• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

We're nesting now

Timeri N. Murari

RECENTLY, I came across an interesting word now being used quite frequently in England. The word appeared mainly when the articles referred to the economy. Everyones trying to be buoyant about it rousing speeches in Parliament and in press conferences but the dragging anchor of the American recession is slowly pulling it down.

The British are spending money still, mostly on their credit cards. The average debt per card is growing to worrying proportions, around pound 5,500 per card. At the same time, industry is laying off thousands of workers. However, studies are revealing t hat the British are not spending their money on frivolous items such as food, drink, travel, hotels, movies and theatres. They are spending mainly on home decoration items furniture, bedding, home repairs and crockery. So, the smart economic writers hav e coined the word nesting. The British are nesting, they say. I suppose if you are fired, you may as well watch television all day in the comfort of your nest.

Nesting, in these dangerous times, only means people are settling in for hard days ahead. They want their homes to be comfortable and secure, while they can still get into debt and get away with it. It is a withdrawal from the outside world and if the En glishman's home is his castle, he is making sure he is going to be pampered in it. Nesting conjures up birds settling in for the long winter, bears preparing for hibernation, moles going deeper into their holes.

Nesting is a word used mainly to describe the activities of creatures, other than human. But I suppose that when the world gets dangerous we revert to our very distant animal habits. In those pre-historic times when dinosaurs and sabre-toothed tigers roa med the earth, wed huddle deeper into our caves as danger approached.

I was surprised that some of my more adventurous friends, journalists and film-makers, were actually nesting. There they were at home; painting bedroom walls, putting in new cupboards, re-laying carpets, hanging new curtains. They were not rushing off to new plays or new films (apart from the Harry Potter one) or catching flights to distant lands. They were quite insulted when I told them they were following the herd instinct of nesting. Yet, they could not deny that they preferred to spend more time in their homes than roaming the streets or the world. They felt they were consolidating, taking a breathing space from their usual activities. Of course, the airline and hotels industries are doing their best to winkle the herd out of their nests. Nearly e very day, the airlines were offering mouth-watering cheap flights to distant places. You could fly to San Francisco and return for a mere $99.

Admittedly, the cheapest flights were to American or European destinations. Asian ones remained pegged at the usual prices, with a discount here and there, as Asias on the dangerous places risk category.

Nesting has certainly affected Londons daily life. Before September 11, the sidewalks and restaurants were packed with people enjoying themselves and spending as if there was no tomorrow.

The stores were packed, as were buses and tubes. Everywhere one heard those distinctive American accents, busy with their sightseeing and drinking in British culture. Now, theatres are playing almost empty and at restaurants where you once could not get a table, theyd now discount a four-course meal. The movie box offices have dropped too.

Of course, the main cause for a lot of Englands problems stems from the lack of American tourists. Certainly, the Europeans were to be seen wandering around but they do not spend as much as the Americans.

The ripple effect of the missing Americans has been to affect the whole British tourist industry, one of the main stays of the UK economy.

Even those Americans living in the UK are missing their homeland at this time of crisis. Chelsea, daughter of the former US President, Mr Bill Clinton, who is studying at Oxford, wrote in the college newspaper, that she was not very happy in Oxford.

She would far prefer to be home than in prestigious Oxford.This item made the all the newspapers, as, for the most part, the British are disdainful of the American reluctance to board a plane. And for the well-known American insularity which has now wors ened.

I found this British attitude quite hypocritical and felt sorry for Chelsea. She was expressing a natural instinct; she too wanted to be back home nesting with her parents. After all, if the British were nesting, why shouldnt she?