Dear Editor,
Isn鈥檛 it amazing how the government can mobilize and change things really quickly in a crisis?
We have waited decades to break down the provincial trade barriers and now it is happening in days. Tariffs have been agreed upon unanimously by provinces and quickly come into affect.
I was born during the Second World War in Britain when we had to suddenly mobilize for war. I am in no way comparing the two situations, but we can learn from how countries at war do it and sacrifice a few luxuries for the higher cause.
When war was declared we immediately were issued ration books and every Briton was allowed a weekly allowance of vegetables, fruits, carbohydrates, oils and protein. I didn't see a banana or an orange or a pineapple or kiwi or any of those other exotic fruits and nuts until I was eight years old, because rationing was still going on until the mid-fifties. For breakfast we had oatmeal, corn flakes or All Bran. In the winter, we didn't complain about not having lettuce or tomatoes or cucumber. If we wanted a salad, we could make a coleslaw out of cabbage and carrots. In the summer we had apples, pears, apricots, plums, peaches and we picked blackberries and other berries that we canned and dried and preserved for the winter. We grew gardens and built root cellars in our backyard and could store potatoes, parsnips, beets, rutabagas, squash, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, leeks and onions over the winter. We had eggs, milk, butter, cheese, chickens, beef, pork, lamb, fish and beans. All food that we produced in Britain. We ate by the seasons the same as our First Nations have done for centuries. No one went hungry. The government made sure that everyone had equal access to nutritious food. We didn't worry about taking loads of supplements. Our vitamin C came from Rose Hip syrup, our vegetables and what fruits we had. Children and adults were given cod liver oil, and we were healthy. People ate smaller portions. Fast foods and take out were unheard of. No one was obese and diabetes, heart disease, cancer and autoimmune diseases were rare. We did not have the huge array of choices in our grocery stores that we have now (do we really need the 53 varieties of cereal, which I counted today in the supermarket?). If you survived the bombing and warfare, people lived longer than the present generations.
Hardly anyone owned a car because most of the gasoline was allocated to ambulances, fire trucks, tanks, planes, boats and military vehicles. Children walked or cycled to school and did not have all the many toys that today's children had. But they were healthy and not overweight. They played outside and made up their own games with sticks and stones and skipping ropes. Parents in their spare time knit socks and sweaters for the troops, they made clothes or remade old clothes into dresses and made dolls and stuffed toys for their children. My grandma made me a lovely teddy out of an old coat with buttons for eyes. Creativity blossomed. No-one got married in a wedding dress, but used a nice suit that was made before the war.
Nobody had TV but if the movie theatres hadn鈥檛 been bombed, people went to the weekly cinema and before the movie started, watched with anxiety and anticipation the newsreels about the progress of the war. Some had radios and invited their friends and neighbours to come over and listen. No one was addicted to cell phones and computers but I doubt they were subject to misinformation or disinformation either.
Everybody pulled together, and there was a sense of community and cooperation and above all support for one another. Women were mostly the farm labourers, they worked in factories and in the mines because all the men and some women were conscripted (the true start of the women鈥檚 movement!) And yes, of course there was the worry, anxiety, and grief when bad news came, but there was also a sense of purpose and unanimity. There was a sense of coming together for the common good 鈥� just like Canadians are coming together now although for a less dire situation.
Do we really need all this continual growth? More and more different foods, new cars and trucks, a boat and RV in the front driveway. Is it making us happier? I don鈥檛 see this. So please don't complain about not being able to buy Canadian lettuce or oranges. You really don't need those. Let's tighten our belts, be willing to sacrifice a little. We鈥檒l pull through together and we'll grow stronger through it. We'll decrease our dependence on the USA, and open up new opportunities. We have been complacent and stagnating for too long. We needed this wake up call.
Canada - our home on native land!
Anicca de Trey
Comox
