I have to record this so that in future I can reflect on how it will all turn out (if we live to see it resolved!)
With the Dubai saga (Dubai government and subsidiary asking for a 6 month moratorium for its US$ 59 b debt), everything seems bleak and dangerous yet again. Yes everything from Circus De Solei which Dubai World bought into to New York thoroughbred racehorses which the Sheik was prepared to pay millions for the top bloodstock.
So I want to recod the lists of "dead ends" which this article (Public debt threatens world economy) in BT describes, and then year/s down we can reflect how it all turn out:
Ok first the main fact is the world's 30 leading industrialised economies will see their indebtedness grow to 100% of GDP in 2010 (doubling the % 20 years ago). What this effectively means is all that is produced has to go to debt reimbursement.
Possible outcomes include:
1) Financial markets worries that government are unable to repay debt hence avoiding government treasuries/bonds which result in countries deprived of souce of financing.
2) Credit ratings of countries are lowered and countries have to raise the cost of borrowing(credit margin), thus enhancing their debt burden.
3) This so called "debt explosion" in an extreme case can cause a new wave of recession.
Possible solutions which are dead ends in themselves include:
1) The problem can be reversed if the countries return to robust economic growth which can then reduce the need of borrowing. However a weak recovery is forecasted by many.
2)The debt problem can also be reined if inflation outpaces rise of interest rates (hmm...not sure how this works). However inflation can curb consumer spending.
3)Yet another possible solution is to raise taxes and cut pubic spending. However such action may snuff out recovery.
See what I mean, all dead ends.
Nevertheless the world will still revolve come what may. As I told my kids, barring a war, come to the worst, we can still grow vegetable and sweet potato in our garden patch, raise a chicken or 2, collect rain water and stock up candles and huddle for love and companion. Lame!!!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Buying time or Giving it away
Last week visited my husband's close friend (in his late forties) who was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. Needless to say the conversation amongst the small group of friends took on a philosophical tone. But I just want to share some take away from the visit. The irony is this person does not smoke, does not drink, exercises regularly and has always been very careful with his diet and has no history of cancer in his family. Haven't we heard this before...sigh..
But 3 things to remember as pointed out by his nutritionist is that our body can not take 1) too much acid 2) too much sugar and 3) can not have insufficient oxygen. This friend reflects on his lifestyle and concludes that stress probably is the chief contributor to his illness. Again not the first time we hear this right. We all know that when we are stressed, acid is produced in the stomach, we hyper ventilate and of course we crave for that sugar rush to make us more effective.
On the way home in the car, I reflected about the conversation which drifted from stress to his current focus which is to buy back time ( as against having lost it carelessly earlier on). This is through a combination of treatment, right diet, exercise, positive mindset and spiritual support.
Suddenly I recalled a situation which is like an antithesis to his. There was this acquaintance whom I knew many years ago. Our paths crossed several times, from the time he interned when I was in company A, to the time I met him when he was auditing company B which I have moved onto and when he appeared again as a soliciting banker when I was in company C. He related to me an incident when he was driving. Suddenly a thought flashed in his mind that all he needed to do was to drive the car into a tree and all his work stress would be over. Fortunately something shook him and when he was himself again he was aghast at that momentarily thought.
When one perceives one has perpectual living to do, one may occasionally think of ending the "sufferings" that comes with it. Only when one is told one's days are numbered one fights to prolong it. When will we ever learn?
But 3 things to remember as pointed out by his nutritionist is that our body can not take 1) too much acid 2) too much sugar and 3) can not have insufficient oxygen. This friend reflects on his lifestyle and concludes that stress probably is the chief contributor to his illness. Again not the first time we hear this right. We all know that when we are stressed, acid is produced in the stomach, we hyper ventilate and of course we crave for that sugar rush to make us more effective.
On the way home in the car, I reflected about the conversation which drifted from stress to his current focus which is to buy back time ( as against having lost it carelessly earlier on). This is through a combination of treatment, right diet, exercise, positive mindset and spiritual support.
Suddenly I recalled a situation which is like an antithesis to his. There was this acquaintance whom I knew many years ago. Our paths crossed several times, from the time he interned when I was in company A, to the time I met him when he was auditing company B which I have moved onto and when he appeared again as a soliciting banker when I was in company C. He related to me an incident when he was driving. Suddenly a thought flashed in his mind that all he needed to do was to drive the car into a tree and all his work stress would be over. Fortunately something shook him and when he was himself again he was aghast at that momentarily thought.
When one perceives one has perpectual living to do, one may occasionally think of ending the "sufferings" that comes with it. Only when one is told one's days are numbered one fights to prolong it. When will we ever learn?
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Is the norm really existent?
Yesterday I planned to spend the time between a lunch and dinner appointment in the NLB reference library reading up on 2 subjects, play therapy for children and Greece mythologies (to enhance my experience when I visit this coming December).
In the end I ended up spending hours reading the views of a psychologist called David Smail after stumbling across his book. He can be considered as one of the anti-psychiatry believers who think that at best psychotherapy only works when the psychotherapist becomes a friend of the patient providing encouragement and support. He feels that society is responsible for much of the distress and neurosis amongst people.I probably need to spend many more days in the library (the book is only for reference and not for loan) to understand fully where he is coming from.
In the first section he talks about the obsesssion in individuals about the norm or perceived norm (The Myth of Normality), often indoctrinated by tv commercials and the media. For example, I can imagine what the media tells us a normal family is like; gorgeous looking couple, smart and pleasant kids (sometimes including healthy and smiling grandparents) enjoying carefree moments together, be it relishing the fragrant rice, relaxing in a beautiful apartment filled with the fragrance of the right air freshener, enjoying the smooth ride of a saloon car or airplane, or for that matter smiling into a fridge filled with the freshest meat and green. Teenagers and youths too are supposed to be active, fun loving, good looking and smart. So you have slim and porcelain skinned girls swinging their sleek shiny hair, mucho men slipping into jeans and shirts, young and good looking people having fun and the time of their life together. What if your life does not seem to be like that? But no one wants to tell others their lives are not like that because every one else's life seems so.
A lot of distress, Smail says arises when people "are afraid they appear as 'abnormal' or even 'crazy'... Many people live their life in a kind of perpectually terrified comparison with a non-existent norm". He says many of us are really "very unlike what we are supposed to be" but "unless you have a lot of courage and strong belief in yourself, you are not likely to conclude that it is the norms themselves which are wrong".
This reminds me of a woman I engaged with whilst interning at the FSC, She told me she would not share her unhappiness with her friends not even with her own sisters. In her case she does not want her siblings to know of her misery living with a man who has violent mood swings because they appear as a wholesome family to outsiders. We are always so ashamed if we fall short of the perceived "norm". Perhaps that explains the power of "normalising" which is one of the things we do when counselling. For example, we tell people who are grieving a loss that it is alright to feel so terribly sad because that is part of the normal grieving process. Believe it or not people can also be distressed because they have perception of what they should NOT be feeling.
Smail posits three laws that if understood fully would save everyone a lot of anxiety:
1)"Absolutely everybody wants to be liked (law 1)
2)Everyone feels different inside (less confident, less able, etc.) from how they infer other people to feel (law 2)
3)Few honest and courageous people who have achieved anything of real value in life do not feel a fraud much of the time (law 3)"
I got to spend many more days reading this thick book with small prints.
(By the way the NLB's Lee Kong Chian Reference Library has so many reference books which are not for loan. So no worries that you don't know what to do when you retire. You may want to buy a HDB resale flat at the Bras Basah Complex just next to the NLB. In addition, the view at the high floors of the library is superb. You can see the explanade, the flyer and the 3 tablets of the IR (like Moses' tablets haha)).
In the end I ended up spending hours reading the views of a psychologist called David Smail after stumbling across his book. He can be considered as one of the anti-psychiatry believers who think that at best psychotherapy only works when the psychotherapist becomes a friend of the patient providing encouragement and support. He feels that society is responsible for much of the distress and neurosis amongst people.I probably need to spend many more days in the library (the book is only for reference and not for loan) to understand fully where he is coming from.
In the first section he talks about the obsesssion in individuals about the norm or perceived norm (The Myth of Normality), often indoctrinated by tv commercials and the media. For example, I can imagine what the media tells us a normal family is like; gorgeous looking couple, smart and pleasant kids (sometimes including healthy and smiling grandparents) enjoying carefree moments together, be it relishing the fragrant rice, relaxing in a beautiful apartment filled with the fragrance of the right air freshener, enjoying the smooth ride of a saloon car or airplane, or for that matter smiling into a fridge filled with the freshest meat and green. Teenagers and youths too are supposed to be active, fun loving, good looking and smart. So you have slim and porcelain skinned girls swinging their sleek shiny hair, mucho men slipping into jeans and shirts, young and good looking people having fun and the time of their life together. What if your life does not seem to be like that? But no one wants to tell others their lives are not like that because every one else's life seems so.
A lot of distress, Smail says arises when people "are afraid they appear as 'abnormal' or even 'crazy'... Many people live their life in a kind of perpectually terrified comparison with a non-existent norm". He says many of us are really "very unlike what we are supposed to be" but "unless you have a lot of courage and strong belief in yourself, you are not likely to conclude that it is the norms themselves which are wrong".
This reminds me of a woman I engaged with whilst interning at the FSC, She told me she would not share her unhappiness with her friends not even with her own sisters. In her case she does not want her siblings to know of her misery living with a man who has violent mood swings because they appear as a wholesome family to outsiders. We are always so ashamed if we fall short of the perceived "norm". Perhaps that explains the power of "normalising" which is one of the things we do when counselling. For example, we tell people who are grieving a loss that it is alright to feel so terribly sad because that is part of the normal grieving process. Believe it or not people can also be distressed because they have perception of what they should NOT be feeling.
Smail posits three laws that if understood fully would save everyone a lot of anxiety:
1)"Absolutely everybody wants to be liked (law 1)
2)Everyone feels different inside (less confident, less able, etc.) from how they infer other people to feel (law 2)
3)Few honest and courageous people who have achieved anything of real value in life do not feel a fraud much of the time (law 3)"
I got to spend many more days reading this thick book with small prints.
(By the way the NLB's Lee Kong Chian Reference Library has so many reference books which are not for loan. So no worries that you don't know what to do when you retire. You may want to buy a HDB resale flat at the Bras Basah Complex just next to the NLB. In addition, the view at the high floors of the library is superb. You can see the explanade, the flyer and the 3 tablets of the IR (like Moses' tablets haha)).
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Yearly Review
So this week marks the end of my contract with the school as a part time counsellor for this year. I was notified that whether my contract will be renewed next year depends on whether MOE allocates a part time counsellor to the school. If they don't, I stand a chance, but even then the school needs to apply for funds from the "School Cluster Supervisor" to pay me. You see that's the difference, part time school counsellors sent by MOE are under MOE's payroll and relieves the school all the hassle of applying for funds and administering the payment etc. Mysteriously enough, MOE recruits part time counsellors only from ex or retired teachers and trained them in 6 months under a crash program. They don't engage part time school counsellors from the work force.
So it seems an appropriate time for me to do my yearly review again. I review the options that may be opened for me next year:
a) part time school counsellor (got to search for schools with the funds)
b) part time social worker (the administrative details in handling financial cases scares me though I enjoy the counselling part of the job)
c) make a come back in the finance line (haha don't laugh, this ever crossed my mind.I have left the corporate world for more than 2 years now and I have forgotten the pain and only remember the money and the perks. But when my dear husband who seldom expresses his frustrations starts to grind his teeth in his sleep and becomes short tempered at times, I know it is stress from work and I tell myself I can do without).
I ask myself in all honesty what do I enjoy most during this period. Images not rationalisation answered my question. The quick footsteps and the happy face of one of my students that greets me, the cute bespectacled boy who kept nudging nearer and nearer to me at story telling and the tree drawn by one of my students which she said was me. I know my haven has to do with children. Even if I can't get a paid job, there are plenty of places where I can volunteer working with children.
"We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today"- Stacia Tauscher
So it seems an appropriate time for me to do my yearly review again. I review the options that may be opened for me next year:
a) part time school counsellor (got to search for schools with the funds)
b) part time social worker (the administrative details in handling financial cases scares me though I enjoy the counselling part of the job)
c) make a come back in the finance line (haha don't laugh, this ever crossed my mind.I have left the corporate world for more than 2 years now and I have forgotten the pain and only remember the money and the perks. But when my dear husband who seldom expresses his frustrations starts to grind his teeth in his sleep and becomes short tempered at times, I know it is stress from work and I tell myself I can do without).
I ask myself in all honesty what do I enjoy most during this period. Images not rationalisation answered my question. The quick footsteps and the happy face of one of my students that greets me, the cute bespectacled boy who kept nudging nearer and nearer to me at story telling and the tree drawn by one of my students which she said was me. I know my haven has to do with children. Even if I can't get a paid job, there are plenty of places where I can volunteer working with children.
"We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today"- Stacia Tauscher
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