As early as September, almost everyone was pointing it out but Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling were having none of it. Ba’h recession! No one was admitting it. Well not until October when they said it’s “likely” to happen. Gees you think?

November the news topics were no longer inflation but a “more worrying” deflation (one newscaster said).

December, I don’t know if there was anything news worthy for me. Job losses were mounting, banks were closing and governments around Europe were forking our billions of EURO into ailing financial establishments. Well, I guess in December the tone of “we should have joined the EURO” was more audible.

Now in January, Gordon Brown’s finally admitted he failed to foresee the economic failure.

I’m not going to castigate Brown. It’s not his fault. It’s a collective problem, nationwide and on a global-level. To be honest about it, I didn’t understand how we can be affected by the US subprime problems. I just learnt that the UK’s number 1 moneymaking machine is the financial services and our number 1 client is the US. It’s not the only cause but that’s the main problem. The secondary problem is at least the US still has production, the UK? Well. even the English football clubs are owned by foreigners.

Our financial statements probably reflects the country’s economic state, both in the red. But that doesn’t mean we should just give up and wait for the axe to fall.

We fight. We think positive and know this will blow over and we’ll be fine.

It’s not the end of the world. I don’t understand why the media and some politicians (for want of airtime?) keeps playing up the drama and insists on beating people down.

A minister said she sees some green shoots of recovery. And they say she’s out of touch or mildy out of her mind when another bad news was reported in the market. Then they proceeded to dig into her personal life, and how she apparently mistreats her underlings.

Then very recently another person made the same ‘mistake’ for saying he sees a “light at the end of the tunnel” and again he’s supposedly out of touch because it was just published we hit the record high in unemployment.

What do these people want? Will it better for the government, or anyone for that matter, to say “that’s it, we’re done for”?

It’s such a defeatist attitude. I was going to write: “I expected better from the English”, but it should be: I expected better from this powerful nation.

Last year, we were supposed to celebrate pogiBoy’s birthday in Disney Euro. We booked a Disney hotel for 4-nights, the Park tickets, some shows and even a guided trip to Paris. All except a travel insurance. I thought we were saving a few pennies by booking it separately. But before we did get one, hubby was diagnosed with appendicitis.

In Pinas, that would result in a surgery straightaway. Here they waited, and waited, and waited. It’s a long convoluted story. The end result of which is hubby lost so much weight (and he didn’t have enough to begin with) and we didn’t go to Disney. Money down the drain.

To make up for it, I bullied hubby into booking a summer holiday. Destination: Cuba.

We stayed a few days in Havana. We did a Hemingway tour and managed to see the Cojimar town where his “The Old Man and the Sea” was formulated. We walked and walked and saw all of Havana’s main features, including Malecon. Around Havana Vieja, I felt like I was back in my HUM I trip to Ilocos. The epi-centre was also like Barcelona’s. Remember what they used to say in our history lessons? Spanish towns are always built around the church? It’s a global truth in the places I’ve visited at least.

The locals are friendly. Para kang nasa Pinas. Our cultures and norms (including their timekeeping) are almost the same. Almost even the poverty. Of course, in our case it’s mostly due to greed and corruption. Over there, I guess it’s due to the pride/ideals of their Leader (whether that’s good or bad is a different topic). (more…