HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1976-03-10, Page 2Canada and the United States are the highest
users of energy in the world, consuming between the
two some 43 percent of the energy supplies of this
planet. In our homes, businesses, governments and
industries -more than half that amount ends up in
waste.
In our haste to develop non-renewable energy
resources to meet the insatiable demands of our
affluent life styles we, as a nation seem unwilling to
take the time needed to plan our resource
development carefully, rather we deal only in crisis
situations.
The result is dangerous depletion of energy
supplies, pollution of air, water and land and, above
ail incredible waste.
Yet, in the midst of this waste, there are many
other countries, especially among the newer nations,
that are suffering acute shortages of energy needed
just for'basic survival. When tragedy, either natural
or man-made, strikes one of these countries we take
palliative measures by pouring in dollars when some
long-term international planning and restructuring
of the present economic order might well remedy the
situation.
And waste does not end with, our natural resource's
in this hemisphere. There is the waste of human
resources: Natives caught in the web of welfare and
alcoholism; the expertise and experience of older
people carelessly cast aside; large number of
chronically unemployed in depressed areas; creative
and sensitive young people lost in a sub-culture.
We believe that the waste of our natural and
human resources is due in large measure to
crisis-oriented, shortsighted planning on the part of
governments and private institutions. There is a real
need to bring pressure on decision-makers to design
educational programs and find ways to examine
personal life-styles, to change harmful patterns of
waste and to see that there is reflective, long-term
planning rather than band-aid, remedial action.
We need to examine carefully this global village
we live in to try and build a society based on justice
-ather than greed, and human development, rather
than waste.
(Contributed)
aT47;zi#7.4\.HEP
Brussels Post
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1970
fIRUSSELs
ONTAIlip
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
Subsc-riptions (in advance) Canada $6.00 4year, Others
$8,00 a year, Single Copies 15 cents each.
Waste
CNA
Ottawa, 1976
Amen
by Karl Schwissler
What man can afford a $4;000 mink coat
for his wife?
can't..But a Toronto lawyer could, Fifteen
years ago he bought one for his wife. But now
that they're retired into Florida, what wife
needs it?
The coat is up for sale.
Now what man can afford a $200 used fur
coat for his wife?
Well, I can. Even though I must admit it's
getting toward a top figure.
I brought the bundle of mink home for a
look of approval from my wife.
She tried it on. The coat was big enough and
mink enough. There was row after row of
shiny brown pelts, with so much Slieeni and
sparkle left in them you'd think Tgot it new
from a downtown furrier,
The coat was warm enough. That was for
sure. That fur -would keep out the winds and
Weather that howl down our toad. She'd really
be warm when we took our walk down the road
each day.
But in a rrtink? On a country road?
Then where else could she wear it/ For
drafty barn it would be perfect. But Who Wear8
mink to the barn? For that matter who wears
mink to go grocery shopping?
We do go out now and then I reminded
her.
But a think Coat to the moves? Or in a
Chinese restaurant?
Well then What's wrong with church?
Church? Wear a mink coat to church? She
thought that was almost sacteligious. Putting
on the dog the mink ,.that way.
The Money could be better' spent in the
collection plate.
And think about all the starving people in
India? What would they say? •
I told her they don't need fur coats in India.
They'd never see, her , anyway.
And then she thought about all those poor
little minks once so live and wiggly, now,
skinned and draped around herself.
She said maybe one or two minks would
do--in a collar or as an accent. A touch of
elegance. Now she could see that -- a touch.
But who needs a whole coatful?
And besides, she knew she could never get
herself and 'that fur coat all behind the seat
belt in the red V.W.
"No," she said, as She turned round and
round in front of the mirror, "I'M definitely
not the mink type,"
She, ran her fingers up and down the rich
fur, "It's a great coat, but it's not for me."
guess I knew that all along. I was almost
reli eved. Because who am I trying to kid?
We're not in the $4,000 coat category and
hardly a $200 one, If I Can't afford to pay first
time new prices, why bother'? Who Wants tO
play Let's Pretend Or Mr: Dress-up?
I suppose it would be nice to put your wife
in a fur coat, any fur coat. It's a status syMbol
for the ar rived; I can tell the World that at
Age 40 We've ni Ade it.Purs and forty do stein
to go together:
But a than has to be honest. That's far
caster to live With.
My wife put the mink back in the bo* and
wrapped it all up -- ready for A return trip to
Toronto:
"gesides," she said, ''I though` you were A
mall of the cloth,"
Who needs a
mink coat?
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