As T&T gets ready to mark this year's Christmas and Old Year's festivities, many of its citizens will look back on 2016 as something of an annus horribilis (horrible year), to quote the phrase popularised by Queen Elizabeth II in 1992.
While the Queen was mostly reflecting, as a mother, on the scandalous revelations involving her sons and daughters-in-law, T&T is experiencing an unprecedented wave of increasingly gruesome murders, a painfully slow justice system, economic contraction unknown to a generation of its population and a government that seems too paralysed to take decisions or act on decisions taken.
Added to that assortment of miseries are the increasingly antagonistic postures being adopted by the ruling party and the official Opposition, the unavailability of foreign exchange to many who need it, and the historic summons sent by the Industrial Court to the T&T Chamber of Commerce, its CEO and two others apparently for the "crime" of hosting a seminar on the workings of the Court.
Given this combination of unwholesome facts and behaviours, there will be some who conclude that T&T is a country at war with itself, with a cadre of leaders who are too busy trying to score points against "the other side" and some citizens who simply fail to appreciate the sanctity of each person's life.
In stark contrast of the miasma of negativity pervading the society are the views of Norman Sabga–the chairman of ANSA McAL, which is one of the largest indigenous, non-energy companies in T&T–who declared that the group is "a very optimistic organisation" that sees a bright future for the company he leads and the country in which it is headquartered.
Instead of focusing on the negativity and difficulties in the country, Mr Sabga says the group always looks at positives and, as such, is now seeing opportunities for acquisitions that could lead to the group being stronger in the future.
In an interview last week with Guardian Media's business desk, Mr Sabga pointed out that ANSA McAL acquired a Florida-based beverage company and a chemical-based company that will be merged with an existing group-owned enterprise.
He said the group was also reinvesting in its existing businesses by building a totally automated clay-block manufacturing line and a state-of-the-art production line at its glass-production plant.
And he said ANSA McAL, which is the majority shareholder of the Guardian Media, opened a new automotive showroom in Chaguanas, has gone into the paint business in Barbados and Jamaica and is currently looking at three new acquisitions.
The ANSA McAL group chairman is right that it is in the company's DNA to look for opportunities during adverse economic periods, as 30 years ago the ANSA group took the bold and transformative decision to acquire McEnearney Alstons, which led to the formation of ANSA McAL. Today, the group has assets of over $13 billion and revenue of over $6 billion.
That one of the country's leading businessmen is optimistic about the country's future and confident that there are opportunities in adversity is a significant message that applies outside the realms of business and investment decisions.
It would be appropriate for the country to heed his optimism and begin planning and investing for the end of this period of contraction.
It is the nature of the cycle of life that periods of drought are always followed by rain, that the darkest night is broken by dawn, and that an annus horribilis is followed by an annus mirabilis (wonderful year).
The interview with Norman Sabga will be broadcast tonight at 7.30 on CNC3.