Paul Pereira wrote an excellent piece in the Citizen on the 27 August 2013 where he explored the question “IS SA’s Glass half full or half empty?”which I became aware of because of Redi Tlhabi of 702 who opened a discussion on this during her program.
The full article is available at:
http://citizen.co.za/29436/is-sas-glass-half-full-or-half-empty/
I constantly tell my learners to ensure that the information they are using to advise their clients is not biased in any way and should be balanced. Unfortunately the popular media and the mass audience seem to prefer the bad news which certainly sells well. This unfortunately means we are not made aware of the positives which are happening every day.
I am not a positive little soul who only sees the good and ignores the crime, corruption , strikes and other problems that plague or news. Only seeing the positive is biased and as stupid as only seeing the negative.
A financial adviser needs to have a balanced view of the situation in the country because this will colour the advice they give to their clients.
To develop a balanced view I try to listen to commentators with different perspectives to gain a balanced understanding of what is happening in SA, Africa and the world. This means I listen to commentators from the government and opposition, business and labour, SA and offshore commentators, The Financial Service industry and the regulators and this would be unnecessary if our media and journalists provided balanced reporting.
Finding the right mix of commentators to listen to is important and I have used Redi Tlhabi as a presenter and author who provides me with a different perspective on events in SA and the world and when I find a jounalist who provide balanced reporting like this piece I want to celebrate.
Redi and Paul are clearly balanced commentators and I am going to make use of their comments and reports when talking to my learners about current affairs and the actual state of the nation or world.