OPINION - Black Friday, like religious and cultural festivals, causes lots of shopping and money being, understandably, exchanged at hectic rates.
“Business turnover has never been this good”, “sales well beyond all expectations”, “this is great for the country”, and other similar refrains normally fill the air as business managers rub their hands together in glee. People are mesmerised temporarily into imagining that our economic depression has just magically, suddenly lifted and that good times are ahead.
Actually, very few things can be further from that very serious untruth! Yes, tills are chiming, credit cards are virtually losing their magnetism for being swiped so regularly, malls are being mauled over by crazed shoppers, and there’s much optimism and excitement all over.
Sadly, all of this does not raise our country’s poor credit rating at all. It all eventually boils down to our own countrymen’s money being transferred from one point to another, but within our own
internal system.
Most people merely become just that much poorer after grabbing and paying. Stores are able to breathe for merely just a little longer. No exports leave the country. No foreign exchange enters our shores. Enjoy!
Ebrahim Essa Durban
Daily News
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