FROM GOOD OLE UNCLE VICMay 2006
The first of May, hurray, hurray. Now we can go bare-foot outside! Before you know it, the beach season will be upon us. I am sure many of you are getting a head start! Ah, to be young and foolish again.
Last week's quiz, what is the only conference that does not conduct a post-season basketball tournament to determine it's representative in the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments? Why, the Ivy League of course.
This week's quiz: (Bet you are glad basketball season is over. No more basketball questions. Now I can get back to my war questions!) Who is the highest ranking general in the history of the United States army and how many stars did he have. Again, turn your answers in to Lisa, in writing or email- lisa.hemovich@brickbodies.com!
In March Lynne and I, Chuck, Glenn, and the management staff all went to Vegas for the 25th annual IHRSA (International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association) convention. IHRSA is basically the association for the health club industry and all of the health club owners from around the world were there. As an industry we have come a long way and the list of speakers included Deepak Chopra, Bill Clinton, Jim Collins, who wrote Good To Great, and Ken Blanchard, who wrote In Search of Excellence.
While Collins and Blanchard had the most take home information for the fitness industry, Deepak Chopra and Bill Clinton had the most thought-provoking speeches. As luck would have it, Deepak Chopra spoke in the morning and Bill Clinton spoke in the afternoon of the same day and their comments very closely related to each other. Even if you are not a big Clinton backer, which I am not, as the former President of the United States he had some very enlightening insight. When two such worldly people as Clinton and Chopra share similar perspectives on things, it causes one to pause and ponder (do you like that aliteration?).
Both men talked about how we are no longer just in a global economy, we are really in a global community. When someone sneezes in Shanghai, it ends up in New York in two weeks. Aids, Saars, mad cow disease are all examples of this. When someone is insulted or humiliated in Iraq, he may kill someone in Washington, D.C. When a river, field or stream is polluted in India or Mississippi, we may be eating contaminated food or fish or drinking contaminated water two weeks later in Maryland. When a nuclear reactor blows up, like in Chernobyl, Russia, we will be breathing the contaminated air for 1,000 years, in varying degrees.
Pollution in one part of the world is acid rain in another. Raw sewage dumped into a river or ocean in one part of the world is contaminated seafood in another. I just read in the Sunday paper that, because the Chesapeake Bay is so depleted, we are now getting our crabs from Thailand. Thailand!! Even our professional sports reflect the global community. Basketball players from China, baseball players from Japan, football players from Viet Nam. Yes, Viet Nam!
The global community is, of course, due to the global economy. No longer do people grow things and just sell them in their local market. No longer is international air travel just for the privileged few. No longer is one part of the world, such as Australia, Africa or even the United States, relatively isolated from the other. As people, livestock, produce, food and other goods travel freely from one country to the next, so do whatever germs or organisms are on them.
In addition, if you think the price of gas is high now, what do you think it will be in the future as more and more of the one billion (with a "B") Chinese begin to drive cars. Right now, there are very few people in China who can afford cars. But as that economic giant comes into the twenty-first century, more and more Chinese will become middle class and with that, begin to consume everything that the American middle-class consumes. Never thought of it that way? Why do you think they refer to the customer as the consumer? Because we consume things. And gas won't be the only thing that will become more precious and more in demand. Fresh water will be even more valuable. And scarce! Do you know that 3 out of every 4 deaths in underdeveloped countries are due to unclean water?
Why am I telling you all this? Because we need to do something about it. All of us. Every American. We are still the world's biggest consumer of natural resources. We burn the most gas. We eat the most food. We consume the most electricity. We release the most chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's) into the air, depleting the ozone layer. Unortunately, we probably do not pollute the most rivers anymore. China and India almost certainly have claimed that distinction.
The bottom line is we need to do something or we are all in for big trouble. Use less gas. Wash with organic soap. Wash less detergents down the drain. Use less electricity. Put pressure on government to find alternative energy sources other than fossil fuels. Stop buying gas-guzzlers. Support organic farmers. Eat organic. Take an interest in foreign affairs. Read more than just the comics and the sports page.
There are no easy answers to the problems facing our planet. But we need to do something before it is too late! Even if it is just you in your little corner of the world. Because in today's global community, what you do has more effect than you realize!
Semper Fi,
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