As always after almost a month fasting the Hari Raya fever is getting more intense when the Muslims start to do last minute shopping and preparation for the big day on 1st Syawal. Eventhough the economic slowdown is still lingering in this country it does not stop Malaysians from shopping and hunt for good bargains at popular shopping centers and street shops.
Of course it also attracts the parasites of the society to hunt for their food - pick pockets, muggers, snatchers etc. Yesterday my sister in-law became another victim to the bag snatchers right in front of her house in broad daylight!
There are also those who take advantage of those who unlucky enough not to own their own rides by selling them fake bus tickets with inflated prices. These poor people only realised they were cheated when the bus never showed up. It happens almost every year, somewhere somebody got screwed and it robbed them of the supposedly enjoyable journey home to their villages, what a shame!
For those who are fortunate enough to own their own wheels it is a different story. Every year Malaysians die by the thousands on the road en route to their hometown or kampungs. It has becoming a trend to rush home ala Michael Scumacher by speeding zig zag through the traffic and ignoring the traffic rules. Some could not be bothered with traffic summons, why not? They only need to pay 50% at discounted rate on the net! I know some people who accumulated more than thirty traffic summons which cost thousand of ringgit and they still could not be bothered! I guess they will never stop until they die.
Well i guess it is the same year in and year out, Hari Raya can bring the best and the worse out of Malaysians who claim that they are a well behaved or bersopan society. I beg to differ as this part of our society is going through slow death. In our haste to pile up our wealth and
status in this material world some of us start to stop becoming nice and decent people, social ettiquette has gone down the drain. Some
Muslims have even forgotten the basic teachings of the Rasul s.a.w (peace be upon him), some young generation even abandoned them so
to appear " modern and progressive".
Well, i pray that all Muslims in Malaysia stay faithfull to the teachings of Islam so we can become a stronger Ummah in number and in our belief. I would like to wish all Muslims Selamat Hari Raya maaf zahir batin especially my friends and ex- staff at Sunrise Bhd. Please be patient in adversity and be focus to achieve success.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
A GLOOMY WORLD
It has been a while since the last article i wrote at the start of the new year.
I have been "hibernating" like a bear trying to shield myself from all the insanities that have been going around me and the world, and did not feel like writing at all. The problem with hibernating is that sooner or later you have to wake up and face the reality, and the changes that have been happening around you.
Talking about hibernating, i am very worried about the bearishness of our stock market and the trend of going down south is squeezing the wealth of thousands of investors including me. With bills knocking at our doors every month from banks and utility companies, it is quite worrying that one day i might not be able to live up to it. I am sure others will have sleepless nights thinking about it too depending on the extent of their exposures.
Our stock market is so connected to other stock markets' performance world wide especially the Wall Streets and Dow Jones. As the situation in the United States seems bleak despite the US800 billion package announced by Mr Obama, our stock market is dragged down with it to the bottomless pit . This still happens despite the new RM60 billion stimulus package announced by the Deputy Prime Minister the other day. It seems that the loss of confidence in the economic future of Malaysia and the rest of the world is pretty bad.
In Malaysia, a lot of companies have started to take proactive steps to cut operational costs to survive this economic uncertainties. Some have retrenched thousands of workers especially in the manufacturing sectors as demands for product in the export market is reduced. Some have reassigned their staff into different job scopes and sent them for retraining to acquire new skills to cope with future roles. Some who are still strong resort to minor paycuts and benefits. But there will be a time if the situation does not improve, they will have to resort to using more drastic measures that will make life more miserables for the employees. I am sure one day it will happen to me too, no exception.
We are still trying to adjust to the rising food prices due to the increase of petrol and diesel last year which did not slide down as the crude oil price dropped substantially to US47 per barrel as of yesterday, one wonders how is he going to cope with all these pressures. Living in a city like KL nowadays is pure madness on our souls. Highways with tolls with rates keep going up is coiling us like a python slowly tightening its muscle over its victim to a slow and painful suffocated death. Worst still, some idiots are helping giving energy to this beast to allow it to operate as long as it can to suffocate more and more victims. Only after a lot of screaming by the victims, the decision got reversed for now. How can they be so insensitve to the problems faced by most of us to survive during this difficult time, one wonders. I guess we are partly to blame for voting for them.
As we are facing this situation, there is one group of people in Malaysia who are not affected by it at all it seems - our politicians! It is either they are very rich or they are living in a different realm, it must be, since they are not bothered by it all and spend all their waking hours politicking non-stop on the streets, under a tree and all the way to the Parliament! The world and our country is facing an economic meltdown, but in Malaysia they are fighting over the post of Menteri Besar(Chief Minister), new State cars, teaching certain subjects in English, accusing other people of sending them live bullets and saying unstatemenlike words in the Parliament House, fighting over compulsary fish containers, fighting over God's name (funny we have been independent for 52 years, now only people want to fight over Allah's name,why? what purpose does it serve?) challenging the Malay Sultans' rights in courts and many more!
My question to all these smart people is - dont we have enough problems? Are you helping the situation to improve or making it worst to fulfill your self interests and narrow agenda? Are you not afraid that this country will disintergrate to pieces to the point of no return just because you want to win? Is winning everything when everything around you already destroyed?
Remember to destroy is easy( ask Mr Bush), but to build a nation will take years of hardwork. Complaining and opposing other people's ideas and efforts to improve is always easier than coming up with a better one of your own and doing it. I think it is high time to build and strengthen this nation to face the new challenge as one people, one nation.
Outside Malaysia, there is a very dark cloud hovers over the foreign relations between a few countries that is quite worrying.
The latest being the provocation by the US Navy in the Chinese EEZ water. What is the motive behind the US Navy sending the Impeccable ( a submarine tracking ship) so close to China's new Naval base one can only assume. The similiarity to the Gulf of Tonkin episode which was a pretext to the US's involvement in the Vietnam War is worrysome.
In my opinion, provoking a giant like China which has an ever increasing modern military might with nuclear arms is an act of insanity! Furthermore, the US is relying heavily on China to help her coming out of the economic pit as China holds the largest amount of US treasury ( in trillions!) in the world. One can only wonder what will happen to the US if China decides enough is enough of this bullying, and offload the US treasury to the market. It will spell the end of the US and send it back to the Stone Age!
Do not tell me Mr Obama does not know of this danger or is he doing it quitely to take away the domestic attention from the ailing economy? It seems that this tactic is permanent feature in the US Foreign Policy after the WWll. Almost every US President got the US involved in wars in other countries around the world, all in the name of democracy and lately fighting terrorism made famous by "are you with me or against me Bush", and Mr Obama a.k.a "the Messiah" is no exception. The change that he promised to bring to the previous bad policies is just a smoke screen to get him into Office. Now he is doing exactly like what Bush did. To his admirers in Malaysia, so sorry, he is the same as the rest before him, just in the different release version, US President v.44.
The policy of warmongering remain intact as we can see on the promised buildup of troops of 17000 more in Afghanistan by him, and constant harassing of Iran, Syria and North Korea(Axis of Evil). The US keeps implementing policies that in the long run are detrimental to its own domestic interests and the world peace. Mr Obama should have the courage to free his country from unproductive policies and influence of pressure groups within his administration and Israel lobby groups, and bring about real change that he promised his fellow citizens. He should have a stronger control over the 53rd state - Israel, a liability to the US own interests, which is running riot in the MiddleEast and threatening to attack Iran unilaterally if the US fails to persuade Iran to abandon the alleged nuclear programme.
I dread to think what will happen if somebody did a stupid mistake and caused the US to enter into a war with Iran, and Iran retaliates by striking Israel, then the Hizbollah and Hamas decided to join the fight to help Iran, on the other side the US provoked a giant like China into a military confrontation, and North Korea decides to join and help China face the US which will force South Korea and Japan to help the US, and all this happens while the war in Iraq and Afghanistan are ongoing, while Pakistan is facing problem internally with various groups which makes India contemplating a pre-emptive strike to protect herself. What will Britain and Nato countries do to help the US in the fight against Iran? Is Russia going to sit idle? What does this scenario look like? A World War Three? Far fetched?
Believe me it could happen, just observe how every episode is slowly unfolding itself all over the world as though they are being orchestrated by somebody. History will repeat itself if we the human kind are not careful. In the 1930s there was a Great Depression, then there was a great war. Now we are having an economic calamity worst than the Great Depression while conflicts between nations are slowly boiling all over the world. My only hope is that they do not explode into a full scale conflict which drag the whole world into it because that will be too gloomy of a world to face for me, my children and the children of the world.
Lets hope sanity will prevail and we all come out of this in one piece.
Amen.
I have been "hibernating" like a bear trying to shield myself from all the insanities that have been going around me and the world, and did not feel like writing at all. The problem with hibernating is that sooner or later you have to wake up and face the reality, and the changes that have been happening around you.
Talking about hibernating, i am very worried about the bearishness of our stock market and the trend of going down south is squeezing the wealth of thousands of investors including me. With bills knocking at our doors every month from banks and utility companies, it is quite worrying that one day i might not be able to live up to it. I am sure others will have sleepless nights thinking about it too depending on the extent of their exposures.
Our stock market is so connected to other stock markets' performance world wide especially the Wall Streets and Dow Jones. As the situation in the United States seems bleak despite the US800 billion package announced by Mr Obama, our stock market is dragged down with it to the bottomless pit . This still happens despite the new RM60 billion stimulus package announced by the Deputy Prime Minister the other day. It seems that the loss of confidence in the economic future of Malaysia and the rest of the world is pretty bad.
In Malaysia, a lot of companies have started to take proactive steps to cut operational costs to survive this economic uncertainties. Some have retrenched thousands of workers especially in the manufacturing sectors as demands for product in the export market is reduced. Some have reassigned their staff into different job scopes and sent them for retraining to acquire new skills to cope with future roles. Some who are still strong resort to minor paycuts and benefits. But there will be a time if the situation does not improve, they will have to resort to using more drastic measures that will make life more miserables for the employees. I am sure one day it will happen to me too, no exception.
We are still trying to adjust to the rising food prices due to the increase of petrol and diesel last year which did not slide down as the crude oil price dropped substantially to US47 per barrel as of yesterday, one wonders how is he going to cope with all these pressures. Living in a city like KL nowadays is pure madness on our souls. Highways with tolls with rates keep going up is coiling us like a python slowly tightening its muscle over its victim to a slow and painful suffocated death. Worst still, some idiots are helping giving energy to this beast to allow it to operate as long as it can to suffocate more and more victims. Only after a lot of screaming by the victims, the decision got reversed for now. How can they be so insensitve to the problems faced by most of us to survive during this difficult time, one wonders. I guess we are partly to blame for voting for them.
As we are facing this situation, there is one group of people in Malaysia who are not affected by it at all it seems - our politicians! It is either they are very rich or they are living in a different realm, it must be, since they are not bothered by it all and spend all their waking hours politicking non-stop on the streets, under a tree and all the way to the Parliament! The world and our country is facing an economic meltdown, but in Malaysia they are fighting over the post of Menteri Besar(Chief Minister), new State cars, teaching certain subjects in English, accusing other people of sending them live bullets and saying unstatemenlike words in the Parliament House, fighting over compulsary fish containers, fighting over God's name (funny we have been independent for 52 years, now only people want to fight over Allah's name,why? what purpose does it serve?) challenging the Malay Sultans' rights in courts and many more!
My question to all these smart people is - dont we have enough problems? Are you helping the situation to improve or making it worst to fulfill your self interests and narrow agenda? Are you not afraid that this country will disintergrate to pieces to the point of no return just because you want to win? Is winning everything when everything around you already destroyed?
Remember to destroy is easy( ask Mr Bush), but to build a nation will take years of hardwork. Complaining and opposing other people's ideas and efforts to improve is always easier than coming up with a better one of your own and doing it. I think it is high time to build and strengthen this nation to face the new challenge as one people, one nation.
Outside Malaysia, there is a very dark cloud hovers over the foreign relations between a few countries that is quite worrying.
The latest being the provocation by the US Navy in the Chinese EEZ water. What is the motive behind the US Navy sending the Impeccable ( a submarine tracking ship) so close to China's new Naval base one can only assume. The similiarity to the Gulf of Tonkin episode which was a pretext to the US's involvement in the Vietnam War is worrysome.
In my opinion, provoking a giant like China which has an ever increasing modern military might with nuclear arms is an act of insanity! Furthermore, the US is relying heavily on China to help her coming out of the economic pit as China holds the largest amount of US treasury ( in trillions!) in the world. One can only wonder what will happen to the US if China decides enough is enough of this bullying, and offload the US treasury to the market. It will spell the end of the US and send it back to the Stone Age!
Do not tell me Mr Obama does not know of this danger or is he doing it quitely to take away the domestic attention from the ailing economy? It seems that this tactic is permanent feature in the US Foreign Policy after the WWll. Almost every US President got the US involved in wars in other countries around the world, all in the name of democracy and lately fighting terrorism made famous by "are you with me or against me Bush", and Mr Obama a.k.a "the Messiah" is no exception. The change that he promised to bring to the previous bad policies is just a smoke screen to get him into Office. Now he is doing exactly like what Bush did. To his admirers in Malaysia, so sorry, he is the same as the rest before him, just in the different release version, US President v.44.
The policy of warmongering remain intact as we can see on the promised buildup of troops of 17000 more in Afghanistan by him, and constant harassing of Iran, Syria and North Korea(Axis of Evil). The US keeps implementing policies that in the long run are detrimental to its own domestic interests and the world peace. Mr Obama should have the courage to free his country from unproductive policies and influence of pressure groups within his administration and Israel lobby groups, and bring about real change that he promised his fellow citizens. He should have a stronger control over the 53rd state - Israel, a liability to the US own interests, which is running riot in the MiddleEast and threatening to attack Iran unilaterally if the US fails to persuade Iran to abandon the alleged nuclear programme.
I dread to think what will happen if somebody did a stupid mistake and caused the US to enter into a war with Iran, and Iran retaliates by striking Israel, then the Hizbollah and Hamas decided to join the fight to help Iran, on the other side the US provoked a giant like China into a military confrontation, and North Korea decides to join and help China face the US which will force South Korea and Japan to help the US, and all this happens while the war in Iraq and Afghanistan are ongoing, while Pakistan is facing problem internally with various groups which makes India contemplating a pre-emptive strike to protect herself. What will Britain and Nato countries do to help the US in the fight against Iran? Is Russia going to sit idle? What does this scenario look like? A World War Three? Far fetched?
Believe me it could happen, just observe how every episode is slowly unfolding itself all over the world as though they are being orchestrated by somebody. History will repeat itself if we the human kind are not careful. In the 1930s there was a Great Depression, then there was a great war. Now we are having an economic calamity worst than the Great Depression while conflicts between nations are slowly boiling all over the world. My only hope is that they do not explode into a full scale conflict which drag the whole world into it because that will be too gloomy of a world to face for me, my children and the children of the world.
Lets hope sanity will prevail and we all come out of this in one piece.
Amen.
Monday, February 2, 2009
A DAY IN THE YEAR OF THE OX
Last nite i couldnt sleep at all, for a while i thought i lived in Gaza. The sound of explosion appeared to pop up all over the neighborhood, the air became hazy and the smell of gun powder lingered in the air until early morning. Was Malaysia under attacked? No! It was one of those days when the chinese went all out celebrating their Chinese New Year by shooting fireworks, burning fire crackers and releasing hot homemade hot air balloons all over the place. I thought it was illegal to sell or shoot those fireworks, there laws created for those things but then again enforcement is another matter. I do not think the Police can do anything as the fireworks are all over the place.
I think it is alright to let people celebrate as long it does not get carried away to the extent properties are damaged. During this depressive financial turmoil, it is good to let people have a good time and forget their problems for a while. At least i enjoyed a good colourful display of fireworks from my balcony in peace, not like those unfortunate Palestinians in Gaza where the next fireworks they see will result in their houses demolished or their relatives killed.
I pray to God to save this people from further cruelty and let them live in peace.
We Malaysians are very lucky people as we dont have to go through life threatening situations like in some countries. I guess we take it for granted that it will never happen to us that we start to make problems for ourselves.
Take for instance the political scene in Malaysia we are experiencing now. Accusations of corruptions and playing up the racial sentiments by certain groups never fail to appear in the local papers. Never, ever it has sunk to such a low level that ruling party and opposition will do anything to outdo each other in order to be in power. It makes me sick to see that people's interests are no longer the ultimate drive to hold the office. Defections to the opposite parties becoming the trend of the day? For what if it not for personal interest, position or power? If one believes so much in the philosophy of another political party, why didnt he/she join it before the 2008 election? Why did he defect after he was elected under a different banner? When this happens, who is going to pick up the tab for the by-election? Why waste the public money so they can further their political ambition? Dont we have enough problems during this financial crisis?
It seems that politics plays a strong role in the Malaysian lives. It even has crept into the sports fraternities courtesy of those politicians and royalty who feel they can contribute something to the sports. The truth is they do more damage to the sports than improving them.
The recent debacle of the national football team's lost by a five goal margin has stirred up a big huha which eventually resulted in the sacking of the coach, and the team manager who is an ex-international who has contributed to the Malaysian team's success in the past more than the FAM big guns put together! The joke is the real team manager who is a well known politician is left off the hook which baffles me big time!
It seems that FAM should be accorded a gold medal for their ability to hire and sack the most number of coaches in the last twenty over years, and yet managed to shield themselves of any blame for the state of football in Malaysia. This can only happen in Malaysia ( Malaysia Boleh!!!),whereas in other parts of the world even being second at the end of the season will bring sacking to the coach and management. We need to purge this body of all unqualified people who never kick a ball from sitting in positions which ultimately determine the future of Malaysian football. The question is will they resign? Do not hold your breath!
As we usher in the Year of The Ox, we need to remind our selves to work hard and preservere to succeed during this hard times. We need to focus and rid ourselves of the unproductive attitudes, improve our morales and ethics (especially politicians) and be accountable for our actions. Tolerance and respect has to be restored so we do not be consumed by the in-fighting that can eat up our nation.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
SO WHAT IS NEW?
Happy New Year to everyone, eight days late but what is the rush? I never bothered to go out and celebrate the end of 2008 and ushering the new year of the Ox. I just let the clock ticked past twelve midnight and missed the fireworks, what the hell, it happens every year anyway. For me, 2008 is the year to forget that i ever lived through it. So many bad things happened to me of epic proportion that i welcome some mental lapse if possible, amnesia they call it.
So what is new for this year 2009? Despite my wish for a better world, the year started off on a bad note. The Middle East is burning again courtesy of the Israel regime to oust Hamas. This episode is like a re-run of old movies which never ends. Until and unless somebody who are influential like the US, Britain, France and Russia are serious and honest in looking for permanent solutions start acting to solve the issue, we are not going to see much changes on CNN or BBC coverages and headlines for the rest of 2009 and even next couple of years. OIC cannot do much more than issuing rhetoric statements, and the world just can go to the streets at most to protest the invasion by Israel.
Meanwhile the outgoing Mr Bush supported Israel's action saying they are justified in retaliation to Hamas rockets. For Mr Bush Israel citizens have the right to live in peace at all cost but not the Palestinians. They have suffered for years from Israeli war machine and the blockade that has denied them every basic human needs from free movement to supply of food and medicine, and also economic activities. What are the Arab countries doing to support the Palestinians other than condemning the invasion? Nothing! Why? Because their governments also rely on the US for support. The irony is that the US wants to be the middle man to solve the issue despite their bias towards Israel! Go figure!
Economy wise, 2009 does not look too promising also for the whole world. The US is still trying to figure out how to get out of the mess it creates due to greed. Two over million people in the US are out of jobs and more are to be retrenched. Mr Obama is starting to get a headache even before assuming the Office, courtesy of Mr Bush bad handling of the economy and over spending on his war machine in Iraq and Afghanistan. The rest of the world including Malaysia starts to feel the fever when the US falls sick. We can stop dreaming about salary increase, hefty bonus and other allowance as companies start to go into contigency plans just to survive the next few years.
Personally, looks like there will be less holiday or fishing trips for me, less movie outing, less Kentucky Fried Chicken dinners, postponement of a new car purchase, less shopping (although my wife may not agree!), more home cook meals and sitting on the sofa staring at the idiot box!
People say history will always repeat itself and those who do not learn from history are the worst fools you can find on this planet. I have been through 1987, 1997 recessions, so what is new?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
