Townsman, 1991-07, Page 16We can't stick our
heads in the sand
By Jim Fitzgerald
Are we in the developed countries
like the stereotypical image of an
ostrich which sticks its head into the
sand when there's danger around, pre-
tends it doesn't exist, hopcs it will go
away and everything will return to
normal again? Arc our politicians and
media really telling us what is going
on in the world? Or arc they part of a
concerted effort to hide the real and
somewhat distasteful truth from us. Or
do we just ignore it when they do?
Those are some of the troubling
questions that crossed my mind after
reading a speech on the increasing gap
growing between those of us in the
developed world.
Ivan Hcad, president of the Interna-
tional Development Research Centre
(IDRC) in Ottawa, an autonomous
federal organization formed by Parlia-
ment in the mid 1960s to assist devel-
oping countries through science and
technology, recently addressed the
Agricultural Institute of Canada at the
annual Dr. Leonard S. Klinck lecture.
Hc pointed out some little known but
disturbing things about our attitude
towards what he calls the "South",
and if we don't soon wake up, pay
attention, and do something about it,
not only is the developing world
going to have worse problems, but
those problems will unquestionably
spread to us in the "North", and we
won't be able to ignore them.
Head comes across in person as a
pleasant, articulate man, but his case
for rescuing our priorities in the world
is brutally gloomy. Unfortunately, if
many of you are like I am, when con-
fronted with pictures on TV of starv-
ing Ethiopians on one of those
missionary appeals for moncy, quick-
ly flick the remote to another channel
so our bliss will continue.
But Hcad says we won't find igno-
rance is bliss much longer when it
14 TOWNSMAN/JULY-AUGUST 1991
comes to the "South". The real world
is so different from our general per-
ceptions of it., that the industrial coun-
tries are very vulnerable. Even though
TV instantly shows us what's going on
in every corner of the world, and
events not telecast fail to interest us so
have no merit.
We have been so preoccupied with
the threat of the Soviet Union and its
communist allies for the past 50 years,
and our ever -more comfortable
lifestyles, that we seem completely
unaware of the explosive situation in
those 100 or so South countries in
Latin America, Africa, the Middle
East and Asia. They are more of a
challenge to our environment, social
stability, economic system and the
very survival of the human species
than any nuclear war.
Head's evidence is devastating as
these hordes of humanity, abused in
the past by the Christian churches
who regarded them as heathens,
exploited for their vast, rich resources
by the great trading companies, and
more recently, used as a hunting
ground for political influence and mil-
itary bases.
The growth of human population is
the most frightening. Where it took
1,500 years for the world's population
to double to 800 million by the mid -
18th century, it took only 150 years to
double to 1.7 billion by 1900. By
1950 the figure had reached 2.5 bil-
lion and doubled again to five billion
by 1987. And the clock is still ticking
with an increase of about 9,000 new
mouths to feed every hour or about
100 million per year, a rate they say,
will continue for another 35 years. In
only nine years — at the tum of the
century — the world's population will
hit a staggering 6.25 billion with most
of that increase in developing nations.
It will mean that eight out of the 10
largest cities in the world will be
South countries and 18 will be larger
than 10 million each. By the turn of
the century about half of those.people
will be under 25 years of age, and
coupled with the absence of economic
opportunity, this abundance of youth
will find themselves on the streets,
abandoned, uneducated, unemployed,
alienated from any societal norms,
and without any loyalties except to
their own gang.
Head says these wretchedly poor
people, living in abject poverty, many
without even the basic necessity, turn
upon themselves and their landscape
with distressing results. Head argues
instead that we should look upon them
as an immense natural resource, and
given adequate opportunity and prop-
erly supported, they can make contri-
butions to the world.
It's difficult for Canadians whose
per capita income of $17,434 is
among the highest in the world, to
envisage the plight of the 50 per cent
of the world's population whose
annual per capita income is about
$330. Head argues, however, that
because 25 per cent of our GNP is
dependent on trading with other coun-
tries — Canada sold more to develop-
ing countries than it did to either
Japan or to all of the members of the
European Community combined —
we need to let the "South" capitalize
on their own advantages principally
competitive wages. We should let
them enter the low -technology end of
the industrial sector, which contrary to
popular belief, was only 3.5 per cent
of our economy in 1987. In fact the
developing countries' share of the
global industrial production in the mid
80s was only 13.9 per cent, slightly
less than in 1948!
Head says we must understand the
plight of these people and learn to
share our wealth of scientific and
technical knowledge. Unlike the
ostrich, we can't bury our heads in the
sand forever.
(Jim Fitzgerald is the general man-
ager/editor of The Rural Voice maga-
zine and a former chief of staff to an
Ontario cabinet minister.)