In 2016

2016 will be leaving us very soon. Many things happen in 2016. On a personal level, 2016 is the year I lost my dad. It was a little unexpected for me and my siblings. We were greatly expecting he would pull through the pneumonia attack. But dad lost the battle after about a week in hospital. Before that, in the middle of 2016, my nephew Along fell sick with some ailment. He lost so much weight that we were really worried about him. Luckily he is very much better now. He beat the infection quite fast and we were very very thankful about that. On another happy note, my niece Syikin got married this year. My niece Diana has a son and her brother Dasila has a second child a few months ago. All together I have 13 grandchildren. I am an Atah Nyah thirteen times over now.

My nephew Along. The canine is Lela,
who was rescued from an old lady who 
couldn't afford to keep her. Lela is one of
the four guard dogs at the chicken farm. She is  
about a year old, very adorable and very 
much loved by the family.

Kin's wedding souvenir

As citizens of this beautiful piece of land jutting out into the Malacca Straits and the South China Sea, we witness a lot of things happening in 2016. From things which are good and amazing, to things which are unbelievable, absurd, bizarre, and downright to things which are disgraceful, humiliating and causing extreme embarrassment.

A lot of people are losing their jobs in 2016. A few are people close to me as well. One nephew is unemployed since 2014 and is doing odd jobs here and there to support himself and his wife. I lost quite a number of classmates in my French class. A few were expatriates who lost their jobs in the oil and gas sector and have to return to their home countries. Other classmates simply stopped because of the financial constraint, The course fee is not really that much. However, when all things considered, people just couldn't afford some things, when their regular income is halved because another family member is unemployed or because the only breadwinner in the family is being retrenched.

The ringgit slid past 4.0 to the US dollar on Wednesday, Aug 12, 2016 for the first time in 17 years. As of today, Dec 8, 2016, 1USD equals RM4.43. There were and are still huge concerns over economic growth and political uncertainty stemming from a government financial scandal. The country's economy has been dogged for months by concerns that slumping oil prices will harm growth as an oil-exporting nation. According to one economist "Malaysia's vulnerability is heightened by deteriorating terms of trade, high debt, and a fragile fiscal position highly dependent on oil-related revenue," I do not know much about economy but that quote is definitely worrying to me. The carefree feeling of yesteryears is gone I think. Previously, there was confidence that as long as you were prepared to work hard, there would always be jobs for you in Malaysia and you would be able to survive. Four or five years before I retired, I was quite confident I could find some part-time jobs easily. Nowadays, even if there are openings for me, I do not have the heart to take it, as I know there are more deserving candidates.

Call me a pessimistic  or a cynic, I am welcoming 2017 with a lot of dread and apprehension.