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The Other Press, December 9th, /982~

‘Laine Sees Light In Left )

Opposes Hospital Cutbacks

With all the cutbacks the provincial ‘government has been employing in our insit- utions, it is not surprising to see our level of health care, education, transport, etc., sharply dropping off into an abyss. f

Concerns over healthcare cutbacks have been voiced time and time again by doc- tors and nurses who could see their ability to perform adequately. in the hospitals decline if the money wasn’t there.

-In my opinion, hospitals have always been foreboding with their disinfectant odour cold halls, stainless steel, and surgical garb. I have never felt secure when faced with an operation or a visit to a sick friend.

The Surrey Memorial is nice enough, and not so inhu- man, the

but Vancouver

General and royal Columbian.

are on the other side of the spectrum.

Upon a vist to a friend with a back injury in the Royal Columbian Hospital _ last week, I was met with a reception room full of half naked patients,'a few nurses running about, and one doc- tor. All seemed grossly over- worked, and the area resem- bled that of a M*A*S*H* pre -oproom.

Going up to the floor of my friend, I looked around at the decomposing building. Shel- ves and cupboards were out-

dated and pillows were fall- No :

ing apart. the whole place looked like it had jumped out of the early 19th Century. Was this really 20th Century technology and healthcare?

I found the right room and entered. It was cramped with four beds. One contained an old man masturbating, ano- ther man screaming for a nurse, and one laying so still I thought he was dead. My friend was propped up in bed with intraveinous hook-ups looking just as dead himself.

His doctor came in, a 72 year old gentleman who said he didn’t know what was wrong with my friend at all. I asked for a specialist to be brought in; upon this the doc asked me if I'd care to treat the patients and storm- ed out the door. My friend had gone from a back prob- lem to losing all control of his internal organs, being unab- le to eat, and listed only as in fair condition.

I thought that this was just

. too much. I rang for anurse.I

rang again, and again, and then decided to go look for one. I finally found her, app- arently the buzzer was brok- en. Making my friend as comfortable as possible, I got the nurse to phone for a specialist who said it would be a week before he could come.

Upon leaving, I could not help but notice another of the many tragedies in this hospi- tal. Ther were about 100 beds on this floor plus doc-

continued on Page 6

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Editor, the Other Press:

We, at the Nuclear A- wareness Group, were rather perturbed by Warren Laine’s article, ‘‘Is Disarmament Plausible?’’, which appeared in your November 25th issue. We feel that it relied more on gratuitous insult and faulty logic than on good argument.

Laine suggests that it could never be in the inter- ests of any government to participate in a programme of mutual disarmament. This is not so. The accelera- tion of the arms race in- creases the likelihood of nuclear weaponry being used. As Mr. Laine admits, the consequences of nuclear war must be avoided at all costs. It is clear, then, that disarmament should be in the interests of all govern- ments. In addition, there are economic reasons to favour disarmament, as Annette Murray points out in her excellent article, ‘Nuclear Buildup Spells Economic Decline’, which was also published in your November 25th edition.

Laine’s article further states that ‘‘Many arms limi- tation treaties have been signed and resigned, but... no one is really honoring them:’’ This is simply false. Ot the twelve existing nucle- ar weapons treaties between the superpowers, not one of them has been violated. This is not to say that they are adequate. A look at Ruth Leger Sivard’s: World, Mili- tary and Social Expenditures

veals what is wrong with ‘them’; They are too few and | too limited in scope.

_ Laine touches upon the issue of verification. Actual- ly, this is not as great a problem as he suggests. Existing spy satellite sys- tems, as well as other forms of surveilance, could prove

fication, which need not rely solely on trust.

weapons disposal is insur- mountable. Laine states

properly sealed and buried ‘miles underground, it has been proven that they will leak out and get into our ecosystem’’. In fact, no such proof exists. Nevertheless, storage is a real problem and’ one that exists now. It has not, however, been caused

\ by attempts at disarmament,

1981 (World, Priorities) re- .

‘instrumental in mutual. veri- -

The article then argues — that the problem of nuclear ,

that, ‘“‘Even with the wastes ©

‘Faulty Logic’

but rather by. the nuclear proliferation that disarma- ment would curtail.

Laine concludes that the only way to rid the world of this undesirable waste would be to shoot it into space. He then dismisses the proposal as too ‘costly. Yet, when compared to the enormous expense of the arms race, which has been estimated as costing as much as _ one million dollars per minute, (see the front page of the October 26, 1982 edition of the Vancouver Sun) the sum involved does not seem xhat great. of

The article does not deal with any of the arguments for disarmament. Instead, it

dismisses those who advo- cate them as being ‘‘dream- er’’ and people who are ‘‘not using any form of intelli- gence’. This is patently false. Nuclear disarmament is not a dream, but a real political possibility to which millions of people around the world have voiced their assent.

Michael Lacusta President, Nuclear Aware- ness Group (NAG) |

Barbara Eby Secretary/Treasurer

In the November 25 issue of The Other Press, you print ed an article entitled ‘‘Is Dis- armament Plausible?’’ Ir this article Warren Laine described the idea of nuclear disarmament as’’...void of any intelligent thought...’’ His ensuing article served only to demonstrate his total ignorance of the facts involv- ed in the issue. Indeed, his only statement that had any factual basis was that he was: going to Pacific Centre to meet a luncheon date. But, to address his comments on the intelligence of disarma- ment proponents, many of the most distinguished scien- tists, physicians, and acade- mics in the Western .World are deeply,committed to the disarmament movement. Two-time Nobel Laureate, Dr. Linus Pauling, cited in 1954 for chemistry and in

these.He was recently in Vancouver to speak on the

dangers of the nuclear arms

race, and what each of us as individuals can do to bring it to an end. If Mr. Laine cares to describe this caring and eminent individual as ‘..void

he is placing himself on very treacherous ground.

Besides his complete ignor- ance of the subject of nuclear disarmament, Mr. Laine dis- played the most shockingly defeatist attitude I have seen in a long while. The govern- ment will not disarm, so we should not try to do anything about it?

‘Total Ignorance’

1962 for peace, is one of .

‘of any intelligent thought...’

Preposterous! Only immense pressure will conv- ince them to act. Many things have been accompli- shed in this manner. The ab- olition of slavery is a very good example of how a great injustice can be ended throu- gh popular opposition. Am- erican involvement in the war in Vietnam was ended largely because of its unpop- ularity among the American people. If we wait for the government to act, no action will ever be taken. If the peo- ple lead, eventually the lead- ers will follow. The govern- ment will do as the people wish, if enough people ex- press a lasting commitment. This can be assured because: politicians need the peoples’ vote to stay in office. We live in a democracy, remember?

Because of editorial limits placed on the length of letters, I cannot here outline all of the facts and statistics needed to prove the absurd- ity of Mr. Laine’s arguments - but I can assure you that they do exist. Anyone wishing for more information should | contact any of the peace ervubsrepereus in Vancou- ver. They would be glad to offer any pertinent informa- tion and answer any quest- ions you may have. (Two par- ticularly approachable groups are: the End the Arms Race Committee, 1708 W. 16th Avenue, and the UBC Students for Peace and Mutual Disarmament, Box #71, room #230B, Student Union Building, | UBC) Continued on....Page 5 )