Annus Horriblis Comes To An End, Millenia Horriblis Continues

 

Hi folks. The year 2021 ends tonite. Wish it had ended in January. 2021 has been a terrible year. Indeed an annus horriblis. 

Do click on the link here for a quick video on the flood disaster in the country. This video says that the damage caused to the country could be up to RM20 billion :  https://fb.watch/ad_bPth1VU/

I dont know how they arrived at this number RM20 billion but rest assured that the losses suffered by the country and the economy is indeed in the billions.

Just after the whole world had been ravaged by the Corona Pandemic for the past two years we in Malaysia got hit by the worst floods in about 50 years. (The weather forecast has a warning for heavy rains again soon). 

People who have lost their incomes for the past two years were drawing down on their savings and their assets to pull them through. Now the floods have damaged their assets as well - homes, furniture, cars, motor vehicles, factories, plantations and other assets have been damaged or destroyed. 

Worse than that is the productive capacity of those assets which have been put out of action. And there is not enough revenue stream (thanks to the pandemic) to repair and mobilise those assets again. That chalet operator was already suffering zero to no revenues for the past two years because of the pandemic. The floods have now destroyed his chalets that were located by the river.  So it is going to be a tough year ahead for many people to just get back on their feet.

I dont know how the Malaysian banks are going to get through all this unscathed. Rumour has it that two big banks are going to merge. Bank mergers are indicators of bad times. It means one or both banks (in the rumoured merger) are facing financial difficulties and see merger as a way to keep their heads above water. And because banking in Malaysia is an oligopolistic situation - controlled by the politicians - it means the rats are trying to stay relevant.

The triple whammy that has hit us is of course the clueless government that did not and still does not know how to prepare, respond and manage the country - with or without the pandemic or the floods.  The country has been mortally wounded even before the pandemic or the floods.  It is not just the government that is clueless but the entire class of politicians.  

Significant parts of the country and our society are becoming increasingly paralysed as a result of 50 years of bad policies. They are not going to get out of this rut anytime soon. Things are going to get worse.

Before I forget : parasitism or parasite behaviour is going to increase over the near future. In times of severe crisis and stress, when the ship is sinking, the rats and other parasites are going to be climbing onto any small piece of floating material to save themselves from drowning. And then after that they will start eyeing each other as food to be eaten. So greater calamity awaits the rats and other parasites that infest this land in such great numbers.  They will come knocking on your doors. Be careful and do not let them in. Start banging your pots and pans now to frighten them away. Thats all we need to do - make noise and shoo them away. 

2021 has been a horrible year and we can only hope that 2022 will be better.  The answer to turnaround the country is speed. Whatever you have to do or whatever the government should do - do it super fast. Do it now, today. Not tomorrow. The faster you do something the faster will be the output, the faster will be the spinoff in the economy, the faster will be the multiplier effect and so forth. if you can do it today, do not postpone it until tomorrow. And please DO NOT WAIT FOR THE GOVERNMENT.  You depend on the government you will die.

Millenia Horriblis refers to the Islamic countries. We may have had a bad year in Malaysia but the Islamic countries have had a bad millenium - the past 1000 years have been bad for them. 

2022 saw Afghanistan back in the Stone Age. Pakistan is following close behind. Turkey is not too far away from the Dark Ages either.  The Arab Spring that began in 2011 completed a full decade in 2021. A decade of terrible disaster.  In Somalia today the lifespan for males is 53 years. For their women it is 56 years. 

Only Indonesia and Bangladesh seem to be on a better track but for Indonesia that may come to an end with Jokowi's term in office. Indonesia does not seem have solid good blueprint. They only have term-limited Jokowi. Those hoping to replace him include nut jobs too. Bangladesh has much more promise if they diversify their fast growing economy fast enough. Over 75% of their GDP is based on textiles. 

The Islamic countries have still not learnt to crawl or stand up properly.  Just when you thought that they may be learning to walk their beliefs in myths, mythology and fairy tales pulls them back down again. Recent examples are that "islamic" type bank rejecting a cheque (issued by another licensed bank in Malaysia - if that means anything at all) because (they said) the cheque was 'not halal'!!  

Please tell me how can a cheque be not halal? You cannot eat a bank cheque. (There is no "cheque-goreng mamak", kurang minyak, tambah pedas.) Of course after the bungle became controversial they promptly denied any such thing.  

Then there was that other kerfuffle about the vegetarian food prepared by the Gurdwaras for the flood victims. How does a chappati (made of wheat flour) or rice or dhall-curry (made of kacang dhall) be not halal? Sikh Gurdwara food is always vegetarian. They do not cook and serve meat in the Gurdwaras. 

As I said too many of these Muslims have not yet learnt to walk or to stand up properly. Their belief in myths and fairy tales keeps their delusions alive.  

There is one huge bright spark on the horizon - that is China.   May Allah guide them to greatness because they have already proven to have so much capacity to do good in this world.  There is not enough learning that is being done from China or about the Chinese.

"Seek ye knowledge even unto China".  To avoid confusion, this is an authentic saying by me Syed Akbar Ali.  Go to China and learn knowledge from them. The world will become a better place.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.