To Tame a Tiger

Hell hath known no fury like a woman scorned.

The rage of Elin is equivalent to USD300 million! That is the price that Tiger Woods will pay to Elin for the imminent divorce settlement. That is equivalent to a cool billion ringgits Malaysia !

News Of The World reported that the former Swedish model also barred Woods from seeing their two kids on Christmas, and forced him to post the children’s presents instead.


Meanwhile, Woods’ commercial and charity interests have taken a hit as he has reportedly distanced himself from his closest aides, refused to discuss business dealings, and even planned to extend his break from golf until 2012.

Elin, who is reportedly on holiday in France, has now cut all ties with him, after sensational revelations linking him to 18 mistresses.[Walla!]

The Florida-based sports legend, 34, has not seen his children — daughter Sam, two, and 10-month-old son Charlie — for almost a month owing to Elin’s concerns about his mental state.She told her friends: “He’s not stable enough at the moment".


Apaprently.she is pressing ahead with the divorce plans, and intends to start a new life near their old family home in Orlando within the next six months.

The scandal involving Woods’ mistress, New York party organiser Rachel Uchitel, has also been fired up again, as she boasted to friends that the golfer wants to set her up with her own nightclub.

This week she has flown to be with friends and family in Palm Beach, Florida, just a few miles away from where Tiger has moored his yacht.

After bragging that the star planned to finance her new project Rachel, 34, told her pals: “I’m his soul-mate and we have a special connection. We will get back together — he promised.”

But Woods’ official business associates are concerned about his continued absence from work. Many top aides in his management, property, and golf design concerns have not heard from their leader in weeks.

One source said Woods is likely to release a statement in the next few days. His managers want him to show public remorse and seek help for his issues.

Oh, what a way to go! So, its humble pie for the tiger-man for now.

Singapore: A More Painful Punch, A More Shaky Recovery

This report from Reuters is very disturbing (4 January 2010).

According to the report,Singapore’s economy shrank a bigger-than-expected 6.8 per cent on a seasonally adjusted and annualised basis in the fourth quarter, raising expectations the central bank may not start tightening policy until later in the year.

Economists have been expecting the central bank to shift towards tighter policy at its next meeting in April by allowing a gradual appreciation of the Singapore dollar, but a shaky recovery from recession could mean policy will be on hold.

“The numbers are still patchy, which is a reminder to policymakers that it is not going to be plain sailing... Monetary policy may still have to be maintained until we see signs of a stronger pickup,” said an economist at CIMB in Singapore.

Analysts in a Reuters poll had predicted gross domestic product to fall 0.8 per cent in the December quarter after rising 14.9 per cent in the previous quarter.

The Singapore dollar, the central bank’s main policy tool, traded at 1.4042/56 per US dollar by 8.49am, slightly weaker compared to levels of 1.4020/50 just before the economic data was released.

GDP in the October-December period grew 3.5 per cent from a year earlier, the second quarterly growth after three quarters of annual contraction. Growth was smaller than expected as manufacturing weakened, the advance data showed.

On a seasonally adjusted and annualised basis, manufacturing shrank 38.4 per cent from the previous quarter, while construction grew 4.3 per cent and service industries expanded 7.2 per cent.

“What is very encouraging in the fourth quarter data is the sharp turnaround in services. This basically bodes well for our outlook for Singapore this year,” said the Treasury Research Division at OCBC in Singapore.

GDP fell 2.1 per cent in 2009, largely in line with economists’ forecasts. The government expects growth for this year of 3 to 5 per cent.

Being resilient and more hands-on, I believe Singapore can weather the tempest better than most economies. Let us see how they will spin magic on this one.

No Plastic Bag Days in Supermarkets

Be prepared for some inconvenience if you forget 'No plastic bag days'.

Selangor’s first ‘No Plastic Bag Day’ on Jan 2 went by so quietly that many consumers were frustrated at being caught unawares.

The Selangor government had on Dec 20 declared its plans to make every Saturday a plastic bag-free day effective Jan 1.

There is definitely a lot of inconvenience in store for you, especially so if you are buying fish and other seafood as well as meat.Make sure that you bring a reusable bag as well as some old plastic bags to hold in the defrosting items or else they may leak on to your reusable bag and caused untold problems on how to get rid of odours and stains.

As you do not carry more than one reusable bag, you cannot carry all the items you have bought. So, get used to carting loose items to your car, if you decide to go shopping on Saturday with only one reusable bag.For those using public transportation,buy fewer items. Some supermarkets are thinking of giving out carton boxes but I think that is not really a great option.You do not want to go up a public transport like a porter, do you?

Most Carrefour stores in the Klang Valley have implemented 'plastic bag-free'days since 2009 and their target is to have no plastic bags in Carrefour Malaysia by 2012.

Customers who insist on plastic bags will have to pay 10 sen per bag.

On the other hand, Giant will only be implementing its “no plastic bag” days from Jan 9.

Plastic bags will still be available at 20 sen on 'No plastic bag days' and reusable bags retail at RM1.99.

Cold Storage will also observe the ‘no plastic bag day’ on Saturdays. Currently, the stores do not give out plastic bags on Thursdays.

Convenience store chain 7-11 will also be starting its ‘no plastic bag’ on 9th January 2010.

So,remember "No Plastic Bag Days' is on Saturdays in Selangor or suffer in silence!

Can We Really Harvest these FTA Effects?

2010 is a milestone year.

At least two FTA have started its implementation. These are the ASEAN-China FTA and the ASEAN-India FTA.

Malaysia has been a major beneficiary of trade liberalisation through the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Asean Free Trade Area (Afta) and bilateral arrangements.

In 2008, Malaysia’s total trade was 160.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

While 2009 was expected to record lower exports, there had been however some improvement in export performance in the last few months.

The other regional FTAs in force are Asean-Korea, Asean-Japan, and Asean-Australia New Zealand.

Malaysia has also concluded bilateral FTAs with Japan, Pakistan and New Zealand. He said many Malaysian exporters are already seeing the benefits of the FTAs with Japan and Pakistan.

The agreement with New Zealand will come into force this year while negotiations are actively underway to conclude bilateral agreements with India, Chile and Australia.

These FTAs not only open up new market opportunities for Malaysian products, but also allow the products to be priced competitively due to preferential duty treatment offered by the trading partners.

Together, the concluded FTAs cover more than 60 per cent of Malaysia’s global trade and provide an eventual duty free market of more than 3.2 billion people.

China and the six earlier members of Asean will accord each other duty free treatment on 90 per cent of the products.

The number of certificates of origin (COO) issued by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) to exporters under the preferential schemes of the FTAs have increased by 13.0 per cent to 222,476 in 2008 from 196,856 in 2007.

“During the first half of 2009, while total exports to FTA partners’ markets have decreased compared with the corresponding period in 2008, there has been an increase in the share of exports utilising the preferential schemes under the FTAs.

From January to June 2009, exports using preferential rates under Afta amounted to RM10.61 billion compared with RM8.21 billion in the corresponding period of 2008.

But let us not pin our hopes too high. Let us see if these agreements really bring in wealth and prosperity to Malaysians.