Have a Bull of a year...
Technorati tags: Festivals, Chinese New Year, Year of the Ox
It's a true reflection of how multicultural Malaysia is when in the span of less than 3 months, we observe 4 different new years - that Walski knows of, at least.
To all Malaysians, wherever you may be...
(image source)
Happy Chinese New Year
Selamat Tahun Baru Cina
Gong Xi Fa Cai
新年快樂
(specific CNY dedications, and more, in the full post)
Special wishes and thoughts, in particular, go out to fellow blogger and friend Paula Khoo, aka Masterwordsmith. The new year this time around must be a very trying one her and her wonderful family. Walski's thoughts go out to you... and hope things progressively get better. (For context, check out KTemoc's post from Saturday)
So, is the year of the Ox going to see our economy strengthen for real? Or is it going to be the case where all we're going to get is more of the same 'ol, same 'ol that "the economy is as robust as ever", while downsizing and contraction of the economy goes on silently?
In other words, are we going to see a bull run, or just a lot of bull?
Walski's been told that these things will become more apparent once the Chinese New Year festivities are over - sometime in the next couple of weeks, after the 15th day of the new year.
Where Walski currently is, it was announced last Friday that the UK is "officially" in recession. Singapore announced that they are in recession some weeks ago.
Some things can't be hidden or swept under the carpet, for appearance sake. Might as well just admit that we're in recession. Or stagnation. Or whatever. Then, the necessary steps can be taken to mitigate the situation from getting worse.
Malaya (what is now Peninsular Malaysia) gained independence in 1957, the year of the Yin Fire Rooster (ref: Wikipedia), while Malaysia, as is (plus Singapore), came into being in 1963, the year of the Yin Water Rabbit. It would be an interesting exercise to see what the year of the Ox holds for entities born during these two periods (not that Walski believes in horoscopes and such).
In any case, Walski is hopeful that Malaysia will persevere this year. If we play our cards right, maybe even flourish...
Gong Xi Fa Cai, Malaysia!
