pix: the back of a tee shirt. taman negara

UNCERTAINTIES

1. At a Hari Raya open house - A senior partner from an established legal firm confirming things are getting very bad. The number of personal / credit card / car / housing loans have increased sharply for the past 6 months.
2. Over dinner in an organic restaurant - A designer to one of the finest Italian brands forecast a bleak '09 due to sharp reduction in spending in the US and Europe which is affecting his business and the manufacturers in Indochina and their export.
3. Over lunch - A corporate figure is relinquishing ALL his investment and decided to do more charity work in is home state. To him (who is sitting on a huge pile of cash), it is not worthwhile to get into new ventures.
4. Over breakfast - A senior executive from a Japanese MNC highlighted that China has stop importing iron ore.
5. Over lunch - A senior executive from an Australian listed company complained the share price has gone back to the price as it was 5 years ago.
6. Over teh tarik - A designer / contractor complained that his client (quite an established corporation) still owe him RM500,000 and he has more than RM30K per month of overhead (and several girl friends to maintain)
7. Over a phone call - A senior executive from a prominent government agency that has billions of investments smsed me - 2009 is going to be BAD!