HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1993-12-08, Page 5has
ess
ith
rue
rare
We
ily
we
on
'ant
ven
to
talf
is.
the
ind
be
ind
the
the
my
md
r of
use
:ual
or
Our
the
ord
eve
iith
ion
lily
not
lers
(
,
International Scene
By Raymond Canon
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1993. PAGE 5.
r
tt
Life need not
be a beech,
you know
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
Joyce Kilmer
It would be tempting to blame Joyce
Kilmer for the outbreak of unabashed Tree
Love that's going around these days.
Tempting, but not just. Mister Kilmer
penned his immortal lines in the early years
of this century, whereas humankind has been
making Goo Goo eyes at trees for millennia
-probably since the day we shinnied down
them and started living on the ground.
The Druids worshipped trees. Mayans and
Visigoths and Polynesians and Laps and
Maoris all bowed down, in one way or
another, to trees. Small wonder that here in
the 20th Century, arboreal activists from
Vancouver and North York, Seattle and
Scarborough eagerly scramble to get arrested
in defense of the Ancient Growth Forests
around Lake Temagami and Clayuquot
Sound.
Our love affair with our leafy brethren is
one that's been percolating for some time.
Tree hugging is as natural a human
activity as line dancing, cursing the Post
Office and making love. I'd be a tree hugger
Sour grapes —
an international
concoction
By the time you read this the federal
election will be out of the way and we will
be learning to live with the new government.
If there was a lot of discontent being
expressed during the campaign, this should
not be taken as anything peculiar to Canada,
but something that is endemic in all of the
western world. When times are tough, as
they are all over, it is the practice to vent
one's spleen on the government in power and
not really ask just how much they were
responsible for what ails us. In many cases
they were more to be pitied than to be
blamed, but how much of each is lost in the
cacophony of charges and counter-charges?
Take France, for openers. In the recent
national elections, the ruling Socialist party
was turfed out on its political rear end and
replaced by a centrist right-wing coalition.
The president of the country, Francois
Mitterand, is a socialist and he is faced with
a real job of dealing with a government that
does not share his political viewpoint. Part
of the problem is that France is facing about
the same level of unemployment as we are in
Canada and the farmers, among others, are
deathly afraid of what any new agreement at
GATT over agricultural subsidies will do to
their incomes. Inflation is only slightly
higher than it is in Canada at 2.2 per cent as
compared to our 1.7 per cent but that does
not cheer up anybody but the economists.
Our output is predicted to grow about 2.8 per
cent this year; France is looking at a drop of
1.5 per cent over the past year and with luck
will be back in the plus column with a 1.1
per cent growth. They would give anything
to have our statistics.
Across the Channel things are no better;
perhaps they are worse. The British are
coming out of their recession and numbers
myself except that I live in a part of the
country that's been logged over more times
than Elizabeth Taylor's been married. Hug a
tree in my neck of the woods and it's apt to
die from asphyxiation.
Not so in England. I just read an item
about a group called Tree Spirit, which has
its headquarters in Worcester, England.
Members of Tree Spirit don't merely hug
trees, they chat with them, pass along tree
gossip, even lay their heads on the tree roots
for personal psychotherapy.
"Whenever we travel" says an editorial in
Tree Spirit magazine, "we talk to the trees
where we camp. We tell them of the
beautiful trees where we live...we tell them
about the weather in places other than their
own."
Further on, the editorial advises readers to
share their deepest feelings and secrets,
treating the trees like a close friend.
"You can trust a tree" confides the
magazine. "It will never tell anyone else."
No, I suppose not.
Martin Blount is editor of the Tree Spirit
magazine and founder of the organization. It
began 10 years ago with a small campaign to
save a grove of oak trees threatened by a
proposed subdivision. Martin and his band
of merry tree huggers saved the oaks and
just...branched out from there.
Today, there are over a hundreds members
across England. They don't just protest and
are starting to look better. For Prime
Minister John Major that does not make one
bit of difference. He has as many critics
within his party as he does outside it and
there is some doubt whether he is going to
make it to the next election. Chief among his
critics is none other than Margaret Thatcher
who has just come out with a book of her
memoirs; John Major figures prominently in
them but in a negative way. Poor Mr. Major
must be repeating the famous expression:
"With friends such as this, who needs
enemies?"
In Germany, Helmut Kohl is under
constant criticism for having "misled" the
public about the actual cost of absorbing
East Germany. In addition the country is in
the midst of a rather bad recession (worse
that what Canada has been going through)
and the Germans are finding out, to their
dismay, that their workers have priced
themselves out of world markets. Mass
layoffs are an integral part of the scene with
Mercedes-Benz the latest to bite the bullet.
The antics of neo-Nazi fanatics have not
helped either and the Germans, who are as
prone to worry about their economy as are
Canadians, are wondering whatever
happened to their economic miracle.
Sweden is a basket case. Their currency
has depreciated about 30 per cent in less
than a year, while the budget deficit is a
horrible 13 per cent of GDP, about twice
what we have in Canada. The country used
to have a labour market that was the envy of
all other industrialized countries but, in
retrospect, it seems to have been built on
very sandy ground. Unemployment is
running at close to 10 per cent and half that
many again are on some form of workfare, a
concept that has been proposed from time to
time in Canada. If there is any light at the
end of the tunnel, the Swedes have yet to see
it.
Italy is being rocked by one financial
scandal after another. The budgetary deficit
is just about out of control, with the
march and write letters. Most of their energy
goes into planting saplings of native species.
Martin Blount is very much attached to
trees. He believes that different species have
specific personalities. "Silver birches are
very feminine and happy and joyous. But
they don't live very long - 70 or 80 years.
Nothing for a tree. Yews can live for a
thousand years. They grow so slowly.
They've seen a lot of things. They are very
wise trees."
An infidel is tempted to ask, "If they're so
wise, how come so many trees wind up as
firewood, telephone poles and Kleenex?"
Martin Blount has an answer for that.
He doesn't see the act of chopping down
trees as ethically indefensible.
"You have to go out and explain the
situation to the tree. You have to tell the tree
why you're doing it. You show the tree
respect and then you thank it for its timber."
And when you think about it, wal-nut? It's
chestnut fair. Oh, elm not saying we should
pine or make ashes of ourselves, but maple
we'd be more poplar if we didn't go around
aspen fir trouble. I think that's why we get
sycamore than we yewsed to. If we could
just cedar way clear to spruce up a little and
not lilac we do, things would be A-oak-A.
Butternut to wait until we've cottonwood
splmters in our backsides - willow join with
me and turn over a new leaf now?
Life doesn't have to be a beech, you know.
unemployment rate only slightly less than
Canada's, inflation three times as high and
the economy in negative growth. Fiat, the
pride and joy of Italian industry, has been
reporting hugh losses and all the old major
political parties are in some stage of
disrepute. The adjustments that have to be
made there are far greater than anything we
have to do in Canada; those Italians who are
willing to do them hardly know where to
start.
Perhaps I can put this in some sort of
perspective when I tell you that Canada is
expected to have the highest growth rate of
GDP of any of the industrialized countries in
both 1993 and 1994. Both inflation and
interest rates are among the lowest to be
found anywhere. For those who think that
we are going to hell in a handbasket, my
advice is to relax a bit. Most countries would
give anything to be in our position; if we
were able to come to grips with our
economic problems, we could come closest
to living in a veritable Garden of Eden of
any nation on this planet. That, at least, is
something to shoot for.
Paul's Perspective
Continued from page 4
Minister of Education. The other main task
of the council be to examine ways to
promote parental involvement in the
education system. The council will reach out
to parents to find out what their main
concerns are, and then communicate them to
the Minister. The council will also play a
crucial role in helping parents understand
what is happening in the classroom.
You can still be involved with the Ontario
Parent Council. A toll-free number 1-800-
361-6483 is being set up so parents can
provide their views and obtain information
on the council's activities. In Huron County
many schools have Home and School or
parent's groups. Now is the time to get
involved.
Another way would be to attend a meeting
of the Huron County Board of Education.
The
Short
of it
By Bonnie Gropp 1
Don't push your luck
I consider myself to be a cautious driver;
But even the most wary of us, can
occasionally miscalculate.
This happened to me the other day. Pulling
out of a parking spot my haste and a driving
rain, caused me to misjudge the amount of
time I had. When I realized my error, I had
pulled out too far to change my mind. My
best option was get a move on and hope that
there would be no dire consequences.
I was lucky. Other than a bruising of my
ego, due to a rather prolonged horn lashing
from the truck driver I had cut off, I got
away unscathed.
While skill and common sense are the
best attributes a driver can have, I couldn't
help thinking that luck does play a big part.
Being in the wrong place at the wrong time
can be a difference of a split second.
You would never rely solely on blind luck,
however, hat would be stupid. Yet when it
comes to drinking and driving that is often
what people do. At the beginning of this
month, area police officers started their
annual RIDE campaign with its aim to
reduce impaired driving. The festive season
is a busy time with parties and get .togethers
which inevitably result in a number of
people having such a good time that they
won't remember it the next day.
RIDE programs even put a new twist on
the fun and games when guests will try to
deduce where the cops will be sitting and
what route they can take to avoid them.
Interesting when you think about it because
if we'll drive around them to avoid them, we
probably have no business driving.
We've all known someone who doesn't
realize just what effect the alcohol has on
them; they figure they're alright to drive, yet
conversely will go out of their way to avoid
a face to face with the fuzz. That's one of the
biggest problems with booze; it takes off the
realistic edge. It makes you believe you
haven't had that much to drink in addition to
giving you the feeling of invincibility.
Don't get me wrong, I am certainly not an
abstainer, but I learned my lesson —the hard
way. While visiting a friend one evening
about six years ago, I had three drinks; I
certainly did not see this as having over
indulged. So sure was I of that when the
police stopped me later I told them exactly
what I had drunk, assuming they'd let me go.
They didn't. There is not, that I can think of,
a more sobering reality than sitting in a
police cruiser to provide a breath sample.
As it turned out I was fortunate, I was not
impaired, but I was left with a very lasting
impression. Drinking and driving is not only
dumb, it's against the law and abusers will
face the consequences. If they're lucky, that
might only mean a license suspension. If not,
it may cost them a life.
I was disgusted that night, not at the
police, but at myself for putting myself in
that situation. As little as I had to drink, it
was obviously enough to make me suspect.
When I looked at my children later that night
it simply fortified my feeling that even a
social drink isn't worth it if you have to
drive.
This holiday season, rather than tempting
fate if you've been drinking, think carefully
before you get behind the wheel. There's no
honour anymore in being the one who can
put the most booze under your belt and still
function. The honour comes in being
responsible to yourself, your family, friends
and the strangers you will pass on your way
home.
And if you're one of those ones who has
gotten away with it for years, just keep in
mind your luck may eventually run out.
Arthur Black
