Pray, There Is Calamity Everywhere...

Pray, for there are calamities everywhere!

Every morning when you read your newspapers there are more gloom and doom.

Singapore is supposed to have several great years ahead including 2008 but we cannot be sheltered being an open and export oriented economy. Not having a hinterland like Hong Kong has in China does not help.

We are in uncharted territory. What we are seeing now is unprecedented. The train has gone off the rails!

American capitalism has failed big time and Singapore is in a technical recession. Confidence has been completely eroded, fear has taken over, markets are irrational and the American consumers have stop spending surely to be followed by the Europeans but then American consumerism is driving the world economy worth some USD8.5 trillion for 300 million people as compared to China's USD1 trillion for 1.3 billion people and India's USD600 billion for 1 billion people. Some people even predicted that America's sole superpower supremacy will end.

Go ahead and admit it, we are afraid, really afraid. The benchmark 1929 Great Depression and the 1973 Oil Crisis were something many of us perhaps do not know enough of to feel it.

1985 was my first experience where scores of workers were retrenched everywhere followed by the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis followed those years of 911, SARS, etc. Yet I have not known any like this where the only silver lining now are that commodity prices are down, fuel prices are somewhat down and the USD has appreciated against the Singapore dollar which makes us more competitive.

I have read of retirees losing their life savings of several hundred thousands leaving them in the lurch. While investors are partly responsible they are merely too trusting of the banks where bank officers were just gleeful to secure their deals from which their performance are based on but when money was made, nobody was there to thank them and when the times were good, you could hear many people talking about how quickly they could make a bundle just in a short time. It makes us feel like fools if we don't jump on the bandwagon.

Give me the old school any day. "All that glitters is not gold" as the adage goes and banks like the old POSB just to safeguard your savings. But everybody always want more in a world that reflects the narcissistic nature of people just like the Greek god Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection. While there is nothing wrong with wanting more as we seek improvements and progress, there is a fine line when we get carried away by the euphoria.

Hopefully Singapore can get out of all these unfazed since we have diversified, re-fashioned and have over time since 1985 gotten ourselves to be in a stronger position to weather the storm than before and therefore, lessen the impact.

As reported in the papers, British-born Buddhist monk Venerable Ajahn Brahm was unfazed. He does not carry money and has no mobile phone, sleeps on the floor and has one meal a day from alms. At his monastery across 97 ha of hills in Western Australia, he has no radio, Internet or TV. He furrows his brows at fellow monks and nuns who wear gold watches, carry cellphones and get ferried around in expensive cars. He asked: "How much money did Jesus have?" He had nothing. And the Buddha had nothing. It lies in things like compassion, forgiveness and simplicity.

Many people are afraid of what might happen if they lose their savings and house and I can say I've never had a house and savings and I can be happy and peaceful. If I can do that with nothing, you don't need to be afraid.

But alas, Singapore is a different place? Can we be like that when we need to pay your ERP, TV licence and Internet access? Search me.

In the meantime, there have been many other conflicts and disasters - war in Iraq, trouble in Afghanistan, spilling into Pakistan. Russia is challenging for dominance again, etc.

Malaysia and Thailand are in political turmoil while Indonesia remains surprisingly stable.

Hurricanes and cyclones hit the Gulf states in the US and Myanmar to devastating effect and massive earthquakes in China and Indonesia killed thousands and the tsunami on Boxing day previously too.

"Are we at the end times?" Some would ask me.

"Wah mana eh chai" (how would I know in Hokkien dialect). More on that another time...

Don't worry, you will not get out of this world alive.

Stay strong and resilient my friends. All things shall come to pass.

My prayers and blessings to you and your family.