Editorial Selling Olympic gold The scandal that continues to twirl around the head of Canada’s premier sprinter, Ben Johnson, for illegal anabolic steroid use is far more than Johnson’s problem alone. Use of performance-enhancing drugs is not new. The doping issue surfaces in almost every international meet, especially those in which strength and endu- rance are primary. In Seoul so far, Johnson has been joined by two Bulgarians in being stripped of gold medals. Days earlier, four other Canadians and one Australian were sent home for failing drug tests. Most experts agree: anabolic steroids do enhance performance by adding muscle mass and by developing aggressiveness. It’s estimated, for example, that one-half of U.S. professional football players use physically and psychologically addictive drugs. Experts agree on another thing: the side-effects of these drugs can be dangerous. One anabolic steroid is stanozolol (found in Johnson’s sample). It is manu- factured by the New York-based Winthrop Pharmaceuticals, and sold as tablets under the brand name Winstrol for prescription use. Such substances are said to cause sexual and reproductive disorders, cancers, tumours, liver failure, internal bleeding and changed cholesterol levels, among other ailments. So why do athletes risk such terrible side-effects? And why do they risk getting caught by ever-improving drug detection programs? The cash value of an Olympic gold medal in figure skating last winter was put at $50,000 in overnight endorsements. Corporate endorsements for Johnson’s Olympic gold totalled $15 million over five years. These are today’s stakes. Top athletes can become instant millionaires. Olympic gold is a ticket in many sports to professional ranks where the big bucks are. Making the Games into a marketplace has inevitably affected the athletes, as we’ve transformed the Olympic creed into cash register clatter. Macho media hype, “We’re Number One!” jingoism, unrealistic expectations — all put inhuman pressure to win at any cost on amateur athletes, many of them still teen-agers. As the media turns on Ben Johnson, transforming him from idol to leper overnight, let’s remember that both he and the public are victims of this commercialization of sport. a» 3S LITTLE BRIAN AND JONN MMIGHT HAVE BECOME USEFULT MEMBERS OF SOCIETY IF THEY'D| HAD ACCESS To UNIVERSAL | , NON-PRoFIT DAY CARE & ey AS CHILDEEN, + EDITOR Published weekly at = 2681 East Hastings Street Sean Griffin Vancouver, B.C. ASSISTANT EDITOR V5K 1Z5 Dan Keeton Phone (604) 251-1186 BUSINESS & CIRCULA MANAGER Subscription rate: Mike Proniuke Canada: ®@ $20 one year @ $35 two years @ Foreign $32 one year GRAPHICS Second class mail Angela Kenyon registration number 1560 3 ae ——| he announcement of the long-antici- pated federal election, coupled with the civic races in several municipalities, may tend to eclipse the United States pre- PEOPLE &® ISSUES too surprising, since the NPA, with the help of a millions-dollar war chest from big business, grabbed eight of Vancouver's 11 seats in 1986. With “independent” sidential contest. But as any country that has ever had the U.S. Marines on. their doorstep knows, the U.S. federal election is of world importance. And for Canada, the impending Free Trade Agreement makes the American process particularly relevant. With that in mind, the Centre for Social- ist Education has prepared a forum on the November presidential vote, featuring a speaker who is well acquainted with the process and the U.S. electoral map. She is Baba Jean “B.J.” Mangaong, chair of the Washington State branch of the U.S. Communist Party and a member of the party’s national committee. B.J., who will - make a special trip from Seattle to address the forum, has been a candidate with the Independent 88 Party for the office of gov- _ernor, has twice run for mayor of Seattle and has been a candidate for Congress. With those credentials, B.J. is certain to offer a revealing socialist perspective on the world’s most significant election. The forum is at the centre, 1726 E. Hastings St., Vancouver, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m. * * * ords are probably inadequate to describe the tragedy that befell the Taras Shevchenko Museum which was des- troyed in a blaze last month. The 36-year- old museum, located on the grounds of the Association of United Ukrainian Canadi- ans’ labour camp in Oakville, Ont., con- tained several priceless and irreplaceable items concerning Ukrainian and Ukrainian- Canadian history. An investigation by the Halton Regional Police points to arson as the cause. This is hardly surprising, as the camp itself has been the target of vandalism in the past, and the Toronto area is the locale of sev- eral neo-fascist, ultra-right wing organiza- tions of East European origin. As the museum foundation notes, ‘“‘the T.V. Shevchenko Museum was especially dear to Ukrainian Canadians who regard Taras Shevchenko as the greatest cham- pion of the rights and dignity of the Ukrainian nation. Because his poetry transcends the historic and patriotic strug- gles of Ukraine alone, because he saw these as only a part of a greater human striving for freedom and equality, Shev- chenko has become known and is revered by people throughout the world.” Canada’s progressive community has faced such attacks before, most notably when a firebomb destroyed the Commu- nist Party national headquarters in Toronto several years back. But a nation- wide campaign raised finances far in excess of the cost of replacing that build- ing, and the museum’s trustees are count- ing on that spirit to rebuild the museum as a monument to the proud heritage for which it has stood. They note: “In the spirit of Shevchenko himself, who suffered innumerable setbacks, abuses and indigni- ties during his lifetime, his museum’ in Canada will be rebuilt and will continue to enrich the Canadian multicultural mos- aic.” Donations can be sent to Taras Shev- chenko Museum and Memorial Park Foun- dation, 1363 Dundas St. W., Oakville/ Palermo Ont., L6J 4Z2, or to the business office at 962 Bloor St. W., Toronto, Ont., M6H 1L6. * * * Fe hear some people, the high-water mark of a government is how well it works together. The issue isn’t what that government does, or doesn’t do — it’s a lack of acrimony that is esteemed. That’s the claim to fame of Vancouver city council’s dominant Non-Partisan Assoc- iation. Its chief spokesman, Mayor Gor- don Campbell, likes to point out how council “works well together.” That isn’t A bust of Ukrainian-Canadian pioneer Matthew Shatulsky lies in the ruins in the aftermath of Shevchenko Museum fire in Palermo. Carole Taylor, whose alleged loner status is due only to the fact that she got bumped off the NPA roster by default during the last election campaign, that makes nine city councillors doing their best to make Vancouver the city of profits for develop- ers. The NPA likes to pretend in public that voters don’t care for political slates, des- pite the fact that the association is itself one — the first one in Vancouver, as 4 matter of fact — and that slates have dominated Vancouver civic elections since the mid-Thirties. Not to mention the fact that pure slate voting elected NPA candi- dates in the first place. Helping them maintain this myth is 4 just-released University of B.C.- study under the auspices of political science pro- fessor Paul Tennant. It found that the NPA tends to agree with itself most times, and that the mayor runs his office as a central authority. What a surprise. It follows that Campbell greeted the study with the remark: “It only confirms my own observations that this is one of the best councils we’ve had. They work hard and get things done.” ‘“‘Things,” we note, such as cutting the city’s fair wage policy and selling out on the zoning of the Expo lands to big developer Li Ka-shing. What is truly surprising is Tennant’s claim that the study wasn’t intended to be used as promotion by anyone in the civic election this fall. This is despite the fact that it promotes the NPA’s electoral pre- mise during an election campaign and was undertaken for a man who co-founded The Electors Action Movement, the former civic force that is embodied in the new, revamped-for-the-Eighties NPA. If anyone buys this, we’re here to tell them we’ve got some slightly used rolls of film for sale. ae 4 e Pacific Tribune, October 10, 1988