My friend who works in the treasury division pointed out something very peculiar to me. If you have been paying attention to the currency and market movement around the world, you might just agree with what our second finance minister so proudly proclaimed last week; that our country is not, and will not fall into a recession.
Indeed, our very own stock market has plunged below the 1,000 points barrier. “But it’s only around 3%”, that’s what my friend said. 8% - 12%, that’s the average drop in the stock market across the globe. Dow Jones, what is arguably the heartbeat of all stock market, has plunged from 11,000 points to 8,500 points in 8 days.
What make our very own Bursa Malaysia so strong?
The reason why the stock markets are tumbling is simply because all the “investors” and fund managers just dump their shares into the market to get back their cash. I know of a fer overseas fund managers who just sold their portfolio and went to the pub and drink their sorrows away, during working hours.
So are they not dumping their Malaysian shares? Or… is there no foreign holding in our stock market? Words are going around that all the foreign investors have sold all their Malaysian shares after the 8 March tsunami.
So, if the foreign fund managers are all gone, who is holding our shares?
Our stock market is quite peculiar indeed. You can have 200+ counters falling and yet, the index can rise. That is because, in order to push the index, you just need to make sure a few counters perform well. So who is sustaining the market by keep buying all these index linked counters? Certainly not foreign funds. Ask around, and you’ll know. It might just be your money.
Of course, one can always say the above are all a load of bull and the reason why our Bursa is still strong (index wise) is because our beloved country is actually a damn strong country. Regardless of the extreme diarrhoea currently seen in the price of crude petrol and palm oil, the bread and butter of our country, we are still very rich.
And top that with highly capable leaders, recession will never come to our shores; just like melamine tainted products also never hit our shores. Milk of a particular brand can fail the melamine test in Hong Kong and yet, our papers can just squashed all the “rumours” by saying “xxx tidak mengandungi susu dari China”. Apparently these companies do not use cheap china based milk but expensive milk from Australia. Would you believe it……
Well, maybe our country is actually very strong. Maybe our country product quality control is really top notch. We just can't build roof and roads properly… that’s all. Maybe… just maybe…
With so many things happening around the world, there are actually quite a number of things that I would like to write about. But then again, it’s always good to take some time off to relax and have a good laugh, particularly when the weekend is near, right?
A year ago I wrote about “The other Newton 3 laws of motion”. And during an e-mail chat with some of my colleagues a while ago, I mentioned to them about the second law under “The other Newton 3 laws of motion” which reads:
When a pole is put into a hole
The result is a new soul
Of either a hole of a pole
This actually sparked off amongst us with this second law being twisted and modified in all ways possible. Jane’s (not her real name) reply to the above was:
When a pole speaks about a hole
All intellectual activities are put on hold
It’s a fact that we all know
Men are always boys who will never grow
To which I replied:
Even for boys who didn’t grow
His pole is enough to produce new soul
Don’t believe?
Go try and you’ll know
I have actually forgotten who made the reply to the above but the fun continued with:
Without a hole, a pole cannot produce new soul
And if the pole doesn’t grow
The pole will have hard times finding new holes
I don’t know what has gotten into us that day but the reply just kept coming:
North Pole South Pole
They all need a good hole
But some holes have to pay toll
Before the pole gets the hole
But while others prefer asshole
But all in all, it’s good for the soul
So let’s wait not for the bell to toll
And get on with the common goal
Finally, I made the final reply to the e-mail conversation with:
Sorry but when it comes to asshole
I will have to say no no no
Though hole is indeed our common goal
I prefer to keep shit off my pole
Who says accountants are square?
I have said earlier that all those big investment banks should just be left to die but some tend to disagree. Did you know that the former CEO of Lehmann Brothers, the world’s oldest investment bank, pocketed US$480m before the company filed for bankruptcy? And this includes some US$20m+ in bonus just months before the collapse. Was it done on purpose?
Do a quick google around and you will see that people working in Lehmann Brothers are paid on an average of US$300,000 per annum. Tell me, why should the govt (though not our govt) bail all these people? Should the world save the rich just to keep the economy going?
This is why in the latest banking bail out talk in London, the UK govt has made it clear that “chief executives will not be paid huge bonuses”. Oh yes… looks like Europe has just joined the world financial crisis bandwagon as talks about banking industry bail out sparked in London today.
Are we staring at the worst economic downturn the world has ever seen? Nah… rilek-lah… we are not Singaporeans who are kiasu and kiasi… we are Malaysians… we Malaysia boleh… just look around and you will see people still going ‘yum char’ at Coffee Bean and people hanging around in Pavilion swiping credit cards like nobody’s business.
And while we are at it, what are our leaders doing?
The top guy announced that he will step down in March next year and I wonder whether our current finance minister will be using his brain power to sustain the economy or whether he will concentrate all his might to secure the top post. What say you?
Isn’t our people and country wonderful…
Someone in my colleague’s team resigned and naturally, he, being the manager of the team had to look for a replacement. On a fateful day, a particular candidate who seemed to fit the bill based on her resume came to our office for interview.
She went through the usual protocol of filling the application form and was then sent to a room for the interview. During the interview, my colleague (the manager) was shocked when he looked at one of the information in the application form.
Expected salary = RM14,000!!!!!
My colleague nearly fell of the chair but of course, he tried very well to remain calm. The position in question was “Senior Financial Analyst” and the candidate is currently working as a “Financial Analyst” in her current company. And you know that? Her current salary is… RM11,400.
Current position is Financial Analyst
Current salary is RM11,400
Position applied for is Senior Financial Analyst
Expect salary was RM14,000
My colleague later found our from the candidate that she thought a “senior” position in one of giant foreign multinational organisations in the country, RM14,000 should be reasonable. Bearing in mind that the candidate is currently working for a local multinational, we certainly cannot blame her. What she does not is that the position she applied for, though “senior”, so to speak, does not even offer half of what she was expecting. Heck… it was not even half of what she was getting!
People in my department have always been complaining about being under-paid. This incident shocked us beyond words. If you think working in a big foreign multinational company means you will get a fat pay; well, think again. Those getting the fat pay cheques are those sitting in the headquarters.
Like I mentioned a few days ago, companies are definitely going to squeeze our balls. Recession or no recession, companies are going to use it as their licence to cut cost and squeeze more life out of us modern slaves. And while at it, they expect us to work harder to keep our job. So why not let everything come tumbling down and we start all over again? After all, most of us are at the bottom of the food chain already.
In case you don’t know, the picture on the left is the entrance of a small park in Bukit Bintang called Ain Arabia. Our govt was so kind to the middle-eastern tourists that we have park built just for them. Well, since we claim that tourists from that region now contribute a significant amount of money to the tourism industry, I guess that was just a small hospitality gesture.
We often hear that middle-eastern tourists prefer to come to our beloved country as we share the similar culture, religion and a somewhat less-punishing but yet similar weather. Those are the reasons why they are pouring their oil money into our country, or so they claimed.
When I was in London earlier this year, I visited Harrods; one of the premier shopping places in town. As I entered the building, I was greeted by a multitude of Arabs. No disrespect but it is very easy to recognise them due to their distinct dressing. There were just an ocean of them. I told my friend that I thought they prefer to go to Malaysia.
“Cannot afford to come to London then go Malaysia lor…” that was his reply.
On that weekend in London, I had dinner at this placed called “Wong Kei”, a very famous Chinese restaurant due to a peculiar reason. A story for another day perhaps.
Anyway, sitting next to my table were five “ang mohs” chatting away about purchasing properties. I know it’s rude to ear-drop but their conversation caught my attention as they mentioned the phrase “properties in Malaysia”. True enough, they were talking about how cheap it is to buy properties in Malaysia as they cannot afford properties elsewhere and how the local girls here are “hot”.
After their meal, they picked up their helmet and left. Their helmet… no, they were not policemen… they were… construction workers. No disrespect to construction workers but, that bunch there didn’t look very pleasant.
If we think that the “rich Arabs” are flocking here because they like our culture and weather and the “rich ang mohs” are flocking here because of our Malaysia-truly-Asia slogan, we might just have to think again.
By the way, I heard that Filipino maids here are those who can't make it in Hong Kong and prostitutes here are those who can't make it in Geylang.
Oh well, I guess I am over judgemental. What say you?
I was invited to attend a private function organised by my mom-in-law’s friend yesterday. Since it was a holiday and I have got nothing much to do, why not? It was a private screening of the movie “Mama Mia” and the host booked the entire cinema in one of the mall in town for her friends.
On the way to the cinema, we bumped into some of guests and when I saw them, I turned to Jules and I had the “are-we-going-to-be-the-only-young-punks-in-the-outing?” plastered on my face. I don’t mean to be rude but… they are after all, my MIL’s golf club friends.
When we reached the reception area where finger-food, wine and champagne were served, it was good to see some other faces from my generation. Some are even younger. Not that many but enough to make not feel out of age.
Ya’ know, there were times when colleagues were talking about which babysitter is taking care of their baby and all the baby stuff and I feel out of frequency. Have you ever had that before? Well, if you think that was bad, think again. A guy came and talked to me while I was enjoying the finger-food and he was talking about where his children were… working!!!
After taking our seats in the cinema, the host gave a short speech telling the guests that we can all be crazy since we were among friends and when the songs are played, we were asked to stand on our feet and … shake-a-boom-boom. 
At this stage, I already see some alcohol-high souls running around… a little screaming here and there… I even saw a few ladies, yes… ladies…smuggled wine and champagne into the cinema. If you think only young people do such things, think again! I repeat… they are my MIL’s friends.
The movie started and there were people screaming. And when the song came on… wow… some people just went wild. There were people standing to clap and hands waving and people singing to the tune of the song. It’s really quite hilarious watching the movie-goers, and I mean hilarious in a good way. I repeat, they are my MIL’s friends and their reaction was like how some of us boys go… “OoooOOoooo” when we saw Transformers last year.
When the finale came on after the movie, the climax set in and so many of them got to their feet and start shake-a-boom-boom. After the movie was over, I could see many ladies (not men though) were pretty tipsy due to the smuggled wine. All these people made the saying “age is catching up” redundant.
I wonder if there will be any shake-the-bed-boom-boom tonight. I know… I know, they are my MIL’s friends… but still…
But you know what is the morale of the story?
I found out towards the end that the host has just gone through a major operation and could be still fighting against cancer. I guess this private screening was for her to celebrate life and get to enjoy the best things in life… fun with friends, true friends.
Do you need to wait till something like that before you have some fun and not neglect your friends?
How many of you are working this weekend?
When I talked about how nice Singapore was a few days ago and how I wish we are perhaps 50% like Singapore, some disagreed.
Well, no matter how compliant-based or how Singaporeans are made to just follow law, I am very sure something like this will never happen there. And it is incidents like these which make me worried about the future of our well-being in this country. What's more worrying is that looking at the trend, things like these are just going to get more rampant.
Read it, and you will know.
Indeed, our very own stock market has plunged below the 1,000 points barrier. “But it’s only around 3%”, that’s what my friend said. 8% - 12%, that’s the average drop in the stock market across the globe. Dow Jones, what is arguably the heartbeat of all stock market, has plunged from 11,000 points to 8,500 points in 8 days.
Of course, one can always say the above are all a load of bull and the reason why our Bursa is still strong (index wise) is because our beloved country is actually a damn strong country. Regardless of the extreme diarrhoea currently seen in the price of crude petrol and palm oil, the bread and butter of our country, we are still very rich.
