HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2001-11-21, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2001. PAGE 5.
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Take your mitt to the ball game
Fans like to see home runs
and we have assembled a pitching
staff to please our fans.
— Anonymous baseball club owner
W ell, the baseball season is finally
over and not a moment too soon, I
say. I don't know how it happened
but somehow the people who run The Show
have managed to make the game boring.
Actually, I do know how it happened. It's the
high scores.
In the run-up to the World Series this year we
heard scores like 9 - 1 and even 14 - 3.
What do those guys think they're playing -
NHL hockey?
The other thing that's changed mightily over
the last few years is the number of balls
slugged out of the park.
Used to be a time when a homerun was like
a royal flush in poker or a century in cricket -
rarely seen and always amazing.
But now home runs are as common as
crabgrass. For 70 seasons, right up until
1997, the home run record was broken only
once.
Now it's been shattered twice in the last four
years. Who'd have thought we could get tired
of watching home runs?
But then, not all of us did. There are at every
game a dedicated sub sect of fans who
deliberately seek seats as far away from home
plate as they can get.
And they're not hard to pick out of the
It is interesting that, while economics is very
much an inexact social science, economists
are expected time and time again to come
up with precise solutions to what ails us and
then we are criticized if those solutions fail to
work as predicted.
Over the past few months, I have been
bombarded with questions by both adults and
students as to whether the world is headed for
another depression, the likes of which we
suffered in the 1930s.
One person argued that the world has not had
a depression since the 1930s and thus it is time
we had one again. I suspect he had been
reading something about what is called the
Kondratieff cycle which states that there is a
major depression about every 50 years.
Krondratieff, a Russian economist, was
eventually executed by Stalin for his troubles
but his theories apparently live on.
We can even go back to the Bible and its
seven prosperous years in Egypt, followed by
seven lean years; depression theories have
obviously been around for a long time.
To start out on a reassuring note, the world
has learned a great deal since the 1930s and I
would hope that governments are smart enough
to put all that knowledge to good use. One
terrible measure that governments, Canadian
and others, used that contributed greatly to the
Depression was called unofficially "exporting
one's unemployment."
When the economic downturn came at the
end of the roaring 1920s, Canada tried to
prevent any real drop in domestic
unemployment by erecting all kinds of trade
barriers. This meant that foreign goods found it
difficult to compete with Canadian equivalents
and .therefore employment here could be
maintained.
However, other countries did exactly the
same thing to us and since our country was
even then dependent on its exports for much of
its prosperity, we suffered badly. In no time at
all, everybody was doing it to everybody else.
Small wonder that the depression lasted so
long and was so widespread.
crowd. They're carrying baseball mitts. •
These are the folks whose biggest dream is
of leaping up in the bleachers and snagging a
homerun ball.
Alex Popov is one such fan. He's a San
Francisco restaurateur who loves baseball and
totes his baseball mitt to every game the Giants
play in Pacific Bell Park. He was there with his
mitt, waiting when Barry Bonds hit his 71st
homerun.
He was in the stands squinting towards
home plate when Barry Bonds hit his 72nd
homerun.
And he was there, punching his glove in
anticipation when Bonds hit his record-
shattering 73rd homerun. But there was one
difference this time: the ball was dropping out
of the sky...
And coming straight toward him.
Even as the crowd roared, Popov held up his
glove and waited. The million-dollar ball
floated down, down...and right into the pocket.
Popov caught the most famous baseball in
the history of the game.
Unfortunately for Popov, he didn't hold it. A
Raymond
Canon
The
International
Scene
Fortunately with such things as the North
American Free Trade Agreement and the World
Trade Organization, we have come a
considerable distance in the right direction.
We can only hope that we don't panic and
start all over with the barriers. Already there
have been cries of unfair foreign competition
but we also have tribunals to look into this
practice called "dumping."
I shall be writing more about that later.
Financially governments are in better shape
now than they have been for some time and
some wise spending of extra money will keep
things on a more even keel. The United States
is included in this category and, since we are
dependent on them for much of our prosperity,
i.e. trade and tourism, we may fare better than
other countries.
Of course, no guarantee in the field of
economics can be 100 per cent foolproof. In
addition economic downturns are noticeably
uneven. Some industries may be operating at a
higher level of output than others; the car
industry is particularly susceptible to
fluctuations in output; this has a domino effect
on the rest of the economy and we all know the
outcome of all this.
It doesn't help any when there is already
overcapacity in the industry, but all the
automobile companies, be they European,
Asian or even North American, appear to
believe that others should be the ones to cut
capacity.
Finally there is the psychological factor. I
think it was former U.S. President Harry
Truman who said that a recession is when your
neighbour is out of work-rand a depression is
when you are.
writhing ball of humanity descended upon him,
knocking him to the floor and breaking his
glasses.
And when the crowd untangled itself, there
was Popov on the bottom. With an empty mitt.
Somebody else was holding the ball up and
grinning.
So how does it feel to become both a
millionaire and a celebrity for approximately
one nanosecond? Popov's had a couple of bad
moments but he's become pretty philosophical,
under the circumstances.
"I'm not going to get into the economics," he
said. "I feel fortunate enough. I live fairly
simply, I own a small business and I play golf
every Tuesday with my good buddies."
Pretty classy response, considering.
But then if he's in search of consolation,
Alex Popov can always look at the case of
Todd McFarlane.
Todd's a Canadian cartoon genius turned
media mogul who bought the last homerun
record ball - the one Mark McGwire hit a few
seasons back.
Todd wasn't at the game to catch the ball -
he just paid $3 million U.S. to the guy who did.
And then Barry Bonds came along and
turned McGwire's feat into a footnote.
Now Todd's got a baseball that used to be
worth a fortune - and is now selling for $4.95
plus GST at my local sports store.
If I was Alex Popov, I'd be feeling better
already.
Continued from page 4
that an individual trustee's personal political
opinions are the opinions of the board in
concert.
Much of the board's discussion on the matter
revolved around the notion that a trustee's
inclination to offer individual opinion should
be constrained by obligation to other trustees
and to the board in concert.
My response to this was that having arrived
in my position of trustee by the electoral
process it is my firm belief that my primary
obligation is to my constituents; the ratepayers,
taxpayers, parents, students and to the commu-
nities at large comprising my "Area" (ward).
In additional discussion of school closure
and an individual trustee's liability, the
lawyer's and my fellow trustees' discussion
f9cused around the possibility that a dissenting
trustees' expressed opinion could in some
fashion lead to the success of a court challenge
mounted against the board and that this in turn
could result in a successful legal action by the
board against the dissenting trustee, perhaps by
some application of bad faith principles.
It is very hard for me to fathom that a trustee,
who was in some measure instrumental in
causing a board to act according to the law,
would be then punished by that same system of
law. 1. now have my own legal opinion and have
no fear of disclosing the information in this
letter to the public.
Intoleramx of the dissenting view is an
unacceptable position for any elected body to
take.
Charles Smith, P.Eng.,
Trustee, Huron County, Area 2
(Avon Maitland District School Board).
Bonnie
Gropp
The short of it
Work is always there
Ihave an idea about what Saturday should
be. The reality, of course, is quite different.
Perhaps I'm a bit spoiled, but' it seems
unfair to me that people who work all week,
have to use Saturday to catch up on all the
things they haven't been able to do, while
those whose weekdays are their own, pretty
much have things under control by the
weekend and can spend Saturday as they
choose.
Around our home, Saturday's arrival is sp8nt
in hard labour, dusting, vacuuming, doing
laundry and yardwork, and further down the
list trying to catch up with , general
maintenance. As a result a break is taken with
no small degree of apprehension as it will
mean trying to get these things accomplished
either in a few spare moments during the week
or piling it on to the next weekend's tasks.
Even at risk of being buried, however, one
cannot put off those little breaks from the
menial and mundane. They are just plain
necessary.
Convincing my husband of this can be
almost as arduous an undertaking as cleaning
the oven. I've never been one to shun toil; if
there's a job to do, just do it and get it over
with. But Mark's work ethic and sense of
responsibility is obsessive. There's always a
project, and convincing him that leaving it
won't be the end of the world, that it will still
be there for him to tackle when we get back, is
next to impossible.
Well, this weekend, tired of hearing about,
other people's little sojourns into the country,
treks into the city, nights at the movies or fine
dining experiences, I told my beloved that he
and I were taking some well-deserved time off
— together, alone, just the two of us.
Planned events or occasions which we must
attend on a Saturday are problem enough,
though social duty is almost as important to
Mark as work. Even with multi-tasks facing
him, he can eventually, enjoy time spent in the
company of a crowd.
But leave unfinished work for a day trip
with, Heaven forbid, his wife, will almost
always bring a plethora of excuses. The "But,
but, but" that sputtered forth this time, I
quickly stomped out however, with an I'll-
take-no-excuses attitude. For years, I
reminded him, we have talked about this but
it's always 'another time'. Well, I stated, the
other time had come.
It only made sense, actually. We were going
to visit a friend of our son's who was here
from the States, so being as part of the day
would be gone, we might as well just take the
opportunity to enjoy.
And enjoy we did. After all, the day offered
us a good deal from the norm. We Christmas
shopped and wish listed. There were moments
of uninterrupted conversation. We made a new
acquaintance. And we were able to enjoy a
quiet, relaxing dinner.
Of course, Sunday arrived with us both
trying to figure out which part of the previous
day's drudgery needed to be addressed first,
but it was worth it.
, It's very easy to,,get caught up in the rush,
the race, and the drive to complete, that the
majority of us face each andevery day. We
take for granted that there will always be
'another time' in which to share time together.
Then when we find out how wrong we are, it's
too late for anything but regrets.
After all, only the work, will always be here.
Is a world-wide depression possible?
You tend to think downturn and you
consciously or subconsciously start to act in
like fashion. In short order you have a self-
fulfilling prophecy.
Of such things are depressions made.
Letter