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.