Sunday, October 12, 2008

I don't know if they did but it sounds like something 'They' would say

They say a bit of hard work never killed anyone.
While I'm sure some of the poor souls buried in the Great Wall of China might disagree, I suppose it's hard to argue when one is encased in that much concrete.
The point is, though, that it hasn't killed me yet - too much hard work, that is, not the Great Wall of China. I haven't been to see it yet, come to think of it I must remember to put that on my List of Things to Do before I Die... which hopefully won't be from too much hard work.

What my recent bout of long working hours has done, apart from score me a bunch of overtime pay*, is kill my creativity - or at least force it into hibernation. So in the absence of creative writing, I would like to share my opinion on the current state of the world.

(I hope the world is ready for this!)

Here's the thing: I would like to send everyone a copy of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. And I don't mean the book written by Douglas Adams, brilliant though it was. No, I'm talking about the actual guide - the one that has the words "DON'T PANIC" on the front in big flashing letters.
Because here are the facts as I see them:
Yes, share prices are down... now I know that this was all started off by some people making bad decisions and losing actual money but let's face it, the more people panic, the worse the situation is going to get. Surely people realise that some point things have to stablilise? We need the banks, and the banks need each other, and the banks need us, so the sooner everyone just stops panicking the sooner the sky will stop falling on our heads and yes, children, things will begin to climb back up again. It's the nature of the beast. We (meaning the population of the world) need to remember that the stock markets are NOT a living organism with a mind of it's own. The source of it all is people. So if the people stop to take a breath and look beyond their noses, things will start to get better again.

I overheard someone say that they have lost a bunch of money in shares. Bullshit. I know for a fact that this person has owned these shares for a few years now. These particular shares are now worth around about what they were bought for all those years ago. So unless the share prices continue to drop and this person then decides to sell them (which would be really dumb, in my opinion), they have lost nothing. They still have the shares. The market will stabilise. The share price will climb again and then they will be back to having made some money.

See how simple it is?

So let us all do us all a favour:

DON'T PANIC!!!

Spread the word. The sooner the better.


~T

* What, you think I do it for the love of the job??!

6 comments:

Rozi from Jozi said...

Hey Terry, I like your view of the situation! I am back, a horrible thing happened I deleted my blog by mistake and have been trying for the last month to get it back, at this stage all hope seems lost but in the hope that I do, I have created a new blog you can find me at: http://www.theworldaccordingtorosieroo2.blogspot.com/

Terri said...

Rose - I found your new blog... Love the layout by the way!

LiVEwiRe said...

My psychiatrist said something similar this weekend. Then he added something about the BeeGees boosting the economy, too. He did make sense; perhaps you guys are on to something!

Anonymous said...

I so agree. Folks need to chill out. Both on the panic side and on the euphoria side.

Terri said...

LiVEwiRe - The BeeGees, huh? And it made sense? Well who am I to argue.. plus I kinda like the BeeGees although I do wish the image of them in those really tight white jeans wouldn't pop into my head every time I hear or see the word BeeGees. Some mental images I can live without.

Jason - Indeed, there is far too little chilling-out in the world.

AngelConradie said...

nice post, and thats always been rule number one in my book!