The Brussels Post, 1975-06-25, Page 2INTASLIN4111)
Ian
Brussels Post
BRUSSELS
'WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 1975
ONTARIO
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community.
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
by McLean Bros.Publishers, Limited.
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Dave Robb - Advertising
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association.
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A Ti CC
readers back next weekl
How many
can we feed ?
It is argued by some philosophers, visionaries,
radicals and even economists that the land which
gives us life should be considered more as a resource
than as private property.
This is not a very novel concept, although it is
certainly an unpopular one in capitalist and also in
some socialist societies. The sanctity of private
property has endured for many centuries and the
ownership of land is something that countless
millions of human beings have aspired to down the
ages.
And yet in China, where almost a quarter of
mankind lives, people don't own their land. it
belongs to the state or the commune or the
production. brigade. And is there much point in
owning land, say, in. Mauretania -- the most seriously
affected of the Sahelian nations? Mauretania has had
no significant harvest for two years.
These are questions that can be and will be
debated for decades, and of course there is no easy
answer, no simple solution. The truth is, however,
'that land will have to be utilized more .justly and
more rationally in the last quarter of this century,
and in the 21st century, if mankind is to continue
thriving cml this planet.
Take Indonesia alone, for instance. Already this
island nation,, strung out for 3,000 miles between the
Pacific and Indian oceans, has about 130 million
people of whom two-thirds live on the islands of Bali,
Java and Madura. By the year 2,000, Indonesia's
populatin-- despite control measures -- .will have
grown to about 240 million. Java will have become an
island city.
World population will grow even more rapidly,
doubling from four billion people today to about
eight billion within 25 years. This shows that the
world's big problem is the ratio between food and
people. Can we produce double the food we grow
today by the turn of the century?
There are certainly hopeful signs. Today, one
U.S. farm worker' feeds 55 persons compared with
fewer than 15 persdns in 1950. In 1973 U.S. farmers
shipped overseas nine-tenths of the world's soybean
exports, three-fifths of feed grains, two-fifths of '
wheat, and a quarter of the global rice crop -- enough
to feed one of every four people in the world. There is
cause for optimism. But much will depend on hwo we
use land in the future.
(Contributed)
It's berry picking time
Amen
by Karl Schues0er
I've carried my eye glass prescription
around in my pocket for a week now.
I can't bring myself to go to the optician to
get my new glasses.
'Cause I don't want what he has to give me.
Bifocals.
Bifocals. They're the bane and blight of ,
middle age. They belong in the same class as
false teeth, receding hairlines and sagging
double chins.
And I deny the reality of them all. I want no.
truck.with them. I'll do-about anything rather
than walk into that optician's shop and order
up' a pair of bifocals.
l'm willing to put up with a lot if 1 don't
have to' wear them.
I don't mind walking around and, looking out
on a fuzzy world. It's sort of a Renoir painting
come to life. Indistinct outlines. Blurred
images and splashes .of colour. So what if
don't recognize my friends on the street?
And I don't mind moving back and forth the
book in my hand. Trying to get it into focus
with my arm stretching out , farther and
farther.
And l'clon't mind taking- my glasses on and
off all. the time. Say something like twenty
times an hour. That's when I try to read
lecture notes and then look up and talk to my
class.
I don't mind any of this. It's better than
bifocals.
But I did get awfully close. I hung around af,-
the optician's door. Looked at his window
display. I even dared to go inside and let him
tell me all about the bifocal possibilities. The
obvious half moon shape. The straight line
across the middle bifocals. He called those the
executive style. And they came with an
executive price too.
Then he showedme an even more expensive
pair:You don't see the glass difference at all.
He said he'd never fit that kind on a man,
oefote. Only onwotnen.for cosmetic purposes.
I tried to tell h inn that vanity had nothing to
As I say ,• he only smiled. He said he thought
I have far better things to do than keep track;
of two pairs of glasses and all that switching.'
I didn't' want to complicate matters by
telling him I'd have a third pair. My
prescription sun glasses.
When I fingered _a pair of Ben
Franklins--those half' glass glasses--he ohly
kept on smiling. He wondered what I'd do
about my far seeing. He noticed by my
pirescription I needed strong ones.
I liked the idea of Ben Franklins. At least
they're different. And most of all they're not
bifocals.
When I walked out, I had my prescription
back in my shirt pocket. I told him I'd think it
over.
And I am.
But there's one more possibility.
When the eye doctor tested my eyes,hejast
sighed when I started to grumble about
bifocals.
"Karl", he said, "the only thing wrong.
with you is that your arms aren't long enough:
You'll have to grow longer arms."
And that's what I'm working on right nostr'
Longer arms.
And if that doesn't work, I know I'll have to
go back to, that optician and suffer.
do with my glasses. Not wanting bifocals was'
a practical matter. The practical matter of
adjusting to two different glasses in front of
my eyes.
Sure he admitted. 'Bifocals take a while in
getting used to. I'd have to change my ways.
Watch those stair steps. Move my head more.
Far more than my eye balls.
H e smiled when. I asked about two separate
pairs of glasses: -one for reading and one for
distance.
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