What hyperinflation?

I was in the uk recently.

Like malaysia, the newspapers were all talks abt inflation/hyperinflation and the sudden surge in energy prices (read oil)..

PM gordon brown has even outlined a plan to urge saudi and opec to increase production, although the saudis, like all the rest of them lots, blame it on the bloody speculators (sounds familiar?) Brown even went further to suggest that a more sustainable energy source (read nuclear) is now inevitably the imminent solution to the looming problem (what abt the ever increasing industrial and consumer wants?is that not a problem, or the problem ?)

Anyways, I am always amazed by how critical the british ppl are of everything, their govt, their country, and more often than not, of their own royalties.it is one of those peculiarities which describes, their so called, britishness.

In particular over my recent trip, was the increasing criticism thrown at mervyn king the governor of boe and alastair darling the chancellor of the exchequer in their supposed failure in controling inflation ( or hyperinflation- as how the tabloids likes to word it)

But I was left wondering to myself as I stroll down oxford street, because contrary to the so called popular local belief that the average spending power of the average middle class britons have been cut back, the shops were still jam packed with people, and the summer sales arrived on time, like it always do.

I even managed to buy myself, another pair of my favourite airwalk snickers, for a mind boggling price of 1 pound!! (See picture)

So why the hype of hyperinflation?

this is the classic example of british people being over critically british (is that gram correct?) and in my opinion , rightly so.

Britons usually spend only 10 to 15 percent of their income towards food and bills.and now they have to fork out almost 20 percent for their food and bills (cars and transport included).

for them, that is a huge amount since they still have allocation for other 'essentials' such as mortgage (20 percent) entertainment (10 percent) holidays (15percent) and so on and so forth.

We malaysians spend more than 50percent of our income on food and home bills (and sometimes this doesn't include our car installment and petrol).

Mortgage? Most malaysians are renting until almost through their early thirties.

Holiday? What holiday? Cuti cuti malaysia also we cannot afford. Maybe boleh jalan europa or jalan jalan subang jaya (hitz fm advert)

My point is this.

The british people are screaming like mad to their government,to their mps and and to their financial institutions, over an inflation that has affected a mere 5 to 10 percent of their monthly wages.

While we malaysians, are being affected many folds than that by looming inflation, and yet , we ... ? (Sila isi tempat kosong)

Public transport in uk is brilliant, and yet they complain that petrol price is at 1.30 of their currencies unit. And they are not even a bloody net exporter.

The university system is top of the world league, and they still complain that across the atlantic the ivy league are collecting billions in endowments allowing making it more affordable for less privileged to enter them.

Their mp s and cabinet ministers are scrutinised more than britney spears, and yet they still complain abt them..

The result is, their whole system gets better and better, all the time.when u think there is no more room for improvement (or criticism) u ll always be dumbfounded that the british will find one.

So what about us?

Are we content with yes its ok lah..

Sometimes maybe the standard of what is good, is not really good enough.

Sent via BlackBerry from Maxis