Economic climate getting more and more gloomy
Dec 26, 2008
OPIYO OLOYA<br><i>PERSPECTIVE OF A UGANDAN IN CANADA</i><br><br>News of the bad times is everywhere, on television, radio, in newspapers and the internet. Things are really bad and are about to get worse.
OPIYO OLOYA
PERSPECTIVE OF A UGANDAN IN CANADA
News of the bad times is everywhere, on television, radio, in newspapers and the internet. Things are really bad and are about to get worse.
People are not buying as many cars as they did last year.
The Big Three US car-makers—Ford, General Motors and Chrysler are losing money by the minute and need bailout. Toyota, a solid Japanese company for 71 years, will post its first loss of $2.5b.
Last week, US President George Bush plugged the bleeding of the three car-makers by providing an emergency loan worth $17.4b. Meanwhile, Canada followed suit with a loan worth $4.27b for car manufacturing industry in Canada.
Moreover, to get people spending again, the US Federal Reserve has cut interest rates to almost zero—you borrow money from the bank for free, no interest, nothing at all.
The idea is to encourage us, the consumers, to get out and buy stuff, anything that will get the economy moving again, things like cars, clothes, toys, electronics. The more stuff we buy, the higher the demand for goods and the more people required to produce the goods. That is how I understand it. We are told daily that it is a patriotic duty to get out shopping.
Now, my wife and I did our share for world economy on Monday, braving the freezing temperature to go shopping for Christmas. I generally hate shopping and will weasel out of it. At the mall, the parking lot raised my blood pressure as I tried to beat other drivers to a parking spot before they did.
Once inside, I knew what I wanted to buy for the two boys, Ogaba and Oceng, and what to buy for their mother. The two boys stick to toys that move on wheels and make plenty of noise which generally means cars, except they did not want just toy cars.
Ogaba wanted a Transformer, not the gadget for your electric saw, but a car that transforms itself into a walking robot and then back into a car. He got one last year, and it was a super transformer and it cost a lot of money and now he wanted another one, something similar but different. How different, I asked him. Different from the one you bought last year, but similar, he responded.
Now, try to translate that into a shopping list and see how far you go. Oceng is very much into this Guitar Hero lll for Wii which he tells me simulates playing the guitar with very loud soundtrack, and good for learning how to play the real thing—too expensive and noisy.
My wife wants something she can wear, like a dress. But every year, I get funny looks from saleswomen when I ask them what size they wear just so that I can get the right size for my wife. One even asked whether the dress was for me—for the record, I am not a cross-dresser. In any event, after lumbering all day, I did get my sons gifts that will make them happy, but not what they are thinking about, no cars to be sure, but things that make noise and move. My wife was a bit more challenging, so I followed her quietly, noting what seemed to raise her interest, a shoe here, a dress there, planning to double back under the pretext of going to the washroom, and buying the items. The problem—the stuff she was looking at was ridiculously expensive. In my books, a dress going over $100 is way too expensive, and she was looking at dresses going for $700. My foot! What’s more, I caught her looking at very expensive watches—the cheapest was $600. Do the names Tissot and Tag Heuer mean anything to you? She admitted she was looking for a watch for me for Christmas.
Give me a break—I have not worn a watch for a good 10 years and not about to start doing so now. I am generally very good at keeping time, punctual mostly using the time on my mobile phone. The only man I know who keeps time better than I do is commander of Land Forces, General Katumba Wamala—the man is punctual to the second, and he has beaten me to the clock three times, once in Boston and twice in Kampala.
In fact, I would suggest that some of the worst time-keepers are people with expensive watches. This July I made an appointment to meet a director at 2:00pm in his office in Kampala. The man wears an expensive watch. Imagine to my chagrin when I arrived at the appointed time to find the man out for lunch and, according to his secretary, would not be back for another hour! I stalked out of the fellow’s office. So, I told my wife the economy may be bad and she may want to do her bit to help salvage jobs, but I did not want a watch. I will continue to keep time using my mobile phone.
What I really want for Christmas is quiet time with the family, enjoying the moment spent together. In these bad times, many families will likely be going through stresses, and what better way to keep the spirit up than by sticking together.
Tomorrow is Christmas that means there is time to go out today and buy one more gift item for a loved one. And save the world economy and keep people employed. Not for me though—I am staying home today. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and better times in 2009.
Opiyo.oloya@sympatico.ca
PERSPECTIVE OF A UGANDAN IN CANADA
News of the bad times is everywhere, on television, radio, in newspapers and the internet. Things are really bad and are about to get worse.
People are not buying as many cars as they did last year.
The Big Three US car-makers—Ford, General Motors and Chrysler are losing money by the minute and need bailout. Toyota, a solid Japanese company for 71 years, will post its first loss of $2.5b.
Last week, US President George Bush plugged the bleeding of the three car-makers by providing an emergency loan worth $17.4b. Meanwhile, Canada followed suit with a loan worth $4.27b for car manufacturing industry in Canada.
Moreover, to get people spending again, the US Federal Reserve has cut interest rates to almost zero—you borrow money from the bank for free, no interest, nothing at all.
The idea is to encourage us, the consumers, to get out and buy stuff, anything that will get the economy moving again, things like cars, clothes, toys, electronics. The more stuff we buy, the higher the demand for goods and the more people required to produce the goods. That is how I understand it. We are told daily that it is a patriotic duty to get out shopping.
Now, my wife and I did our share for world economy on Monday, braving the freezing temperature to go shopping for Christmas. I generally hate shopping and will weasel out of it. At the mall, the parking lot raised my blood pressure as I tried to beat other drivers to a parking spot before they did.
Once inside, I knew what I wanted to buy for the two boys, Ogaba and Oceng, and what to buy for their mother. The two boys stick to toys that move on wheels and make plenty of noise which generally means cars, except they did not want just toy cars.
Ogaba wanted a Transformer, not the gadget for your electric saw, but a car that transforms itself into a walking robot and then back into a car. He got one last year, and it was a super transformer and it cost a lot of money and now he wanted another one, something similar but different. How different, I asked him. Different from the one you bought last year, but similar, he responded.
Now, try to translate that into a shopping list and see how far you go. Oceng is very much into this Guitar Hero lll for Wii which he tells me simulates playing the guitar with very loud soundtrack, and good for learning how to play the real thing—too expensive and noisy.
My wife wants something she can wear, like a dress. But every year, I get funny looks from saleswomen when I ask them what size they wear just so that I can get the right size for my wife. One even asked whether the dress was for me—for the record, I am not a cross-dresser. In any event, after lumbering all day, I did get my sons gifts that will make them happy, but not what they are thinking about, no cars to be sure, but things that make noise and move. My wife was a bit more challenging, so I followed her quietly, noting what seemed to raise her interest, a shoe here, a dress there, planning to double back under the pretext of going to the washroom, and buying the items. The problem—the stuff she was looking at was ridiculously expensive. In my books, a dress going over $100 is way too expensive, and she was looking at dresses going for $700. My foot! What’s more, I caught her looking at very expensive watches—the cheapest was $600. Do the names Tissot and Tag Heuer mean anything to you? She admitted she was looking for a watch for me for Christmas.
Give me a break—I have not worn a watch for a good 10 years and not about to start doing so now. I am generally very good at keeping time, punctual mostly using the time on my mobile phone. The only man I know who keeps time better than I do is commander of Land Forces, General Katumba Wamala—the man is punctual to the second, and he has beaten me to the clock three times, once in Boston and twice in Kampala.
In fact, I would suggest that some of the worst time-keepers are people with expensive watches. This July I made an appointment to meet a director at 2:00pm in his office in Kampala. The man wears an expensive watch. Imagine to my chagrin when I arrived at the appointed time to find the man out for lunch and, according to his secretary, would not be back for another hour! I stalked out of the fellow’s office. So, I told my wife the economy may be bad and she may want to do her bit to help salvage jobs, but I did not want a watch. I will continue to keep time using my mobile phone.
What I really want for Christmas is quiet time with the family, enjoying the moment spent together. In these bad times, many families will likely be going through stresses, and what better way to keep the spirit up than by sticking together.
Tomorrow is Christmas that means there is time to go out today and buy one more gift item for a loved one. And save the world economy and keep people employed. Not for me though—I am staying home today. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and better times in 2009.
Opiyo.oloya@sympatico.ca