Jobseeker’s diary

One wet week this has been. I hate rain! Hate is a strong word, but that’s how I really feel. Farmers would disagree, understandably, since their crops largely depend on the rain. Ideally, the rest of us should be thrilled and thank God for the rain because that means food and fruit will flourish, but you have to agree that too much of anything is bad. It’s okay if it rains at night, when I’m safely home but if it starts to rain at seven, at about the time you intend to set out for work or in the evening as you make your way home, then it becomes an inconvenience, especially when it doesn’t stop for hours as it did on Monday. By the time I finally made it home, I was soaked and my shoes were caked in layers of mud. But that’s not the only “bad” side to rain. I’ve realized that every time it rains, we get fewer customers. I suppose no one wants to venture out in the cold and I wouldn’t want to do so either. Unless you have a car, some places are hard to get to and it gets worse when you have to navigate skiddy roads and water puddles. So on Wednesday, we had a brief meeting where the managers informed us they were concerned by the slow pace of things. Business hasn’t been good lately and they wanted to know if we had any idea why. Amidst all this, I felt like they were indirectly blaming us for the low turn-up. I so wanted to suggest a cut in prices and ask them to do some advertising to attract more customers but I know all too well that these are people who are tight on money, so I didn’t bother with that. Let’s hope the rain eases, especially around mealtimes and that people choose to eat out more. Moving on to something that piqued my interest recently, politics – American politics to be specific, I was impressed by the way Americans hold their leaders accountable. I think that’s something the rest of us should start doing. Two years ago, at the height of Barack Obama’s popularity, Democrats were the favourites and they won many seats in the House of Representatives and Senate! They promised to stabilize the economy and lower the unemployment rate. Two years on, they don’t seem to have delivered on those and more promises and what do the voters do? Boot them out and get different people into office who they hope will work towards providing jobs and improving the economy faster than the ousted leaders. That I find not only courageous but also admirable. American voters know and believe that since they put you in power, they have a right to take that power away from you if you underperform or fail to deliver. When I think of countries that have a lot of potential but are stifled under regressive policies, or where garbage and potholes are the key features of their cities and where violence, robberies and rape are the order of the day, I wonder why the citizens in those countries just can’t boot the MPs and ministers holding offices charged with handling those challenges but who are for some reason not doing so. If there’s a time when the people matter, it is election time. Let us all take this responsibility to improve the welfare and policies in our countries through the vote. Let’s not vote corrupt and underperforming people back into office and soon, we’ll begin to see real changes in our countries. To be continued... nsophie77@yahoo.com