIAL 467 Speers Road, Oakville, Ont. L6K 354 Classified Advertising: 845â€"2809 Circulation: 845â€"9742 or 845â€"9743 Pay off The Oakville Beaver, published every Sunday, Wednes and Friday, at 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, is one of the Metroland Printi hing Distributing Ltd. group of suburban newspapers which inclu s Ajax-Plckenng News Advertiser, Barrie Advance, Brampton Guardian, Burlington Post, Collin ood Connection, Etobicoke Guardian, etown Indefien lent Acton Free Kingston This Week, Lindsay This Week, Markham Economist and Sun Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune, Milton Canadian Champion, Mississauga News Newmarketâ€"Aurora Eraâ€"Banner, North York Mirror, Oakville Beaver, Orillia Today, Oshawa/Whitby This Week, Peterborough This Week, Richmond HilV Liberal, Scarborough Mirror. _ i. > un It‘s called InfoAngst. Symptoms: clammy palms, shortness of breath and emoâ€" tional agitation, especially folâ€" lowing abstention from news reportsâ€"â€"printed, televised or heard over the Walkman. Simply put, InfoAngst is a terror of missing somethingâ€"â€"of being illâ€"informed. InfoAngst threatens to become the Bubonic Plague of the late 20th century, and that shouldn‘t be surprising. It would be physically impossible for you to read every newspaâ€" per, magazine, pamphlet and brochure that are printed in this province each day, much less in this country. And as for booksâ€"â€"do you know how many new books were printed in Engllsh in 19937 One thousand, according to The Daily Telegraph. «Ah...that‘s 1,000 per day, qf course. The problem with InfoAngst is that it‘s undiscriminating. ‘ realize that you‘re in a E hurry. You‘re trying to get k . through this newspaper so that you‘ll have time to plough through those half dozen news magazines left over from last week, that RRSP brochure you vowed you‘d read today AND still have time to watch Prime Time News, right? Still, do you think you could spare a couple of seconds to read about the latâ€" est disease? You‘d better, because you‘ve got it, pal. Woman believes she has remedy for our society‘s latest disease â€" A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches isn‘t quite sure. e i on And of course there‘s the onâ€" going nonâ€"saga of U.S. President Bill Clinton and whether he was or. wasn‘t involved in some shady land deals when he was or wasn‘t cavorting with nubile voters in the privacy of his government limousine. News? Not hardly. The problem with newspaâ€" pers is the headline. Tradition has it that newspapers must feaâ€" ture that big, bold slash of type across the front page, whether or not there‘s anything to merit it. Thus, a front page headline can trumpet a warning about continental earthquakes one day and a local traffic jam the next. The Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan kneecapping. A conâ€" tretemps between two foreign competitors in the sport of figâ€" ure skating. News just doesn‘t get much more trivial than that. The Bobbit Cropping. Would the quality of your life have been significantly diminished if you‘d never encountered the lurid details of Loreena versus John Wayne? Any old chaff will do for the mill. Just think about some of the "news" stories about which you already know more than you care. The Prince Charles/Di/Camilla triangle. Are the grubby goingsâ€"on among this trio of dreary Brits worth one second of your time? "We should be toasting peoâ€" ple who manage to escape the ubiquity of popular culture now and again. Let us respectfully refer to them henceforth as the ‘Media Immune‘ and welcome them back to the planet." "Could we please trash the phrase ‘off the planet‘? Not only is it overused, it oozes all the smugness and selfâ€"importance of the media that spawned it. "I did not miss last summer‘s Teal/Homolka roundâ€"up by being ‘off the planet‘. On the contrary, I was very much on the planet, turning my front lawn into a rose garden." "The Conservative leaderâ€" ship convention? Sorry. I was having the love affair of the century. Did I miss anything?" Sounds good Annie. A natuâ€" ral antidote to InfoAngstâ€"â€"a volâ€" untary readership strike to give our overworked brains a rest. Er, not including readers of the Oakville Beaver of course. No newspaper has ever had the courage toâ€"run a front page banner reading RELAX, FOLKS! NOTHING HAPâ€" PENED! The Irish genius George Bernard Shaw put it more punâ€" gently. "A newspaper," said Shaw, "is a device unable to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization." The solution to all this? Don‘t ask me. As a scribbler for the papers, I‘m obviously part of the problem, not the solution. However, I will offer this letâ€" ter from Annie Davidson, one of our many wonderful readers. Annie loathes the way our newsmakers smirkingly refer to the illâ€"informed as being ‘off the planet‘. She writes: