Dire Implications of Rising Food Prices
Every housewife knows that the food prices have been increasing much more than general inflation rates over last few years. The reason is not hard to fathom. Not only is the number of mouths in the world increasing by about eighty millions annually, growth in the economies of developing country is improving consumption among the erstwhile poor people there. The increase in demand for basic food items is outstripping the growth in production both locally and worldwide and forcing the prices up.
It has been argued that higher prices enable the farmers to produce more because they can afford better seeds and fertilizers. Whether higher production is sufficient to offset the increased demand is open to debate. In any event, this is beside the point since for the vast numbers who barely ate enough to get by before inflation there is no tomorrow; they face the unpleasant consequences of high prices today. This is why the issue needs urgent consideration.
In North America and Europe, food is a small part of overall budget for an average family. Inflation in food price has to be really large before the family members need to reduce their food intake. In most cases, before that point is reached, they have the option of cheaper, and often healthier, substitutes. In dire emergencies, the governments have the resources to help the poor get along supplemented by the generosity of prosperous members of the population via organizations like food banks. In a developing country the situation is the exact opposite, food comprises up to ninety percent of a family’s budget. There is no option of cheaper food – they already eat the cheapest available. Millions of people go hungry today who had enough a year ago. The governments and the prosperous elements of the society feel overwhelmed by the size of the problem of poverty and do precious little to solve it.
Despite a decade of almost double digit economic growth in some developing countries the number of poor and the scale of poverty did not drop in most places. This is because even though some of the poor have risen to a higher income level, it has not happened on large enough scale to offset the growth in the number of poor people. While the family planning programs have been a big success among the educated and middle and upper class families, particularly in India, they have not had a significant impact among the poor and the illiterate. Religious considerations have also held many people back. To make the situation worse, the employment rate among the uneducated masses has not improved much and the wages of the poor have fallen behind the inflation rate. This has led to a desperate situation and the consequences are frightening.
The unaffordable high prices of necessities of life are said to be at the root of mass uprisings in Tunisia, Jordan and Egypt. The disorders of this magnitude and the consequent social upheaval are likely to spread. Consequences of these occurring in countries with large population like India and even China in spite of its firm autocratic regime are scary. High average economic growth that does not filter down to the vast majority of deprived populace is a recipe for disaster. Ostentatious life style of the rich and desperate circumstances in the slums surrounding the million dollar condo towers is an explosive mix. Unfortunately, we don’t have time for patchwork solutions and baby steps. Only way to avoid the conflagration is to drastically lower the prices of basic food items in the short term by subsidizing them and, in the long term, help the poor by instituting social welfare programs accessible to needy citizens in the developing countries. Most countries don’t have the financial and administrative ability to provide any meaningful assistance to their poor. Does the West have the resources to help them adequately? Even if the answer is positive, it means sacrifices and there is no evidence that the rich of the developed and developing world have the will to make them.
Comment:
A police officer in Toronto told a seminar on public security that how girls dress could trigger a sexual assault. He was condemned for his comments and made to submit a written apology. In my humble opinion, this is another instance of political correctness taken too far. No one will deny that humans wear clothes to send signals. There are times the ‘come hither’ looks and/or clothes are very strong and even an average man may have to call on inner reserve to fight the natural urge. It so happens that some men don’t have much reserve and in some circumstances give in to the temptation. I am not saying that these men are justified and should not be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Neither am I saying that the clothes or the looks have anything to do in many, even most, cases of assault. What I am saying, and the officer was saying, is simply this: When a woman dresses provocatively to challenge men’s restraint system, there will be occasions when the challenge is accepted and events take an ugly turn. It is not “she got what she was asking for.” It is just that dressing sensibly reduces the probability of trouble. The comparison might look silly but I will make it anyway. If you carry a twenty dollar bill in a crowded street held loosely between two fingers of your hand, you are very likely to have it pulled away.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
A Pessimist View of Tahrir Square
It may appear to some that the popular revolts which toppled the seemingly impregnable dictators in Tunisia and Egypt are novel and owe their success to facebook and twitter. But such protests are nothing new. Gandhi started them against the British Rule in India in 1929. In Egypt itself, Shah Farauk was overthrown by the people as were Shah Reza Pahlavi of Persia and Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia two generations ago. Mass movements simmer for a while before they explode as they did in Tahrir Square over last three weeks. Such protests may yet topple the leaders of Algeria, Yemen and Syria soon and other despots sometimes in not too distant future. While we rejoice in the resurgence of democracy it would help us to prepare for the future events if we understand the root cause of the protests and what follows their successful outcome.
The tens of thousands of men and women in Cairo, in Tehran and in the marches of Gandhi were not the people who had jobs they enjoyed and young families they loved and worked hard to feed. With some exceptions the protesters were young people, some of them highly educated, who had no jobs, nothing they could call their own except perhaps the cell phones they owed money on and in many cases doting parents who would look after them if they were hurt or arrested. The regimes collapsed because a large proportion of citizens had no stake in the economy and their desperation boiled over.
Concentration of wealth of a nation in a few hands is a recipe for disaster. To stay in power, the governments in poor countries, even a democratic one like India, must ensure that the benefits of the growth filter down to the lowest rung of the social ladder. For this to happen, the financial gains made by the rulers and their cohorts, fairly or unfairly, should be invested in the country not deposited in overseas banks on invested in fancy palaces in Europe and America. In the same way the output from a growing national economy must be reinvested in the country itself. While acquiring the steel plants, car companies and professional clubs in the developed world may help the newly minted billionaires ‘spread the risk’ it would be disastrous in the long run because it does not help the increasing number of poor in their backyard. This is the lesson present and future leaders must learn from spreading revolts whether these succeed or fail.
The history tells us that it is the generals who usually take over the government, not the leaders of the revolt if it indeed had any. Soon after assuming control, they throw away the inconvenient uniforms in favour of elegant business suits or on rare occasions the national dress. Sometimes it is the religious fundamentalists who either take over the government as they did in Iran or control it from their mosques as they do in Pakistan and elsewhere in the Islamic world. The hopes are soon dashed however and the situation of most people doesn’t change much with a new cycle of suppression of legitimate opposition in the guise of fighting ‘terrorism’ or whatever is the fashion of the times, regular fake elections in the name of democracy and support for the West in return for massive economic and military aid comparable to the gross national product of the recipient. There is no check on graft at the top and corruption at all levels continues unhindered. With some exceptions, Libya and Viet Nam for examples, the wealth continues to concentrate in fewer hands and to migrate overseas, there are more of the poor and they are hungrier day by day, the soothing words of the dictator and his cronies become increasingly hollow till the situation becomes unbearable once again. It happened repeatedly in pre-industrial Europe as it has in recent times in Asia and Africa. The cycle will stop, as it did in Europe, only when the economy achieves a level where the minimal needs of most of the citizens can be met even if they have to do long hours of back breaking labour.
Comment
In 2008 Alberta Government instituted a system of deposit on milk cartons, 10c each for a litre or less and 25c on larger containers. At the bottle depot you get 7c or 18c back when you empty your bags on the counter. No doubt the bottle depot needs to make money and I leave it to the market place to decide whether 30% is reasonable or excessive. My complaint is that with the new recycling system in Calgary which costs us plenty on our utility bill, why do we need this deposit. We could just throw them in the huge recycling bin we all have and save the cost and the trouble of a separate bin and drive to the depot. All that the deposit does is it increases the cost at the grocery store or the drink machines and discourages the poor from a drink they need more than anything else. More so after the fluoride from our water is taken away, thanks to the misguided zealots.
It may appear to some that the popular revolts which toppled the seemingly impregnable dictators in Tunisia and Egypt are novel and owe their success to facebook and twitter. But such protests are nothing new. Gandhi started them against the British Rule in India in 1929. In Egypt itself, Shah Farauk was overthrown by the people as were Shah Reza Pahlavi of Persia and Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia two generations ago. Mass movements simmer for a while before they explode as they did in Tahrir Square over last three weeks. Such protests may yet topple the leaders of Algeria, Yemen and Syria soon and other despots sometimes in not too distant future. While we rejoice in the resurgence of democracy it would help us to prepare for the future events if we understand the root cause of the protests and what follows their successful outcome.
The tens of thousands of men and women in Cairo, in Tehran and in the marches of Gandhi were not the people who had jobs they enjoyed and young families they loved and worked hard to feed. With some exceptions the protesters were young people, some of them highly educated, who had no jobs, nothing they could call their own except perhaps the cell phones they owed money on and in many cases doting parents who would look after them if they were hurt or arrested. The regimes collapsed because a large proportion of citizens had no stake in the economy and their desperation boiled over.
Concentration of wealth of a nation in a few hands is a recipe for disaster. To stay in power, the governments in poor countries, even a democratic one like India, must ensure that the benefits of the growth filter down to the lowest rung of the social ladder. For this to happen, the financial gains made by the rulers and their cohorts, fairly or unfairly, should be invested in the country not deposited in overseas banks on invested in fancy palaces in Europe and America. In the same way the output from a growing national economy must be reinvested in the country itself. While acquiring the steel plants, car companies and professional clubs in the developed world may help the newly minted billionaires ‘spread the risk’ it would be disastrous in the long run because it does not help the increasing number of poor in their backyard. This is the lesson present and future leaders must learn from spreading revolts whether these succeed or fail.
The history tells us that it is the generals who usually take over the government, not the leaders of the revolt if it indeed had any. Soon after assuming control, they throw away the inconvenient uniforms in favour of elegant business suits or on rare occasions the national dress. Sometimes it is the religious fundamentalists who either take over the government as they did in Iran or control it from their mosques as they do in Pakistan and elsewhere in the Islamic world. The hopes are soon dashed however and the situation of most people doesn’t change much with a new cycle of suppression of legitimate opposition in the guise of fighting ‘terrorism’ or whatever is the fashion of the times, regular fake elections in the name of democracy and support for the West in return for massive economic and military aid comparable to the gross national product of the recipient. There is no check on graft at the top and corruption at all levels continues unhindered. With some exceptions, Libya and Viet Nam for examples, the wealth continues to concentrate in fewer hands and to migrate overseas, there are more of the poor and they are hungrier day by day, the soothing words of the dictator and his cronies become increasingly hollow till the situation becomes unbearable once again. It happened repeatedly in pre-industrial Europe as it has in recent times in Asia and Africa. The cycle will stop, as it did in Europe, only when the economy achieves a level where the minimal needs of most of the citizens can be met even if they have to do long hours of back breaking labour.
Comment
In 2008 Alberta Government instituted a system of deposit on milk cartons, 10c each for a litre or less and 25c on larger containers. At the bottle depot you get 7c or 18c back when you empty your bags on the counter. No doubt the bottle depot needs to make money and I leave it to the market place to decide whether 30% is reasonable or excessive. My complaint is that with the new recycling system in Calgary which costs us plenty on our utility bill, why do we need this deposit. We could just throw them in the huge recycling bin we all have and save the cost and the trouble of a separate bin and drive to the depot. All that the deposit does is it increases the cost at the grocery store or the drink machines and discourages the poor from a drink they need more than anything else. More so after the fluoride from our water is taken away, thanks to the misguided zealots.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Schubert’s Ninth Symphony
I do not sing or play any musical instrument. I am practically tone deaf and can’t read music. I do operate the CD player but only with the help of the user manual. But in my own silly way I love music and over the years have assembled a large collection of recordings of chamber, orchestral and operatic music of composers ranging from Schutz to Schaffer, from Albeniz to Zemlinski. Listening to music is my major interest. Evelyn and I go to concerts everywhere on our travels, often we travel just for concerts and operas. I read a lot about music and have written and spoken about it. Musician friends are indulgent although they think of me as a pompous ignoramus who doesn’t know how foolish he is. However, I carry on regardless, thinking that my views enhance the enjoyment of lay listeners. I realize that I may be fooling myself in this too. Still, I continue to talk and write about music and musicians. My writing is not about the interplay of melodies and major and minor keys, all that is beyond me, it is about what the particular piece means to me. That, of course, is influenced by my personal circumstances when I first listened to it and my knowledge of composer’s other works in the context of the music of that period. This bit of harangue is more of the same in the continuing saga.
A few weeks ago Calgary Philharmonic performed Franz Schubert’s symphony no. 9 in C major, appropriately labeled ‘Great’. Schubert lived in Vienna throughout his short life at the same time as Beethoven. He started composing in early teens and wrote his first masterpiece at the age of seventeen. He was a prolific composer in every genre. ‘Great’ was one of his later works completed two years before his death in 1828 at the age of thirty and premiered in 1839 at Leipzig by Mendelssohn. It has been hailed as the pinnacle of romantic symphonies even though it has no program like several of Beethoven’s great works. It is long by standards of the day, fifty minutes, of ‘heavenly length’ as Schumann said. Yet a listener never notices the passage of time even in a mediocre performance. The excitement among the audience when the conductor lowers his baton is palpable. Standing ovations are a normal occurrence.
The symphony has the usual four movements. All movements of the symphony, one may even say every note, is full of joy. The key word about the symphony is ‘moto’ the Italian word for movement. The listener has a sense of motion right from the moment conductor’s baron is raised and there is no pause till the end. The titles of the movements say it all. The first movement is titled Andante – Allegro ma non troppo. It begins with steady flowing tempo then gathers speed to become ‘lively but not too much’. Schubert wants he players to conserve their energy for what is to come. Second movement is titled Andante con moto – flowing steadily with strong sense of movement. Third and final movements are both titled Allegro vivace – lively flowing tempo, except that the finale’s title could be elaborated a little more with vivace con troppo – as lively as possible.
Although I said earlier that the symphony has no program, I could invent one with ease. Imagine a beautiful spring afternoon in a large playground. A glorious horn call invites children in the community to come and play. After the usual hubbub, several eight to ten year boys begin an unstructured game under the watchful eyes of their parents. There is energy, fun, and complete lack of competitive spirit in the play. The air is vibrant with delight that parents feel when their offspring are happy. Children are full of excitement, running round and round with not a care in the world. Then, as if on a cue from some invisible baton, they pick up speed and run in circles as fast as they can totally oblivious of adults who are now feeling dizzy. They stop for a breather, but just for a few seconds and then start running again picking speed. One would think they will never stop but eventually they do and fall flat on the ground in blissful exhaustion.
For me, the difference between a good and great performance is how the orchestra and the conductor control the momentum through out the performance but most critically in the finale, how they pause for the breather and finally how they bring it to the end. There was a great performance of this symphony by the same orchestra in the same hall in the nineties conducted by Mario Bernardi comparable to any I have heard live or on a recording. The recent performance was excellent but it failed to reach greatness as I heard it. Music being what it is, it is quite possible that Maestro Graf’s rendition of the symphony could have touched me even more deeply than Bernardi’s on a different occasion.
I do not sing or play any musical instrument. I am practically tone deaf and can’t read music. I do operate the CD player but only with the help of the user manual. But in my own silly way I love music and over the years have assembled a large collection of recordings of chamber, orchestral and operatic music of composers ranging from Schutz to Schaffer, from Albeniz to Zemlinski. Listening to music is my major interest. Evelyn and I go to concerts everywhere on our travels, often we travel just for concerts and operas. I read a lot about music and have written and spoken about it. Musician friends are indulgent although they think of me as a pompous ignoramus who doesn’t know how foolish he is. However, I carry on regardless, thinking that my views enhance the enjoyment of lay listeners. I realize that I may be fooling myself in this too. Still, I continue to talk and write about music and musicians. My writing is not about the interplay of melodies and major and minor keys, all that is beyond me, it is about what the particular piece means to me. That, of course, is influenced by my personal circumstances when I first listened to it and my knowledge of composer’s other works in the context of the music of that period. This bit of harangue is more of the same in the continuing saga.
A few weeks ago Calgary Philharmonic performed Franz Schubert’s symphony no. 9 in C major, appropriately labeled ‘Great’. Schubert lived in Vienna throughout his short life at the same time as Beethoven. He started composing in early teens and wrote his first masterpiece at the age of seventeen. He was a prolific composer in every genre. ‘Great’ was one of his later works completed two years before his death in 1828 at the age of thirty and premiered in 1839 at Leipzig by Mendelssohn. It has been hailed as the pinnacle of romantic symphonies even though it has no program like several of Beethoven’s great works. It is long by standards of the day, fifty minutes, of ‘heavenly length’ as Schumann said. Yet a listener never notices the passage of time even in a mediocre performance. The excitement among the audience when the conductor lowers his baton is palpable. Standing ovations are a normal occurrence.
The symphony has the usual four movements. All movements of the symphony, one may even say every note, is full of joy. The key word about the symphony is ‘moto’ the Italian word for movement. The listener has a sense of motion right from the moment conductor’s baron is raised and there is no pause till the end. The titles of the movements say it all. The first movement is titled Andante – Allegro ma non troppo. It begins with steady flowing tempo then gathers speed to become ‘lively but not too much’. Schubert wants he players to conserve their energy for what is to come. Second movement is titled Andante con moto – flowing steadily with strong sense of movement. Third and final movements are both titled Allegro vivace – lively flowing tempo, except that the finale’s title could be elaborated a little more with vivace con troppo – as lively as possible.
Although I said earlier that the symphony has no program, I could invent one with ease. Imagine a beautiful spring afternoon in a large playground. A glorious horn call invites children in the community to come and play. After the usual hubbub, several eight to ten year boys begin an unstructured game under the watchful eyes of their parents. There is energy, fun, and complete lack of competitive spirit in the play. The air is vibrant with delight that parents feel when their offspring are happy. Children are full of excitement, running round and round with not a care in the world. Then, as if on a cue from some invisible baton, they pick up speed and run in circles as fast as they can totally oblivious of adults who are now feeling dizzy. They stop for a breather, but just for a few seconds and then start running again picking speed. One would think they will never stop but eventually they do and fall flat on the ground in blissful exhaustion.
For me, the difference between a good and great performance is how the orchestra and the conductor control the momentum through out the performance but most critically in the finale, how they pause for the breather and finally how they bring it to the end. There was a great performance of this symphony by the same orchestra in the same hall in the nineties conducted by Mario Bernardi comparable to any I have heard live or on a recording. The recent performance was excellent but it failed to reach greatness as I heard it. Music being what it is, it is quite possible that Maestro Graf’s rendition of the symphony could have touched me even more deeply than Bernardi’s on a different occasion.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Reducing the Clutter
When Ravi protested at all the work involved in ‘reducing the clutter’ as he called it Monica had an unanswerable point; they were at an age when ‘getting rid of the junk’ as she called it assumes the top priority. They did not know when they would be forced by the circumstances of poor health, or worse, to move in a hurry to a smaller home. “In the worst case scenario, it will not be fair for the girls to be cleaning up the mess when we are not leaving much of an inheritance,” she said to clinch the argument. She added, “It behooves us to get rid of the stuff we have stored through the ages thinking that we or the children might need it some day. Children had taken what they could use; grandchildren are too young to need any thing for several years.” Ravi thought about it and eventually agreed. They decided that the appliances, nice clothes, tools, jewellery, ornaments, electronic equipment, paintings and photographs, excess furniture, whatever it is, if it is of no use to them it has to go. In good weather, they put smaller of these things on the lawn with a sign “TAKE IT IF YOU CAN USE IT” and they often disappeared in a day or two. However, the good weather is rare in their part of the world and disposing large items is a problem any time of the year.
They had a twenty year old full-size refrigerator which worked well and did not show its age. There was a large desk, a credenza and a couple of book shelves all in excellent shape. Numerous phone calls to charities were either not returned or received negative responses. Ads on trading websites were also negative. In the end Ravi piled up in the garage these and several other articles Monica thought no one will need and some that were beyond repair. He called a big burly guy with a dump truck to haul them all to the city refuse station for a modest fee of a few hundred dollars. This did make a dent in their possessions albeit only a small one, much smaller than the dent in the wall refrigerator made while being moved. The cupboards were not even remotely bare, cars could still not be parked in the garage and it was as difficult to locate an item in the two storage rooms as it had always been. They realized that one big job was out of the way, but one out of hundreds! It was time for stage 2.
Monica stacked on the living room floor numerous items they were fond of and thought it would be nice if some one could use them – grandchildren’s bikes, some nice furniture for example. Ravi put detailed ads with good photographs on two trading websites with mixed results. In the process, he learnt a lot about selling on these sites. Lesson 1, you must have a good picture, no pic no reply. Even when there is a good picture and a detailed description in the ad, the deal typically progresses as follows: You receive an email response, “It is great. I want it. Call me at xxxxxxxxxxx and I will collect it.” You call, no response, leave a message. Later in the day the phone rings. Long conversation about the item, detailed questions with appropriate replies and with, “Oh my table is six feet, will it work?” You reply, “No sir, it will not. Table has to be five feet long as it says in the ad” and go back to what you were doing before the interruption.
Lesson 2, agreement on price followed by the detailed instructions on how to get to your place does not mean that the item is sold. You wait for nothing most of the time. Even when you have priced the items as giveaways, do not expect normal courtesies like punctuality or a message to inform you of change in plans. Lesson 3, do not expect to sell at a reasonable price on these sites. Buyers are looking for a steal and there are many owners who are happy to give away the items simply to get rid of them. However, do not advertise them for free, it raises suspicion and no one will take them. There is some probability of disposing the item at a low price, none at all at a reasonable price and even less for free. Finally, only justification for the trouble of placing the ad, watching for replies, negotiating the final price and helping with the loading is in consolation that your beloved objects will get used. You also save the trouble and cost of sending them to the dump.
The process of lightening up on possessions is not all frustration. There are occasional compensations. For instance, Monica identified a few pieces of equipment that needed minor repairs and got them fixed. Among these items were four baby violins they had acquired thirty or so years ago when the girls were little and the doting parents had the visions of the girls being present day versions of Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn. It was not to be and the girls found other fields to distinguish in. The violins sat in the cupboard along with other musical paraphernalia like old scores and music stands till discovered last spring. Monica looked at them fondly, vacuumed off the layers of dust and suggested donating them to some worthy institution. A phone call to the Conservatory was enough to get Ravi moving. He found out that repairs and tuning had to be done before they would be accepted as donation but the donation in kind receipt would probably save enough in taxes to cover this cost. It took six months for Mr. Hill, the luthier, to get round to finishing his job but he did it last week and they will be able to claim the tax deduction this year.
There does not seem to be a satisfactory way to dispose off the usable goods no longer needed in our prosperous society. Recycling at Electronic Recycling Depot is probably better than the dump but does not appear right for a fully operational microwave oven or a tuner. Is the Used Items Bank an idea whose time has come?
Comment:
I understand why the high intensity users of internet are complaining about extra charges for excessive use; no one wants to pay any more for a service than they have to. Yet, I do not see why I should be paying for the costs service providers incur to provide extra capacity on their systems which they would not need for most users who are like me. The ability to shout louder than others should not persuade the government to be unfair to ‘silent majority’ if only because fewer young people vote than the older ones.
We pay for phone, gas and electricity depending on how much we use, why not for internet? Internet is a utility, and every one should pay for what they use.
When Ravi protested at all the work involved in ‘reducing the clutter’ as he called it Monica had an unanswerable point; they were at an age when ‘getting rid of the junk’ as she called it assumes the top priority. They did not know when they would be forced by the circumstances of poor health, or worse, to move in a hurry to a smaller home. “In the worst case scenario, it will not be fair for the girls to be cleaning up the mess when we are not leaving much of an inheritance,” she said to clinch the argument. She added, “It behooves us to get rid of the stuff we have stored through the ages thinking that we or the children might need it some day. Children had taken what they could use; grandchildren are too young to need any thing for several years.” Ravi thought about it and eventually agreed. They decided that the appliances, nice clothes, tools, jewellery, ornaments, electronic equipment, paintings and photographs, excess furniture, whatever it is, if it is of no use to them it has to go. In good weather, they put smaller of these things on the lawn with a sign “TAKE IT IF YOU CAN USE IT” and they often disappeared in a day or two. However, the good weather is rare in their part of the world and disposing large items is a problem any time of the year.
They had a twenty year old full-size refrigerator which worked well and did not show its age. There was a large desk, a credenza and a couple of book shelves all in excellent shape. Numerous phone calls to charities were either not returned or received negative responses. Ads on trading websites were also negative. In the end Ravi piled up in the garage these and several other articles Monica thought no one will need and some that were beyond repair. He called a big burly guy with a dump truck to haul them all to the city refuse station for a modest fee of a few hundred dollars. This did make a dent in their possessions albeit only a small one, much smaller than the dent in the wall refrigerator made while being moved. The cupboards were not even remotely bare, cars could still not be parked in the garage and it was as difficult to locate an item in the two storage rooms as it had always been. They realized that one big job was out of the way, but one out of hundreds! It was time for stage 2.
Monica stacked on the living room floor numerous items they were fond of and thought it would be nice if some one could use them – grandchildren’s bikes, some nice furniture for example. Ravi put detailed ads with good photographs on two trading websites with mixed results. In the process, he learnt a lot about selling on these sites. Lesson 1, you must have a good picture, no pic no reply. Even when there is a good picture and a detailed description in the ad, the deal typically progresses as follows: You receive an email response, “It is great. I want it. Call me at xxxxxxxxxxx and I will collect it.” You call, no response, leave a message. Later in the day the phone rings. Long conversation about the item, detailed questions with appropriate replies and with, “Oh my table is six feet, will it work?” You reply, “No sir, it will not. Table has to be five feet long as it says in the ad” and go back to what you were doing before the interruption.
Lesson 2, agreement on price followed by the detailed instructions on how to get to your place does not mean that the item is sold. You wait for nothing most of the time. Even when you have priced the items as giveaways, do not expect normal courtesies like punctuality or a message to inform you of change in plans. Lesson 3, do not expect to sell at a reasonable price on these sites. Buyers are looking for a steal and there are many owners who are happy to give away the items simply to get rid of them. However, do not advertise them for free, it raises suspicion and no one will take them. There is some probability of disposing the item at a low price, none at all at a reasonable price and even less for free. Finally, only justification for the trouble of placing the ad, watching for replies, negotiating the final price and helping with the loading is in consolation that your beloved objects will get used. You also save the trouble and cost of sending them to the dump.
The process of lightening up on possessions is not all frustration. There are occasional compensations. For instance, Monica identified a few pieces of equipment that needed minor repairs and got them fixed. Among these items were four baby violins they had acquired thirty or so years ago when the girls were little and the doting parents had the visions of the girls being present day versions of Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn. It was not to be and the girls found other fields to distinguish in. The violins sat in the cupboard along with other musical paraphernalia like old scores and music stands till discovered last spring. Monica looked at them fondly, vacuumed off the layers of dust and suggested donating them to some worthy institution. A phone call to the Conservatory was enough to get Ravi moving. He found out that repairs and tuning had to be done before they would be accepted as donation but the donation in kind receipt would probably save enough in taxes to cover this cost. It took six months for Mr. Hill, the luthier, to get round to finishing his job but he did it last week and they will be able to claim the tax deduction this year.
There does not seem to be a satisfactory way to dispose off the usable goods no longer needed in our prosperous society. Recycling at Electronic Recycling Depot is probably better than the dump but does not appear right for a fully operational microwave oven or a tuner. Is the Used Items Bank an idea whose time has come?
Comment:
I understand why the high intensity users of internet are complaining about extra charges for excessive use; no one wants to pay any more for a service than they have to. Yet, I do not see why I should be paying for the costs service providers incur to provide extra capacity on their systems which they would not need for most users who are like me. The ability to shout louder than others should not persuade the government to be unfair to ‘silent majority’ if only because fewer young people vote than the older ones.
We pay for phone, gas and electricity depending on how much we use, why not for internet? Internet is a utility, and every one should pay for what they use.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
