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| Written by Site Admin | ||||
| Wednesday, 03 January 2007 | ||||
Page 1 of 2 by Billy McAlisterI am getting fed up with the ‘location, location, location’ quotation promoted as a basic principle in property design. This quote, I am informed, is attributed to one of the early property pioneering entrepreneurs, (the Clore, Raine, Cotton, era in the late 1940’s and 50’s), in answer to the question regarding the three most important criteria for successful property development. There are so many other issues than the location of a project which can influence the success of projects. These involve making detailed, specific and individual assessments for each and every proposal. Sensitive aspects can include the availability of access, transportation, convenience to markets, employment attractions including housing, availability of amenities, educational facilities, cultural centres, along with favourable and low cost public services provision. Issues such as these can influence site selection and be a deciding factor in regard to the decision to proceed or not. For some time I have been quoting the saying of a Chinese sage of many years past, that the answer to the whole environmental problem is, quote; if you think one year ahead - plant rice, if you think 10 years ahead - plant a tree if you think 100 years ahead - educate the children. Winding up a ‘talk’ on the state and future of the environment to varied audience interests with this statement, usually has sufficient impact (on those who aren’t by this time asleep) to get a more favourable response to the presentation than I might deserve or expect, being something to take home, and on which to ponder.  The Urgency It is becoming vividly obvious however, that we don’t have ‘one hundred years’ to wait. We are now being ‘fed’, through the media and other promotions, critical time limits of less than fifty years for some of the detrimental environmental issues to ‘take hold’, and for certain resources to run out, predicting resultant dramatic affects on our living patterns. It is implied that if we do not find or invent alternatives to replace these essentials, survival will become the ‘name of the game’. With this situation in view perhaps the same sage, if still living at this time, would be changing his predictive adage to: if you think one year ahead - educate the population if you think ten years ahead - train the designers if you think one hundred years ahead - don’t bother! This message would certainly bring the urgency associated with these time scales for self inflicted mass destruction, into dramatic relevance. The Population In the short term, education of the population to become aware of the problems and the threat to survival appears to be impracticable for two reasons. Firstly, the ‘western’ world don’t want to listen to these worstening scenarios, and, secondly, the ‘rest’ of the world don’t know about the problems, or if they do, give the matters little priority. They would argue that they have too many more pressing situations to deal with. These include massive tasks such as surviving on the little they have, and at the same time, attempting to build a growing economy and social structure on this meagre base. How can anyone expect the eastern European countries to tackle the cleaning up of the Danube which has been the recipient of their waste for many decades past, and still is!! |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 19 July 2007 ) | ||||
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