The Rural Voice, 1998-06, Page 14`Che
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10 THE RURAL VOICE
The World from Mabel's Grill
"I feel like I'm back in the '60s,"
Dave Winston was saying as he
looked at the story about police
breaking up a demonstration in
Montreal. "How come these people
are still protesting the war in
Vietnam?"
"Huh?"
said George
McKenzie.
"Vietnam?"
"Isn't that
what this MIA
is all about?
About the
soldiers the
Americans
figure are still
in prison
camps over
there?"
"Not MIA
— MAI," said
Cliff Murray.
"They were protesting the
Multilateral Agreement on
Investment."
"Well it did look like the '60s —
people sitting down in protest, police
in riot gear. It gave me the shivers to
think we were back to that," George
said.
"Yeh, almost as bad a 1990s
demonstration at the Ontario
legislature," said Wayne Bruce.
"It's just the old hippies looking
to relive their youth," George said.
"They need something to protest so
they pick on the MAI."
"I thought most of the old hippies
had graduated to playing the stock
market and they were the ones who
loved MAI," said Cliff . "Got to
protect those investments against
cruel environment restrictions and
child labour laws."
"MAI is just about fairness,"
George said. "Why should people be
able to pass laws that hurt my ability
to make a living?"
"Or a killing," said Cliff.
"I should have known things
would get out of hand when they
started letting people grow hemp,"
George said. "Talk about an
invitation to trouble."
"But the stuff they're growing is
low -THC hemp," Wayne said.
"You'd have to smoke a whole field
of it to get enough drugs to make you
high."
The world's
problems are
solved daily
'round the table
at Mabel's
"Yeh, but people arc hiding pot in
corn fields. Think how much easier it
would be hiding pot in hemp fields,"
George said.
"I'll bet those hemp fields will
have more cops in them than a Tim
Horton's," Cliff said. "It's about the
last place I'd want to grow
marijuana."
"And you might," said George
with suspicion.
"Hell it would be one crop I could
make some money on this year,"
Cliff said. "Sure doesn't look like the
corn is going to be worth much."
"Yeh but if you could grow
marijuana legally you wouldn't be
able to make any money off it
anyway," said Dave, who finally got
brave enough to speak again after
taking his foot out of his mouth. "It's
like this dream of us growing pigs for
heart transplants or crops that have
blood plasma. Even if the stuff we
grow is worth millions does anybody
really believe we're going to get the
money?"
"Those with the biggest risk reap
the biggest reward," said George.
"Right! That's why I've watched
my neighbours go broke over the
years while the guys who sold their
crops drove big cars," said Cliff.
"They risked everything they had but
didn't get any reward, even when
they did get lucky."
"I could never figure out why
anybody would want to invest in
farming anyway," said Wayne. "With
the same money you've got tied up in
land and machinery and seed and
fertilizer and livestock, you could
invest in some solid government
bonds and rake in the money. You
wouldn't have to worry about
weather and prices working so hard."
"Yeh, but other people have to go
to casinos for excitement," Dave
said. "We've just got to go look at
the back 40."
"Funny thing about people," said
Cliff. "They want to be safe but they
need the excitement of risking things.
They want to live in some controlled
environment in the cities, then they
go to Canada's Wonderland or
whitewater rafting. They want safe
investments but then they play the
lotteries."
"And we have all that everyday,"
said Dave. "Isn't farming great?"0