That’s no solution at all
(Re: Closure of Hart House range)
Hart House warden Margaret Hancock says that as much as we like these [rifle and revolver] clubs, we just might not be able to afford them. So after all this waiting, the solution to the closure of the clubs seems to be no solution at all. The proposed ridiculous requirements for reopening the range will ensure that the range is not reopened.
Campus Police require a $24, 000 alarm system, for one thing. That sounds outrageous to me. What have they been smoking? Here’s a alternative thought: call Alarm Force, and for about a $29.95 monthly monitoring fee, Hart House will get a free installation of their patented wireless “two-way voice communication technology,” together with door contacts, key pads, and motion detectors (how can anyone miss hearing their ads on the radio?).
Surely Hart House can afford to make an investment like that? I think we can skip the retina scanners and x-ray vision cameras to shave $24,000 off of the price tag. This estimate sounds very much like the classic case of a Pentagon-style “5000 dollars for a hammer” proposal. Campus Police should stick to what they are best at: putting yellow warning tape around broken park benches and issuing parking tickets.
How can Warden Hancock maintain any credibility if she actually takes this ridiculous amount to the Stewards and tries to use it as an excuse to keep these clubs from reopening?
As you may know from my previous letter, I’ve never been a member of the clubs in question, but I cannot believe the stupidity of what is happening to them. I can only imagine what the actual exec and members are thinking.
Ana Pereira
Housing story lacked depth
(Re: “Toronto’s housing crisis up close and personal,” 10 December 2001)
It is clear Kelly Holloway knows little about Toronto’s housing crisis and did little to investigate it. If she did, she would not have promoted OCAP, a group that has done as much to hurt the cause of the poor as Mike Harris has, but all in the name of the poor.
By contrast, the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations prevents thousands of evictions a year so people don’t become homeless in the first place. Their hotline helps over 20,000 tenants per year and their Tenant Defence Fund reduced rents for another 10,000 tenants.
They also have an excellent web site, www.torontotenants.org, which has helped countless others.
Now that is a group that actually accomplishes something for the poor.
How about reporting on that?
Dave Burns
Does globalization help the poor?
(Re: “Trade not paternalism,” 3 December 2001)
Grasping for legitimacy, the forces of globalization have begun to wear the mantle of “social justice,” claiming that they are helping the world’s poor. The evidence indicates, however, that they are either greatly misinformed or lying. This seems to be Anil Misir’s argument. Decontextualized from any analysis of recent history it reinforces a simple truth: if you starve someone into submission, you can enslave them.
Over the past 25 years, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have succeeded in impoverishing the Third World, destroying the progress of the post-war era. In sub-Saharan Africa, Latin American, and much of Asia, and more recently in Eastern Europe, they have managed to implement destructive economic and social policies which have created a state of poverty so severe that people would sell themselves into sweatshop slavery in order to survive.
Past growth—a result of sane economic policy—has been undone by the IMF and World Bank, and will remain undone through the policies of the World Trade Organization. Misir is correct in stating that “Asian Tigers” like South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan are better off than many of their counterparts. Much of their prosperity, however, can be linked to their rejection of IMF and WTO dictates (e.g. by maintaining protective tariffs and strong regulation of capital flow).
The first part of the real solution to the problem of poverty is to immediately forgive the World Bank and IMF debts that have completely paralyzed growth (even the Pope is calling for this). After centuries of colonization, it is the West that owes the Third World, not the Third World that owes the West. Without this, trade will do little to benefit the poor.
David Banerjee
Education is a private investment
(Re: “The tyranny of tuition,” 10 December 2001)
I am writing in response to Student Administrative Council (SAC) President Alex Kerner’s latest ignorant diatribe. After his disgraceful decision to insult our heroic veterans, I thought Mr. Kerner might learn to keep his uninformed mouth shut. Alas, I was wrong. Kerner’s article about the tyranny of tuition fees was full of empty criticisms without offering any meaningful solutions. Yes, tuition is rising, but this has not prevented anyone from attending or completing university. In fact, despite rising costs, university enrolment continues to go up. But Mr. Kerner is missing the most important point: education should not be viewed as a cost but as an investment. You are the net beneficiary of your university education, and as such, you should bear the costs of your investment.
I don’t know where Mr. Kerner thinks this extra money for education is going to come from. The federal and provincial governments are each billions of dollars in debt. Ironically, Mr. Kerner is against increased corporate funding that would actually reduce some of the student’s financial burden. If Mr. Kerner is sincere in wanting to let students keep more of the money they earn, I suggest he dissolve SAC.
I’d much rather have my money go towards a quality education than toward supporting Mr. Kerner’s fanatical left-wing nonsense.
Josh Somer
