How business, doctors and journalists prey on your food anxieties I

M
Northern Irel<strong>and</strong>
Soom'.own construction in Londonderry
The war•weary will Flnally get a McDonald's .
employe_r_ for 35 years . No longer .
Fruit of the Loom, of Kencuckv, recentlv
opened a state-of-the-art cotton-spinning
plant to service all of
Europe . Last year Seagate Tecluiology,
the California-based disk-drive
maker, opened the first stage of a
$200 million plant nraking the latest
generation of diin-film head ~safers
for computer hard disks .
Tourism is taking off, Se~en cears
aQo the local council hired Harry
Briston, the to«n's first tour guide . "I
took around one tourist a«'eek," lie
recalls . Todar he has nko assistants
<strong>and</strong> guides 250 tourists a dav . It's
hard to get a hotel room, <strong>and</strong> shoppers
from Donegal• across the border,
are again starting to tlow through the
tm~ n's streets .
Not t hat terrons m has klde d entire-
Iv into memon . Local police stations
remain covered in r azor %cire <strong>and</strong> antiterrorist
grills . ia .~ graifiti scrawls
across the grav public housing <strong>and</strong>
hard men keep people in line at public
housing projects by "kneecapping"
them «ith baseball bats . Bur peace is
in the air <strong>and</strong> vaith it money is comine
out of hiditte <strong>and</strong> other money is
flowing in . With Derrv's unemploament
rate still close to 16%, there is a
large, relatirelv losr cost labor pool to
attract foreign imestment .
In 1993 <strong>and</strong> 1994 the average
hourlv manufacturingwage in Nortir
em Irel<strong>and</strong>, inc!uding benefits, was
$10 .68, Compare that with S 12 .-k0 in
the U .K, 513 .62 in the L' .S, <strong>and</strong>
522 .10 in Germam• . And yet Northern
Irel<strong>and</strong> has bfar the best-cducar
ed labor force in Britain, with tnore
studens going on to higher education
than am«herc else in the isles .
"The high rmemployment is bad tor
the region, bur it's nor bad for us,"
says Du Pont (U',K.1 Ltd . Managing
Director William Walker . "It assures
Cominonsense
man
WHILE GERRY ADAS-i5,
leader of the political front
of the Irish Republican
Army, gets the media spotlight,
his Sinn Fein political
party lags at the polls,
with the support of just
10% of Northern Irel<strong>and</strong>'s
popular vote .
A more authentic voice
of so-called Irish nationalism
is John Hume, the
soft-spoken leader of the
social democratic So[.r .
His parry'-seeking a negotiated
middle ground benveen
those who want unconditional
reunion with
the Irish Republic <strong>and</strong>
those who «ant to remain
part of Great Britain-gar-
ners close to 30% of the
popular votc, His condemnation
ofN °iolenee put
him on both unionist <strong>and</strong>
nationalist paramiliranr
hit lists . In 1987 his car <strong>and</strong>
house went up in a firebomb
attack .
With peace talks benveen
Britain <strong>and</strong> the Irish
Republic, Sinn Fein <strong>and</strong>
unionist parties under way,
Hume remains under terrific
pressure, his life's work
riding on a satisfactory
outcome of the talks . ~C'hen
FoRisES intervie«ed him
in June at the & erglades
Hotel in Londonderry,
he looked bedraggled <strong>and</strong>
John Hume
of SDLP
The man who got
Sinn Fein <strong>and</strong>
the British
government
to talk .
seemed nen-ous . But he
relased for a moment to tell
a ston• :
DQ~father became
unemployed when I ssas 8
years old <strong>and</strong> was unemployed
for the rest of his
life . He was intelligent.
People came to him for advice
; to ~rrite their letters .
"In those daN s thev
held election meetings outside
. One da}• my Dad
<strong>and</strong> I went to a nationalist
meeting <strong>and</strong> they were
icaving the flag . Evcnbody
was getting verp emotional,
me included .
"iviv father put his
h<strong>and</strong> on my shoulder <strong>and</strong>
said, 'Don't get involved
in that, son .'
" .Whv not . Dad?' I
said .
" `You can't cat a
tlag."' -R.CN1I . M
52
Forbes / Acgest 14, 1995
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/agf97d00/pdf