VNA June 15, 2016.indd - News Advertiser Online

PAGE 6
News Advertiser
october 19, 2016
www. NewsAdvertiser .com
FROM THE PAGES OF THE VEGREVILLE OBSERVER
COMPILED BY DAN BEAUDETTE
90 Years Ago – October 20, 1926
A complete gravelled highway from Edmonton to the international boundary by the end of 1927 is a possibility, according to the
program of the provincial highway department. The completion of
the gravelled highway from Edmonton to Calgary will be carried
out nest summer, and the completion of the road south from
Calgary to the boundary, some of which has already been gravelled will be made next year too, if possible.
At noon today, Wednesday, word was received from Lavoy that s
fire, which had broken out in the warehouse of the Hayward
Lumber Company, was threatening the village with destruction.
Chief Rodgers accordingly gathered the local brigade together in
the usual way and sent a large number of them to Lavoy with such
equipment as could be of use in an emergency. The brigade
arrived at Lavoy within half an hour from the time of the first alarm
and by their efforts, assisted by the willing hands of Lavoy Citizens,
the fire was confined exclusively to the Hayward property.
Hayward’s lumber warehouse and yards were entirely consumed.
75 Years Ago – October 22, 1941
At their national convention held in late August, the 85 Kinsmen
Clubs of Canada pledged themselves to supply Britain 1,500,000
quarts of milk for their children who so sorely need this aid. The
milk is purchased in powder form and distributed in England by the
Women’s Volunteer Service under Lady Reading. The powdered
milk will be converted into fluid milk and given to the children in
those areas “where the need is greatest.” One pound of powdered
milk equals approximately four quarts of fluid milk. One dime is
approximate cost of one quart of milk delivered in Britain.
Jam contributions are slowing down to some extent. The committee acknowledges that from D. Nikiforuk of Mundare on October
18th. It is planned to send a shipment of jam around November
1st, so if you want yours to go then, please deliver it to the Red
Cross rooms as soon as possible.
Experiments are being conducted in Britain on the powdering of
fruit in an effort to save bulk storage, according to the Agricultural
Department of the Canadian National Railways. The product can
be converted into a puree of any desired concentration by the
addition of the required amount of water.
50 Years Ago – October 20, 1966
Work is progressing favourably on the 1,000,000 gallon clear
water reservoir being constructed a short distance away from the
south water tower. Purpose of the reservoir is to supplement the
town’s storage of treated water. Consumption of water in the community exceeds 175,000 gallons each day and the present storage
in the two towers amount to only 120,000.
Saturday, October 15th saw the dropping of the lucky leaflets
over Vegreville by plane, in conjunction with the Fire Prevention
Week. Dean Locken, Vegreville who collected the top number of
leaflets won the $5.00 cash prize. He managed to collect around
205 of these leaflets and turned them in to the fore hall that afternoon which made him eligible for the cash prize.
Something of an oddity for this district showed up on a Vegreville
district farm recently. Ruben Goodman who farms about two and
a half miles south of town was working in his farmyard one morning when he noticed a large brown bird lying on the ground. The
bird turned out to be a Golden Eagle and from all appearances
died from natural causes. The powerfully built eagle had a 6 foot
wingspan, huge talons and appeared every bit as fearsome as
some stories would have one believe.
25 Years Ago – October 22, 1991
A memo dated October 4 was submitted from the multi-purpose
complex committee recommending that the Town of Vegreville
upfront the shortfall for the multi-purpose complex, conditional to
agreements as the town sees fit. The town will proceed with the
construction and completion of the multi-purpose complex and
the town will also solicit the groups to make the necessary financial
commitment for the completion of the project. Vantage Builders’
bid was accepted by the town for the completion of phase two of
the multi-purpose complex.
Three years ago in 1989 Vegreville Catholic SSD No. 16 trustees
began planning for the October 15 sod turning ceremony for a
new gymnasium at St. Martin’s school. The original Catholic
Independent School in the area was started by area pioneers in old
Vegreville in 1894, with Mr. Theodore Theroux as the first teacher.
St. Martin’s School at its present site was completed in 1914 at a
cost of $15,000 and thanks to community support, it has grown
with facilities added on in 1958 and 1981. The new facility will provide much needed space.
Letters Welcomed
One role of the Vegreville News Advertiser is to promote dialogue on various
issues of concern to area residents. We accomplish this by welcoming Letters
to the Editor and allowing various issues to be debated through our pages. All
letters must contain the writer’s name, address and phone number. Anonymous
letters will not be printed, however the writer’s name may be withheld from publication in special circumstances deemed appropriate by the Publisher.
The Vegreville News Advertiser reserves the right to edit letters for length,
clarity, spelling and grammar, taste or for reasons of potential libel. The Vegreville
News Advertiser reserves the right to withhold letters from publication.
Yemen: The Stupidest War
Gwynne Dyer
“They hit everything, hospitals,
orphanages, schools,” Hisham alOmeisy told The Guardian newspaper
six months ago. “You live in constant
fear that your kids’ school could be
the next target.”
No, he’s not talking about the wicked
Russians bombing Aleppo in Syria. He
was talking about the air force of Saudi
Arabia, that great friend of the West,
bombing his friends and neighbours in
Sana’a, the capital of Yemen.
The Saudi Arabian bombing campaign is responsible for most of the
estimated 5,000 Yemeni civilian
deaths in the past 18 months. The
Saudi authorities swear that it wasn’t
them every time there is a big civilian
death toll, but they are the only side in
the conflict that has aircraft.
A case in point is last Sunday’s strike
on the Great Hall in Sana’a, a large
and distinctive building of no military
importance. On Sunday it was crowded with hundred of people attending
the
funeral of Ali
al-
Rawishan, the father of the current
interior minister, Galal al-Rawishan.
The younger al-Rawishan is in the
government that sits in the capital,
which is supported by “rebel” Houthi
tribesmen from the north of Yemen
and by the part of the army that still
backs the former president, Ali
Abdullah Saleh. His father’s funeral
was therefore attended by many senior
Houthi officials and supporters of the
former president, as well as large
numbers of other people.
And by the sheerest coincidence, an
air-strike accidentally hit the Great
Hall at just the right time to kill 150
people and wound 525, probably
including a dozen or so “rebel” government officials. Nonsense. It was
obviously deliberate
This war is really about Saudi
Arabia’s ability to control Yemen’s
government. The two neighbours
have about the same population but
Saudi Arabia is thirty times richer, so
it should be easy.
Yemen’s long-ruling dictator, Ali
Abdullah Saleh, was hostile to Saudi
Arabia, so the latter took advantage of
popular protests against him in
2011-12 to engineer his
replacement by a Saudi
puppet, Abd Rabbuh
Mansour Hadi.
Saleh then made an
alliance with his
former enemies,
the Houthi tribes
of
northern
Yemen, and
struck back.
When the rebel forces seized Sana’a
in late 2014 and eventually drove
Hadi out of the country, Saudi Arabia
put together a “coalition” of conservative Arab states and launched the
current military intervention to put
Hadi back in power.
The other motive behind this foolish
war is the Saudi conviction that Iran,
its great rival in the Gulf, is the secret
power behind the rebel forces in
Yemen. No doubt Iran does sympathise
with the Yemeni rebels, since they are
mostly fellow Shias, but for all the talk
of “Iran-allied Houthis” there is no
evidence that Iran has given them
either military or financial aid.
So, then, three conclusions. First, the
Saudi-led coalition will not get its
way in Yemen if it remains unwilling
to put large numbers of troops on the
ground. Second, the relentless bombing of civilians is largely due to the
coalition’s frustration at the failure of
its political strategy.
And third, this is the stupidest of all
the wars now being fought across the
Middle East. Who runs Yemen is not a
matter of vital strategic importance to
Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi obsession
with the Iranian “threat” is absurd.
Does the Washington foreign policy
establishment finally understand all
this? Only on Mondays, Wednesdays
and Fridays. Old habits die hard, and
it’s all too easy to condemn Russian
air strikes in Syria while condoning
similar Saudi air strikes in Yemen.
Gwynne Dyer is an independent
journalist whose article are published
in 45 countries.
**ADS DEADLINE**
FRIDAY @ 5PM. DEADLINE FOR ALL ADS.