I remember it very clearly. Standing in a queue at Umhlanga Village waiting for the Pick n Pay supermarket to open. It was due to open at 7am but I was in the queue at 530am. This was during the period of unrest that South Africa experienced in July of 2021. Widespread looting and violence resulted in many retail stores being closed and major supply routes being affected.
In order to try and distribute food fairly the retailers that still had stock were limiting purchases to one hand basket per person including a limit of two loaves of bread per basket. It was clear to everyone that this was not a sustainable situation for food security. Many of my friends and colleagues were in similar food queues. Some were not so lucky in that after spending a day in the queue they still found the shelves completely depleted of essentials.
On arriving home with our few groceries, something interesting started to happen. The neighbourhood, friend and work WhatsApp groups started to light up with people with all sorts of contacts and means to get food to the general public. One contact was distributing chicken via a local network of churches, one contact distributing fresh milk from local farms and one had an entire garage full of crates of eggs. Before we knew it, the market had found ways of safely matching supply and demand outside of the retail network. At the same time industry leaders had been quietly developing plans to replenish our stores via alternative logistics routes with guarantees of protection from the police and defence force. Barely a week after the unrest, despite billions lost in looted and damaged assets, food security was restored.
Now lets flash back to 2007 where the Zimbabwe dollar had all but lost all value. A new form of pseudo currency emerged…fuel coupons. Because the value of a litre of fuel in US dollar terms was known and constant, coupons became the default currency in the market. My parents even paid my sisters’ school fees in fuel coupons. Another example of the market finding a way.
Now fast forward to 2021 to current day Zimbabwe. In the 2019 World Bank Ease of Business Survey Zimbabwe ranks 140 out of 190 countries surveyed. For people who live in (particularly Western) functional economies all the media and data about Zimbabwe can make it seem like the country is a lost cause. This is very far from the truth because again, the market finds a way. Regardless of whichever statutory instrument is published or new regulations gazetted the Zimbabwean people are always able to find a way to work around it. In many cases people also learn in the process and don’t repeat mistakes from the past.
My point today really is not about economics or markets. It is about extremes of good news or bad news. Most of the time our experience will be somewhere in the middle. In many cases we will never permanently experience one extreme forever. Our lives will be an ongoing mix or varying levels of good news and bad news. Humans have an uncanny ability to reconfigure their lives and adjust based on the cards they have been dealt. If we are going through a tough time now, there is always a chance that we can find a happier medium in the future.
300Paychecks 