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p 4 weekender march 25 1995 stux race relations at a crossroads last tuesday was the united nations day for the elimina tion of racial discrimination a fairly wordy description for an entirely noble cause the day takes place on or about march 21 because that was the date in 1960 of the sharpeville massacre in south africa thirtyfive years later nel son mandela is that countrys president obviously then the world is moving forward as it tries to get rid of racism its a tough long battle though and there are still many roadblocks along the way canada has a long tradition of tolerance and racial harmo- alan shackleton ny but we still have much work to do our biggest challenge is the speed with which our country is changing within a span of 10 years a rural intersection becomes an urban corner full of signs in a different language some feel threatened by the intrusion while others welcome the diversity as the experts say its a mat ter of education one needs to understand why people of dif ferent cultures do certain things instead of criticizing them for not doing everything the way you do it where we often run into trouble in this country is with the professional dogooders and social engineers trying to shove their version of the right thing down the throats of everyone else they cause more harm than good the push to take the christ out of christmas in public schools is an excellent exam ple of this somebody though its impossible to pinpoint the exact individual group or government department thought this was a good idea okokttuwmwt caiieutwwisrr alwmcawjobtocalt for baby sming averskjnto04ujng besides there are sowe tmgcwu lustdobensttkanme uke diminsa swffiwmt ylhwins ahp bb33in5 it would show that were all so tolerant we would actually try and turn the single most important day of the christian calendar into a nonreligious event in an effort not to offend anyone its these kind of lamebrained decisions that breed resent ment and they do more to fan the fires of racism than a hun dred hatemongers could ever hope to achieve on the issue of eliminating racism i think were at a cross roads where we either choose commonsense and genuine goodwill to others or we expe rience an ugly backlash to the rapid changes we are going through hopefully its the former the tribune weekender edition a metrofand co new patricia pappas publisher jo ann stevenson editoriihiet andrew mair editor alan shackleton editor debraweller director of advertising barry goodyear director of distribution vrvmncneil business manager pamela nichols operation manager news administration 2942200 retail sales 7967624 classifieds 2944331 distribution 2948244 fax 2941538 9 heritage rd marfcham ont l3p 1m2 the stounville and uxbridge tribunes pub lished every wednesday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distrib uting group of suburban newspapers which includes markham economist and sun ajax pickering news advertiser auroranewmarket era banner barrie advance brampton guardian burlington post cityparent colling wood connection etobicoke guardian george town independentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this week milton canadi an champion mississauga news northumber land news north york mirror oakville beaver orillia ibday oshawawhitbyciarington this week peterborough this week richmond hillthomhillvoughan liberal scarborough mirror todays seniors contents not to be reproduced without written permission from the publisher permit f 1247 odd goings on going on there are more things in heaven and earth horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophy hamlet lefs see nowthere was the canadian federal progressive conservative party which thanks to the deft management of onebmulroney metamorphosed from the most powerful political institution in the country to a backwater rump clique not quite as powerful as the flat earth society there is the cod moratorium in which newfoundlanders whove been fishing for cod since the time of shakespeare were prohibited by law from fishing for cod yeah id say 1994 was a pretty weird year wouldnt you well you might say so and i might say sobut bob rickard would disagree mister rickard is the editor of a very strange magazine called the fortean times published in britain the fortean times devotes itself to measuring weird- ness worldwide and it says 1994 was slightly substandard weird- wise specifically about two per cent less weird than 1993 how do they figure well each year the folks at fortean times assess 34 different categories of what they call weird happen ings according to their calibra tions 1994 saw a marked decline in the number of- well for exam ple paranormal experiences crop circles mass deaths and water monsters which is not to say that 1994 was a brady bunch norman rockwell preston manning kind of year heck no the fortean times notes significant increases in alien big cat sitings for one thing the alien big cat syndrome has been getting headlines in britain for the past few months felines much bigger than your arthur black average housenoldtadbynave been spotted in some of the wilder areas of great britain other even odder phenomena made the fortean times strangeness index it notes that thousands of small fish were found flapping about on parking lots and roads in the australian desert outback on feb 22 of last year strange a little whats even stranger is that this is the fourth reported fishfall in the area over the past six years what other events of 1994 does the fortean times deem news worthy there is canadas own contri bution to weird highlights of 1994 the fortean times calls it holy spirit fever victims or lucky recipients of the fever burst into joyful tears roar like lions or simply begin laughing uncontrollably the fever seems to have its origins in a tiny church near lester b pearson airport on the outskirts of toron to people come from all around the world to take part in what has come to be called the toronto blessing whatever it is its con tagious the fortean times has documented outbreaks of holy spirit fever in africa india south america and china personally im delighted that the folks at the fortean times are taking the trouble to docu ment the odd goings on going on i cant wait until they break a truly bizarre story like oh i don know aliens in charge of photo radar vans maybe or a politician who actually keeps his prom nah that would be too weird