By CHEN HUIJIAO

"Sorry. I hope you can soon get your next job."

"Sorry. We don't have an opening right now."

"Sorry. You still have unpaid balance with your credit card account. We can't offer you a loan."

The young man was fuming! Moving over. He stood in darkness in front of a notice board full of "hiring" ads. Before he could take a closer look at the postings, someone gave him a pat on the back. A pair of sincere yet helpless eyes were staring into his: "Sorry. The factory is winding up."

"Sorry. We'd better split up for a while," said the young lass, as she pushed the ring off her finger. Devastated, the man was speechless. A string of sorrys followed...

Feeling desperate and despondent, he rushed home. "Sorry, mum. I've got to move back."

Hearing this, the mother, who was on her workout cycle in front of the TV set, paused and said sobbingly, "Sorry, son. I voted for Chen Shui-bian last time."

This 40-second election ad ended with a quip: "Sorry, Ah-Bian, not for you again this time!"

Under the leadership of Ma Ying-jeou, the Taiwanese public were overwhelmed with fury as they recalled this sarcastic ad.

With the passing of time, the island was rudely greeted with low interest rates, low salaries and ultra low confidence levels.

They wanted to ask, "Is anyone going to say sorry to us this time?"

This happens not only in Taiwan, as the entire globe is downsizing. With the economy shrinking, consumer sentiment suppressed and the wind of layoff gusting mercilessly for months, some 25 million people will eventually be inflicted upon worldwide.

Several months ago, a Taiwanese friend backpacking in Britain saw with her own eyes a group of ex-Lehman employees "in neat office outfits with dark suits over their shoulders" exiting the Lehman Building at Canary Wharf by the Thames, with unsealed boxes in their hands.

A week later, Lehman Brothers became history.

A friend working in neighbouring Singapore was lucky enough to have been served only with a notice of compulsory 16-day no-pay leave, for many other well qualified and well paid executives are left jobless.

What these people can do right now is to think hard "how to compose an impressive resume?."

Back in Malaysia, the joy of a family member of mine who has just landed on a rewarding job with a renowned multinational tech company, has been turned into instant fear as his company's layoff plan next year is unveiled.

The number of people to be jolted out of the country's job market may be catapulted to 100,000 from the previously projected 4,749.

Such an alarming figure, not unlike the losses suffered by MNCs or the hefty sums dumped in by governments to bail out huge corporations on the brink of bankruptcy, is quietly strangling our taxpayers.

Sorry, I've written stuff that would chill the hearts of the working class and gravely dismay the businesses on this supposedly cheerful Christmas Day, ...for the worst has yet to come.

While the economists may have worked their brains hard, they have the slightest clue how the worst-case scenario could look like. And sure enough, 2009 is not going to be an easy year for anyone.

Those who are lucky to be still able to cling on to their jobs may have to work double as hard; and those unfortunate to get the axe may have to shoulder even heavier financial burden as they crack their heads to foot their family bills.

As for that globe-trotting friend of mine, she ended her 7-month-long savings-depleting backpack journey across the Americas, Europe and Asia on the eve of Christmas, and was greeted back home in Taiwan by her dearly missed family, as well as cruel realities of a depressed economy.

While the greater environment may be hostile, after recovering from the melancholy, perhaps we should exploit this empty slot in our lifetime to better equip and ready ourselves.

Still that same old saying: opportunities are reserved only for the prepared.