Zurich Citizens News, 1974-12-19, Page 4PAGE 4 ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1974
The Christmas Lights Are Shining
All over Canada, the Christmas lights are shining.
Blue, green, gold and red, they sparkle, their radiance
displacing shadows here, highlighting them there, both
within doors and without. Nothing could be a more
significant symbol of this season, nor, after the shock
and fear of our unhappy fall, more welcome, How we
need light!
Christmas, of course, can be mere escape - for some
even an orgy - but for the thoughtful this returning cel-
ebration of the Birth helps to restore our sanity and our
humanity.
Machines may be everywhere, but Christmas reminds
us that it is man who makes and operates them. Laws
may rule us, or try to, but it is men who make the
laws. Every new thrust forward, every dream that lifts
us even briefly from our sorry ruts, begins in some
hurnan heart. Here lie buried the seeds of our hope
and our despair.
For a few precious weeks, thank God, hope is once
more ascendant. We dare believe that better and more
significant tomorrows may even now be lying in the
cradles of Canadian homes, as once they lay, for all
men, in a Bethlehem manger.
The Two Christmases
Decrying the commercialism of Christmas has be-
come a popular conversational sport. The door is
hardly shut on Thanksgiving before the big stores start
ushering in Christmas. The decorations go up, sale
fever sets in and the rush and the panic begin to build.
Take away the Santa Claus parade, the rivalry to have
the best display of outdoor lights, the biggest turkey,
the most lavish presents and what is there left of
Christmas anymore?
Those Three Wise Men certainly didn't know what
they started that night so long ago! They brought their
most treasured possessions, gold, oils and spices,
commodities of great importance in the trading econ-
omy of the day. They gave their best as an act of
worship. Whatever happened to that idea? Or to the
Christ's mass of early centuries? Or the celebrations
surrounding the Bishop of Asia Minor, Saint Nicholas,
patron of sailors? Imported to the North American
continent by the Dutch, the venerable ecclesiastic be-
came Santa Claus and his day was marked as a child-
ren's holiday.
The changing times have brought us a long way from
those celebrations and from the unsophisticated family
fun which marked the yule season of 50 years ago when
there were skating parties, taffy pulls, carolli ng and
"arlour games. Sometimes it seems as though Christmas
has degenerated into a grab and asp season of over-
spending, overeating and credit buying, an excess of
tasteless, frenetic ugliness.
But sometimes the decrying of commercialism is
just a cop-out from the whole Christmas scene by
those too uncaring or insensitive to explore and re-
discover Christmas as the happy, sharing experience
ft was meant to be.
Christmas in the NOW? Different for sure, but is
that all bad? it's up to ::, which of the two Christmases
we c !.ebrateo
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International Scene
(by Raymond Cannon)
MERRY CHRISTMAS ABDUL!
Any journalist who thinks
about it will admit that it is
extremely difficult to write
something original about Christ-
mas or even New Year's for
that matter. I have got to the
point that I sometimes think
about starting a Christmas
article in the middle of July
just so I have plenty of time
to improve or change. This
doesn't work. For one thing,
it is hard to think about Christ-
mas when everybody else is
enjoying the waren weather
and for another thing articles,
or at least the ones I do, have
to be relatively spontaneous.
To see what I mean, try forc-
ing yourself to write on some-
thing like Christmas in a spec-
ific length of time. It's awfully
hard!
Anyway, this is the time of
year when we start wishing
everybody a Merry Christmas
and a prosperous New Year. To
be honest, Christmas is about
as merry as we want to make it
and, as for being prosperous,
well, I can't think of prosper-
ity without thinking about those
Arabs and their confounded oil
wells.
You have probably read about
how much money they are haul-
ing in from their sale of oil
but you don't know the half of
it. It is corning in so fast that
they can't even spend it no
matter how hard they try. You
may think that I am joking but,
believe nie, I never was more
serious! They aren't even
coming close.
Right now they are taking in
about sixty billion dollars a
year more than they are spend-
ing. That breaks down to about
$7, 000, 000 a hour or $115, 000
a second. The unfortunate part
of it all is that this has been
going on for so long that the
Arabs are in somewhat of a
quandary. They are damned if
they spend too much money
and damned if they don't. No
matter how hard they try they
just can't spend enough to buy
goods and services. They have-
n't enough people to absorb all
these commodities.
They could start buying up
western companies but how
many can they buy before some
government starts erecting bar-
riers to keep the Arabs out.
Already they have purchased
part of the Krupp steel works
and the Daimler-Benz factories
in Germany and there have beer
attempts to buy controlling int-
erest in American firms.
Knowing how the Americans
screamed when the Canadian
Development Corporation bout
up a controlling interest in
Texasgulf, I am certain that
Washington will never agree
to many of their firms having
their head office moved to
Abu Dhabi or Kuwait.
Of course, Washington could
always let them buy out Penn -
Central Railway but the Arabs,
like us, want something that is
going to make them even more
money, not lose it left and
DEL'i
OWEoma,
Antenna & otors
Installed, sold & repaired
r
Aim
262-2829 HENSALL
right.
Just to give you a little bet-
ter ideajust what wealth the
oil producing nations have in
their hands, listen to a few
facts. If these countries cont-
inue to rake in the cash at the
rate they are now and continue
their expenditures at the pres-
ent level, in 16 days they would
have as much money as the
Rockefellers. Notice that I
said 15 days, not 15 months or
years. In less than three months
they could buy out Exxon (Esso)
in five months I.B.M. would
go. In a little over three years
they could buy up all the gold
in the world presently being
held by central banks. Finally
get this! In 15 years they could
buy up all the companies on all
the world's major stock markets,
That's about as "lose to owning
the world as you are going to
get.
When I was a little boy I
used to hear a story about a
man that was so rich he didn't
know what to do with his
money. Croesus I think his
name was but that should be
changed. Let's call him Abdul.
He's far richer than Croesus
ever was.
Obviously all this cannot go
on. How is it going to change
and when? Your guess is as
good as mine! In the ,meantime
Season's Greetings and may
Abdul learn how to distribute
his wealth wisely.
Banghart, lCelly, Doig and Cod
Chartered Accountants
268 Main St., Exeter
ARTHUR W. READ
Resident Partner
Bus. 235-0120, Res, 238-8075
oregoarirmara
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