CNY : Enter the Dragon.

It's the year of the Dragon and Chinese New Year. Gong Xi Fa Cai. May all our Chines friends have a happy and prospefous New tear.

Wny do the Chinese offer a lot of sumptuous food on the eve of new year snd like to hsve red lanterns, dresses and caligraphic writings to adorn their homes come the New Year. Legend has it that a dragon used to come around on the eve of New Year to eat their harvest and also take away some children. Hence a lot of food was offered on New Year eve so that the dragon or demon would not destroy their farms. Someone also found out that the dragon or demon would not take away children wearing red dresses. Hence they wear red dresses and put up a lot of red decoration when preparing for the NY celebration. Hope our Chinese friends will correct me if I am wrong here. Fire crackers are also lighted up to scare away the same demon.

Over in Malaysia we see the towns and cities going red. ( NO, not going red in the political sense). The red lanterns are hung up everywhere along the streets and around the homes with caligraphic writings wishing everyone health, happiness and prosperity and the effigy of the dragon flying up high in the air. Malacca it seems will display a colossal dragon that will loop up the city, costing a few hundred thousand ringgit. My, my, what a celrbration. Hundreds of thousand will also go up in smoke for a lot of loud bangs. The fire crackers and rockets are now so omnipresent during festive occasions that the police ban on them seems absurd - a mockery of the law.

Two or three days from today the festive cry of " Yammmm Senggg" will be heard from many bars, restaurants and night clubs. All revelers will be red in the face and feel light in the head. The bottle will do the talking. Hopefully it will not do the driving. Every festive occasion the Police will mount an Op Sikap but hundreds will die on the road and thousands will be injured. Millions of summons will be issued. But the tragedy will continue. Maybe some nuts have taken it as part of the celebration with the Police taking the opportunity to expand its workforce to patrol all the roads in Malaysia.

Malaysians will all participate in the celebration or be affected by it. There will be open houses to go to, to eat and drink to ones's heart content. There will be ang paus passing around. Meanwhile food items will take a hike in their prices despite being in the list of controlled items, for the choice is always to buy at a higher price or go wthout them. If the enforcement of controlled prices gets tough the items may just disappear from the shelves. That''s a perennial issue and the government does not seem to have found a solution to it yet. Supply of the items is often limited because all Chinese shops are closed for the holidays. Only the Malay and Indian shops are opem, and their profit making strategy is often different from the Chinese. They often go for short term profits when customers have no choice but to buy from them. Hopefully this attitude will change.

Well, the dragon has already emerged and the mood for CNY celebration has set in. So, a happy and prosperous New Year to all our Chinese friends. Gong Xi Fa Cai.