Hopes are high in the Kingdom of the Sands

Last week I had the privilege to attend Brad Bourland’s lecture on the current world economic downturn. This is the second time I attended Brad Bourland’s lecture. The first one was the ‘WTO FORUM’ almost five years ago while he was still with SAMBA. He is now connected with JADWA Investments in Riyadh.

Brad said that recession, downturn or slowdown usually last for 9 months. The current crisis is now on its 14th month. He said that the current financial crisis would eventually mellow down on the first quarter of 2010. Recessions Brad says are part of the cycle of capitalism. He was very reassuring of the prospect of Saudi economy as the figures given by SAMA (Saudi Monetary Authority) states that lending in the Kingdom is at the all time high. It’s contrary to the predictions of so called world economic experts. SAMA also injected 300 Billion SAR to the Kingdom’s banking sector recently. The only affected sector he says are the individuals and companies directly involved in the Oil sector.

Back home, DOLE reported that hundreds of Filipinos lose their jobs daily as global economy slows down. Working hours and shifts were reduced in the most affected sectors like electronics. Intel Corporation, US chip maker closed down their chip making plant in Cavite. Prospects for the retrenched workers are depressing since deployment of OFWs last month plunged into all time low.

For us OFWs, this is the time to count our blessings and be thankful for everything we have. This is not the time to whine about how you are not well compensated. We have to be thankful that we still have a job. We have to work well for the sake of ourselves and our families back home who are counting on us.