"Once there was a man who lived by the edge of the road selling hot dogs.

He had no radio, no television, didn't read the papers, just made very good hot dogs.

Eager to sell his food, he advertised whatever way he could, placards at the road side, and calling out to passersby.

His sales increased, and he took the trouble to always look for and buy the best bread and the best sausages available to make his hot dogs.

After some time he had to invest in more equipment to cook ever more hot dogs for his growing number of clients - his hot dogs were the fame of the region.

With the money he earned he was able to afford the best private education for his son who went on to a fine university and took a first class honours degree in economics.

Finally, one day, the young man returned home to find his father still hard at work at the road side selling his hot dogs with more enthusiasm than ever. The son thought it best to have a serious conversation with his old father.

"Father, don't you listen to the radio ? Have you not seen the TV or read the papers lately ? There is a Global Crisis in the world today. Our country is in a critical state. We are ruined, perhaps the whole world is ruined !" cried the young economist.

After listening to his educated son the old man thought to himself; my son is an a well educated economist, he hears the radio, watches television and reads all the papers. He must be right !

Now, fearing the Great Crisis, the old man began to look for cheaper bread, and began to buy poorer quality sausages. To cut cost he even stopped putting up his placards advertising his hot dogs. Feeling so down with the Crisis he didn't even have the heart to call out to passersby to stop and taste his wares.

Having taken all due caution against the Crisis he noticed that customers stopped coming to him, those that came did not enjoy the food, his sales started to fall off, so much so that his prosperous business that had once been expanding and had even put his son through college eventually failed and entered bankruptcy.

Totally demoralized the old man went to speak with his son. "Son, you were right, we are in the midst of a terrible crisis".

To his friends the old man said proudly; "Thank God I sent my son to study economics; it was he who warned me of the terrible crisis

From this we can learn a good lesson;

We live in a world contaminated by bad news, and if we do not take care this daily, hourly lament of bad news will so negatively influence us so as to rob us of all happiness and the very prosperity of our businesses. It could ruin our lives.

Inject some optimism into the reporting of the crisis and lift peoples' morale. A stimulus package of confidence is what we all need, and the media can help enormously here."