The Cadre, Tuesday February 17, 1976, page 10 ' * ' /

Ten Days for World Development Slims

with Thinking in the last couple of years a growmg Simple living movement has emerged in North America. We read in the newspapers of sacial gatherings where the refreshment consists of soqu Smart households are learning to do without meat to get in on the latest fad: vegetarianism. Young families prefer to buy a renovated home in the city core. Buses are more popular than driving. There are scores of executives and academics who have moved out of the city altogether, living now on farms at the fringe of the urban areas and commuting each day. Yes, the simple life, back to nature and the good earth, has recaptured the ' imagination of Canadians, or of some of us at least. Of course one might question whether this discovery of a new aesthetic of simplicity is an advance towards a more egalitarian world or merely another cop-out'on the part of the (relatively) wealthy. One might question

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There is another side to the coin. Some of us are not so fortunate that we can make choices about where we will live or work, or what we, would like to eat. The economic crunch is on and it’s deadly serious. We simply have had to ’ cut back on reoreation, food, Clothes. So, we . make the best of a bad situation and discover.

alternatives. Cutting back on meat, eating more- - beans, turns out to be an improvement. Less

potato chips 5and coke, we find, leaves us' healthier! Walking, bicycling, may be necessary, but are also enjoyable. v ‘ ‘

Just the same, making the best of a bad situation doesn’t really come to terms with ‘ global trends or even take the question of life-style. very seriously. Even that finely motivated admonition to eat less'so those who are starving may live, deserves a critique. After

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all, I can-remember being told as a, child when I wouldn’t finish my dinner, “Remember the poor people in Africa.” In fact that never did wurk very well; we” used to reply, “Well, send it to them then.” Even askids we found the connection naive. How could my leftovers that night really help or hurt the starving masses?

What contribution then can a simplified

lifestyle make to a renewedand reinvigorated,

life for myself, my sisters and my brothers r-thraughout €Wu’7’fd? -

The response to such a question depends very directly on how seriously one takes life, all life: my own, that of others, even that environment for life in which we have been enfolded by the gift of creation. '

Afew years ago a book sponsored by the Club of Rome was published: Limits to Growth. It caused quite a stir. After an examination of five problem issues (food, nonrenewable resources, pollution, population and industrial production), they concluded that by the year 2000 we would be deep into a monumental —world crisis which would cause serious world famine or widespread disease and death. According to their projections even the most ideal cooperative action would only buffer, not eliminate, the crisis. Despite all the arguing over their predictions, we who constitute the first-class passengers on spaceship earth are

r consuming and destroying far beyond what the

human family or even the physical planet can sustain. The best things in life are not free; for every irresponsible attack on our environment there is a price to pay. Given the disparities which exist today, and the cycles of life, it will likely be our fellow citizens in other lands, and our children, who will pay the price. It will be tragically true that. the sins of the parents are

_ visited upon their children.

Little «need be said at this point about the disparities jetWeen the rich and the poor, about the exploitation of the Third World countries by our multinational‘corporations, backed up by self-protecting governmental policies. The call for fairer trade policies and

q for a more reasonable program of aid has gone out more than a decade ago and is still largely

' unheeded.'The price we all pay, even now,.is

horrendoua One thinks cf the two million

dead because of a US. policy to retain a v foothold in mineral-rich south-East Asia, not to mention’another 3% million maimed or wounded. We still face-the enormous spectre of yearly starvation tolls in Bangladesh, India and the Sahel region of Africa. The toll taken also reachesdeep into our own nation. Disparities between the richland the poor here daily grow larger; whole regions (the. Atlantic provinces) and peoples (the Native Peoples). have been reduced to circumstances clearly paralleling the Third World. - "v '

We struggle with these hard questions, ponder the sad state of the universe, and wonder what we, or even God, could do to right things.

Certainly the nations of the Third World need

' to rebuild their ruined economies (and

shattered cultures) with tools appropriate to their aspirations, their resources andtheir traditions. In Canada.too there is~much to be done to regulate our relationship with these lands, and to-rediscover for ourselves a sane society. We need fair trade, generous aid, restraints on corporate power, an end to manipulation through advertising, and a ' responsible public life where family is strong and children, the elderly, the handicapped, the immigrant, have some place of honour.