But minutes after Mr. Gogo finished his address and had taken his seat, Peter Calamai stood at the podium quoting statistics that, in his mind, "are deeply embarrassing to governments because they prove that the second most expensive educational system in the world has failed the nation."

Peter Calamai is a Canadian journalist who directed a 6 month study of illiteracy in Canada for Southam Newspapers in 1987. This study was the first comprehensive survey of illiteracy among Canadian adults.

He punctuated his address with statistics and information that were both sobering and disturbing. Most of the delegates were familiar with the Southam Study which reported that there are between four and five million Canadians who have trouble with reading, writing and numeracy skills, but Peter added some hard hitting up-to-date information. Feelings of anger and frustration rose in the huge ballroom when Peter said, "In January 1991, when the 7% GST is applied to every magazine and every newspaper and every book and every piece of written material sold in this country, the $125 million (that huge government fund which is being donated to help people become literate) will be wiped out in about 3 months by this tax on literacy."

Calamai was critical of the government, the media and the educational system. Referring to the issue of illiteracy in Canada he said, "The educational establishment so far is defensive, the mass media are only marginally involved and the government has been reactive rather than leading."

He was also hard on the general public. "Canadians are very concerned about literacy but it is not what policy makers call a 'top- of-the-mind issue'." And the reason it's not, is because "illiteracy is not seen as personally threatening or personally affecting", unlike issues such as alcohol and drug abuse, or the environment. Concern isn't enough; people still need to be made more aware. And as Calamai painfully pointed out, "There cannot be accountability or action, without awareness."

CAROLYN STOCKDALE had been sitting at a table behind me. She looked terribly discouraged as we left the hall together. "This is International Literacy Year," she said. "I thought we were making a difference; I thought we were raising awareness. The problem of illiteracy is so huge and so serious, there's just not a hope in hell that we can touch it."

Talking to Carolyn, I remembered something Marnie had said to me the day before about the small steps we have to take in a field like literacy. "I already accept the fact that what I'm doing may not make any difference if you look at the whole ocean," Marnie had said, "but I believe that drop by drop, my work does make a difference. Paulo Freire is working with drops way down in Brazil; I have a friend who's working with them in Sierra Leone in West Mrica and I'm working drop by drop in Claresholm, Alberta, so altogether, I know that we can make a difference."

I went to the Conference Office to sit for a moment. Carolyn was not the only person who was feeling discouraged; I heard a number of other comments about the futility of our efforts and the lack of real commitment on the part of government. One woman said, "How am I supposed to find time to raise the public's awareness and lobby the government for continued support when there's never enough time just to help the students I am trying to teach in my ABE classroom?"