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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1995-11-15, Page 5International Scene a mo tad non THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1995. PAGE 5. He meant to throw the pie at Stallone If you wish to be happy for an hour, get drunk. If you wish to be happy for three days, get married. If you wish to be happy for eight days, kill your pig and eat it. But if you wish to be happy forever, become a gardener. Old Chinese proverb Well, yes and now. There are some hoe- scarred and weevil-whipped veterans of the vegetable patch that will tell you gardening is the shortest cut to insanity this side of sniffing glue at a Roger Whittaker concert. But truth to tell, there is something ineffably peaceful and fulfilling about cultivating a garden. Especially for Canucks. Let's face it - the territory we inhabit is not Tahiti or Tegucigalpa or. even Fresno, California. Here in the Great White Etcetera we only get a few short weeks of respite between blizzards. What better way to spend those precious days than smack in the middle of a swatch of fresh tilled, fecund earth, trowel in one hand, seed bag in the other, feeling the rich, dark loam ooze up between your bare toes? Business cycles go one and on No matter what country I go to, one of the chief topics of conversation is employment or, more frequently, the lack of it. This fall, when I was over in Europe, it was discussed everywhere and with good reason. Italy, France, Denmark, Belgium and Spain all have rates of unemployment of over 10 per cent while many other countries are only slightly under that. Switzerland is one of the lowest with four per cent but that is just as bad to the Swiss as double-digit joblessness is to many of the other countries. It was asked on numerous occasions what the situation was in Canada and I had to reply that it was just about as bad. Mention the word recession, and fears of even greater unemployment start to make themselves heard. People want to know at what stage we are in the business cycle and, if we are at, or near, the peak, how likely are we to stay there and for how long. Because so much of our trade is with the United States, people also want to know what the American situation is. If our friends to the south are about ready to go into a recession, you can rest assured that -we will follow them in short order. Which, according to my copy of Beautiful Homes and Gardens, is the way my Love Affair With Mother Earth was supposed to go. It didn't quite work out that way for me this past summer. There was a lot more sweating and swearing in my Leafy Alcove of Delights than I thought there would be. Summer is over and I had, to show for my labours, a ragged row of turnips, 27 jade- coloured granite-solid tomatoes, plus three ears of corn that the raccoons overlooked. A cursory cost-benefit analysis indicates that the corn I eat from my garden this year will run me about $38.765 a cob. I didn't try my luck with cukes this year. And it's probably just as well, because cucumbers as we know them are obsolete. The United States Department of Agriculture has come up with an all new mutant cuke whose innards are as orange as ... well, an orange. Advantage? Well, the pumpkin coloured cucumber tastes like an ordinary cucumber but it packs 'way more beta carotene.' That may not turn your culinary crank, but it's got health food experts all excited. Beta carotene converts to Vitamin A in the human body and Vitamin A deficiency is a major cause of bone, tooth and vision problems in the Third World. Let's hope the USDA cucumber strain turns out to be as hardy as the 40 tomato seeds that sprouted in a museum lab in southwest China last month. Nothing really remarkable in that — There are times when it is believed, and by some economists, that we have the business cycle under control. Instead of endless ups and downs, we are led to believe that the industrialized countries are embarked on a slow but steady path upward. Much as it would be nice to experience such a situation, I do not believe this approach; the cycle has been and will continue to be with us for some time. A little bit of history is in order. If we go back for a hundred or so years and look at the American economy, we will see that it was constantly fluctuating and dramatically at that. Those readers who can still remember the great depression of the 1930s will be interested to note that there were any number of similar fluctuations before that time. One back in the early 1890s was a horrendous one and set off a whole series of them that lasted right up to World War I. If you look at these cycles, you are struck by one characteristic. Before the arrival on the scene of the British economist, John Maynard Keynes, the fluctuations were dramatic ones; after the Second World War the cycle flattened out just as dramatically. Perhaps Keynes was on the right track after all. Certainly with greater government involvement in the economy, the role of automatic stabilizers has taken on added importance. Also the level of employment in me public sector does not fluctuate as much as it does in privately held firms. Furthermore, as countries switch away from manufacturing to service industries, another stabilizing factor has emerged. tomatoes are one of God's more foolproof crops. Heck, even I can grow them. What makes the Chinese tomatoes kind of special is that they were found in a bamboo tube in an excavated tomb dating from the Han Dynasty. Which would make them approximately 2,000 years old. Apparently the tomatoes were more elongated than their 20th century cousins, but they tasted just the same. One last tale from the horticultural pages, then I must get back to my composting. This story isn't about gardening per se, but it involves food — and the strategic military use thereof. It seems a Frenchman by the name of Jean Bucquoy is setting up boot camps in the Belgian backwoods to train cream pie terrorists. Commander Bucquoy heads up the International Pastry Brigade. Their mission: to comb the world rooting out "those who believe themselves to be superior" — and to throw a cream pie in their face. Commander Bucquoy practices what he preached. He was arrested for hurling a pie at the French Minister of Culture. Commander Bucquoy claims it was a snafued offensive. He'd really meant to throw the pie at Sylvester Stallone, but the movie star showed up too late. Personally, I'm prepared to become the Canadian liaison for the Save Jean Bucquoy Defense Fund. Any organization that wants to cream pie Sylvester Stallone can't be all bad. Many services are less prone to change with changes in income than are those companies involved in manufacturing. Inventories of the former are not affected as much and all this adds up to a more stable picture. It used to be that the United States affected the business cycle in both Europe and Canada, but this is changing. The major cause of this was the formation of the European exchange rate mechanism. There always seems to be an exception and in this case it is Great Britain which, like Canada, follows the American pattern. If I carne into your home and told you that under no circumstances were you to buy that new car or washing machine, you would tell me in all likelihood to mind my own business. But part of any cycle is the continued desire of consumers, to go on buying goods and services when we should be trying to cool off the economy from excessive demand which is causing inflationary pressures. We may also get mad at governments who try to do the same thing with their economic policies; we either complain bitterly or vote them out at the next election. In short, as long as people are people, it does not matter much in which country they live, the business cycle will continue to go its usual way, leaving in its way an increased number of people without jobs. In Canada, it is frequently the case of what the American consumers have decided to do. The next time you hear of a company laying off people, look south of the border to see if the cause is to be found there. The Short of it By Bonnie Gropp Life meant to be lined A conversation I had with a new mom recently prompted a response from my eldest. "What is it about babies that turns you into such a sap?" he teased. His reference was to the oohing and aahing which emanate from most women when faced with the cherubic perfection of an infant or toddler. Now, I say most women because there are always exceptions, and I therefore want to preface this column with the acknowledgement that I am going to be generalizing throughout. While I may be, to some, perpetuating stereotypes, I must also stress that I know what I see and the arrival of a child will warm the heart of every woman I know. Touching the soft skin, feeling the tiny fingers wrapped snugly around your own, can soften the hard edge of cynicism. The face of an angel with its tiny rosebud mouth and dark lashes sweeping against pink cheeks restores our faith in miracles, while the sweet fragrance of a newborn babe is the best aromatherapy. Babies fascinate and amuse, though the men in my family have always been puzzled by why. They just can't see what it is about an infant that will captivate and hold attention for hours. They'll admit that babies are special, amazing even, but, they ask the women in the house, "How can you just sit and look at them? They don't do anything." This question coming from a group who can gather in a cold garage for hours to look at a new snowmobile or car! Now I ask — what's the attraction here? You can't cuddle them, they're not what one would call pretty and they certainly don't smell good, but they can enthrall my husband for — well, let's just say it's a good thing for his family that he gets hungry or we might never get him in the house. My warrior is the stereotypical male, fond of cars and snowmobiles. But, while most of his pleasure is derived from using them to get places — usually quickly — he is almost equally happy talking about them and looking at them. For those of us who have tried to share his passion, it's tough because he never tires of them. While I may have seen all I need to in 15 minutes, for Mark, going to a snowmobile dealership is a day long excursion. This past Saturday, Mark and his 'stereotypical buddies' did some male bonding on a snowmobile mission that took hours. Then on Sunday when another friend stopped by to see the new machine, I couldn't help thinking how like women this is when a friend has a new baby. I'll never understand it, but this interest is as life- affirming, as amazing to Mark as a young child is to me. It all got me thinking how much, in this absolutely insane world, we need our interests and our passions to fulfill us and remind us that life is meant to be lived. Being part of it is about being happy and seeking out ways to have enjoyment and good times. For me, I have music to uplift me, books to lose myself in and a fascination with new life that restores my sense of wonder. And while we may not understand or share the fervour someone has for something, we should accept it because it makes them happy. Arthur Black