Never waste a good crisis

I’m tired of negativity, not least my own. It gets me and everyone around me nowhere. It helps nobody, and all it does is make a somewhat difficult situation look worse.

It’s cold, that’s true. We’re dealing with loadshedding – another truth. We must also deal with the reality of our generic infrastructure problems and the anti-Israel hatred that’s looking fairly ominous in the Western Cape. These aren’t heartening signs or situations.

However, for the most part, we live a great life on the southern tip of Africa.

I cannot speak for everyone in the community because we all live different lives. So, I’m generalising.

Most of us have comfortable homes and can afford to feed our families. We even go out for dinners when we can. Mostly, we have one or two cars per family, and can get up and go whenever we want or need to. We eat well, and all our creature comforts are met.

With that in mind, we can and do find ways to laugh at ourselves and our situation.

This week, I had a good giggle when I saw that someone had renamed Eskom’s Megawatt Park and the ANC headquarters, Luthuli House, on Google Maps. I’m not sure who did it or how, but the former became “Eskom MegaGravy Train Park” and Luthuli House was renamed “Loothuli House”.

I love that we can find humour in our not-so-uplifting situation, which makes us feel better. Satirical social commentary, I guess, is a coping mechanism. It also brings us together in our frustration turned humour.

Not only do we find humour in situations, we also find solutions. This is part of our nature. Though Israel is the “start-up nation”, we’re the “make-a-plan” nation. Perhaps we do it because we have no choice, but it’s something we can be really proud of.

Not being blind, we realise that the government isn’t doing its job of fixing our roads, so we make a plan to repair them ourselves. Have you noticed that there are fewer potholes lately? Did you really think the government was behind the repairs?

Had you noticed how our parks hadn’t been looked after and had become overgrown? Did you see litter in too many places to mention? You know that corner, where there are always accidents because motorists couldn’t see the road signs because the foliage was overgrown? What of those street signs that were so faded, you couldn’t make out what you as a motorist were meant to do?

CAP Green has been launched to tackle this, and now, these problems are being solved. Have you seen the clean-up crew in those luminous green CAP vans? They’ve made a plan, and it’s inspiring!

Come to think of it, the whole concept of CAP was an answer to a problem. Crime was hurting us, so Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein and other leaders came up with a solution. Now, CAP is doing more than just responding to people in trouble in their homes, it’s successfully fighting crime. You see what I mean – a plan was made to solve a problem.

I get that around the world people would and should be on the streets protesting when the government doesn’t give them what they need. Over here, right or wrong, we acknowledge that if we don’t do it, it’s unlikely to happen. So, we make a plan.

Have you noticed just how many members of our community are involved in the solar industry? Again, loadshedding abounds and our electrical infrastructure is shot, and the only way to deal with it is to find our own solutions or live with it. The most obvious, efficient, and environmentally friendly solution is solar energy.

And so, entrepreneurs saw the gap and, while they are making money, they are getting us off the grid, partially, fully, temporarily, or permanently. The point is: it’s a win-win situation that was formed out of a problem not of our making.

As Winston Churchill so eloquently put it: “Never let a good crisis go to waste!” This was said during World War ll, when things were desperately bleak. Churchill saw that even in the direst of situations, we could attain insights and find opportunities for growth or development.

Such is life. When the going is fabulous, do we really improve and grow? Do we make a difference then? I don’t think so.

When times are tough, that’s when we dig deep to find our inner strength to grow and innovate. That’s when we can really make a difference.

None of this is possible if we see only negativity in our challenges. We can’t develop or grow while complaining and blaming. I know how easy it is, believe me. As you know, I’m not that evolved person who is above complaining and whingeing.

Suffice to say, I recognise that it gets us nowhere, and the only way to look is up and ahead.

Got a problem? Decide to find the solution. Feel like complaining? Find an alternative because complaining is simply a waste of your time.

Use this crisis to develop yourself, your business, or your community. We have everything we need to make our lives here work. There’s no need to seek greener pastures. Our pastures are pretty green as it is.

The truth is, you can find problems wherever you look. Or you can find beauty, solutions, answers and, ultimately, contentment with your lot.

I’m so tired of looking at what we have here, and seeing doom and gloom. We’re so lucky to have what we do, let’s appreciate it, and make a plan to improve on it.

Shabbat shalom and Shavuot sameach!

Peta Krost

Editor