OVER THE EDGE NEWSPAPER. NOVEMBER 8, 2006 RORY CONROY COLUMNIST Front and centre at last weekend's conference at CNC was the question of the Pine Beetle infestation, the effect of the over-cut in response to it, the future economic downside, and the need for ac- tion now. The forests of the central interior and OPINIONS the north provide billions of dollars worth of export revenues to the province and the nation, ‘That revenue stream will be shaken in the wake of the beetle pandemic. Further, the workers and communities of the central interior and the north will experience an economic downturn; loss of jobs, declining popu- lations and shrinking municipal budgets are the likely results. The Stand Up For The North Com- mittee, a group of concerned citizens, is responding to the call. Led by spokes- person Peter Ewart of CNC, the group has provided a platform for dialogue and the people have reacted, The committee envisioned that a wide range of inter- ests were aware of the potential crisis and simply needed a venue in which to express their concern. Attendees came from all over the province and from all walks of life. Their enthusiasm for this opportunity surfaced at coffee breaks The Rumbling Echo and lunches where tight groups put their respective heads together to argue the merits of the input from the speakers. For Ewart and the committee, the re- sponse from the communities has been phenomenal. Donations and offers of support from a broad cross-section of society has enabled the committee to provide an excellent venue and excep- tional speakers, The aim of the event is to plan for healthy forests and healthy communities through innovative, made- in-the-north solutions. Dynamic speakers not only chronicled the pine beetle history, they recounted the failed forest management decisions that got us to where we are now. Topics covered focused on current and future estimates of the extent of the infesta- tion; the effects of this on jobs, families and communities; scenarios for the eco- logical future of our forests; current tim- ber cutting practices and government oversight; and preparing now through foresight and reinvestment. Although purported to be a non-par- tisan event, partisan politics surfaced when speakers from unions and en- vironmental groups, warmed to their convictions, passionately espoused their respective views. Speakers from indus- try cautioned, that despite record profits in the past, lumber and pulp corpora- tions are not that stable in the wake of the softwood agreement and the recent downturn in US and world markets. In- dustry speakers stated that global com- petition could quickly wipe out Canada’s comparative advantage. Throughout the world, competitors operate in more fa- vourable regimes that ignore sustainable forest practices, worker safety, com- munities and any thought of a social contract. Despite the caution, talk turned to reassessing forest tenure, the contractual claim forest companies have to specific stands of timber, Voices were raised for the removal of some tenure options and reassigning timber rights to regions and municipalities. Other voices supported the return of appurtancy - the practice of tying timber to a specific mill and/or locality. Again attendees were cautioned that some responses such as the above are a double-edged sword; appurtancy rules could hurt communities trying to recover from the loss of fibre in the wake of the beetle infestation. The answers to the crisis seem to lie in diversification within the forest industry itself, producing value-added products, empowering communities, supporting local enterprise and partner- ing within and between regions. Specific proposals will rise out of “Sunday's session and will be reported next issue. CODY WILLETT COLUMNIST The challenge of inspiring people has been taken up by greater people than I for ages. From King to Kennedy, Gan- dhi to Guevara, Macdonald to Mandela and Lincoln to Lenin; these leaders have shown their societies, and through them the world, what it means to stand up and demand that things be done differently. Who today will take on that mantle in a world fraught with uncertainty? Shall we wait for the news to let us know who the next ‘troublemaker’ who threatens the status quo is? Or can we rely on our- selves to believe... no, to know that we Madcaps are the forerunners of a better world? I say we must. I realize that there has al- ways been a low-level rumbling of anx- ious desire for change that permeates our society on a daily basis. However, I feel that our humanity is being pushed further and further to the brink each and every day that we remain ambivalent to its creep. The fact that there are still nations in the world today that are willing to go to war with each other over differences in outlook represents society's failure to learn from the atrocities of our grand- fathers. Why is it that today we are still willing to end the lives of our fellow hu- mans over matters of greed and creed? We as a generation must mobilize against xenophobia and rally around values of absolute cultural respect and tolerance, We must seek out ways to reconcile re- spect for inalienable human rights with respect for cultural freedom. This is not an easy task, yet it-is imperative that we stop idly watching our leaders turn a blind eye to the issue of deteriorating relations between cultures. What emboldens today’s leaders to violate the sanctity of another region's The Joys of Nostalgia TYLER CLARKE PRODUCTION COORDINATOR First off, I want to express the pleas- ure I got from reading the responses I got for my last column. There's some- thing about someone calling me an idiot, and then producing an argument that I could easily tear apart that warms my heart. Unions of the Victorian period mean nothing to me. Do you suggest we still burn “witches?” I digress. Because it would be somewhat dictatorship of me to tear apart opinions that are in response to my initial opinion, I shoud just say that I maintain my previous position on the matter of strikers. Now with this week's column! I don’t want to come across as one of those crazy old people who dislike everything, staying up late at night, drafting angry letters to the government about how I think they're misleading the people, and misappropriating the taxes. Over The Edge already has a columnist like that. No, this issue I don't want to tell you about something I dislike. I'll tell you about something I enjoy; nostalgia. sovereignty and borders? One might have said ideology in the past. One could say terrorism today. But what is the answer to 99 out of 100 questions? It's money. Ideology doesn't have the same unifying power as it once did and fighting terror- ism with guns is like fighting fire with fire,.,it only sets more stuff ablaze. The bottom line is that big business greases the political wheel. As long.as the North is economically subjugating the South, they feel contempt and we feel superior- ity. It naturally follows that we see our culture as better and theirs subject. So how do we fix this inequity and injustice to cut this temptation off at the root? We must demand that economically developed countries check their egos at the door and work with underdeveloped countries to create sustainable econ- omies. We must advocate entering into economic partnerships to strengthen the bonds between us so that the insularity gives way to mutual dependence. I'm not talking about branch plant mercantil- ist relationships either. What we need is to restructure our entire capital and resource flow to ensure the most equit- able arrangement. If we do this with a mind to environmental sustainability, First off, a little background. I spent my high school years in Arborg, a town of 1,000, located in Manitoba's. Inter- lake region between Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg. I hated just about every novel, or short story my English teacher, Mr. Paulson forced us to read and over- analyze. That was, until he had-us read W.D. Valgardson's Bloodflowers, a collec- tion of 10 short stories. This is around the time I decided that once I graduated I would go on to major in English. It was also around the time I decided I liked to write short stories, This was no coincidence. As such, this collection of short stories is very important to me. I remembered all of this about two weeks ago, when I decided to order Bloodflowers from Amazon.com. A week and a half later, it was in my hands, bringing me back to the Interlake, and we can overcome not only strife-creat- ing inequality, but also challenges to the ecological balance of our planet. Of course there is always the astute reader who recognizes that we can't pos- sibly have equal economic partnerships with countries that have terribly low literacy and education levels. The right to education must first be enshrined in all countries so that each individual may self-determine their lot in life. This right is inalienable and cannot be curtailed by narrow interpretations of religion, sex- ism, or culture. If we are to make guar- anteeing education for all of the world’s people a priority, there will be universal equality of opportunity and less chance that authoritarian leaders can emerge and play off of public ignorance to their own insidious ends. We cannot stop our demands there. The mere idea that gov- ernments would stand in the way of scientific freedom to suit their own agendas or beliefs is an affront to progressive society. To take something as fundamental to the progress of human understanding and civilization and. subject it to arbitrary temporal authority puts us back in the dark ages where ‘heretical’ ideas were re-inspiring me with the natural, isola- tion-centered imagery that makes up most of the stories. Because most of the stories take place in or around Gimli, Manitoba, I felt naturally quite connect- ed to the stories, even if they did take place decades before I was born, This is the strongest example of nostalgia that I have ever experienced. Nostalgia is an excellent thing be- cause it takes you back to your fondest memories. As I read Bloodflowers I was re-transported to that moment in my life when I decided how I was going to spend the rest of my life. That, and im- ages of me driving around aimlessly for hours at a time in my friend Chris's 1987 Ford F-150, “picking up chicks” [though we didn't, or couldnt, actually pick up too many], flooded my mind. If you spend a moment to think about regularly condemned. The way I see it, the only way out of many of our self- inflicted evils like global warming, dis- eases, overcrowding and food shortages is to embrace as much technology as we can, So my fellow students, we have been given a gift. Our gift is that of youth, in- telligence, and future. What we do with our today dictates what our tomorrow shall be. That is why it is critically im- portant to have a vision in our minds of what we want the future to look like; not just in our own small worlds, but for the whole world. We must understand that everything that happens far away affects us, even in the slightest. Rather than allow the small straws to break the camel's back, be vocal about your vision. Tell anyone who will listen and join your voices by organizing meetings and events where sharing ideas is the order of the day. That way we may inspire each other to aspire to great things. Inside and among us are potential great leaders like the ones at the start of this article. Let us be the change we wish to see...Gandhi was, and all he relied on was courage. it, we are surrounded by pop-culture nostalgia that tries to reproduce such feelings. The movie The Nightmare Be- fore Christmas seems to be making a comeback, Vinyl record stores are be- coming more and more popular. Hell, recently I've even seen bell-bottomed jeans, and those ridiculous pre-ripped jeans that are either trying to remind us of the punk era, or the grunge era, I'm never quite sure. They want to profit off of the positive feelings and memories associated with these products, and all the power to them. I encourage these feelings and memories in everyone, at anytime, We are what we remember, and what we remember is either particularly posi- tive or particularly negative. Bring on the positive, nostalgia.