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To those who were lucky enough to be in Trinidad
for Carnival, the "greatest show on earth", earlier this week - it was fabulous,
wasn't it? Now it's back to reality.
The downturn seems to be taking effect in the
Caribbean with spectacular casualties. The Prime Minister of T&T advised
citizens to "tighten their belts" and it seems that the people are heeding his
words, thus putting a strain on businesses particularly those in the service
sectors. So how do we get through these difficult times? Guest
journalist, Amelia Hayes, reports on her impressions from a recent trip to
Miami.
With words such as “Recession”, “tighten
your belt”, “hard times”, bailouts and companies closing or downsizing …. How
severe is the global economic state and how many of us are really thinking
before spending our dollars? Can we survive it? As President Obama says, “Yes
we can!”
I recently returned from Florida where I
interviewed Trini’s living there as well as US citizens as to how they are being
affected, if at all and how has life changed for them.
A couple days before Christmas thousands
of people flocked to the malls trying to catch the holiday sales following the
“Black Friday” sales. At Sawgrass and Aventura malls as with other malls, people
were bustling about looking for deals but frivolous spending wasn’t taking
place. Business owners complained it was the worst in terms of sales they’ve
experienced.
Zorinah of Miami Gardens (a Trini who
migrated) said that it hasn’t affected her in any significant way and in fact
she earned more last year than the year before and shopped as usual for the
Christmas season. She hasn’t changed her lifestyle in any way neither did she
decrease her spending power. She doesn’t see the recession seriously affecting
her earnings in a way that will significant diminish her quality of life at
present.
Realistically, we are all affected in
one way or another but for some it’s not significant enough for them to start
worrying at present. For some, the value of their properties have dropped and
they can refinance paying less on their Mortgage; for others, they are stuck
paying more for their homes than it’s now worth. Banks are no longer giving
loans in fear of not recovering their money due to loss of jobs and bankruptcy
which is expected to happen in large numbers this year. Basically the average
person is the one feeling it the most, as is always the case! Those with low
incomes, minimal education as well as a household to feed and not knowing what
their next move should be; those are the people hurting. They comprise of sales
clerks in department stores, administrative staff, gas station attendants,
automotive sales people and many more.
It would be wise to do an analysis of
where you live, irregardless to what part of the Globe (the Caribbean, US, UK
etc) and look at the industries in operation, the areas that bring income to
sustain the economy, find out what jobs are in demand and put a plan of action
into place from there. E.g. it’s public knowledge that we have a shortage of
nurses locally and the news recently highlighted the shortage of pharmacists at
the POS General Hospital and the country! Reality is the number of diabetic,
hypertension, cancer, and Aids cases have grown tremendously and thousand of
persons are currently on medication needing the expertise of a pharmacist.
It will take some thinking and research
on your part but it’s beneficial to your future to find other means of income
and be versatile to earn a living. No longer is specialization in a field an
absolute must. With companies downsizing and employees multi-tasking while doing
the jobs of I.T. Manager, database administrator and technical support, it would
be wise to acquire skills in varying fields. From the beginning of time man has
adapted to his environment and circumstances, the same will occur during
difficult global economic times but we will survive and evolve!
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We would love to hear what you think of this issue of CRS News.
And of course, if you have any suggestions for upcoming issues that you would
like to share with us, please send those too.
Comments, suggestions, feedback?
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In This Issue:
-
Susan's Snippets
- Tighten Your
Belt
- Tell Us What You Think
-
Subscriptions
- Join ICTS
- Psychometric Testing
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Who is CRS?
See
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SAP Analyst FI/CO (TRINIDAD):-
Responsible for the implementation and support of SAP Financial, Controlling &
Treasury modules.
Job Ref:CI07
Manager Information Security (TRINIDAD):-
To direct, coordinate, plan and organize the information security activities of
the TT data centre for the organisation, and provide direction for information
security services, policies and standards so as to ensure confidentiality,
integrity, availability, compliance and reliability of the organization’s
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Job Ref:CI04
I.T. Manager (TRINIDAD):-
Deliver IT and communications systems, processes and infrastructure to meet the
requirements of the Trinidad and Tobago Production Unit, and where applicable,
conform to the organization’s global IT standards.
Job Ref:CI03
Still Urgently Required:
Regional Procurement Desk Manager (TRINIDAD):-
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