State of the economy

Imagine a time when you have two exciting programmes that you want to watch showing at the same time. Wait…let me do this again.

Imagine a time when a storm is pounding outside, rattling windows and blowing off streetlamps and flooding the roads outside the house and you have two exciting programmes on TV in different channels that you want to watch. Would you be more worried about your own safety or would you not give a toss about it and continue debating which channel to watch? Or you concentrate on one, and catch up the other online afterwards. Or you catch up on both later and run to safety for now!? I think the last is the most sensible option, at least for me.

This scenario is very much what we're going through now in the UK. Or at least my interpretation of what's happening here. The looming recession and rising unemployment being the storm; collapse of banking giants, share and house prices and bailouts are one of the channels; the presidential debate in the US as the other. You couldn't ask for more. The collapse of banking giants for example, is like a game of Russian roulette with five bullets now instead of one!

Only thing is, what can we concentrate on now? About our future here?

Honore de Balzac, a great French novelist once said, "Behind every great fortune there is a crime". The difference is that the storm now is not a natural phenomenon but a man-made one and the two programmes are not mere Hollywood stunts or rehearsed reality shows, they are real stuff unfolding before our eyes and will affect us and the entire world! It's like seeing the most dramatic and horrific scene in "Day After Tomorrow" and putting yourself into it. This is massive, scary and random.


Some countries like mine are still playing down the issue by quoting China and the Middle East as a cushion when both countries rely on the US and Europe heavily as their major trading partners; burying its head in sand, choosing to focus on petty political issues and getting overly excited over a musical!

But should we blame them?

I wouldn't. Life must go on. I would still enjoy the changing colour of autumn, jump for joy for winning a ballot in the 2009 London Marathon, scout for cheap flights to some European and US destinations and look for bargains over at the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.

However, I am also more cautious of my spending and the possibility of being unemployed. But can I just put on a sulk or hold on to the balustrade 24-7? No one knows what tomorrow will bring. The band in Titanic didn't stop playing even when they knew the ship was sinking. I also remember in the movie, a lot of prayers were said in the last moments.