The doom and gloom of the financial crisis

Last week I flew from Kigali to London’s Heathrow Airport. I purposefully avoided London itself and headed home to my parents’ house in South West England. Leaving sun-kissed Kigali where my garden was full of roses and where my dog spent long hours of each day sunbathing, I prepared myself for English winter. But I did not do a good enough job of it. I had forgotten the biting cold that nibbles at fingers and toes and chilling drafts that blow right to the bone. Trees here are bare, plants withered and even if the sun shines overhead, the ground is frozen under foot. The British love to talk about the weather and I am no exception. (As this column unfolds each week, the weather is likely to be a recurring theme.) However, the hot topic at the moment is not how low the temperature dropped last night or the exact amount of rain that fell, it is instead the doom and gloom of the financial crisis. From the farmer to the banker, the shopkeeper to the postman, everybody is talking about the recession that has hit the UK, likely to be the worst for a quarter of a century and possibly since the Depression of the 1930s. The announcement of the government’s $31 billion fiscal package, normally an unexciting event, attracted as much attention as a Hollywood blockbuster. Television and radio track the progress of worsening economies worldwide while each and every newspaper offers tips on how to cut costs. Houses and cars can’t be sold, shops and restaurants are empty and fashion has turned rather drab, while people live in fear of losing their jobs. Back in Kigali, some mumbled about the effects of the global financial crisis on Africa. Would aid be cut? Would investment falter? But on the whole, it was me that was pushing the questions while my Rwandan colleagues would rather talk about their country’s 10 per cent growth this year or the economic benefits of the East African Community. It is certain that the economic crisis will effect the world over, Rwanda included, but at least for the time being Rwanda is not infected with the same doom and gloom as we are over here. Contact: llewellynkitty@hotmail.com