As I was Passing......

My Sundays always start with a walk to the morning open air market in SS2. So yesterday, I was there too. Nearing the park, my wife and I heard a blaring horn signaling some community activities going on. A PJ Lions run was on and so was a bone density testing. I registered myself for the latter. The wife got a clean bill of health. The machine reader saw the reading ''2.2" and retorted,"Good bones". Then, it was my turn. She looked at the reading and handed me the result slip without a word. As it turned out, I was in the first portion (-2.7) of the red zone of potential osteoporosis victims. The man,selling alternative medicine told me, better take his calcium milk tablets called Moo, 5 per day and lots of exercises if I want to get better bones! Told me it was RM85 per bottle.

A walk through the market and I overhead this conversation. The yau char kueh lady, frying her stuff in a big wok was talking to a Malay lady in a tudung.

"Semua barang naik. Saya paksa buat juga. Sekarang banyak susah mahu hidup. Oleh sebab itu, kerap kali dengar kes curi samun!" The Malay lady nodded in agreement as the country was experiencing a massive almost no-one-is-spared all-round runaway inflation. There is just no brakes to this one,my friend! Everything seems to be up 20% overnight and it is definitely not because of profiteering during this Chinese New Year holidays.

Everyone, except the rich and the politicians in government are quietly suffering. The worse are the pensioners followed by the salaried workers. Students in KL/PJ are also getting the brunt of this inflation. Woe betide us if the government should remove petrol subsidies this year after the possible elections!

Heartsong