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ORONO WEEKLY TIMES, TIIUBSDÂYýV' FUI]RUAKY 2«t)b 1969 Writes Fro M France LETTER TO THIE EDITOR Anaerican Express Office, 11 Rue Scribe Paris 9, France, February 14, 1969 ])cear Roy: Having just finished reading a copy of the Orono Times which my parents have kindly forward, ed, 1 began thinkîng about Oreono etc. Enclosed are a couple of ob- servations and comments which 1' 'I MID-WINTER s A L I je. c. TmiAMB>LYN you may wi5b te print somctime when iyou have some extra spaçe available. Sinicerely, Larry Miller. "The World's in a State of Chas- i s" or is it, The Irish playwright Shean '- Casey concluded his play "Juno and the Paycock" with the words, "the world's in a state of chas- is" with the word chasis meaning chaos. One bas enly to read the headlines of 'any daily 'newspaper or tune in to any of tbe other mass media to become acutely a- ware of many symptems of the same state of affairs in the world today. In our twentieth century soci- ety where the threat of destruc- tive nulear power bovers over, -îls continually, it becomei.s in- creasingly important for people of different nationalities to bc able to cemmunicate and under- stand one anoVhar. Since leaving Orono and Canada a few months ago my travels have been limited to the United States, Mexico, Ice- land, Luxembourg, ,Germany, Switzerland and France. However since I have spent most of my nights in youth hostels in West- ern Furopean countries, 1 have had the opportunity of meeting and exchanging views with young people from France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Nether- lands, Italy, IEngland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa,. Ug- anda, India, United States, Japan, Sweden, Egypt, Israel, »orocco, Tunisia, Spain, Argentina and Chile. It is becoming obvious that the only way to understand another person's point of view is to step inside bis sboes and walk around. This is a very difficult phenom- enon to achieve,. however, leng- tby discussions sometimes made more. difficuit .by jan guage bar- riers bave eènab1ed' me' at least, to some extent te develop a better underjtanding of the cultural dif- ferences, the political, social or religious views or the problems encountered by' people who do net bave ahl the economic benefits or ail the pressure. te su cceed which are se prevalent in our af- fluent Canadian society. Communication in itself is an interesting phenemenon. The ab- jlity ef Eurepean young people te cerlmunicate in net 2 but of- ten 3 or 4 languages is the rule rather than the exception. Most of us have net mastered any for- eign language and even after 6 years of exposure te French in a terribly inadequate system of teaching a fereign language, "il est tres difficile de m'expli- quer en Francais." There is quite a large popula- tion of Dutch people in the Orono area; I have te take my hat off te the young people from their native land. I bave had the opportunity of meeting and spending time witb many Dutch young people net enly from Hol- land but from the remainder of the Netherlands as well. Almost without exception their fluency and mastery of the English lang- uage is remarkable. Other nation- alities bave equally impressive abilities in foreign lan1'ýuages, particularly the Japanese wbo bave a strong interest in learning Englisb. I recently spent a copple of weeks travelling with a fellow from Chie wbo spoke French, German and Englisb in addition te Spanish, bis native tongue. We as Englisb speaking Cana- dians are able te communicate with young people from practic- ally any country in the world but the credit for this communication b longs flot to us but to the young people from other couint- ries which place a, high value on more effective methods of teach- ing and mastering fereign lang- uages. English speaking Canadi- ans (and Americans are just as guilty if not more so) have ad- opted the attitudethat any com- munication with different nation- alities is going to have te be on sur terms namely English. It is about time we limbed down off our high horse, opened a book written in a language other than English and made an honest ef- fort to start communicating with not only French speaking Cana- dians but with Canadian immi- grants who speak a variety of languages. Young people travelling in for- eign countries automatically be- corne ambassadors for or against their native land. In general Can- ada is a nation and young Can- adian travellers are held in high esteern by other nationalities. l{owever one blatent exception to this feeling is inspired by our apparent reluctance to master any other languages, therefore in- sisting, that other nationalities corne to us, rather than our mek- ing the effort to communicate on their ground. It is customary for many stud- ents travel ling in Europe to re- veal their nationality' by display- ing their countries' flag in a con- spicuous place. Interestingiy en- ough, our Canadian flag appears more often than the flag of any other country. There are 2 rea- sons, 1 think, which account for the- prevalence of the' familiar red maple leaf. First of ail, the vast number of Canadian students and young people travelling in Europe is as large if not larger than any other nationality in the world. Secondly young Canadians are proud of their native land and are pleased te be identified with a productive young country that has an international, reputa- tion for offering vast opportuni- ties.. Although some travellers. as ambassadors present a very un- favourable image, in gcneral young people from ail countries of the werld emphatically rein- force the view that if the ability of countries, to function harmon- iously to avoid a state of world cha os depends on the petential leadership of youth, then these same young people will provide the buman resources to lead ahl nations to experience what Prime Minister Trudeau calîs a fair and just society. Larry Miller. GLEN FRY RESIGNS FROM BOWMAN VILLE TOWN COUNCIL Dissension on Bowmanville Town Council came to the fore- front again Monday night with the announcement of the resigna- tion of first term CouncillQr Glen Fry and rumored resignation of Councillor J. K. Shackleton. Mr.. Fry's resignatien came within a month of that of form- er Councillor Roy Nichols comn- plainîng of 'yes men' and a lack of business practice on council. Mr. Fry said he Ilopes to be in- strumental in establishing in the near future a citizens' committee which will bring modern mana- gerial concepts, better communi- cations and a clear delegation of responsibilities to Bowmanville's municipal scene. SIMPSON S Used Snownîobiles, and Tralle>;urs BEE SURE TO SEE FARM EQUIPMENT 4JRONO, ONTARTO