By ERNIE NEUFELD
As if endowed through the simple act of inscribing words on paper, most individuals who do so regularly in print feel justified - indeed obligated - at every year-end to translate what has happened in the past into what is likely to occur in the coming year.
I'm no exception. Although I probably am more aware of my shortsightedness than is imputed to me by my worst detractors, as the closing days of the year roll ominously toward us, my fingers are seized with an irrational impulse to write of the future, despite admittedly abysmal ignorance of the past.
What has a new year got to do with anything in any event? When the human race was created, or evolved from slimy creatures crawling out of the sea, it did not emerge with calendars dividing time into years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds.
Passage of time might not even have been noted had not the earth spun on its own axis and revolved around the sun in measurable periods, even as the moon revolved around the earth predictably.
Identifying these passages in due course as years, months, days and so forth, helped us to understand that some events could be expected seasonally, while other events were results of human actions or natural calamities and often had consequences far in the future.
Some of these consequences were immediate and therefore predictable. Others had a tendency to lie dormant for long periods, programmed to surface in the future: sometimes in seconds, often in days and weeks, and in other instances not for years or decades.
These consequences might be highly beneficial (such as crop improvement from the timely application of fertilizer), or malignant (such as revenge by the maturing of children in remembrance of an evil act perpetrated upon their parents in times gone by).
But I blather on instead of offering solutions to the problems of the world and lesser jurisdictions.
The violence, unrest, suffering, hunger and ignorance that daily assail us from all corners of the planet, make it increasingly obvious that the United Nations needs serious rethinking, or replacement with a more potent world body.
Much as I have opposed and criticized U.S. President George W. Bush and his highhandedness, especially respecting Iraq, at least part of the blame may lie with the U.N.'s unwillingness or lack of a mandate to accept and demonstrate leadership. Something needs to change.
In Canada, our minority government might enlist the support of opposition parties and harness their brains on initiatives that will lessen our dependence on the U.S., while resisting those who seem determined to weaken centuries-old and fundamentally strong ties between us and our southern neighbours. That need not mean forfeiting sovereignty.
In Saskatchewan, dependence on agriculture, petroleum and potash continues to dominate our economy, with bust being more prevalent than boom. Perhaps cutting-edge technologies such as the synchrotron in Saskatoon attracting worldwide attention will lead the way to a new and important presence in world markets.
Weyburn's reliance on the same factors that challenge Saskatchewan, continue to be felt in the city's economic strength.
What's to say except "Happy New Year!" and good luck
to the individuals and institutions truly working on improvement
of our world, country, province and our own little pocket of all.
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