I have really been trying hard to resist adding fuel to the “Global Meltdown” fire. I am sick of it. One tactic I have used is reducing my news viewing - listening to & reading largely the sports and lifestyle sections.

The media running around like Chicken Little crying ‘the sky is falling, the sky is falling’ doesn’t make me feel good, and like a lot of people out there, I can do without the negative sentiment at the moment.

If any party that stood for the recent election had done so on a platform of a media blackout for the next 6 months, they would have had my vote!

The media thrive on doom and gloom, and their enthusiastic coverage of the current situation has all the hallmarks of rubberneckers driving past a bad car smash.

Don’t get me wrong. I know what things are like out there, and I would be a complete liar if I said my own business was exempt from the squeeze. Matakana may be a lot of great things, but a recession-free zone it is not.

However, I do wonder if all of us - me, you and everyone else who engages with the media – are making the situation worse by talking ourselves into a deeper downward spiral and making the doom loop bigger than it needs to be. How often do YOU find yourself talking to others about ‘the recession’?!

For example, there has been much reporting of the cancellation of work Xmas parties this year (we have had ONE, and other hospitality owners I have spoken with have also had very few cancellations).

I suspect that IF companies are cancelling end of year celebrations, they are doing so not because they can’t afford it, but because they feel they shouldn’t be seen to be celebrating - even if they have things to celebrate.

Most NZ companies will have something to celebrate in 2008. Ascension Wine Estate certainly does, and our staff deserve the recognition and opportunity to celebrate their achievements.

Perhaps if CEOs and business leaders celebrated more instead of being sad sacks, it would trickle down and the national mood might pick up a little and start to reverse the spiral.

The economic cycles the world endures are long and usually predictable. Plenty of people predicted this financial mess a long time ago.

Winemakers and grapegrowers are part of this same cycle, but like other businesses in the ‘farming’ sector we are also used to dealing with much shorter, less predictable and more fickle cycles - the weather!

We are a pragmatic and practical bunch, if you will excuse the pun.

We are used to dealing with floods, drought, disease and pestilence.

We can only wish it were as easy as turning off the TV or skipping certain sections of the paper.

But choosing what parts of the media you will engage with IS easy. Will you be part of the solution or will you instead feed the fire of doom & gloom?

We live in a great country, and after all what is the WORST thing that could possibly happen to you financially? I ask myself that question quite often and my own answer is that the sun WILL come up the next day and there is always an opportunity of some kind in NZ. I really think that is worth remembering.

If you make the unfortunate choice to feed the fire, then I thank you, because I will be roasting Chicken Little over it, with a little garlic and lemon zest, washed down with a fine glass of Ascension Chardonnay!

PS - writing this Blog today has been excellent therapy, thanks for reading it!

This entry was posted on Monday 1st December 2008 and is filed under Vineyard News. Both comments and pings are currently closed.