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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-11-28, Page 5Arthur Black THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1990. PAGE 5. Nightmares of the future In our worship of the machine, we have settled for something less than a full life, something that is hardly even a tenth of life, or a hundredth of a life. We have confused progress with mechanization. Lewis Mumford Do you remember the machines they promised us? You’d have to be a certain age to recall them -- say, 40 or over. I used to read all about them in “Popular Mechanics.” That magazine had a near-fe- tish about the “automobiles of the future”. Time and again the editors would devote full cover stories to rhapsodic predictions of just how wonderful transportation was soon going to be. Graphic artists were commissioned to sketch Star Trekkish metropolises bristling with futuristic hives and domes, all interlaced with translucent walkways and moving sidewalks. Whizzing through the air in all directions you could see the “automobiles” of the future - compact saucers really, about the size of a mid-size American car, but capable of travelling overland or through the air. Each Gold in the doldrums BY RAYMOND CANON On one of CFPL-TV’s “Morning Break” programs we looked at the three gifts which the wise men brought to the baby Jesus - gold, frankincense and myrrh. If my memory serves me correctly, we got through the last two in short order and turned our attention to gold. It was in great interest at the time, given the uncertainty which existed in the world and was on its way up to $1,000 an ounce. People were even taking out second mortgages on their houses in order to buy gold, believing that they were going to make a killing. Those who did buy a lot of gold turned out to be rather disappoint­ ed in that, after reaching that dizzy height early in 1980, it turned back down to something less than half that. That is precisely where it has stayed just about the entire 1980’s and, since it pays no interest, those investors who held on to their holdings have little to show for it. Still the fascination for gold continues. People see in it the ultimate hedge against inflation and other forms of economic instability and thus, when Saddam Hussein sent his boys marching into Kuwait and the U.S. responded by doing likewise into Saudi Arabia, the gold buff swung into action. While I had no Middle East potentate phone me up to get my valued advice, although some Canadians did, investors all over the world who got back into the gold business again must once more be more than a mite disappointed because this time, at least up to the time of writing, the value of this commodity has not shown more than a blip or two upwards. To cite on example, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, the value of gold rose from about $400 to $450 an ounce but, as soon as there was any hint that diplomacy, and not the military might play the leading role in solving the crisis, the metal lost most of that gain in less than a week. Canada, as one of the larger gold producers in the world (we are jousting for third place with the Australians), is in an of the cars had a plastic bubble of a cockpit, and in that cockpit you could usually see a grinning, middle-class nuclear family of the future, out for a care-free weekend spin. I used to moon over those articles in ‘‘Popular Mechanics” back in the late ’50’s. They always assured us this fantastic world was just around the corner. We’d all be flitting about in jetcars well before the turn of the century - by 1980 at the very latest. Well, it’s 1990, and I often think of those decade-overdue Jetcars as my hopelessly old-fashioned, terminally pavement-bound Toyota noses into the morning rush hour traffic going to the city. I’ve usually got plenty of time to think, because there’s no rush at all in my rush hour. I’m fused into a miles-long traffic jam that’s going no­ where. Still, it’s a chance to work out some great finger-drum solos on the steering wheel while I listen to the car radio. During the really bad traffic jams I even get to read a bit of the morning paper. Which is where I came across the story about Paul Moller and his M200X. That’s the rather un-catchy name Paul’s bestowed on his invention. There’s a photograph of him in the M200X that accompanies the newspaper story. I would have named his invention differently. I would have called it The Jetcar. interesting position in that prospectors have made a number of significant finds of the metal during the past decade or so. When it comes to selling gold coins as an investment, our Maple Leaf coin, marketed by the Mint, is in first place, having taken over from the South African Krugerrand. However, since the price is relatively low, some of the less efficient mines have a hard time even breaking even and for this reason production of gold has tended to drop off, not only here but in other countries as well. South Africa, the world’s largest producer of gold, is running into production problems due partly to the quality of the ore while the Australians could see their output be reduced by as much as two-thirds. What the Soviet Union will do is, as usual, problematical. For this reason, with production levell­ ing off or even falling, supply and demand are more or less in equilibrium and should remain so unless, and this is a big unless, Other views An unfortunate example The shocking news Friday (Nov. 16) of the freak accident resulting in the death of a five-year-old girl from Listowel makes one thing absolutely clear -- any type of accident can happen at anytime. The strange mishap transpired when a mother left the family car idling in a convenience store parking lot and ran in to buy some incidentals. In the car, patiently waiting for her return, was her five-year- old daughter. Accidentally, the girl knock­ ed the gear shift into reverse and the car - idling very high because it wasn’t warmed up yet - spun backwards. The girl in her attempt to get out of the speeding vehicle, fell out the door and was subsequently run over by the out-of-control car. She died less than two hours later. How often do we see this? It happens every single day, every­ where. You do it. I do it. We all do it. And how many times have the police, or other law enforcement agencies, warned us of such potential disasters? “It’s like having a little loaded gun Because that’s what it is, alright. Ten years late and not quite as swanky as the “Popular Mechanics” artists conception, but it’s a jetcar, and Paul Moller, a professor of aeronautics, is in the cockpit, hovering about ten feet off the ground while newspaper reporters take pictures. The M200X is only the beginning, says Moller. His California company is already working on a model that will carry four passengers at 500 miles per hour as high as 30,000 feet and as far as 800 miles on a single tank of gas. Just as “Popular Mechanics” predicted back in the ’50’s! So how come I’m not excited? Perhaps it’s the price tag - Moller says a copy of his M200X will cost about the same as a helicopter - and that’s a lot for a craft that so far has only managed to hover about 30 feet off the ground for less than three minutes. Or maybe it’s the realization that Jetcars will only make driving worse, not better. It’s bad enough being stuck to the pavement, worrying about tanker trucks coming up your tailpipe and muscle cars passing you on a hill. Can you imagine being out for a romantic drive with your Sweet Patootie when suddenly the blood drains from her face, her eyes bulge like Westinghouse 60-Watters and she shrieks: “Yuppie on his earphone at 12 o’clock high!” You go ahead Mr. Moller. I’ll sit this one out. something happens in the Gulf area to set the world’s nerves on end. If that takes place, we could see the price of gold shoot up just as it did about 10 years ago. Don’t forget that the Middle East, along with Asia, contains the largest private market for gold. Gold purchases there have been climbing over the past three years to offset the decline in demand elsewhere and any real sign of instability would see buying go right through the roof. In reply to a question one time, I replied that the total amount of gold in this world would take up only one football field to a depth of five feet. It is truly remarkable that such a small amount of one metal can play such an influential role in the world today just as it has over the past centuries. As we pointed out in the Morning Break program to which I referred, it was, after all, one of three choices of the Wise Men but, unlike the other two commodities, it is still very much around. hanging on the wall,” Mitchell Police Chief Chuck Zehr said in describing the incident. “All it takes is one shot ...” So true. The incident made national headlines because of its freakish nature. It is tragic that an innocent child had to die to reaffirm the dangers of anything involved with motor vehicles and children. However, the thing that makes it so tragic and so newsworthy is the realization that it could have happened to anyone. - Mitchell Advocate. Got a beef? Write a letter to the editor Letter from the editor Is Ontario behind the world or ahead BY KEITH ROULSTON The fall of Margaret Thatcher last week puts into question the common dogma that the world is moving to the right of the political spectrum. When Ontario elected a “socialist” NDP government in September, one prominent New York newspaper suggested Ontarians had been asleep and hadn’t seen that the world was moving in the opposite direc­ tion. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the democratization of Eastern Europe, even the turmoil in the Soviet Union proved that socialism was dead and the world was moving to the right, the paper said. But is it? Britains, tired of the right-wing agenda of Mrs. Thatcher made it clear in public opinion polls that she didn’t stand a chance of being re-elected, leading her Conservative caucus to rebell and call for a leadership vote. The pillar of right-wing thinking in the western world is gone. In the U.S.’, George Bush who inherited the halo of Ronald Reagan has found his popularity sinking as people began to see the holes in the wonderful world of “supply-side” econo­ mics. We all know about the popularity of the Tory government of Brian Mulroney in Canada. The latest poll says he could get only 14 per cent of the vote if an election was held today. Mrs. Thatcher’s rise and fall illustrates the situation of right-wing governments. After long years of governments that tried to solve the ills of society with new regulations and government programs, people got tired of laws and taxes and when someone like Margaret Thatcher came along preaching government re­ straint and deregulation, it sounded good. In Britain people also admired her courage in facing down powerful labour unions. She wanted to revolutionize Britain and get it back on its feet again. She wanted to instill in people a competitive fire instead of having them worry about security (sound familiar?). To some extent it worked as people were able to buy government housing when they’d never have been able to own a house before. But as time went by, even as the government cut social programs and sold off crown corporations, the government deficit grew instead of being reduced (sound familiar?). Inflation is more than double Canada’s and unemployment is on the rise. There are 80,000 fewer hospital beds than when she became Prime Minister and 750,000 people vyaiting medical care. She brought in a new tax that was violently opposed by the public (sound familiar?). The poll tax made rich and poor pay virtually the same amount - about $1,000 a year. The theory of the right wing governments of Britain, U.S. and Canada has always been that if the rich get rich enough they’ll spend enough money to keep the rest of us going and we’ll envy them their wealth so much we’ll work our heads off to move up the economic and social ladder. What Britain ended up with is three million unemployed with fewer social safety nets to protect them in the hard times ... the same as we’re getting here in Canada. Ontario, far from being behind the times, may be ahead of the times. Voters are showing that though they flirted with the right wing they still care about the issues that led to those social safety nets being put in place. We still want to see the poor looked after. We still care about the environment. We like our government-run health system and many people apparently like the idea of government-run car insurance. In short, maybe it’s the Thatch­ ers and the Mulroneys and the Bushs that are out of step.