PAGE 4, THE HERALD, Wednesday, July 20, 1977 _—(the herald) —____ Terrace - 4635-6357 . Kithmat - 632-6209 Circulation - 635-2077 Published by Sterling Publishers Ltd. Guest editorial The next election and its a KITIMAT... CHRIS HUYGEMS postage guaranteed. Publisher. a PUBLISHER... GORDON W. HAMILTON MANAGING EDITOR... ALLAN KRASNICK “CIRCULATION MANAGER... JACK JEANNEAU Published every weekday at 3212 Kalum St, Terrace B.C. A member of Varifled Circulation. Authorized as second class mail. Registration number 1201. Postage pald In cash, return NOTE OF COPYRIGHT _ The Herald retains full. complete and sole copyright in any advertisement produced and-or any ediitoriat or photographic content published In the Herald. Reproduction Is not permitted without the written permission of the / Income strategy The working poor are trapped in the marginal work world-trapped by the pressure of family responsibilities on an inadquate income and by the lack of skills and formal qualifications required in an increasingly credentialist society. Unstable work and earnings make their situation all the more intolerable. No matter how unrewarding work in the marginal labor market may be, many low-income - workers live in daily fear of losing their jobs at the whim of a capricious employer or downturn of a troubled economy. Protracted illness, an unexpected layoff, the shutdown of a local industry -an g thatinterrupts their flow of earnings-can push them even deeper into poverty. To try to solve the problems of the working poor by getting rid of the industries and occupations that comprise the marginal labor market would be the kind of surgery that would surely kill the patient. Eliminating marginal establishments outright would deprive hundreds of thousands of low-income Canadians of the only kind of work that is presently available to them. Even if all the barriers now blocking their access to the normal labor market were removed overnight, there would not be enough vacant jobs to employ more than a fraction of the workers freed from the marginal market. Moreover, many of the jobs performed by the working poor are essential to the functioning of our economy. All of us need the benefit from the goods and services they produce. The non-poor majority of Canadians enjoy, in effect, a continuing subsidy from the working poor - a subsidy which stems from the underpayment of their labor. if the working poor are to be freed from their poverty and allowed to enjoy the same basic rights of employment as all other working Canadians, then government must act to guarantee those rights. The starting point has to be an adequate income, The traditional government response - the minimum wage - cannot, in itself, solve the income problem for all working poor families. The only alternative is a program that will make up the difference between a family's earnings and the poverty line- a wage supplementation plan to ensure every working Canadian family an income sufficient for its needs. The income tax system would be the best vehicle for delivering this program. It would ensure consistent benefits in every province and cover all the working poor. Because it would be delivered through the tax system, it would carry no'stigma and there could be no identification of its recipients. It would be inexpensive to administer and involve no new bureaucracy; indeed, it would probably make some civil service jobs redundant. Our’s is too rich a country to allow the one-and- one-half million people in poor working families to suffer the loss of self-dignity and respect resulting from inadequate income and a paucity of social opportunities. LHASA, Tibet (Reuter) — Flight 491 from Chengtu descended into the rocky valley, skimmed over a sluggish, muddy river and touched down in a land where 27 years ago there were no wheeled vehicles. The roar of the [yushin-18 turboprops scattered a herd of goats but drew ecarcely a glance from the black-cloaked shepherd gathering kindling for a bonfire. There now are six flights a week to Lhasa and occasionally foreigners are aboard. ’ Under feudalism and communism, Tibet was the legendary Forbidden Land on the world’s highest plateau. Now the doors are slowly opening. This was the first flight for Peking- based foreign correspondents into Tibet since the Chinese put down the 1959 rebellion and broke the rule of the Buddhist god-king, the Dalai Lama. Along the 60-mile, dirt-track drive from the airstrip to Lhasa, the car sses primitive stone dwellings and _geruffy hamlets whose mud walls bear red inscriptions in the long, looping characters of the Tibetan script. On the roadside are occasional groups of men brewing butter-tea in sot blackened pots, They wear robes slung, slackly across their chests, boots and wide-brimmed felt hats. Horses grazing nearby have bells round their necks and the tinkling carries far in the thin air. Some of the surrounding peaks are snow-capped, Down in the valley the a ty or sun shines on patches of ripaning wheat. A yak-skin hoat glides down Speculation, is becoming positively torrid about the possiblity of a fall election. Many observers feel .that Prime Minister Trudeau will take advantage of the favourable polls to get four more years of power so he can concentrate on the Quebec problem and on getting a favourable verdict for federalism at the upcoming referendum. Mr. Trudeau, of course, states he has no plans for a . fall election but so far he has carefully avoided making a firm commitment that he will not call an election. No matter how far ahead he may be in the polls he mali doesn't want fo encourage the Opposition. to start preparing. Opposition spokesmen - the Conservatives and NDP - are talking out of both sides of their mouths. At one time they are daring him to call an election and saying how badly he will fare if he does and at another time they are declaring there is no justification for a fall élection, that it would be a simple power grab. It would appear that Mr. Trudeau’s chances of bein, returned will be just as F next spring as they will be this fall although it is impossible to be sure. VERN Unexpected events have a does not look as if it would be much of a gamble for him to wait tll spring, when his normal four-year term would have expired and he could not be charged with opportunism. Further it would put off the following election, when Liberal rospects might not be so right, for six months. "Yet as the leader of the federalist: forces. in the battle that must be fought for the minds of the francophone people of Quebec he would naturally like to have all election worries behind him so he AROUND POLLUTED GREAT LAKES — a could contentrate on the way of occurring. But it © national unity struggle. So he may succumb to the temptation to get it over this all. We are indeed living in a strange time in the history of our country. The outeome of the election seems predictable with the only question probably being the size of the Liberal majority. But beyond that the future Is impenetrable except that there are signs that it will be filled with turmoil of a kind never before experienced by our country. First there will be the campaign leading up to the referendum and the whole country will be involved in it. If there is a majority vote for separation only God knows what will follow, It would appear that nobody in a responsible position in the Canadian government has started facing up to that prospect yet. - oo If the vote rejects separation a major obstacle will have been surmounted but the battle will not be over, In fact is may have just begun. Will the nation, having given almost total concentraion to the task of persuading Quebecers to vote to remain in Canada, have the heart and spirit for a continued fight? We fear that there are too many Canadians who feel that the referendum poses Canada with a great challenge but that when it “has been held the country will be able to relax: and return to its normal ways. That is just illusion. So Trudeau can probably win the next election and win it big. The Conservatives and NDP wi have a problem to win. ftermath — enough seals to maintain a credible opposition. “But what will the political situation be after the Quebec referendum? If federalism loses will the people turn against Trudeau as Massively as they supported him, and look for another leader to make a deal wilh an independent Quebec? | Or if it wins will they decide that Trudeau's task is finished, as the British, decided Churchill's task was finished ‘after World War JI, and discard him at the first opportunity? And of course if federalism loses what about the Liberal party with its power base in Quebec gone? Yes, the next election may be more predictable that most elections are but after that we can expect troubled times such as Canada has never seen. It is certainly not a propitious time to start out on a career in federal politics no matter what party a person may belong to. Summerside Journal - Pioneer Interpreting the news Rhodesian vote kills initiative LONDON (CP) — British Foreign Secretary David Owen will go to Washington as planned this weekend but the prospect of a fresh Anglo-American in- itiative on the Rhodesian -issue now appears to have Diplomatic observers here were stunned by Prime Minister fan surprise call for an Aug. 31 election. They feel there is little hope that the Rho- desian leader can find an “internal solution” to his country’s mounting problems, Owen is known to be bitterly opposed to the ' Smith move. He regards it _ 6s futile when, time appears Lingering effects of chemicals kill birds OTTAWA CP - Scattered on the rocky shores of a handful of windswept islands in Lake Ontario are the bodies of several recently hatched herring — gulls. This year, for the first time in five years, the survival rate of the gull chicks has increased but it is still far below that of other Great Lakes colonies, indicating that something has gone fundamentally wrong, Federal researchers have found more than 360 long- lasting chemicals in the. bodies of these birds after nearly five years of study. They say the birds are an environmental warning bell which should not be ignored. “TF you tried to walk on herring-gull colonies on the West or East Coast the parent birds would part your head,” said Canadian Wildlife Service researcher Doug Hallett, who isa member of a team studying the reproduction and behavior problems of several Lake Ontario herring- gull colonies. “Here they just circle around and wait for you to leave, which isn’t natural. They seem to have lost their instinct to defend their nests and young.” BIRDS DEPLETED Nesting islands which once were the home of more than 1,000 herring gulls now have fewer than 30 birds, said the young researcher who is trying to track down the chemical culprits behind the tragedy. “The herring gull is a tough bird that tends to stay in One area and eats a wide spectrum of food, largely fish, It is a good monitor species and a pretty good indication of the state of health of the lake.” The situation in Lake Ontario, which is bordered by nearly one-third of this country’s population and about 40 percent of its manufacturing industry, . should not be ignored by Canadians in other parts of the country, experts say. “The Great Lakes are like asink and eventually almost every widely-used chemical ends up in them,” said Bob FIRST REPORTERS’ VISIT SINCE 1959 TIBET: Foreign eyes view “roof of the world” - the suburban communes hoast impressive results from new strains of wheat. China and began construction.” “Socialist The date that matters most: is officials returned. Lhasa Radio beams special services aimed at tempting them home and here say a few have Slater, Canadian co- chairman of the Great Lakes Water Quality Board. “The kind of shape they’re inisa preey good indication of the heatlh of the environment, . Federal Environment ‘Minister Romeo LeBlanc said the fish of the Greao Lakes, as well as the birds which eat them, are environmental markers. A sharp increase in oitres and cancer in some pes of Great Lakes fish was recently reported by Dr. Ron Sonstegard, Smith's | to be running out for an: sort of peaceful settlement. Smith, in seeking a new mandate, hopes to prove that recent indications of white disunity in Rhodesia are overstated. , Twelve members of his own Rhodesian Front Par defected earlier this mont and formed the new Rhodesian Action Party. These defectors oppose even Smith's limited concessions to the idea of majority rule. Observers here also believe Smith hopes to convince three of the more moderate black or- ganizations—the United African National Council of Bishop Abel Muzorewa, the African National Council of “(the q{illev, a; Ndabaningi Sithole, and the Zimbabwe United People's. Organization of Chief Chirau—to join him in an interim government while a constitution is drawn up. Sithole has already turned him down, stating that an black pOliticians who tco up such an offer would be regarded as a puppet. Muzorewa’s organization has been equally scornful of the idea. ; Basically, Smith’s plan approaches proposals made by Henry Kissinger when he was U.S. state secretary. The Kissinger _ plan, however, went further in suggesting that guerrilla leaders be included in an in- terim government of whites and blacks that would draw up an agreed constitution. The picture that emerges from talks | with officials here is that of a back- ward area making :steady . devel- On the car seat is a khaki oxygen- filled pillow attached to a nozzle. Acclimitizing to the 11,-800-foot altitude is a problem the Chinese take seriously. An oxygen cylinder stands by each bed in the guest house and a young Chinese woman doctor gives new arrivals regular check-ups. For the first 24 hours strenuous — action leaves you breathless. The doctor's prescription at nightfall is a sedative, a halfhour of oxygen and a bow] of yogurt. Lhasa, once Buddhism’s most holy city, now is a Chinese frontier town. Before 1959, ochrerebed lamas crowded the streets. Religion was a major preoccupation. The new Lhasa, standing in the shadow of the Dalai Lama’s towering Potala Palace, is spartan-~single- storey Chinese architecture and neatly-planted shade trees. It is like numerous Chinese towns— except here: Tibetans tether their horses to lampposts and herdsmen camp down opposite the department: store. With the rest of China, Lhasa rises to the strains of The East is Red pouring from loudspeakers and keeps the same time as Peking although it ts geographically two hours behind. There is a growing industrial quarter, schoola—mass education was opposed by the old lJamas—and The 120,000-population kas been organized into units run by neighborhood committees. Therejis just enough traffic to require'a couple of policemen on duty. : Ina week one correspondent did not see a single lama on the streets. Religion has heen sharply discouraged.. Freedom of faith is enshrined in the Chinese constitution and guides here never fail to point this out. But an ordinary citizen would be unable to carry out the full rites demanded by Tibet’s exotic Buddhist offshoot, Lamaism. The official explanation is that religion was used by the old order to “fetter the serfs” and that since the abortive 1959 insurrection the people have gained freedom. Their political consciousness has risen and they have cast away their old faith—now described as ‘“‘an obstacle to development,”’ In recent Tibetan history, there are three key years, the milestones that crop up in every briefing, in every visit to hespital, school, factory and the meticulously renovated monas- teries. These are 1950, when the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) marched into Tibet to “liberate an inalienable part of China;” 1959, year of the hopeless rebellion; and 1865 when Tibet became an autonomous region of March, 1959, Simmering unrest led to an anti-Chinese uprising in Lhasa, the Dalai Lama fied to India for safety aud Peking accelerated the process of bringing Tibet inte line with “motherland” China, Until then the Dalai Lama, reincarnation of Buddha and 14th in a line that stretches back to the 15th eentury, had retained more than nominal powers. . His moral authority was extensive and his subjects—China insists 95 per cent were serfs— looked to the Potala Palace for guidance. The Chinese had generally kept a low profile in the countryside building roads, opening schoo and trying to impress the Tibetans that the future should be Peking st le social development not feudal Lamaism. After the 1959 Lhasa rebellion which was crushed in three days, Lamaism came under attack. ‘‘Mobilized” by Communist Party cadres, lamas and nuns poured out of the monasteries and nunneries, Many monasteries, focal points of the far-flung towns and villages, fell into disrepair and the people were formed into mutual aid groups—fore- runners of the communes. The Dalai Lama has made his home in Dharamsala on the Indian side of. the Himalayas, where he has been. joined by some 65,000 followers.’ Since 1959 there have been oc- casional reports of alleged resistance by the Khampa people from eastern Tibet, but the most reliable evidence suggests this ended several years . ago, Officials here say there is no longer any opposition and that the 1.7 million population has become a part of the socialist system. Even the nomads .who wander the three-mile-high Chiang Tang Plain are enrolled in communes, they claim, The influx of Han Chinese has not been as great as in other minority areas, The official figure is 120,000 Han, many of them operating from the regional administration here, plus the undisclosed legions of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The PLA guards a 2,200-mile border which has been the source of armed conflict with India. The situation is described as stable but only’ the Nepalese section of the frontier is . open for small-scale trading. Sixty per cent of the cadres are reporte eneral Jen Jung, is a Korean War veteran and there is never any doubt about Peking's authority here, On tours of Chinese ° provinces, correspondents sometimes never come into contact with local leaders. | s to be Tibetan but the Han . Chinese hold the important jobs. The _ ,top-administrator, opment and probably poised for dramatic progress in the late 1980s. The “liberated serfs’? now have been formed into more than 2,000 communes, and 300,-000 acres are. under irrigation. Tibet is reported to be self-sufficient in grain. As agricultural research continues, - crops are grown at ever higher altitudes. ; _ Officials say there now are 74,000 industrial workers who are on higher wage rates than their counterpar'! the “motherland.” They receive free medical treatment and housing at rents of about $1 a month, Tibetans, like China’s other minorities, are not subject to family planning strictures and more of them can read their own language than at ‘any other time, The Tibetan script edition of the Tibetan daily boasts a circulation of 45,000. - Tibet’s inaccessibility limits development. It takes 12 days for convoys to travel here across the mountains from Chengtu, the nearest Chinese city. ‘ ; Work has started on a 1,300-mile line to link Tibet with China’s rail network, When that is completed, Yang Tsung-hsin, the ; administration's vice-chairman, predicts rapid exploitation of known mineral resources and “much faster construction.” :