HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1993-05-26, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 1993. PAGE 5.
Marketing
Waco, not an
easy sell
I know, I know ... it's been a lousy day. A
lousy week in fact. Your car's developed a
death rattle, the kid next door's just bought a
boom box radio, your income tax refund still
hasn't come back and this morning the cat
threw up in your shoe.
You think life had dealt you a bum hand
of cards, right? Well, cheer up. Just think of
who you might have been.
Dan Quayle's PR man.
Mike Tyson's sparring partner.
Kim Campbell's astrologer.
Or worse. You could have been Elizabeth
Taylor.
Naw, not THAT Elizabeth Taylor. I
daresay old Blue-Eyes-of-the-multiple-
hu. sbands has her own set of problems, but
that's not the Liz Taylor I'm talking about. I
mean Elizabeth A. Taylor, the blonde,
bespectacled, middle-aged and matronly
Director of the Conventions and Visitors
Bureau for — wait for it now — here comes
the hard part ...
Big Mac,
an economic
indicator?
A couple of years ago I wrote about the
use of McDonald's hamburgers as an
indication of what is called Purchasing
Power Parity in the world of international
currencies. In case you have forgotten, or
(heaven forbid) didn't read the article, let me
bring you up to date on the latest findings.
First a bit of background. Economists
consider the exchange rate of a currency to
be the correct one if you take a specific
amount of currency, change it into another
currency at the going rate and the amount of
money you will receive will buy the same
amount of goods in the foreign country as
the original amount of money did in the
original country. Let me use a precise
example to illustrate this. Make a list of
things that you want to buy in Canada that
will add up to $1,000. Let us assume that the
going rate of the Canadian dollar in terms of
U.S. dollars is 80 cents. Thus you will get
$800 U.S. dollars if you were to exchange
the $1,000 Canadian into U.S. currency. If
the exchange rate is correct, the $800 U.S.
will buy the same amount of goods south of
the border as the $1,000 did here. This is
what is known as Purchasing Power Parity.
Since nobody, not even economists, wants
to go around buying so many goods just to
find out how valid the exchange rate is, the
question arises as to how one might find a
simpler way. To our delight, there is, in the
form of a McDonald's Big Mac. You may
think that I am kidding but I am not. While
the well known hamburger does not do the
job with mathematical precision, it is
amazingly accurate. By that I mean that it
does as good a job as establishing the PPP of
currencies as far more sophisticated
For the city of Waco.
Yes, Waco, Texas. Also known as
Whacko, Texas. Site of the disastrous
confrontation between a compound of
religious fanatics and an assault force of
authority zealots.
David Koresh and his pathetic band of
loonies first traded bullets with federal
agents, you may recall on Feb. 27. That was
exactly one day after Elizabeth A. Taylor
arrived in Waco to take over as the new city
officer in charge of marketing Waco as a
pleasant, peaceful and desirable destination
for tourists and conventioneers.
It has not been what your marketeers
would call 'an easy sell'.
It should have been. Waco is — or was — a
cheery, accommodating moderate-sized city
of 100,000 before the Branch Davidians and
the FBI squared off. It's a city that's full of
parks. The Los Brazos river undulates lazily
through its core. There are 14 museums to
visit in Waco — everything from the Texas
Rangers Museum to The Home of Dr.
Pepper. "Visitors can have a free Dr. Pepper
float at the soda fountain" Elizabeth A.
Taylor chirps hopefully.
Alas, for the past few months the only
takers have been off-duty FBI agents and
police snipers.
It's not fair, what happened to Waco and to
Elizabeth A. Taylor. Especially not fair
when you consider that the famous Waco
Raymond Canon
methods.
Well, what has the Big Mac come up with
this year? For one thing, it is dead on with
two countries, Mexico and Ireland. What
this means is that, if you take U.S. dollars
and exchange them for Mexican pesos or the
Irish punt, the PPP is no less than 100 per
cent. A very close second is the Canadian
dollar which is a mere four percent
undervalued. This has a further benefit for
Canadian readers in that it means that the
relationship between the U.S. dollar and a
host of other currencies is, by and large, the
same relationship between the Canadian
dollar and the same currencies.
Without being aware of it, you probably
have a rough idea of the PPP if you have
ever travelled to another country. Let me
explain. Have you ever gone to a country
and found that the prices there were very
expensive by your standards? If so, it is
highly likely that that country's currency was
overvalued in terms of Canadian dollars. If
the prices seemed to you to be very cheap,
then the currency was undervalued.
With all that in mind, what does the Big
Mac tell us this year? The two most
expensive countries for us in Europe would
be Denmark or Switzerland. Their currencies
are about 75 per cent overvalued. This does
not cheer me up one bit since, by the time
you read this, I shall be working in
Switzerland for a month and likely
complaining about all the high prices. France
is only slightly better at 50 per cent
overvalued followed by Italy at 30 per cent
and Germany at 25 per cent. In short, this is
going to be a very expensive month for me
in 1993.
All right; I know what you are asking. Is
there a cheap country in Europe? How about
Hungary and Russia? The Hungarian
currency is 22 per cent undervalued while
the Russian ruble is no less than 50 per cent
under what it should be. If you eat at the
McDonald's in Moscow (which is run by the
Canadian branch of the company), you will
•Massacre didn't even happen in Waco.
The Branch Davidian compound is outside
the city limits, in an unincorporated section
of McLennan County. Needless to say,
reporters and TV anchormen don't let such
geographical niceties get in the way of a hot
story. It will be known in the history books
and around the world forever as The Waco
Massacre of 1993.
The intense media coverage has already
turned Elizabeth A. Taylor's dream job into
an nightmare. Nobody rings up to book
convention hotel rooms in Waco these days.
Most of the phone calls she gets are from
nervous tourists about whether it's safe to
visit Waco — this in spite of the fact that the
standoff is over and happened miles from
downtown anyway.
Still, Elizabeth A. Taylor remains pluckily
upbeat. "I think we're really trying to say,
'Okay, Waco's bigger than this. Waco can
come out ahead of this ... We have a real
opportunity to turn some lemons into
lemonade and really tell people about
Waco's story.'"
Well, I suppose if anybody can pull if off,
it'll be a cockeyed optimist like Elizabeth A.
Taylor.
Besides, we should, as Elizabeth A.,
herself would say, Look on the bright side.
Unlike the other Liz Taylor, at least she
doesn't have to worry about what her loony
pal Michael Jackson is up to.
be getting the cheapest Big Mac anywhere.
Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand are
other cheap countries but they are rather far
away. At least you know that Mexico and
the U.S. are not going to knock a big hole in
your pocket book.
I should point out that the PPP takes a
considerable time to adjust so that, if the
country you are planning to visit this year
has an overvalued currency, don't expect it
to adjust overnight. If it is a little better by
the time you get there, all well and good but
it is very much a case of caveat emptor or
buyer beware. Even if you do end up paying
about $4 for a Big Mac in Switzerland or $3
in Germany, it is still a relatively cheap
meal.
Blyth mothers
visit The Ark
Continued from page 4
happened since last week.
Mary and Leanne, Linda and Nathan,
Mary Lou and Margie, Adele and Nikki, and
Kim all made a tour of The Ark in Brussels
on Thursday evening.
First of all, a special thank you to
Sallianne Patch for making this possible.
Sallianne gave us lots of necessary
information on forming a teen home.
We mothers really learned a lot and there
is a lot of work involved. It's not possible to
have this teen home on its feet by this
summer as I had hoped. There are several
steps necessary to ensure we have a well run
facility.
We hope to organize a bus trip for some
teenagers to visit The Ark this summer.
The Ark is a recreation facility for teens
12-20 years old. There is a real "homey"
atmosphere. There are pool tables, tennis
tables, dart boards, table hockey, a stereo
and juke box. It's really neat! I am sure our
teens would really appreciate the
atmosphere.
Mary and Leanne Bell.
The
short
of it
By Bonnie Gropp
Facing the music
Sometimes the idea for a column sort of
comes up and punches you. Whether it
crossed my desk or my path the topic of
raising teens kept taking little jabs at my
subconscious this week.
One of the most difficult things I find
about being a parent is letting my children
be responsible for their actions, helping them
understand that the choices they make will
affect the course their lives may take.
Should children go astray it's equally
difficult for parents not to lay the blame on
themselves. Many times our judgement is
clouded by guilt or by love to the point
where we end up protecting them instead
from the consequences of their actions.
I recently read a book, albeit fiction, but
one not too hard to perceive as a reality. A
young man wanted for questioning in the
murder of his girlfriend has disappeared.
While at first his parents fear he may have
been abducted the father is soon confronted
with the evidence of his heinous crime when
he finds the murder weapon in the trunk of
his son's car. Rather than turning it over to
the police, his father chooses instead to hide
the incriminating item and dismantle the
carpetting and anything else in the car to rid
it of any remaining hidden testament to his
son's gory deed.
While I could certainly sympathize with
the parental desire to protect a child, I know
it's wrong. Unfortunately, tough love is not
always as easy for loving parents to practise
as it is in theory.
A recent speaker at an area high school,
Norbert Georget, offered parents advice on
coping with teens. His major thrust was that
kids, not parents, are responsible for the
choices they make and as such must face the
consequences. (What a refreshing change it
was to hear an expert, actually remove the
burden of guilt from the parents!) In
presenting the consequences, however,
parents must be consistent, he said. "You say
it, you mean it, you do it."
Last week, while covering court, I saw an
example of tough love. A youth had stolen
two cheques from his parent and forged the
signature on them. The total was not a big
deal but you sensed through the discussions
taking place that everything else had been
done that could be done to set this teen on
the right track. Even though the amount had
been paid back, the parents let the charges
stand. The judge was told that the son was
welcome to return home but their wish was
that he be ordered to receive counselling as a
term of probation.
Sitting beside this couple I had a strong
urge to tell them how much I admired the
courage it must have taken for them to
follow through on what would have been the
normal consequences of their son's actions
had he picked anyone else as victim.
My husband and I have been fortunate,
thus far. Our eldest two are relatively well-
adjusted young adults, who have caused us
little concern. But, with two more still to see
through the teens, we can't rest yet.
I think many will agree there is an
aggression in today's kids that I don't believe
existed as strongly in the previous bunch. It's
a different world confronting them with
many outside pressures facing them so
parents need to be a strong influence.
Personally, it's an area I can improve on. I
tend to be a little wishy-washy, a mistake
parents can't afford to make too often.
Facing the music can often be a discordant
experience which for loving parents is not
easy to watch. However, it might be the
most loving gesture we can make.
Arthur Black
nternational Scene