Columnists have days when we sit in front of our computers wondering what to write about; or should I say, wondering how we can wax eloquent on issues about which we know little or nothing and can’t find the time to research.
Generally columnists specialize in areas where training or experience gives some degree of expertise or advantage. Bruce Whitestone features financial matters and Barrie Hopkins leans toward things related to nature and the environment. I most often concern myself with topics involving personal growth and relationships, with occasional forays into politics and religion. But at times I get the urge to deal with bigger issues.
I’d love to do a column on global warming. I keep reading that polar bears face danger of extinction as the polar regions warm up. But we have just come through a cold winter and moved right into a cool summer. That seems to argue against conventional thinking. I really wonder if, rather than warming overall, temperatures around the globe are simply balancing out. Maybe that’s why some folks now call it climate change. Whatever, I’d hate to wake up one morning and find a polar bear living next door.
What about H1N1 or swine flu? Maybe I should write about that. Various agencies continue to release figures to support the early predictions by some experts that H1N1 could become a pandemic, meaning that it might rival the flu epidemic of 1918, which killed millions.
According to health Canada, up until Thursday of last week 50 Canadians had died of the disease. Yes, that should cause us concern; none of us want to lose relatives or friends to any disease. But the story has another side. According to the Canadian Coalition for Immunization Awareness and Promotion, every year in Canada, seasonal influenza and its complications lead to an average of 4,000 deaths. So why the imbalance in media and government reporting that puts so much importance on 50 deaths and generally ignores 4,000? To read of 50 deaths concerns me; to read of 4,000 terrifies me.
I suppose I could write about global trade and its serious implications for society today. It impacts local jobs, raises questions about fair trade and uses excessive fossil fuel to transport goods around the world. Like most people, when my wife and I buy food, we look at cost first, but also consider origin. We normally buy “Ontario grown” first, “product of Canada” next, and “product of USA” last. The same day that we bought a jar of bread and butter pickles (all cucumbers) for $2.25, we also bought a cucumber for $1.30. When we got home, I wondered why we could buy the equivalent of three pickled cucumbers in a jar for comparably less money. Then I noticed the jar of pickles bore the statement, “Product of India.” That raised more questions than I can begin to answer.
I’d love to deal with the issues mentioned above, but I’d have the same problem exhibited by most of the columnists who write in daily newspapers and national magazines. Like most of them, I really wouldn’t know what the heck I was talking about.