Editorial
Stabroek News
May 20, 2001

We have been hearing about the virtues of metrication for at least two decades now. We have been told that unless we bring ourselves into line with the rest of the world - particularly the Western world - we will find ourselves isolated and the economy will suffer. Seminars have been held, the nation has been sensitized, and vendors in the markets have been issued with scales which weigh in metric units rather than imperial ones.

The problem is that some countries in the big, bad Western world are not proving too reliable a role model where metrication is concerned. In the United Kingdom, for example, where the people are not known for their revolutionary fervour, there are rumblings of disaffection. Since January of last year shopkeepers offering both loose and bulk items for sale can be fined 2,000 pounds sterling if they do not sell in kilos and grams. There seemed to be no problem until about a month ago, when a vegetable and fruit seller from Southwick in Sunderland was found guilty of selling bananas in the forbidden units. His partner, who sold fish, also made his appearance before the judge, but was not fined being only ordered to change his scales.

According to a BBC report, the conviction of Mr Steven Thoburn, the greengrocer at the centre of the metric storm, produced a national outcry, and already the public has donated one hundred thousand pounds sterling for his appeal fund. It is clear from the report that the case has produced some memorable quotes. "The most famous bunch of bananas in legal history," said District Judge Bruce Morgan, who presided at the hearing; "Metric martyrs," thundered the tabloids; "decimal diktat," declared the Director of the British Weights and Measures Association (BWMA).

Up until the implementation of the metric requirements, Britain had been operating a hybrid system, and the BBC reported that a poll commissioned earlier this year by the BWMA had found that seventy-two per cent of people, both youngsters and adults, wanted to retain the status quo and use the imperial measures alongside the metric ones. The BWMA was quoted as saying that in any case computers worked in inches, as did Dutch and German plumbers, while nearly all aircraft measured altitude in feet. In addition, organ pipes (not too many of those in Guyana) and tape recorder speeds were non metric.

But even with the introduction of the metric rules, the British penchant for lack of uniformity was still evident. The BBC said that road signs would stay in miles, land would still be measured in acres and the local pub would continue to sell its patrons a pint. In any case, imperial units, as the report pointed out, were embedded in the language. 'Centimetering' towards a goal, or judging something by a 'metrestick' or saying that a project is 'kilometres' off target, just doesn't have the felicity of 'inching,' 'yardstick,' or 'miles.'

It seems too that the US is not doing much better. Mr George Bush (the elder, that is) signed a metric measurements law in 1991. However, the progress of metrification has been halted by the obduracy of 18 states which have scrapped kilometres on road signs in favour of miles.

And here we are in Guyana, having already substituted hectares for acres (although there are a few diehards who still refer to the old Dutch roods - pronounced 'rods'), having introduced kilogrammes and their relatives, and having required shoppers (in Guyana Stores, at least), to purchase cloth in metres. We have achieved without a squeak of dissent that which some of the industrialised nations have not. What an irony if after adjusting our measurements to synchronize with what we assume the larger nations are doing, we find that we are now out of sync. Perhaps we should continue teaching imperial measurements in our schools after all; they might be needed by those who migrate.