The downturn cycle

THE EDITOR: When is the closing of a loss-making business or part of a business such a national disaster in the world of enterprise? Recall the frightening experience of the international financial meltdown and the closure of our own BWIA and Caroni 1975 Ltd. How many of these economic cycles have we outlived in the last 25 years?

“Band your jaw. Save for the rainy day. Buy local produce only. Tighten your belt. Stick to necessities. Cut your cloth to suit.” Such were the fluctuating wisdom of the rulers of the day to cushion the shock to the “small man,” emanating from the gloom and wane of their dubious financial wizardry.

The fall of downstream businesses, fence-line communities on the verge of extinction, workers on the breadline, families unable to see where the next meal is coming from, and the weeping and gnashing of teeth were the predictions. As if that was not enough, the unions promised to add fire, brimstone and march to complete the calamity.

“Think ye not of what ye shall eat or drink or put on…,” as the good book says, is the only consolation. The real provider has us as top priority to fulfil our needs since we are considered more important than the lilies of the fields. Man, the intermediary, is always harnessing and releasing forces that eventually become runaway horses. The collateral damage is never intended but it has become a regular feature of his intervention to assist or control other men.

If there is any amongst us who can claim absolute authority in dictating man’s stay on the planet, then I will follow him to the grave, taking my possessions with me into the next life so that I do not have to start over with a clean slate.

Man creates education systems, yet is unable to curb deviant behaviour. He has organised social systems that are as divisive as the grains of sand on the shore. Devising a so-called trustworthy financial system to protect monetary wealth was an exercise in futility as it brought diminished financial status and growing suspicion. A security system using guns for protection has brought us many challenges. For every solution man has found he has created problems tenfold.

Life can be viewed in cycles or peaks and troughs. If you devote your life to pursuing fleeting images, the stumbling blocks are numerous, the pitfalls are precipitous and the rewards short-lived.

As a worker if you have placed ethnicity, religion, family, work, children, house, car, education and anything else on a pedestal where moss and dust can gather, all your eggs are in one basket.

As the old becomes new and the new ages, disaster looms with the ebb and flow of the tide of prosperity. When the harvest is abundant make sure you provide for when the yield is small.

If the closure of the Petrotrin refinery has come as a thief in the night, then you were either not anticipating the downturn of the cycle or catered for misfortune in your sojourn.

When will we wake up to the reality that shadows are mirages? Those who profess to be in control are not in charge of their own lives and cannot add one minute to their existence. They are scared to admit their helplessness and will not accept their hopelessness in controlling people and events.

The rise and fall of civilisations mirrors the birth and death of businesses and the seasonal nature of employment. Workers who perceive prosperity to be slipping away are really witnessing the start of a new cycle which they should embrace, rather than resist or complain about it. Be fearless, grow and prevent yourselves being overrun by the death that stagnation brings.

Yesterday was me, today it’s you and tomorrow it will be your neighbour. Before it was England. Now it’s the US. Soon it will be China.

LENNOX FRANCIS via e-mail