We are pretty much all out of work. We are all confined to our homes or beds by the invisible enemy with the most expensive & disruptive name in recent history – “Covid-19” – one that has world changing implications. Truly a Force Majeur of epic proportions. But having said that NZ made a bold call . We are an island nation and time is of the essence.
China is coming out of this with an amazing force of their own and buying up many stocks at bargain basement prices, or so I hear. I read a book called the “Next 100 years”, written by George Friedman, he said back in the early 2000’s that China would start fragmenting in 2020. Says it right on the cover. Will be interesting to see what happens?
I guess every cloud has a silver-lining if you know how to play the game. It makes me wonder what are the benefits of all this, if there could be any?
We are in the tourism accommodation business with total booking cancellations, after the best year ever. Been working so hard, all those fun holiday weekends and Christmas’s for the last 15 years with no family time off, with the percentage of moaning guests, who can’t get on the internet or make their TV work... Serving coffee and meals to guests who didn’t appreciate us
, “There are only 11 french fries on my plate, I’m going to give you a one-star, Tripadvisor review…!” or “This is waaay” too exppppenssssive…!”
But, we were not alone, there has been a rapid decline in people’s civility from the “internet entitled”. Hospitality workers are definitely over it.
I also started seeing signs on bank teller windows for people to be nice or they would be asked to leave. This is a common theme. How would you like to work at Harvey Norman or Briscoes? Imagine the abuse they receive for inferior made Chinese products, from the lines of impatient customers with their non-functioning toasters and kettles. I just cleaned out my old storage garage and couldn’t believe how many washing machines & whiteware appliances were piled in there. Non-operating, scrap metal.
If there is one thing we need to learn from all this, we should start becoming more self – reliant, as a country and as a civilization. I even noticed that our meat products are better, not being exported perhaps? All the good stuff going offshore.
Don’t outsource everything. Start building our good old-fashioned Kiwi, Aussie and US-made quality products again. Start using your own workforce and producing your own food, pharmaceutical drugs, tools, vehicles, medical supplies. Buy from people you trust, not people you can’t trust.
So, what is the good thing about all this?
I just woke up from my daily enforced nap at 3 pm in the afternoon, my two year old grandson wanted to go see the new baby chickens, the campground was empty and the café had only memories of all the hordes of people who loved to enjoy a beer and burger at this time of day. I have an espresso coffee there every morning, just me and my wife, daughter and grandson. Pure Bliss…
We cleaned out the farmhouse garage yesterday and the farmhouse is getting that long-deserved makeover. The two year old’s father is actually playing with him and his mother is walking him about the property checking on the sheep and doing art projects. My other daughter is walking her dogs on the beach and cleaning her house. We have been having some time off our Grandparent duties. People seem to be more relaxed. Have a smile and are looking younger.
The sun is shining outside, the bellbirds even seem to know there are no tourists around and are flying and singing everywhere. The stags are roaring all night and marking up the evergreen tree next to the chicken house. They are walking out into the clearings in the evening with their girls. No hunting allowed. They are sure happy! No social distancing for them.
This is a world changing event. At the very least it is a real selective wake-up call.
A true force majeur in progress, that no one really knows the outcome. So, we are all catching up on some well-earned sleep and family time. We are taking a selfie every week to see if we look younger after the lock-down is over? We are having family time and discussing how can we better run our business when this is all over, as it will be, one way or the other. In computer parlance it is a “Hard Global Reboot”…
From now on, will we be controlled by the benevolent autocratic State? Who will be calling the shots? Who will get treatment and who won’t? When will we be able to travel again overseas? Will we and our staff feel like going back to work again? When will tourism become viable again?
I have faith that the US and other countries will come up with a solution sooner rather than later. They have that intrinsic survival instinct and they are amazing innovators. With computers and genetic knowledge in abundance, it is just a matter of adapting to this new virus, we will all benefit and be back stronger than ever is my belief, with a little more wisdom I hope, to avoid the next Force Majeur.
Now it’s time for a glass of red on my government enforced social distancing, “Happy Hour” deck.
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