We should be grateful we can plan ahead
There is no end to the bad news about our economy.
But it's the uncertainty about the future which people seem to find the most difficult thing to deal with.
We have had things relatively easy for a long time compared to some countries, but uncertainty is one thing that is real no matter how much of it or where it exists.
I was recently in Nepal and while in the south-west of the county at the Indian border, I was caught in a road strike.
An MP had been shot in a city about 15km away, with the result that all the roads were shut down in protest with any moving vehicles at risk of being burnt. According to friends in the area, this is a regular occurrence.
Strikes – fuel, traffic etc – are called monthly and entire districts of the country literally close down.
Imagine the havoc caused by the snow we experienced earlier this year but on a weekly or monthly basis.
I was escorted back to the hotel past the armed guards and once there, I watched the burning tyres being tossed on to the road to signal the strike as the event culminated into a government-imposed curfew – no movement for days.
A couple of days later, there was a fuel strike, so with a two-day journey ahead, the solution was to buy enough for the trip and carry it, alarmingly, in the back of the car.
The morning before I was due to travel to the low lands of the country, I asked a man at the guest house whether we were able to travel that day.
"No," he replied. "But who knows. In Nepal, anything can happen."
People are used to the strikes, the curfews, the continuous and daily power cuts.
But even after decades, what they are not used to is the uncertainty – the absent luxury to be able to plan ahead.
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Weather for Diss
Thursday 02 September 2010
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
