Overdue Updates

One blink of any eye & it's end of February now. There's the second annual Akurians trip held in Langkawi last December, Chinese New Year celebrations & the current political circus goin on nationwide (Perak & Selangor to be exact)

Sorry to the Akurians for not posting anything bout the trip. Next post okay?? Let me begin here with HAPPY NEW YEAR, HAPPY PONGGAL, HAPPY THAIPUSAM, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR to everyone there...that wishes alone explain how much time passed since my last post...

Just that too frustrated with current local issues to write a post. As we knew here, economic situation in tis part of the world is not doing well. Being in the freight forwarding line, servicing mostly semiconductor firms, my company was in the frontline of affected parties. Factories are closing down & retrenching workers, causing thousands (but I believe it could run into hundred thousands) of people left jobless. For those barely surviving, drastic cost-cutting measures are being implemented. Paycut, longer shutdown period etc, anythin else under the sun that can be done to minimise the costs. Some companies are just only operating 4 days a week as some existing staffs forced to take unpaid leaves. Don't even mention about OT here. Worst part is nothing much really been done to help the worst-affected industries, at least to help them to sustain. Japan, the strongest economy in Asia has announced it's being in a recession & even Singapore has done it. And this is the funny part, here our beloved PM in-waiting insists the country is unaffected with the current state of world economy & we're not showing any decline and that we have the strong fundamentals to sustain. Wondering what fundamentals he meant & if he actually knew what he's talking about.

Don't even wanna mention the current political circus going on in the federal & state governments where all the players are acting as if the world is their oyster. The in-word now seems to be "stimulus package"...Statements after statement given, first stimulus, second stimulus etc...The question is where is the so-called packages? What is the projected domestic growth after the stimulus given? Which industries will be given priorities? Where is the roadmap of all those packages?? As one citizen Anas Zubedy correctly said it in an open advertorial in Star newspaper on 26th February, it's the people who suffer the most now. Check it out at thestar.com.my. Problem with those politicians is that thought of admitting about a problem equals to admitting their weaknesses. Listen here, everybody knew this recession thingy is like a lifecycle & bound to happen to every country. It's about being realistic & going through the tough times together to ensure there's food on the table for everyone. People will understand & not to the extent of ignoring the pleas of those who voted you into power.

I pray for wisdom to be given to those not able to be rationalise things. I pray for forgiveness for those who preach to others but don't admit of their own shortcomings/mistakes. I pray for strength to be given to those who lost their jobs and still need to feed their families. I pray for perseverance to be given to those having huge debts & problems piling up. I pray for courage to be given to those are still unsure how to remedy the setbacks they're facing now. And most of all, I pray for those on the verge of breaking down to continue to believe in themselves & Him in these trying times.