monday blues just never seem to go away

Only some time back the Government was encouraging or allowing EPF contributors to shift their funds to insurance companies for the latter to manage and then distribute annuities along the lines of pensions upon retirement.

And now, this happens. Thankfully, the scheme had long been disbanded.

Then we have this reported:

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has ordered a temporary freeze on the sale and purchase of land in the Southern Johor Economic Region (SJER).

He said the move would prevent land prices in the region from skyrocketing and tempting local residents to sell their properties for short-term gain.

However, owners who wish to mortgage their land to financial institutions to obtain development capital would be exempted from the freeze order, he said in a special interview with RTM.

Now, they failed to freeze things when Gelang Patah was first being acquired in the early 1990s, resulting in excessive speculation. The latter resulted in compensation payments far exceeding what was deemed to be realistic prior to the announcements and gazette notifications. In the present instance, its all talk yet again.

We had talks of RM15Billion coming into this region, even before anything is in the pocket. Now we're told land transactions are frozen. Surely they are aware that the district of Johor Bahru is huge, and the area covered by the South Johor Economic Region is equally big. Perhaps I need to verify with some friends if an intended acquisition notice under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act 1960 has been gazetted.

To top it all up, we have the all too familiar story of a high achiever in SPM, with 10A1s, being denied scholarships to further his studies by the Federal Government. This time around though, its the good people at UTAR who agrees to sponsor the guy on a year to year basis. This is a guy who has lost his dad and works in school canteen to supplement the family's low income. If the powers that be do not help such people, it boggles the mind the rationale behind their decision making. But then again, weren't these the same Government who decided that 15A1s were better results than 15A1s + 1A2.

As for the newspapers, as the days pass by, one thing becomes very clear yet again. There is a lot of spinning going on to further certain parties' agendas and interests. One who reads only the newspapers it would seem are being deprived of a lot of truths. A lot of questions being asked are valid to me. A lot of dirty linen is being washed in the public sphere. While this is good in the long run, IF the system improves later, it would seem that the business community is very uneasy. I know i am. Things are slow. That sort of explains the number of posts i've made of late.