EDITOR, The Tribune

If we look at the wide range of challenges that face this country today we can either wallow in despair or look for the silver lining – it all depends on your attitude.

We are being bombarded with anxiety due to the imminent rise in prices associated with impending VAT taxes … so we need to re-evaluate our spendthrift nature that has come about with ‘progress’ and revert to the sage wisdom exercised by our ancestors who, although they had little materially, made the most of it. This might be the silver lining opportunity to have more respect for ‘our own tings’.

Think of how we blatantly waste water and electricity nowadays … so let’s learn to cut them off when not in use …. imagine it is hurricane time and we have to use our water sparingly! Think of all the electrical appliances and products we have in our homes and offices and how we turn them on and leave them on indiscriminately ... each one drawing massive reserves of energy collectively ... so let’s all cut back and become more energy efficient and thrifty – and that applies to one of the main offenders: government office energy guzzlers!

We know food store prices are going to escalate ... so let’s get back in the garden and get our hands dirty by doing some backyard farming. Not only will it allow us to get much needed exercise and improve our deteriorating health, but it will also encourage us to eat more fresh and healthy greens and vegetables as well as our own native fruit from the yard instead of imported ones.

How about our shopping habits … we spend as if money is no object ... we need to look at instituting saving habits again instead of spending … let’s reduce our reliance on credit card debt and get into the habit of putting a certain portion of our income aside for the many ‘rainy days’ ahead!

Since becoming more affluent and time challenged, we prefer to pick up our food instead of cooking it ourselves … so let’s get back to making our grits and sardines in the morning for our children instead of giving them a bag of chips and a soda in the morning or driving through some fast food chain and letting them eat in the car on the way to school.

Sit down and think about how our lifestyle has changed within the short space of one generation … yes, it has changed for the better in many ways but not necessarily all for the best. So as we begin the start of a new year, let’s be thrifty instead of spendthrift, conserve instead of being wasteful, and exercise common sense as a consumer … remember, we cannot pick money off a tree, no matter what the story say!

Happy New Year!

PAM BURNSIDE

Nassau,

January 1, 2015.