Arts/Review

THE REDESIGNED FOREST. By Chris
Maser. R&E Miles. P.O. Box 1916, San
Pedro, California. 90733.

In The Redesigned Forest, Chris Maser
has written for the layperson an accessible,
gentle and non-confrontational book which
casts serious doubt on current forest man-
agement policies in British Columbia.

The book examines the differences
between nature’s design of a forest and the
human-designed forest (plantations), and
the current insistence on plantations despite
their possible failure. Why we are afraid to
change from this course is considered while
the final part of the book suggests ways to
integrate nature’s design with our attempts
to achieve sustainable forestry.

In Maser’s view B.C.’s current forest
management practice of liquidating old
growth forests and replacing them with
plantations is taking place without under-
standing the consequences. “We are mining
the old-growth forests, and we have exceed-
ingly little understanding of young-growth
forests, especially their sustainability over
time. We are, however, marching ahead as
though we know what we are doing —
marching from complex, diverse old-
growth forests designed by Nature toward
simple, uniform Christmas-tree-like planta-
tions designed by humans. And the reasons
we may give for our actions, such as jobs
and community stability, do not alter the
fact that we may be jeopardizing our forests
for lack of data and lack of patience with
Nature’s design.”

Maser gives historical evidence of defo-
restation and how it has caused the current

CHEMAINUS CLOSURE, 1983..
forest jobs.

decline in forest productivity. He observes
that “decades of scientific research have
concentrated on every possible cause of
forest decline except that it might be the
direct result of intensive plantation man-
agement based on ignorance of forest pro-
cesses.”

Maser suggests that successive, economi-
cally expedient, short rotation harvests
deprive forest soils of adequate decaying
organic material (dead wood) to maintain
soil fertility and thus threaten the viability of
the forest.

Part Three — ’Change: Why are we
afraid of it?” is the most difficult to review.

Cuban economist Carlos Tablada will
speak on the economic and political
thoughts of Che Guevara, the Cuban
revolution’s most revered hero, in Van-
couver, Friday, Nov. 17, 7 p.m. at the
Russian People’s Home, 600 Campbell

_ Ave. Tablada is the author of the book,
soon to be reviewed on this page, called
Che Guevara: Economics and Politics in
the Transition to Socialism. The event is
sponsored by Pathfinder Bookstore and
charges $5, or $3 for students and unem-
ployed.

Siar Ree

festival and symposium, will bring more
than 80 films and videos made by women
around the world to Vancouver Nov. 15-
19. Billed as an event “celebrating the
cinema of women of colour and third
world women,” it features documentary,
animated and narrative works from
Canada, Asia, Latin America, the Uni-
ted States, Europe, the Caribbean and
the Pacific. Additionally, more than 40
directors will participate.

There are three venues: the Vancouver
East Cinema, Robson Square Media Cen-
tre, and Simon Fraser University-
Harbourside. Among the films presented
will The Displaced View, by Canadian
Midi Onodera, Nice Coloured Girls by
Australia’s Tracey Moffatt, and Sugar
Cane Alley, by Martinique’s Euzhan
Palcy, director of the current anti-
apartheid film, A Dry White Season.

The event is sponsored by Women in
Focus and the National Film Board. For
further information, phone In Visible
Colours in Vancouver, 685-1137.

* ok

Faith Nolan, Canada’s own powerful
singer-songwriter, appears at the Van-
couver East Cultural Centre on Sunday,

In Visible Colours, a combination film.

Cuban economist to speak;
women’s film festival coming

Noy. 12, 8 p.m. Nolan, a Halifax native
who now resides in Toronto, is noted for
her hard-hitting, socially conscious lyrics
and modern reworkings of tunes made
famous by the likes of Ma Rainey and
Leadbelly. Price of admission is $12.

\ Se ee

B.C.’s award-winning children’s song-
ster Charlotte Diamond has a date to play
the Centennial Theatre Centre in North
Vancouver on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2 p.m.
and 4 p.m. Admission is $7. It’s part of
the theatre’s ongoing Family Festival,
which will feature several other per-
formers in the coming months through
February. Centennial Theatre is at 2300
Lonsdale Ave.

* * *

The tube: Knowledge Network has a
veritable potpourri of shows lined up for
week of Nov. 3-10. There’s Imperfect
Union: Canadian Labour and the Left,
concerning relations between union
members and the NDP in the early
Eighties, on Saturday, Nov. 4, 8 p.m.;
Waterfront, Part I, on the Australian
dockworkers strike of 1928, Saturday,
Nov. 4, 9 p.m.; Yehudi Menuhin in the
USSR, concerning the famed violinist’s
visit to the Soviet Union at the invitation
of Mikhail Gorbachev, Sunday, Nov. 5, 9
p.m.

Reid About the USSR: Hope Springs
continues British columnist Jimmy
Reid’s travels in the Soviet Union, Tues-
day, Nov. 7, 8 p.m.; Cross Currents pres-
ents ”Burma’s Forgotten War”, on
Thursday, Nov. 9, 9 p.m.; and Swing
Under the Swastika documents how a
popular music genre of the Forties
helped saved the lives of Jews in Nazi
concentration camps, Friday, Nov. 10, 8
p.m.

10 ¢ Pacific Tribune, October 30, 1989

. companies’ policies, not environmentalists, cut

Those of us with a class analysis of the B.C.
forest industry: believe we are locked into
the current system primarily because of the
billions of dollars of gross profit which the
forest multinationals annually extract.

That seems to be part of Maser’s analysis,
but individual responsibility and fear of
change play a larger part. “One becomes a
functionary of the system not by comprom-
ising one’s beliefs but rather by turning
responsibility for one’s perceptions and
beliefs over to the system. The fault lies not
in the assignment but in not accepting per-
sonal responsibility for the outcome of the
assignment on the environment and on
society as a whole.”

Then later: “We are all afraid of losing
that which we value. Industrialists may fear
the loss of the greatest profit margin they
will ever have in forests — ancient trees

Book essential | for forest debate

that cost them nothing to grow, quality
wood fibre that is essentially free for the
taking, which if not taken is seen only as an
economic waste. Conservationists may fear
the loss of the same ancient trees because
once gone, so are all other options that
involve those trees. And most of the profes-
sionals in the public land management
agencies are told, through insidious covert,
political pressure, what level of profession-
alism they will ee if they want to keep
their jobs. .

Maser’s solution i is developing sustaina-
ble forests. As part of that, Maser promotes
the necessity of maintaining some unman-
aged old-growth forests as living laborato-
ries, and as insurance against “genetic
roulette” being played on forest plantations,
and for the ultimate economic reasons:
““..if we liquidate the old-growth forests
— our living laboratories — and our plan-
tations fail, as plantations are failing all over
the world, industry will be the bath water
thrown out with the baby.”

Finally Maser calls for restoration fore-
stry and compares it to plantation man-
agement. Briefly his policy entails preserving
some unmanaged old-growth, mid-aged
growth and young-growth forests. It means
maintaining some genetically diverse, com-
plex forests diverse also in age and area. It
means care and concern for the forest soil,
replenishing its nutrient loads with periodic
200-300 year forest rotations interspersed
with the shorter 80-100 year rotations. In
Maser’s mind this is the only way to sustain
our forests and ourselves.

The Redesigned Forest deserves a prom-
inent place in the discussions current
underway as British Columbians try to
develop a sustainable forest management
policy to take us into the 21st century.

— Gary Swann

Commitment and aesthetics
mix well in B Cuadro tape

FIESTA EN EL BARRIO. B Cuadro. Slim
Evans Records and Tapes, 1989.

The rhythms and music of Latin America
are rapidly becoming popular at left-wing
celebrations these days, and it’s not hard to
see why. The fast-paced songs in the salsa or
cumbia traditions virtually command the
normally staid lefties to take to the dance
floor. The slower ballads are entrancing
with the beauty of their melodies.

And then there are the themes. Even a
cursory knowledge of Spanish allows a lis-
tener to appreciate songs of liberation and

optimism in the face of adversity (which:

usually is U.S. aggression and repression
from Congress-funded fascists). And what-
ever one’s linguistic abilities, the spirit and
militancy of Latin America’s songsters is
immediate and striking, and provides a
much-needed shot in the arm for jaded
North Americans.

Nicaragua’s B Cuadro is one of those
groups for whom a dichotomy between pol-
itical militancy on the one hand, and the
aesthetic demands of good music on the
other, does not exist. On their just-released
tape album from Slim Evans Records and
Tapes, the five mainly young musicians
prove that support for the Sandinista revo-
lution and partying go hand in hand.

Fiesta en el Barrio (A Party in the Neigh-
bourhood), the title of the tape and the
closing track, sets the tone for the festive
side of things. The complex rhythms and
celebratory atmosphere of this salsa-based

number frame straightforward lyrics that.

acknowledge the need to have a good time.
But equally dance-able is “Chinanade-
gana,” a tune named for a region of Nicara-
gua that states people can celebrate, even in
the middle of war.

Similarly, the blended timings of “Arbol
y Hombre” back lyrics about the symbolic

link between the unity of the natural world
and that of people: as a tree grows, so does
the revolution. “Arbol” and several other
tunes were written by the group’s oldest
member, lead vocalist Ramon Flores, a
veteran of the Sandinista revolution of
1979.

Flores’ revolutionary commitment shines
through on another composition, “Corazon
Sin Dolor,” a melodically sophisticated bal-
lad that marks the recent 10th anniversary
of the revolution. Stylistically, it is curiously
reminiscent of the symphonic compositions
of the former Quebec group, Harmonium.

Other ballads, such as vocalist Lisette
Perez’ touching “Tu Mi Amour,” are
unapologetic examples of the “canciones
romanticas” tradition.

Slim Evans Records and Tapes, the mod-
estly outfitted Vancouver studio dedicated
to recording the sounds of B.C.’s progres-
sive talent, has broken new ground by pro-
ducing the first recording of this talented
Nicaraguan band, formed barely more than
one year ago. Members Ramon Flores,
Gabriel Fonseca, Fito Garcia and Oscar
Hernandez (Perez is a casual member) are
backed by Vancouver horn players Danny
Lapp, Dean Scott, Stewart Barnett and
Karen Graves, and guitarist Mike Allan for
a first in international music solidarity.

The result is Slim Evans’ most remarka-
ble release to date. A fine blend of salsa and
ballad, Fiesta en el Barrio’s eight long tunes
comprise an album with few faults.

Purchasers of Fiesta en el Barrio should
know that their $10 goes toward a project of
the Canadian based Music for Nicaragua:
buying instruments for B Cuadro, and
therefore helping circumvent the U.S.
embargo and its attempts to strangle Nica-
ragua culturally as well as economically.

— Dan Keeton