Chinese New Year Coming...........................

Chinese New Year is around the corner, but I don't really feel the festive mood as before. The streets are quiet, the economic downturn may be the contributing factor, people are more prudent in spending in anticipation of bad economy. Some may worry about getting a pay cut, or retrenchment. Even in the shopping malls, I don't see the big crowd that used to be before Chinese New Year in the past.

I have so far received lesser than before New Year cards. That could be the indication of most of my friends are like me, simply do not have the mood to celebrate new year due to bad economy. Hey, don't ever say that economic downturn has no effect on the common people like us. Just go to the streets and ask the hawkers selling mee or nasi lemak and see what are their response. Business is bad, less customers, less income and livelihood are badly affected. Do you benefit anything from the the stimulus package implemented by the government to counter the probable economic slowdown, or the technical recession? At least a cut on income tax would provide some relief to the wage earners. But is the government going to do that?

I was travelling back from Banting two days ago with my boss after a long and tiring meeting. He told me that he started to work in Kumpulan Guthrie as a planter in the seventies with a monthly salary of RM1000. He said at that time, planter was a highly respected profession, as an agriculture graduate, that was the best job that he could get at that time. He said things were cheap then, cars like Morris Minor or Volkswagen cost around RM 6000 to 7000. I then told him I started to work in the same industry in 1994 with a starting pay of RM1500. For about 20 years, the pay hike for plantation industry is only RM500 or about RM25 annually, what the fuck. I told him I bought a second hand Daihatsu Charade at the price of RM 24,000 which was equivalent to my 16-month pay while he could buy a brand new car with his 6-month pay.

Things are not improving then, I thought. Moving forward, we are not getting any better. Living standard becomes higher and higher, houses, cars and other basic necessities become more and more expensive. Our incomes have shrunk then. I guess it is going to be tougher if we are in recession this year. Whatever it is, Chinese New Year is around the corner, cleaning up your house, buy some new cloths, and hope that thing will get better.

Gong Xi Fa Chai