Recession Remedy!

It really sounds too elusive. And what baffles us is that we have no dearth of great economists, financial wizards, experienced experts all over the globe, and they all are intensely and sincerely busy trying to ‘fix’ the problem. And yet, the more they try to fix, it becomes more grave!

And non-experts like us too are trying to at least figure out what it is all about! It does not spare even people who have been ethical in the conduct of their business for years, and successfully too!

I am definitely not going to attempt suggesting any ‘solution’ or remedy. But I try to see if there is any benefit to be derived out of the situation, or atleast try to pacify ourselves with something that seems to be a marginal or minimal advantage to be derived. The very experience of going through the ordeal should be a benefit. Only if we choose to look at it as a lesson (though a hard & tough one!). Even students find their career expectations crashing even before they take off!

While viewing the TV, I happened to listen to something inspiring. I thank the famous politician Shri L.K.Advaniji for mentioning that interesting information. It seems, Chinese language does not have alphabets. Instead they have characters. The spelling for the word “crisis” in Chinese language is said to contain two characters. One character means “danger” & the other one means “opportunity”.

So, if we consider this Economic recession as a crisis, there should be an opportunity too, in it. I was interested in the opportunity part of it. Obviously, when the crisis is severe the opportunity cannot be a mere ‘cake-walk’. That opportunity if grasped has to give a longer-term benefit.

I used to observe babies being fed that baby food somewhere during the 6th month, where the mother’s milk is gently withdrawn. The mother has to give it at the right time, not by a time-schedule. The baby has to give out signals that it is hungry. Sometimes, it so happens that the baby starts crying and after a while, the cry becomes too intense. The baby goes breathless, eyes bulge, and the mother is now really scared. It is risky to feed the child when it is crying loud and incessantly. The food might get diverted into the wind pipe and choke the lungs! The mother tries to pacify in all the languages, tones, songs etc known to her. And the child would close both its eyes firmly and spend every ounce of energy in crying intensely. Even to get the attention of the child seems near improbable!

Our recession seems to create somewhat similar situation. No bail out package seems to work. No way to extract more taxes, no way to extract more produce, manual-productivity, etc. People simply refuse to trust anything, any gimmick. Investor-confidence, customer confidence etc seem to be getting eroded further day-by-day! All along language was a mode of effective communication to win peoples’ trust, confidence, votes, and what not. Now any effort, if through the same language though with different set of words, seems to put them more on a defensive. The very currency on which “trust” was declared on the highest power in the universe is now only second to the most sought after and more trusted form of wealth, namely Gold. How to bring back the trust in authorities, is the root of the possible solution. When there was complete trust any inadequacy in communication would have a smooth sailing. But when trust is lost, dexterity in linguistic skills scares all the more!

The mother now waits patiently to thrust a harmless quantity of that baby food through the corner of the mouth of the child, just enough to reach the taste buds, through finger tips. And if luck permits, for a split second the child’s attention is drawn towards the taste of the food, and if it starts reaching out its tongue towards the edge of its lips, the mother does not lose a single moment to replenish with little more! The trust starts re-building, bit by bit, morsel by morsel, at a painstakingly slow pace! Once out of anxiety, the mother could even choose to shower a mock ‘scolding’ at the child, only to now evoke an innocent but mischievous giggle as a retort from the child.

Perhaps, the remedy for recession, by any type of structure, design or plan, would have to be based on “Trust” re-building process. And only practical and realistic gestures, not words would now work. And restoring a lost trust is more complex and very difficult. Such actions have to be one-sided to begin with, without any pre-conditions, any strings attached, or any counter expectations. It is the most trusted, oldest, mightiest financial institutions that have collapsed. Who would accept any ‘guarantee’ from a lesser entity? A financial wizard is a ‘wizard’ after all! Why risk trusting him/her.

When the heads of a large joint family suddenly decide to part ways, the small children start wondering why they miss the proximity, joy and pleasure of playing together, for no fault of theirs. Common man also finds similarly crushed under the consequences of recession. Job loss, business loss, revenue loss, turnover loss, loss of avenues of finance etc.

This recession has side effects too. The depression reaches homes too. At least the psychological part of it. It would be good to keep the mutual trust within the family members firmly intact. Leave no loose ends any where. Like they about “charity begins at home”,.. now re-building global trust, also could begin at home, then permeate across street, city, nation etc. There is no law and no way to ‘enforce’ trust. Offer it , then wait patiently for a possible reciprocation. This exercise has long term benefits. We did not really ask for it. But having got stuck into it, let us try to make the most of it.

psn (6th April, 2009)