chronicles of the daily news

wow singapore headlines nowadays are full of recession news. they are the same news actually, only arranged in different words. the message are the same :- 'the economy screwed up, so save your ass suckerzzz...'

somehow singapore is the worst hit. i never heard any recession news from places like laos and cambodia. singapore news said that the GDP is expected to shrink by 2 to 5 percent this year. to tell you the truth, i don't even know what it actually means when people say negative growth. i mean, let's say we have negative growth over many years, do we eventually go back to stone age?

it's still not too bad for the singaporeans because the government will give them money through GST credits as announced in yesterday's 2009 budget, but what about us permanent residents? it's not like we pay less taxes and not contributing to the country at all. ok we don't don the army suits and walk around proudly as if we just came back from iraq but surely we play a large part in the country's growth too?

i heard some of the companies already opted a 4-days a week approach by making monday an off day so that they can cut the salary. drastic huh? but then, it's better they make an off day rather than cut your salary 20% and still expect you to work like normal. at least you can do something on that off day to make up for the money that you lost, you know, like working part-time, beg for money or something.

things are somehow grim in our company too. we can't help it. because when the first thing you read during the long morning breakfast in company cafeteria are grim news, it can hardly liven up your day, can't it? so most of us are just busy asking each other what to do during our 11-days long chinese new year break starting next week.

you see, we are forced to take days off in the next 2 weeks. they called it 'company slowdown'. in fact, many companies in our industry do the same thing. sounds bad? well, at least our shares don't dropped 69% in one day.

so i'll be flying off to kl on monday to spend a few days with my family. what better way to face this downturn than being in the company of our loved ones? when i called my father to tell him that i'm flying back home, he promptly asked, is everything ok? you're not affected by lay-offs or something in your company? you see, family is very understanding, although secretly i suspect that was because me coming back without any reason is just out of my norm.

and i'll be flying off to phuket after that for the remainder of the break. yaay!! ok i know it's recession and we are supposed to tightened our belt and eat boiled ubi kayu but what am i supposed to do during this unusual off days? stay rot at home? plus, everybody knows things are much cheaper in thailand due to the currency difference. i read in yahoo news that singapore is considering to lower its currency value to stay competitive in the market, so all the more i better spend my singapore dollar now when it's still worth a lot.

not only phuket, i actually have plans for april's good friday long weekend, and also may's labour day week. if it's inside my new year resolution to always plan ahead, i am so there and ready for 2010 resolutions. except it's not. i don't even remember what my resolutions for this year were. the only thing i know, things are not actually superb for my first few weeks in 2009.

but hey, everybody's not doing so great too. have you read the news?



...ed