Global Recession Could Last Till End-2010 Or Longer- AFP

NEW DELHI: The US professor nicknamed "Dr. Doom" for forecasting the financial crisis has said the global recession will last all of this year and probably next, India's Mail Today reported Saturday.New York University professor Nouriel Roubini said that in the best-case scenario, the recession will continue through 2010 in advanced economies while job losses will persist for an additional year, the paper reported.

He said world governments are falling behind the curve in tackling the crisis with "policymakers moving in the right direction--but (doing) too little too late."Speaking at a New Delhi conference, Roubini warned that the United States, Europe and Japan must "get their act together" to avoid the global economy sinking further.

"People were hoping it would be a V-shaped recession--a sharp fall, followed by an equally quick recovery," he said."But we are in the middle of an ugly U-shaped recession," he said Friday.
Roubini said the bottom of the "U"--the length of time the world economy will continue to contract--would last a minimum of three years starting from December 2007.But he said there was a "one-in-three chance" that recession would turn into an "L"--a prolonged period of stagnation or shrinking output, coupled with falling prices as demand dries up.

As early as 2005, Roubini said US home prices were riding a speculative wave that would soon sink the economy, but was dismissed as a doomsayer.In Delhi, he said the problems of the financial system and financial institutions were getting worse, but that the outlook could be improved by governments taking charge of insolvent banks, cleaning them up and then selling them to private investors.

"People say when the US sneezes, the rest of the world catches cold. In this case, the US is just not sneezing, it has a severe case of chronic pneumonia.""We all sink or swim together," he said, adding there is no way policy action in emerging economic giants India and China can pull the global economy out of the slump. (AFP)

Under a tree, assembly votes for fresh polls- Malaysian Insider

Above photos courtesy from Nizar's facebook

Photo courtesy from Malaysiakini

Speaker Sivakumar in ceremonial attire addressing the assembly members.

IPOH, March 3 — In the shade of a rain tree with the State Secretariat just 200 metres away, Perak Speaker V Sivakumar convened an emergency sitting of the state assembly today which effectively voted to end the de facto Barisan Nasional (BN) government of Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir.

Across town at the same time in the Ipoh High Court, BN lawyers were arguing to stay the proceedings of the state assembly, pending a law suit against Sivakumar for suspending from the assembly Zambry and his six executive council members.

On an eventful day, Perak’s administration has been thrown into chaos with both BN and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) questioning the legitimacy of each other’s actions.

The State Secretary’s directive to close off the building which houses the state assembly had added to the confusion over the administration of the state.

The directive resulted in riot police barring state assemblymen from entering the building.

All the lawmakers that had turned up this morning were from PR parties. BN legislators, not surprisingly, did not show up as they contend the assembly was invalid.

Sivakumar was the only person given permission to access the building, but he chose instead to walk nearby to convene the assembly with the presence of the PR assemblymen.

Dressed in his ceremonial black robes and songkok, the Speaker presided over a sitting, which on the face of it appeared legal as long as he was present.

The sitting proceeded to pass three votes – expressing their confidence in Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin as mentri besar; calling on Nizar to seek a dissolution of the state assembly; and endorsing Sivakumar’s suspension of Zambry and the de facto BN executive council.

Nizar told reporters later that he would seek an audience with the Sultan to ask for consent to dissolve the assembly.

At the Ipoh High Court, Judicial Commissioner Ridwan Ibrahim ruled that five lawyers, including constitutional expert Tommy Thomas, had no locus standi to represent the Perak Speaker in court.

He said the Speaker must be represented by the state legal advisor because he is part of the state government.

Thomas told reporters the team had no choice but to withdraw from the case.

Earlier this morning, a minor scuffle broke out when a group of unidentified men tried to stop Nizar and other PR assemblymen from entering the state assembly compound.

Subsequently, Nizar and the assemblymen were prevented from entering the state assembly by riot police, backed by two trucks with water cannons.

Yesterday, Zambry declared any attempt to hold an emergency sitting of the state assembly a “threat to national security.”

Nizar told reporters later that he would seek an audience with the Sultan to ask for consent to dissolve the assembly.

At the Ipoh High Court, Judicial Commissioner Ridwan Ibrahim ruled that five lawyers, including constitutional expert Tommy Thomas, had no locus standi to represent the Perak Speaker in court.

He said the Speaker must be represented by the state legal advisor because he is part of the state government.

Thomas told reporters the team had no choice but to withdraw from the case.

Earlier this morning, a minor scuffle broke out when a group of unidentified men tried to stop Nizar and other PR assemblymen from entering the state assembly compound.

Subsequently, Nizar and the assemblymen were prevented from entering the state assembly by riot police, backed by two trucks with water cannons.

Yesterday, Zambry declared any attempt to hold an emergency sitting of the state assembly a “threat to national seNizar told reporters later that he would seek an audience with the Sultan to ask for consent to dissolve the assembly.

At the Ipoh High Court, Judicial Commissioner Ridwan Ibrahim ruled that five lawyers, including constitutional expert Tommy Thomas, had no locus standi to represent the Perak Speaker in court.

He said the Speaker must be represented by the state legal advisor because he is part of the state government.

Thomas told reporters the team had no choice but to withdraw from the case.

Earlier this morning, a minor scuffle broke out when a group of unidentified men tried to stop Nizar and other PR assemblymen from entering the state assembly compound.

Subsequently, Nizar and the assemblymen were prevented from entering the state assembly by riot police, backed by two trucks with water cannons.

Yesterday, Zambry declared any attempt to hold an emergency sitting of the state assembly a “threat to national security.”

Dear Malaysian Politicians...

A Malaysian businessman named Anas Zubedy bought a full-page advertisement in The Star on 26-2-2009 to deliver a message to our politicians.

Please stop the power chase, call for a truce and focus on the economy.I do not claim to speak on behalf of all Malaysians, but I have strong convictions that many share my sentiments. Our concern today is not who rules the country or heads the state governments but the looming bad economy.Whether Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat leads, it is meaningless if Malaysians have no job to go to, no money to pay rent and no means to put food on the table.

I am a business owner, like other business owners and managers of corporations I have a responsibility to ensure people under my care and payroll continue to have jobs and a decent income to take home. We work hard and willing to go the extra mile to make sure our nation not only survive this crisis but come out stronger and wiser. We need your help.Let me explain. I am in the business of Training, Development and Consultancy and have 20 people in my team.

Saedah is 42. She keeps the office clean and helps organise the training rooms. She has four children and her husband is unemployed. She was first hired on a part time basis, because she is very hard working and has a great attitude, we offered her a full time job to help provide a stable income for her family. Even then, when her third child started school this year, it was a struggle for her to buy new school uniforms and other necessities. Saedah lives on a ‘kais bulan, makan bulan’ basis, so, if she is jobless, her tap runs dry.

Samsuri is 27 years old. He lives with his sister and her family in a low cost government flat in Sunway. He does our despatch, helps with various clerical works and occasionally acts as a driver. During the first week at zubedy, we learned that he not only did not have money to buy new clothes and shoes for work, he had no money for lunch. Like Saedah, if he has no job, his tap runs dry too.

Alicia in Client Servicing turns 26 this year. She lives with her dad who is 71 years old and retired. Her mom passed away when she was little. Alicia is a hard-working team member, has a gentle caring outlook and fun to be with. (We like to poke fun at her as she blushes easily). Last May her dad went through a major operation, thank God he has recovered well. Alicia needs a job, both for herself and her dad.

Sudesh, 38, is one of our facilitators. When his father passed away last year, he moved back and lives with his mother in Seremban. He shuttles between Kuala Lumpur and Seremban daily, leaving home sometimes as early as 4 in the morning and returning late at night. He is no stranger to hard work and sacrifice, he knows what he needs to do to survive and to care for his mother, but he too needs a job.

Like fellow Malaysians, every one of us in zubedy needs employment, those that live from hand to mouth like Saedah and Samsuri and others like Alicia and Sudesh with family to care for. We Malaysians need the Malaysian economy to be strong. We need you, our leaders, to work hard and to work together to make our economy viable.

So this is my plea.Pakatan Rakyat, please stop your attempts to take over the federal government and persuade BN’s lawmakers to join you. Stop all legal proceedings, no more 916 and let go, just let go. The nation can wait till the next general elections if they want change. By doing so, Malaysians will see your party as caring, unselfish and gracious and give you their support in the next elections.

Barisan Nasional, please stop any attempts to take over PR states and win over PR’s lawmakers. You have proven your point with Perak. The nation can wait for the next general elections if they want your party. Focus all your talent, energy and hard work in steering the country out of an economic downturn. By doing so, Malaysians will see your party as caring, unselfish and smart and give you their support in the next elections.

BN and PR! Call for a truce. Get together and compromise. Someone has to give in. Or has hate consumed your heart till it blinds you? You can do it. You have enough intelligent people between you. I am sure you can find solutions. Take the nation to heart. That is why you are in politics in the first place.Focus on the people.Focus on the economy.

Anas ZubedyManaging DirectorZubedy (M) Sdn Bhd

Chinese New Year Celebration in Abu Dhabi

Hundred of Malaysian queuing up for the food at the Embassy compound

Part of the Malaysian working in Abu Dhabi

Embassy staff welcoming the guests at the stage in front of the entrance

Malaysian Embassy in UAE organised a Chinese New Year lunch gathering at the Embassy compound in Abu Dhabi on 20-2-2009. Hundreds of Malaysian of different races, some working as far as Dubai came over to celebrate the event. The event which include a lucky draw was jointly sponsored by a leading Malaysian consortium ISZL working in Reem Island and a leading UAE developer Tamouh Investment.Malaysian food like teh tarik and mee goreng were served much to the delight of the many Malaysian who must have dearly missed the local Malaysian favourite.

How low can 'they' go?- The Malaysian Insider

Elizabeth Wong- Photo courtesy of Malaysiakini

FEB 16 – It is nothing but despicable and gutter politics to use photographs of a woman, taken when she is at her most vulnerable, to tarnish her and attack the party she represents.
Selangor exco member Elizabeth Wong, single, has the misfortune of associating with a former boyfriend who probably took the photographs that are now being used by her political enemies to bring her down and consequently tar the Pakatan Rakyat as immoral.

How and when the photographs were taken by a person she had trusted and how the images were passed on, more likely sold, to her political enemies remains unknown.
Wong, who had a long-term relationship with a man that had ended recently, has lodged a police report at the Damansara police station after agonising over the matter with friends, consulting party colleagues and sympathetic lawyers who were all aghast at the ugly turn of events.
“This is dirty blackmail,” Wong told her colleagues who argued with newspapers editors over the weekend on the “immorality” of publishing the photographs.

Wong put up a brave face but said she was willing to take “any action necessary” to protect the PKR and the Pakatan Rakyat.
It is believed that the photographs were taken without her consent, most likely by a former boyfriend, while she was sleeping.

“It is blackmail, a gross invasion of my privacy and despicable to say the least,” Wong told The Malaysian Insider on Saturday. “I hope the police get the culprit who did this to me.”
Unidentified people have been sending the photographs to a number of newspapers, which carried the news but did not publish the photographs.

It is hoped that political blogs and news websites also desist from publishing the photographs simply because doing so is a despicable act, a serious violation of a person and an unwarranted assault on Wong.
But in a politically divided nation like ours where the demand for blood is overpowering, it might be too much to ask anyone to desist.

Already Selangor Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Mohd Khir Toyo is demanding the resignation of Wong, fondly called Eli by her friends.
“She is no longer fit to be a member of the government,” he said citing the case of former Health Minister Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek who quit all posts last year after admitting to infidelity that was secretly caught by a hidden camera set up by his political enemies in the MCA.
“This is about morality, whether the pictures were taken with or without consent is another matter, I cannot accept a lawmaker whose morality is questionable,” Khir told the Malaysian Insider today.

The pressure for her to quit would likely increase in the weeks ahead especially after PKR’s Kedah exco-member V. Arumugam resigned last week after being dogged by alleged bigamy.
But Arumugam and Wong are worlds apart not just in their intellectual makeup but also in the alleged “crimes” they have committed.
Wong is clearly a victim of unscrupulous individuals while whatever problems Arumugan had faced were of his own making.

Wong is also something of a radical activist learned in the lores of left wing activism who studied in Sydney University. She jumped into political activism like a duck takes to water and played prominent roles in the reformasi movement, human rights groups and in defending minorities.
She worked with Suaram, Hakam and other rights organisation before winning the Bukit Lanjan state seat on March 8, 2008 with a huge 5,000 vote majority and was promptly made an exco-member in charge of tourism and environment.

Intellectually Wong is probably a Marxist but one who also believes in the Hegelian concept that individuals, by their action, can also change history.
She is one of those unique Jane Fonda-type political activists fighting on many fronts at the same time. She was catapulted from the streets to the highest reaches of the Selangor state government where she had hoped to put her activism to good use by changing the way the government is managed.

While publicly she remains a loyal member of the PR coalition government in Selangor, privately she grumbled that many of the election promises i.e declaring assets, minimum wages and egalitarian principles of governance, were being compromised by political horse-trading.
As an activist, she was given to the “hard living, hard working” lifestyle ,spending most of her time huddled in heated discussions in the warongs like others in the Reformasi movement.
All that changed after Pakatan won big on March 8 and she became part of a ruling government.
“She took to the new job admirably ... she was committed and passionate but her past has caught up with her,” said a colleague.

Lion Dance in Abu Dhabi

The Chinese legendary lion dance have landed in Abu Dhabi,UAE. Thanks to the initiative taken by a leading developer in UAE, the world renowned Lion dance troupe from Malaysia who is the current world champion fly over to give a great world class performance at Abu Dhabi.

Chinese New Year Celebration in Malaysia

With my 3 angels at the St Paul Hill, Malacca

In front of the historical A Famosa in Malacca

2nd day at one of the leading hotel in Malacca with my angels

Dinner gathering with my Condominium residents association members in KL

After a long 6 months stay in Abu Dhabi, fly back Malaysia to celebrate Chinese New Year with family members. Reached KL on the 16th January 2009 and on the next day went back Malacca to visit parents.The next day have a dinner gathering with my Condominium Resident association members.On the eve of CNY went back Malacca again to have the traditional reunion dinner with the parents and relatives.Visited the historical A Famosa and the St Paul Hill in Malacca on the 2nd day of CNY.Managed to catch up with most friends and relatives during the 2 weeks vacation in Malaysia.