a native tribes use Cura: 8. Terrace Review — Wednesday, January 15, 1992. . Forestry Insights — — Continued from page 7 affair i in the name of rapid econ-. omic growth. = “Rees, had explained the corpor- ate: position. in ‘this way: "When you have a large natural capital stock that reproduces on an 80-year rotation, you are really talking about less than two per- cent per year on investment. "It makes no economic sense, in. one sense, to maintain that " - genewable resource. If you are _ acting in your economic interest you-might just as well go out " and: ‘liquidate that resource and “put. the money in the bank,’ because you will make a higher return at whatever the current savings account rates. are. '. “Natural capital is always-at a disadvantage if-the natural: rate of. reproduction is below current "interest rates from treasury bills, for example. It makes sens¢, if a you are thinking in narrow self- interested economic terms, to - _ liquidate. the capital into usable investment funds and put in the . bank somewhere. "This puts the whole ecological paradigm I am putting to you at a disadvantage, particularly in a period of high interest rates and therefore high discount’ rates -such’as we are in. today. The | whole Bank of Canada policy is: totally. destructive | to the natural | * environment and it is ‘something’ ‘else that is not raised very fre- | quently, I might -add, in the , House of Commons." In conclusion, Rees told . the committee that, in his opinion, that we clave. to_ re-evaluate our objectives in the ‘management of - all resources. "Are we most concerned in: managing the woods of. B.C.?" he asked, “In maintaining happy shareholders in Zurich and New .. York and’so‘on? Or ought we to be concerned with maintaining. sustainable communities within our own population?" It’s a decision that needs to be | ‘made. And. it’s a decision that: needs to be acted on immediate- ‘ly, he said. Because, “At the present | time, international financing favours happy stock- holders... The communities be - damned. " ‘Squist slid into his pickup and. - dwelled for a moment on Rees’s. words. It was three years ago that he had made his presenta- ‘tion to the committee and so little had changed. Little, other than the fact forest companies were reporting bigger losses every yeat. _ —in other words, turning little . “pushing buttons. The attached va a . gizmos. Measure | the light, the ... ™ weather and the subject’s astro- The Herbarium ‘Plant lore and observations hy Gunter Lenhardt - ne Parelra—Curare- ~:./°Chondrodendron — -. Tomentosum .-Moonseed Family Am Indian in the deep Amazo- _ nian rainforest, armed with along: ‘blowgun, found his prey in the - branches of one of the many ‘ees, _ [tis &monkey. The Indian slashes acertain vine with his knife and © _ dips one of his. darts into a gummy - ‘substance, He takes great care not - toseratch himself while inserting . the dart into his plowgun; it would » mean certain death for him. He - aims his gun at the monkey: a puff - of air sends the dart up the tree, - hitting the animal. A few seconds __ Iter the monkey drops out of the tree.to the ground, dying of asphyxiation. . ©: About 1540, a Spanish soldier a named Pedro de Cieza de Leon 7 observed several Indian.tribes dip- ee ping their arrows into the gummy + “gybstances of certain vines before , going on huriting trips. "2 ¥q'1541, the explorer Francis- ~ “9g de Oretlano lost his friend to |” gaéh a poisoned arrow. Sir Walter ~~. Raleigh took a sample of this poi- ° goa to England in 1595. - Phere was much confusion - anid sensationalism during the fol- owing: cénturies about this myste- _” “glous poison. Speculations ranged - from snake venom to boiled an ce orchids. - : Expeditions in the. Aiizon ifound that ovér'20 of thé: - ‘They ‘all had different formulas: some were stored in pots, some in bamboo _ tubes and some in gourds. Some / applied.this poison to the tips of - their darts or to the heads of arrows or spears. The poison always killed the victims by -asphyxiating them. Yet no one. knew how it was made or why it worked. It was not before a French physiologist, Claude Bernard, experimenting with frogs, found that curare blocks the transmission of nerve impulses from the brain to the muscles, When chest mus- _ cles are affected, breathing stops. However, not until the early 20th century was it discovered that each tribal medicine man had his own secret formula for curare. All were based on the stem of certain climbing vines, The most lethal was C, Thomentosum — Pareira.- Modem medicine soon found | use for this vine by:isolating alkaloid and rubocurarine. In its refined form it found many appli- cations in medicine and provedto. be an excellent muscle relaxant. - Curare’s most common. applica- _ tion is in surgery. It is given intra- venously with other anesthetics for . j muscle relaxation. The deadly curare has become a blessing to mankind. Many other medicines were derived from. . plants of the tropical rainforests, and more valuable planis sill be discovered in the future, © Let. us keep our ratiforestl scenery are samples of my best _. Even the professionals can’ vt Photography is not for every- body. I began to suspect this _ when I compared my photos with o - mum of seventeen dials and . ‘gauges, plus a thirty-page instruc . those taken by a four year-old - with a cardboard box and @ cheap lens, She had a drooling problem, but photographically speaking, the little tyke blew me away. : I-should’ve known. The family. photo album might have given — me a hint, Close up shots of children’s feet, out-of-focus birth day cakes and boring distant work, The out-of-province rela- . their eyes. help me. The problem is, while . - the camera store’ shelves overflow with varlety, there are really only ‘two types of c: cameras: Techno- logical Nightmares and Bozo cameras. The Technological ‘ Nightmares are for those who — completely understand basic: - i | engineering priticiples and Bin- - . stein’s Theory of Relativity. Operating these machines ~. ce involves the comprehension of ASAs, F-stops, and light meters dials, reading funny gauges and logical sign and underwear size. ~ Photography with a Technological ‘Nightmare makes a nuclear mis- - sile launch Jook like.child’s play. The Bozo cameras are simple. You look ‘through the lens and . push'a button. The twenty-cight- page instruction booklet tells _ bozos all about the things they don’t need to know. Say I began taking photos in the most dangerous category of pho- tographers:'a a bozo using-a Tech- | _ nological Nightmare. My basic _ bottom-of-the-line- Technological Nightmare had the standard mini- tion booklet that fell behind: the - fridge. _ ; Through trial and error, I devel Soped-a system. If I took one: - -picture’ on every possible setting, ‘IT had a fair chance of getting a decent photo. This worked most ~. of the time, despite the. constant ‘snickering coming from behind -» the photo store counter; = tives think my children were bom . with blurry faces and red dots on : -Fonce managed. to get a ‘fantas-° tie shot of the kids.on the beach. -. Hearty congratulations spewed ~.. forth from. the family. But it was * like crediting an earthquake to threat favolving a film canister up | my nose. Finally I sat down and studied the results of my camera, ‘mania, | ‘Headless bodies, close-ups of - thumbs :and ‘blurred tree sturnps a — or maybe that was the family es portrait — anyway, it was 8 pitiful: sampling. These pictures | were 80 unrecognizable that even - the Kodak people: cringed: — — Bill — _sCosby phoried and begged. me to “use Fuji products. Polaroid: sent a sympathy card. . ‘Like T said, photography. is not - for everyone. Which explains why, instead of clicking and — - flashing our cameras at family” gatherings, some of us prefer'to draw little stick figures in crayon. It doesn’t bother anybody, and most important, there’s no ins - me struction booklet. the weatherman — a repeat per- - . formance. was not likely. Never- theless, I was on a roll. Soon - . after, I shot 24 awe-inspiring - moments of life through the iens.. - At still haunts me that I forgot to ft ‘load the camera with. film. -- So it was out of desperation. ‘that I bought the best Bozo cam- era I could afford: According ‘to — - the 42-page instruction booklet, this camera would focus, measure _ the light, read the film speed, . ~ floss my teeth and neutralize - ~ excess stomach acid, All I-had to ..- do was push.the little red button, Simple. Now, an ancient proverb says that the most annoying person : on the planet is the one with a new | camera, So it was perfectly nor-— mal for me to intensely irritate . family members, friends and anyone else within flash range.’ . Eventually I grew tired of "zoom- ing in" and blinding people. I had _ to stop anyway, after that rude it with Love PERSONALS - for VALENTINES DAY |