Embracing the lesson of recession

We can cry and complain all we want but they aren’t going to make any of our ministers share in their tens of thousands of dollars worth of compensation each month.

The majority of us just have to do what we need to in order to survive, so here’s what I think: don’t fight the recession. Instead, open your doors to it. I mean it’s not going anywhere anytime soon so, like everything else in the evolutionary series, let’s adapt to its nature. It’s hard, yes, but this is a time for reflection.

Ask yourselves: was I really splurging my salary each month on unnecessary objects? Was I saving enough? Was I maximising the value I could have gotten from the money I was making? The next step is cutting back.

You’ve grown accustomed to a wasteful lifestyle but time for a reality check: were the parties, movies three times a week, hair, nails, branded clothes and restaurants a little too much? Picking up the most expensive stuff in the grocery? Need to actually use everything in your cupboard now instead of wasting and throwing away? How much charity did you give back? How much did you help your friends, families and those around you? Before you overwhelm yourself with a negative mindset, do some soul-searching. Then comes the final step: survival. It was only about 300 decades ago that money was invented so did you ever think about how people survived without it? They lived didn’t they? Well they survived by doing just about anything to survive.

So Mr engineer, you got laid off and need to go and work in a tyre shop now? So be it. Madam supervisor, you lost your job and have to put a table by the road selling bottled seasoning now? So be it. Don’t let your former status or education get to your head. We’re all here to do the same thing. Exist. Try to do it as peacefully as possible. Nobody said it would be easy.

Spend time planting that kitchen garden that you never got a chance to. Remember, a dollar saved is a dollar earned. So you have a skill? Then offer it. Social media is the cheapest form of advertising. Get your small business ideas circulating by the hundreds of “friends” you have. There’s no shame in survival.

The recession can provide some positives. It means getting those lazy minds thinking about what you can do to put bread on the table and stop relying on one single source of income.

Amanda Ramlakhan South Oropouche