As an Economist I should know better that anyone else that the world economy is currently suffering one of the most severe recessions in history. Unemployment is rising, firms are going bankrupt, house prices are falling and consumers all across the world have had to tighten their belts.
But despite such obvious evidence and hundreds of newsletters informing me about every single development in world markets on an hourly basis, I have not really experienced the recession myself. My job is secure, I live in a country where I earn more than most people and if anything I get to enjoy loads of discounts in shops and great offers on eating out!
But a few weeks ago, the recession also arrived in my life and it did it – out of all places – at work! Previous ODIs got to attend lots of interesting conferences (in South Africa, but also fancy places like Canada and Australia), enjoyed team building weekends in nice lodges and got sent off with big leaving do’s with massive catering and presents. Nowadays things have changed a bit and Treasury has been on a right mission to cut costs. We can no longer attend conferences unless they free and in the area, strategic planning sessions have been scrapped in favour of team building afternoons which have “no impact on the tax payer” and recently we have not even had Roibos Tea in the office anymore! Given this, I don’t wanna hear anything about government employees living a high life while other people suffer from the recession – THERE IS NO MORE TEA!!!
Anyway, recently I have spent a lot of time working on agriculture and I am really enjoying it. Agriculture truly doesn’t sound like the most interesting topic, but there is a lot going on and it links in really well with climate change, retail trade and food security issues. I find that I can relate to things going on in the sector and was really excited when I found out about a conference on agriculture in Pretoria! Unfortunately the conference was quite expensive and I spent a lot of time and energy convincing the organisers that they must give me a free ticket! It paid off - I got my ticket and permission to go to the conference! I was hoping for some good speeches, which would clarify some issues with my work and provide me insight into the challenges the sector faces, and to make some good contacts, which might come useful in the future.
Unfortunately I would be disappointed in every aspects.
When I got to the venue, I soon realised that I had foolishly forgotten one important fact – it was a conference on agriculture and consequently ninety per cent of the delegates were white, Afrikaans farmers! The whole auditorium was filled with men in short-sleeved checked shirts with beer bellies and social skills that would only excite ... dum dum dum … cows, goats, chicken or sheep! Those people had devoted and spent their lives on farms and had never been exposed to many other people, non-farm related conversation or city life! I don’t think I ever stood out more in a crowd that at this conference…
On the program were thrilling topics such as “Practical Perspectives from a Producer”, “The Impact of Current Political Landscape on Agriculture”, “Price Formation in the Wheat Market” and as a highlight “Weather Outlook 2010”. Even though most of the delegates were Afrikaans speaking, some were clearly not and I was incredibly surprised when the speakers started talking in Afrikaans! Most of them would start in English and then half-way through a sentence suddenly switch to Afrikaans… I was in utter disbelief! Everyone in this room was clearly capable of speaking English perfectly well, yet the speakers chose to deliver partly in Afrikaans! It turned out that there were interpreters translating the speeches and so I could at least understand what was going on. But even that wasn’t ideal as the interpreter would always stop the second the speaker changed into English, which got really confusing!
But looking back, I should really not complain about that! At the Gala Dinner in the evening things got even worse as there were no interpreters and almost all speakers decided to deliver their “funny” little anecdotes, stories and thanks in Afrikaans leaving people like me with no other option than turn to alcohol…
No comments:
Post a Comment