PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 27, 1982, WHITBY FREE PRESS whitby Voice of the County Town Publ Michael lan Burgess, Publisher - Managing Editor The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents. lished every Wednesday by M.B.M. Publishing and Photography Inc. Phone 668-6111 The Free Press Building, 131 Brock Street North, P.O. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. L LESLIEBUTLER Community Editor ELIZABETH NOZDRYN Advertislng Manager Second Class Mail Registration No. 5351 Columnist more boring than coming election At the risk of flogging a rather tired (If not quite dead) old horse, something more should be said on the subject of apathy and m'unicipal politics. It is difficult enough to inspire avid Interest on the part of the voting public in municipal affairs. Statistics show that municipal elections get the lowest voter turn-out on average compared to provincial and federal elections. But when newspaper columnists start using their public voices to bore readers with their own political boredom, something is wrong. One column in particular was brought to our at- tention br'a reader who was offended by its tone. While we don't make a habit of reading and publi- cizing other newspaper's views, this. one requires comment. Joan Ransberry's recent column in an Ajax weekly crying the "election blahs" might be sym- ptomatic of a general malaise Canadians are notorlous for - L.e. not giving a damn about their government. Ransberry might be forgiven her lacklustre sug- gestion to "VOTE...but be quiet about it" if she did not strongly suggest the entire election is a waste of time. What we need more than "a week away f rom politics" is a few years away from columnists who have nothing better to write about than how bored they are. If another election can be compared to "preg- nancy number 11 for a woman who'd rather pass after the second", perhaps Ransberry can spare us her labor. Ail of us at one time have been trapped in con- versation with someone who can talk about nothing but how mundane their life is. Those con- versationalists are without a doubt as mundane and boring as their subject matter. So with columnists so bereft of things to write about they fall back on the old "Isn't it ail a bore?" routine. Why those columnists think the public cares that they "don't give a hoot" about politics is beyond us. If Ransberry "can't bear another minute of politics", perhaps she should consider a profes- sion less llkely to put her in contact with public figures. If we all took her apathetic attitude, many of the pages of the newspaper she writes for would go unread by herown suggestion. Newspaper columnists and editorial writers are given a carte blanche when it comes to what they can write about. (Anything, as long as it's not libellous.) But when they start abusing their freedom by perpetrating political apathy in a system that depends entirely on voter participation, the public should exercise its righteous indignation. If Ransberry ls simply desperate for something to write about, we prefer white space, thank-you. We concede that much of what "Joe and Pierre do" ls either meaningless or of little importance, but if the press took "a week away from politics" who knows what Joe and Pierre would do when not held accountable by the press and the public. If the bottom Une for Ransberry is "VOTE..but be quiet about it," may we suggest "WRITE..but leave it in your desk drawer?" Parents well-informed on day care Dear Sir: After reading Karen Tozdiff's statements With regard to the care, or in her opinion, total lack of it, given to children in private centres, I would like to add a few comments of my own. Poor quality care can be found on ail levels of day care operations. A great deal of what goes in- to making a good centre comes from the commit- ment of the staff employed, and in the case of pri- vate centres, It also depends on the integrity of the operator who is in the business to make a pro- fit, but not at the expense of the care and well- bèing of the children enrolled in their centres. It is the responsibility of the parents to check carefully into whatever arrangements they choose to make for their children. During the time we have been in operation in the Durham Region, I have found the parents to be very aware, and much better informed about what constitutes good day care than Tozdiff gives them credit for. Staff qualifications are important. However, I would like to point out that nowhere in the regula- tions does it require a person with nursing exper- lence be employed with infants. N.N.E.B. and Mothercraft graduates are the preferred qualifica- tions for this age group. Pat Atkinson, N.N.E.B., Co-Ordinator, Bimbo Day Nurseries Ltd. As a journalist, I have had more than a passing interest in the concept of foreign aid for more than 20 years. I first became concerned in the early 60's when I was a correspondent at the United Nations in New York, and I have spent quite a bit of time in the intervening years talking to people who dispense and administer aid, and to those who receive it. There is a lot wrong with aid pro- grams, both the nation-to-nation variety and the multilateral kind. And many of the foreign aid horror stories you read in the papers from time to time, about the stupidity of certain projects, about waste, and about pure venality at both the giving and the receiving ends are justified. This makes foreign aid a difficult concept to sell in the western nations, particularly in the midst of a recession. But no man and no nation can be an island in this day and age. We cannot withdraw from the international com- munity because tires are tough at home, and because the poverty, disease and ignorance that is rampant in some parts of the Third Worid is safely out of sight. There are very few people in this country, despite high unemployment, who do not have food and clothing, who do not have access to one of the finest medical systems in the world, and who do not have access to schooling. In some parts of the world only a tiny minority attain our minimums. We have a Humane Society here which ob- jects when horses are treated as badly as people are in some other countries. I'm not saying that Canadians who are having hard times shouldn't have relief. I'm saying that we shouldn't deny relief to other, less fortunate people because they're over the curve of our horizons. A respected American investment magazine, which drew on assessments provided by international banks, has just given Canada the fifth highest credit rating in the world. That is an enormous vote of.confidence in us. What it suggests is that despite the recession and the central government's inability to end it, international financiers think that with our brains and brawn and resources, we Il win in the end. Certainly, the workhouses are still operating and the treadmills are still fulfilling their useful purpose. And one of the richest nations in the world is still free to play Scrooge. That's not news but that too is reality.