Thursday, October 9, 2008

Economy, Political & Climate Crisis- What do we do?

As we know that the global economies are going down the hill. News from all kinds of channel, CNN, Herald, Economist and many others were reporting it every single day. All kinds of fear, uncertainty and further unknown information will affect us soon. 

The U.S government was worried that the USD700 Billion may only be temporarily measures. A greater disastrous event maybe waiting to, next come 1st quarter of 2009. Fed Chairman Bernanke & Treasury Secretary Paulson were in the midst to bail out as many financial institutions after the AIG rescued. Following-up on that, the Fed Chairman may continue to cut rates from 1.5 until 0.5 before coming Christmas to stabilize the situation. 

In addition, Bush is running out of time to salvage the big mess. On the other hand, all eyes on upcoming November Presidential Election that put both McCain and Obama in tremendous pressure to gain back confidence among Americans. Various debates have been scheduled in coming weeks for both candidates to address the country the most challenging time. At this moment, it is being tipped as Senator Obama will have to inherit the mess from President Bush once he stepped down from the Oval office. 

Slashing more interest rate follow by various negative sentiments, brought down various country stock markets in UK, Germany, France, Italy, Holland, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore as well as Australia. The impact is so great that 1 AUD today equivalent RM2.34 compared 2~3 weeks ago (1AUD=2.84). The UK Pound Sterling fall until RM5.92 at 1 Pound. New Zealand already announced they are in recession. In addition, announcement from Singapore which they will report lesser forecast growth in 2009 at moderate 3%. 

The political crisis in Pakistan & Georgia continued to drive further uncertainty for the people that from the low and middle class income. The world 2nd largest economy, Japan also face the dilemma after resignation of their leaders Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda. The next Premier of Japan will face tougher hurdle as well. 

China is currently facing the largest milk powder scandal ever in the history causing more than 40,000 children hospitalized due to excessive contained of melamine that resulted in many babies died from kidney failure. The Leaders in Beijing already ordered the company to be close for further investigations. Legal actions have been taken on the CEO of the company that claimed to sell more than 3/4 of milk powder consumers in China. Districts and Provinces Chief Health Officer are being terminated simultaneously. More products from China, especially food are being investigated thoroughly from time to time. 

Thailand is facing turmoil of Leadership where a military coup has been declared after several died due to bom-attack in Bangkok. Many protested in the street to ask the Prime Minister, Somchai to step down before another violence incident occurred. 

Back home in Malaysia, Prime Minister Abdullah, decided and announced to hand-over his Presidency of UMNO and Premier to his successor and deputy Najib by coming March 2009. It is expected we will have a little direction on what will the country heading. Due to the global economy crisis, Malaysia still not able to escape much as high oil price, commodities, interest rate is causing further hardship for low and middle class income. The inflation rate is all time high at 8% and probably will further increase until 10%. The only question would be how Najib will do weather the current situation after taking over a Finance Minister portfolio. 

A global weather climate is getting more unpredictable as the sea water keep rising every single day from the Antarctica. We have received many weather reports that show more iceberg is going to melt this year compare to last year. Hurricane and storm will not only happen on Mexico Gulf but also Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China is getting very frequent. Temperature in summer increases rapidly and causing many dry seasons than expected. It happened in Australia where their government imposed conserving more water rule. 

It is all this challenging items that we are facing now and few years later will stay. The impact causing further hardship in our life, work and relationship. Things will change from time to time, and it won't stay still, maybe several big companies earning and growth. More importantly we need to continue develop our self both mind-set, tool-set and skill-set. 

So vital that if we keep doing what we are doing things now will not work as we expected. Being agile and flexible are the keys to stay competitive for ourselves. Acquiring new skills, knowledge and experiences are some of the areas we could do in order to stay marketable to weather current challenging time. Coaching, I consider one of the methods could help us to restore, resolve, clearing doubt, actualize and unleash our new talent and potential. As a result, much it could help us to stay on top of everything without fear or anxiety. 

Well, what are you waiting for? get coached or learn to be a coach, you will never know it would turn out a new and remarkable journey for each of us.