Is Windsor Being Dominican-ized

Thank goodness that Gord Henderson is back from his holiday and seems to be feeling better. I was getting quite concerned because we had not seen a new column from Gord in his new location on the Saturday Star Editorial page at all.

Presumably, because we have not seen any A3 columns for several days, the Star will now announce shortly who is going to replace him.

To be direct, I have no sympathy for his discomfort. It is his fault that he did not listen to Councillor Lewenza and decided to BUY FOREIGN VACATION. He could have decided to BUY CANADIAN VACATION. He could have traveled to many ski areas across the country. He could have enjoyed the scenery and views, swam in a heated pool and sat in a hot tub drinking Canadian wines. Perhaps he could have waited a few months and enjoyed visiting the beaches in many parts of the country. But oh no, he had to go to the Dominican Republic and risk a parasite in his system.

• “Given that the majority of travelers succumb to diarrhea after eating contaminated food or drinking dirty water, and because the Dominican Republic is a developing country competing with a climate in which bacteria love to breed, you should take sensible precautions when choosing what to eat and drink. Ironically, street food served fresh and hot is safer than the reheated buffet food found in many of the more expensive restaurants and all-inclusive hotels.”

We Bloggers are very happy that he is back. While they wrote interesting columns, the McArthurs, Pearsons and Macalusos are hardly the challenge that Gord is. Whichever one of them wins the coveted A3 position will take time to grow into the job. We will have to treat them gently at the beginning so as not to intimidate them too much. We do not want to scare them off right away.

Gord is back playing his Sheriff’s role again to the “T.” I do feel sorry for some of the commentators on the Star’s Forum who clearly have no idea what Gord is writing about. They took him at face value, thinking that he is writing about spoiled Westerners.

We know better don’t we, dear reader. We know that we must read deeper into what he has written than what seems obvious on the surface.

Clearly, Gord ‘s column is nothing more than an allegory. It is telling us what Windsor has become under our Mayor and Council. He is telling us that our future is to have even less and that we had better learn to deal with it unless drastic action is taken by the entrepreneurs who made this City great and can still do so. We cannot rely on this Mayor and Council because they have failed us. We have no other choice. Right now, we are becoming Samana!

Consider the following to understand what I mean.

We used to be “obese, pasty-faced” working at the auto plants, for others, with all of the security that we supposedly had when this area was the third richest in per capita income in Canada. [Note: Gord mentioned Canada’s third-place ranking on the United Nations human development index].

Instead, we are going to have to “live by their wits” as we create our own opportunities “to sell, from boat rides to fish dinners, from massages to native jewelry, from horseback rides to embroidery.” In other words, we must change in our City from a manufacturing based economy based on the auto industry to one based on making other products such as for the renewable energy sector, to becoming a services based one like IT and one based on high end auto research as Dennis DesRosiers has argued.

I especially liked the paragraph dealing with the homes in Samana. We will be downsizing just as Gord did when he retired to “the tiny shacks clustered along the coastal highway in Samana.” Some homes obviously will be better than others with: concrete blocks, bars on the windows and exposed rebar.” Those who are being foreclosed will have the “weatherbeaten planks, dirt floors.”

His reference to “Garbage is everywhere” ‘and “Mangy dogs patrol the streets” made fun of Council’s trial balloons on outsourcing garbage pickup and trying to eliminate the rodent program.

There is no doubt that the “the area's lone all-inclusive resort” is meant to be our Casino and Hotel. That is where all of the Investors will be brought in when City Hall tries to bring that back this City from the dead. There will be very few other places for them to go as many of the other establishments will close down as tourism drops. We do need to have one nice place around after all.

Tell me that Gord is not talking about our downtown when he said:

• “Unlike a lot of Caribbean islands, the area's lone all-inclusive resort is not a gated and guarded community during the day… At night it's a different story, as evidenced by the security guard heading off into the bush with a rifle slung over his shoulder and a Crocodile Dundee-sized knife dangling from his belt.”

Tell me that he was not talking about the four Liberal MPPs session re renewable energy and how our industries are capable of re-inventing ourselves:

• “They have nothing, and nothing to lose as long as they can still catch a fish, pluck a chicken, chase down a wild horse, clamber up a coconut palm with a razor-sharp machete or figure out a way to extract a bit of cash from tourists. That makes them uniquely equipped for survival in these trying times.”

As for the problems of the world economy mentioned by Gord, we have our own unique ones that are ruining us as our leaders fiddle: the ridiculous opposition to the Enhancement Project and the DRIC road to the Ambassador Bridge and the pie-in-the sky and in-the-water and underground projects like the cargo centre at the airport, the canal vision and trying to buy the Detroit half of the declining Tunnel which all wind up wasting up time and money. We are not fousing on our real needs as our attention is being distracted.

So welcome back Pardner. I missed you. I need your signals to know what is really going on. Don't worry, I will not tell anyone what you are doing!