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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1999-03-31, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 1999. PAGE 5. <, « « Arthur Black Venice: strictly for the birds Somewhere in a mouldering photo album at the back of a cupboard in my house there's a black and white photo of me and my friends. You'll have to take my word for it that that is me in the middle of the photo - I am 30 years younger, 50 pounds lighter and have actual hair growing out of my head. Even my mother could be forgiven for not recognizing me, because all that actually shows of me is a pair of skinny legs standing in front of some church pillars. The rest of the photo is a blur of feathers. Pigeon feathers. I am surrounded by so many pigeons it looks like they're trying to pick me up and carry me off. It could happen to anybody in the Piazza San Marco - St. Marks Square - in Venice. The square is famous for two things: it's architectural beauty and the thousands of pigeons that gate-crash every day to mooch food from Venetians and tourists alike. These pigeons are extremely friendly - aggressive, even. They don't take "no" for an The pendulum effect I'm sure there are readers who remember vividly the effects of the Great Depression of the 1930s. If you do not, perhaps you can get one of your parents or grandparents to tell you about it. The real saviour of the time was the English economist John Maynard Keynes who laid down realistic proposals for getting ailing economies started again. In the first years after policy makers came to accept Keynesian economics as holy writ, all was well and good. However, most of these politicians forgot to read the whole book and the horrendous result was a bout of deficit financing, the results of which are still being felt. The pendulum then swung all the way back, with the free market economics of Milton Friedman catching everybody's attention. Prof. Friedman, by the way, earned the Nobel Prize for his efforts. Keynesian economics were out and the market was deemed the best place to get the fairest allocation of resources. Free markets may solve a lot of problems when it comes to providing goods and services more efficiently than a socialized system but these markets frequently bring some nasty baggage with them. The most obvious is a growing number of inequalities where small answer - even when it's pronounced, nien, nyet, non or geddoudda here ya bums! The pigeons are a pesky tradition of St. Marks Square, but perhaps not for too much longer. The mayor of Venice has declared war on the airborne squatters. Their droppings are damaging the ancient, fragile buildings around the square. Moreover many of the pigeons are diseased. More than 50 percent of pigeons caught in a recent health inspection roundup were found to be carrying salmonella or chlamydion bacteria, which can be transmitted to humans and ultimately lead to blindness. The mayor says the pigeons have got to go - - which has naturally unleashed a complete firestorm among animal-rights activists. They say the birds shouldn't be killed - they should be cured, sterilized and set free once more to crap on St. Marks Basilica and dive-bomb tourists. Let us take pity on the good folk of Venice. It's not enough that their city is sinking into the Adriatic. They also get to have a pigeon problem. It wouldn’t have been a problem in the old days of course - just send a squad of paysans armed with double-barreled four-tens down to but powerful groups benefit but the middle and lower income groups show little, if any improvement in their standard of living. For some it has been described as a living hell, a description that particularly fits many consumers in south-east Asia although I am sure that some Canadians would subscribe to it. Far too often more concern is shown for what companies call the "bottom line" instead of the well-being of society. Corporations which are just as likely to be both international and big, look for the best ways to cut costs and workers, even long-term ones, find themselves on the firing line, and frequently become casualties. The end result is to give capitalism, and with it democracy, something of a bad name. It is not that the danger has been ignored. An effort to introduce a more enlightened capitalism, called simply "The Third Way" had been promoted by such people as British Prime Minister Tony Blair. But this idea is, in fact, not new. I first ran into it when I visited the University of Geneva in the 1950s to hear some lectures on the topic. Obviously it has been more or less ignored with the possible exception of the Scandinavian countries. Now, with capitalism being called more into question, it appears to be an idea whose time may have come. Hopefully, the end result will be put to a more humane face on capitalism since those who recognize that the time is ripe for a change are starting to make themselves more vociferous on the matter. This is not to say that these new or renewed the square for a couple of hours some Tuesday afternoon - but that's not about to happen in these Bambified, politically correct times. Not in Italy, not on this side of the water either. In New York City, a flock of Canada Geese 200 strong has taken over a meadow in Central Park. The birds are systematically eating the grass and replacing it with their droppings - about two pounds worth each day. Mayor Giuliani is promising action - a brace of border collies maybe, to scare the birds. There's even talk of sending in a battery-operated scarecrow which comes with a tape deck that emits screeches and squawks designed to frighten the Geese. Mayor Giuliani is willing to try anything short of measures that might harm a feather on those little bird-brained marauders heads. After all - one photo of an injured bird in The New York Post could cost him his job. Ah, well. New York will survive and so will Venice. In fact, Venetians should count their manifold blessings. After all, if they moved the pigeons out, that would create a vacuum. And we all know that nature abhors vacuums - even feathered ones. Get rid of the pigeons and something would take their place — like maybe a raucous, feisty band of big, scrappy Canadas. THEN Venice would have a problem. ideas will be introduced at top speed. If Keynes were still alive, he would vouch for the fact that new ideas, even good ones, take forever and a day to be put into place so that they are functioning properly. Trying to put a humane face on capitalism, therefore, is going to be a prolonged process and, given that the protagonists cannot exactly agree on what this concept means, nobody is quite sure yet how it will turn out. There is a rather ironic twist to all this. A key part of Communist thinking was the theory of history proposed by the German philosopher Hegel. He believed that history is based on what is called a thesis phase followed by an antithesis which is the reaction to the thesis and therefore the opposite. This, in turn, results in the synthesis which is the outcome of the thesis-antithesis phases. The Third Way could well be the synthesis of our economic systems without any of the proponents being acutely aware of following communist theory. In his grave in Highgate cemetery in London Eng. Karl Marx must surely be laughing, or rolling over, realizing at last that he had the right theory but the wrong system. A Final Thought In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. - Anne Frank A quirky world , Am I the only one who thinks this world is a little quirky? There are so many things that just don't seem to make sense. It's little wonder we humans are prone to misstep and mistake. For example, when it comes to parenting the expert's theory these days is that using physical discipline is not the answer. Spanking a child is a display of power that neither sends the right message nor is effective. Physical abuse will not teach good behaviour, but rather that violence solves problems. I'm not saying I agree or disagree. I'm simply mentioning this because it does illustrate some of my confusion. If this above is true, why is it then that though parents have taken a more permissive stance the problem of violence among youth seems to be escalating? Then, last week's military action in Yugoslavia, struck me as similarly obtuse. Though I realize my point is obviously a simplification of a complex issue, there is still an underlying contradiction — for peace, we must fight. This makes sense? Consider if you will some other of existence's perplexities. Isn't it odd that the enthusiasm for all fresh and new, the reckless abandon, the? lack of fear, the boundless energy resides in those too young to appreciate it? To paraphrase a well-known adage giving youth to the young would seem to be, once you're older and wiser, a waste of some pretty good stuff. They’re not old enough to do a lot of the things they have the energy for and not weary enough to rein it in. Wouldn't it make more sense to balance zeal with worldliness? Then we have sex. In young people, hormones rage and when it comes to love they think they have all the answers. In actuality, by the time people get it all-figured out, when they are mature enough to understand on an emotional, spiritual and physical level the pleasure, the deeper meaning, they're often too tired or too busy to care. On the same topic, isn't it one of life's jokes that males reach their sexual peak at age 18 and women get there at age 35? When parents would probably like to be home, with free time to enjoy their growing family, they have to work to support that family. Then when Mom and Dad can afford to stay at home, why bother? After all, with the kids all grown, the house now empty, they really might as well be at work. In middle age we are still young enough to want to do so many things, see so many places, and old enough to appreciate them. Unfortunately, for the most part we’re too busy to take the time off to do them. By the time we reach our golden years, out of the workforce and into retirement, we can celebrate life to its fullest. But it comes with the bittersweet knowledge the party is winding down. All this proves to me that life, like humanity, is imperfect. It can be unpredictable and confusing. But it is never, ever dull. Its quirkiness can be amusing, its mysteries a challenge. And as I've always said, it demonstrates our creator surely has a sense of humour.