This is how Singapore’s leading newspaper, The Straits Times, greeted the recession today — with the breathless gush of a bright young thing after a particularly hectic turn on the dance floor. "Oh, what a week," exclaimed the headline over a world map with little red and blue boxes showing how much each financial capital — New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Mumbai — lost in panic selling. The words reminded me of the song from Flashdance, Oh, What A Feeling.
"Economy slips into technical recession", said a below-the-fold boxed story on Singapore.
Apparently, it forgot to mention in its excitement that Singapore became the first Asian country to slip into recession.
Nor could I see any story about the implications of the central bank’s decision not to let the Singapore dollar grow stronger any longer to fight inflation. Sure, it’s going to hurt our wallets. But don’t sweat the small stuff when something really humongous is happening — like a recession.
I could understand the excitement. As a one-day veteran of the first recent official recession, which started yesterday, let me tell others fretting about a looming global recession: Chill out, baby.
Everything is fine and dandy in Singapore. The food centres and restaurants are doing business as usual. The streets are alive with the sound of traffic. A zillion Singapore television sets will shortly tune into the weekend soccer games.
And if anyone thinks that’s crazy, what do they know? Have they been in a recession lately? So relax, folks. Don’t worry about who will, who won’t… Ugh, let’s not even think about it. For, as the Straits Times editorial sagely says, this too shall pass.
So here’s the song, What A Feeling, from Flashdance. It’s upbeat and just what we need.
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