Farmers' Profits Mine Zero

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September means different things to different people, but fall leaves and their colors delight everybody, all creatures great and small.

September is also sad news for market crawlers like myself, because it is when farmers who had displayed their string beans, pumpkins, garlic, yellow cucumbers and corn in Farmers’ Markets around the city, dismantle their stands. We’ll see them again next summer.

It is particularly depressing for me because it means three months before the end of the year. Farmers have something to show for their toil, whether there was a drought or floods. That is why we look forward to Farmers’ Markets during the summer. How about me? What did I achieve in the year ‘22, which is on its year out?

But you were very busy. Thanks for the validation but show me figures, dollars precisely. That is how we measure self worth. You will not believe what people do online for the mighty dollar.

Salesmen and saleswomen do it the traditional way. Units sold. How many houses did you sell in 2022? How many used cars? How many internet subscriptions did you sign up? 

The end of September means the end of the year is around the corner but I won’t let it depress me. I don’t have any dollars to show, but what I did in ‘22 was enough to keep me alive and broke. Alive is the key, and people I owe money are rejoicing.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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