The Meaning of Headlines: 'pin hopes on'

The Meaning of Headlines: 'pin hopes on' - business

The Canberra Times published an article on 20 May 2016 with the headline: It scares me: Woden businesses pin hopes on public servants yet to arrive. What does ‘pin hopes on’ mean?

The Free Dictionary of Idioms indicates that ‘pins hopes on’ means ‘to depend on someone or something for a successful result.’ The Free Dictionary adds that the idiom is ‘usually said when it is not certain whether something will happen or succeed.’ The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and Thesaurus says to pin your hopes on something or somebody is ‘to hope very much that something or someone will help you to achieve what you want.’ So what do small businesses in Woden want, and why are they so scared?

The article states that ‘small business owneres in Woden believe the relocation of 1100 local public servants will do little to provide the long-term confidence needed to revitalize the struggling town.’

Woden is not actually a town. Woden Valley is a district within the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), 13 kilometres (8 miles) from Canberra central – the capital of Australia. Its administrative centre is the Woden Town Centre. The article adds that ‘the town centre has been hit hard by an exodus of federal departments in recent years, with the federal government slashing the public service workforce and consolidating real estate across Canberra.’

The local business are scared because, according to the article, the ACT government said that it will relocate public servants back to the Woden Town Centre, but ‘thousands have left this town in recent years so it’s still a net loss as far as businesses are concerned’ – said one business owner. He said ‘I know of two cafes that have closed very close to us around the public service offices, and it scares me.’ At the end of 2015 the ACT government announced plans for 1100 public servants to be relocated to Woden to boost the local economy. To date only 150 of the 750 staff of the department of health have moved to offices within Woden. The remainder are due to be relocated in late 2016, and another 320 staff from another government department will also be relocated.

The area has increased its residential apartments, but government departments were closing and moving to new premises in other regions. The department of Veterans’ Affairs moved 526 public servants from a Woden building to Canberra Central in January 2016, and 600 government Information Technology staff moved in 2015. The business owner said, ‘it’s departments we really need.’ Another business owner said that public servants were the livelihood for many businesses, but ‘could also be their downfall.’

The Scorecard for the Canberra Times headline is 99%. The situation is scarey for many businesses in Woden who were relying on public servants to boost their income. With the fluctuations of government departments opening and closing, leaving and relocating, and public servants coming and going, the article emphasizes that the planned relocation of public servants to Woden are ‘yet to arrive.’

The headline is designed to place emphasis on the phrase ‘it scares me’ – that’s why it starts the heading. But the article only has one person that appears scared by the prospect of the lack of business – with no additional quotes to confirm his concern. However, it does seem that businesses are ‘pinning their hopes’ on the return of public servants to the empty offices in Woden. Hence, as the definition says, businesses are ‘not certain whether something will happen or succeed.’ They are also ‘hoping very much’ that the return of public servants will help them ‘achieve what they want’ – probably too much given that this has been a concern of business people in other locations in Australia – and indeed, across the globe.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/it-scares-me-woden-businesses-pin-hope-on-public-servants-yet-to-arrive-20160518-goxrgd.html

MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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