Making the World better

Let us start with world with world issues. How many of you would like to make the world a better place? Ah good, three of you this time. Let’s take poverty .the current price in world food prices is likely to lead to a serious outbreak of famine in less – developed countries which really on rice and wheat. We hear a lot about this from politicians, yet its roots and consequences are economic. In fact, most of the world’s problems can be understood in terms of economics. Obviously, it won’t provide easy answers to these problems but it does clarify the issues. For example, we exploit the earth’s recourses, trees, oil, etc., in order to create economic wealth, but we don’t realize the real cost of doing so. What do we make plastic from? Oil, right, right. So, what is the real cost of, let’s say using a plastic bag? It isn’t just a cost of producing it, you have to think about a cost of disposing it when you throw it away. Economics can do that, they can analyse the full social costs of our actions, so we can make better choices like, should we have more airports , or more railways? Should we use nuclear power or renewable energy? What are the real costs and benefits of each?

As I said before, economics won’t provide all the answers but it will help you from balanced and informed opinions and with those you may find solutions. So, to sum up this first section, if you have a wish to really understand it and analyse the background to world issues not just have an emotional response to them, then economics is absolutely essential.

T. 18

Art and artist

Interviewer: What kinds of things has influenced you as an artist?

Patricia: I think one of the great influences on me was growing up on the banks of the Hudson, which is such a beautiful place in the different light and different times of year. I think that was a main influence on me to want to be a landscape painter. Also my parents love painting very much.

Interviewer: What’s your favorite time of day for painting?

Patricia: Actually my favorite time of day is sunrise, so early morning and also late afternoon.

Interviewer: Do you have a favorite time of year or season?

Patricia: Yes, I do actually, I love paint just before the spring when the air is so crisp and clear, and there aren’t yet any leaves on the trees, so that I can really see down the streets, it’s just magical, but it lasts a very short time.

Interviewer: Are there any other cities that you’d like to go and paint in?

Patricia: Oh, there are thousands of cities I’d love to go to paint in, the ancient cities, the older cities, Paris, Amsterdam, Florence, Venice, many places in Sicily, in Greece, and any place where there’s antiquity and where there’s water or mountains. But it is hard to travel and paint, it’s much better to go to one place and settle in and paint for a while in one place to get to really know the landscape.

Interviewer: What do you think is the pros and cons of an artist’s life?

Patricia: I think to be an artist usually it requests a lot of sacrifice It requires an enormous amount of time, it requires being free to suddenly change your plans at moment’s notice. I could have plans with someone and suddenly change them, or drop the plans because the weather’s right for a particular painting, and that’s a real big sacrifice in terms of your social life and also, of course, finances, it’s hard to earn money and be a dedicated artist at the same time, I think. They contradict one another to some degree.

Interviewer: What kind of art do you like?

Jerry: Not, well, not one kind I don’t think. I like art which has a sort of emotional effect on me, I suppose. But it could be anything.

T. 19