Thursday, April 30, 2009
On pandemics, pounds and pennies, power struggles and population
Posted in Musings
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There seem to be a couple of trains of thought in the house at the moment. L and J have both come home from school with versions of the same one. "They say we're all going to get flu", said L, looking at me with a sad frown. H, typically, asked questions: "What is this 'swine flu'?" he asked; "They say it's like flu but horribly painful"; "They say you drown in mucus". We have talked to them and tried to put the spread of swine flu into context, explaining that things have moved on a long way since the terrible Spanish flu of 1918, both in terms of medication and in terms of understanding. Back in 1918, people didn't even understand what caused it, let alone have a drug to use. What I haven't majored on, though I think I mentioned it, is that nowadays we have air travel, so it has the opportunity to spread a lot more quickly. Between ourselves, N & I, and in conversation with a neighbour, conversation took a different turn. In amongst our usual subjects - plants and paintings - two separate conversations turned to the flu. We are all old enough and far enough from immediate danger to be philosophical, at least for now. We have seen illness come and go. We're still here. We all look out at the world from our small corner, though, and wonder where it's going, and those two of us with history degrees see the pattern over the centuries: something always comes along to regulate population, whether it be war or plague or simply economics. Today, when the UK is withdrawing from six years of war, the economy is still looking like a burst balloon and news broadcasts track the unremitting spread of swine flu. In one sentence we have three of the main ways the boiling pan of population is brought back to a sustainable bubble. Naturally, we don't want it to happen. Just as we don't want war and are glad when, in Dorothy Sayers' memorable words, it makes 'a noise like a hoop and roll(s) away', so there are scientists making strenuous efforts to outwit the long-awaited pandemic. Similarly there are economists, politicians, bankers, lots of us little people all trying to get the economy back on track in whatever way or on whatever scale we can. If we are in a position to make policy, we make it. If we have jobs, we hang on to them. If we are in the media, it seems we try to get people to grow vegetables. Now if that last one seems a digression, I should explain that N and I were talking about this tonight. Why the current trend to grow our own veg? For most people, I imagine the amount generated won't be enough to make a significant dint in our supermarket bills. If it were, there would be pressure groups worrying about the effect on market gardening. It may, for those who take part, be a health booster, providing exercise, fresh air, sunlight, a source of social input and even, if it all goes right, healthy food. That's undeniable - but how many people have access to enough land to make much of a difference? The UK is a land-poor country with a lot of people to support. If the trend has some effect in reversing the concreting of the nation's gardens it will be a good thing - even in our small plot we see the change in drainage since houses were built behind us and that land can no longer absorb as much water as it did a few years ago - but again - people are taught that their garden is in effect another room, and rooms 'need' solid floors. So why the big drive to dig? I think it's to make us feel we have some power over our well-being. Having said all this, I come to the 'pennies' of the title, the small changes we actually do make to our lifestyles and the effects they could have. For us, today, not close enough to war to have the relief it is abating, not under any immediate threat to our livelihoods although we have seen the effect of price increases, and not having been to Mexico or being near to a current outbreak of the flu, the ripples are still small. Here they are, then, at the end of an unusually long pontification: two small delights that aren't going to rock the world but may save a few pennies. Firstly, we had spicy lentil soup for tea. Secondly, there are three fat pots in the garden containing 35 seedling leeks which, in my fond imagination, are going to see us through most of the winter. We shall see. |
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