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Where you stand in the struggle

By Brendan John Worrell (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-03-31 15:43

With the G20 summit taking place in London this week thousands of protesters are taking to the streets. Sunday an estimated 35,000 gathered under the umbrella of "jobs, justice and climate". It's just a harbinger for the ruckus that's scheduled to erupt tomorrow on what's been dubbed "Financial Fools Day".

Speaking of fools, if protestors keep their eyes open they may notice a plaque in London's inner city dedicated to Charles Darwin who this year celebrates his 200th birthday. It's also the 150th anniversary of the release of his "On the Origin of the Species" and if we apply his core principles to the present quagmire with some rigorous introspection the cries for justice may slightly subside.

Yes there is a right to be frustrated by the bizarre twist in economic fortunes over recent times but where does the blame and resolution lie? Rather than looking outside and pointing the finger at the "white blue eyed banker" we may all be better served by looking within and joining the local library. Going back to Economics 101 how many of us can really conceptualize just what is wrong with the present debacle and confidently voice what mechanisms are needed to correct the imbalance.

I certainly can't but a friend of mine can. She has a Masters in Applied Accounting and is now doing her PhD in Financial Engineering. Rather than complaining she's getting busy and laying the groundwork for future returns. That seems like a smart plan to me. Like Darwin's finch she's adjusting her beak while the rest of the dodos are squawking waiting for bird seed.

Compare this to another friend who told me how he invested 50,000 yuan in the local stock market last year and saw its value virtually halved. He hadn't researched the companies and their respective industries. Rather he had the cash and wanted to put it somewhere, wishfully hoping it would compound. Survival of the fittest - now he is cash starved and the study abroad course he wishes to partake of to improve his career is jeopardized.

Now a farmer wouldn't throw seed into a desert and expect to sow a crop yet many of us expect the market to reward us for just throwing money into it without deeper understanding and preparatory tilling. One fear is these collective stimulus packages governments are signing up to are going to bankrupt us all, turning the global recession into a truly great manic depression.

In regards to work and the expectation that industry will remain, or should remain constant, this also appears to be going against natural principles. Many bemoan the death of newspapers or Detroit auto, but in the end you adapt and add value to where it is demanded or you fall by the wayside and join the growing list of the extinct. Cave painting and the horse and carriage took a dive so what makes print journalists think they are, or deserve to be, immortal?

For Joe the Plumbers and I count myself here as one, the question we need to be asking is what are we doing today to improve our competitiveness, so if, or when, the global economy corrects itself, we are in a position to benefit?

Likewise when it comes to free time, our choice to spend a spare pound on a pint of ale rather than enrolling in a night course in an attempt to skills build, sees a trade off taking place that can cost or benefit us, the consequences of which we have to assume responsibility for.

That may sound harsh and flagellative but for the G-150 odd other nations who are not represented at this week's meeting and have no social security to fall back on, it's nothing new. Equity is still an issue though, where obesity is a growing epidemic and preventable disease the main cause of mortality, it appears to be lower down on the list of current complaints.

As for fiscal stimulus packages one of the best I've so far seen came on Friday in Hangzhou that saw the distribution of more than 100 million yuan in coupons to help financially-stricken students and workers pay for education and vocational training in an effort to better prepare them for competition in the tightening job market.

Elsewhere off the radar, a Free Trade Agreement in services being worked out between Pakistan and China, greater integration between cross-Straits ports and logistics operators and the emerging success of lean business models like Air Asia that are able to thrive in the present climate, while others are hitting the eject button, shows promise and a vision we can all be struggling towards.