A Brighter 2011!

Yay, I say.

An AP report in Washington says that the economy will gorw faster than envisioned threee months ago.

According to the latest quarterly AP Economy Survey, there is growing optimism among leading economists.

Still, unemployment will stay chronically high — nearly 9 percent by year's end.

Also a majority of economists say it will be 2016 or later before unemployment drops to a historically normal rate of around 5 percent.

Economists have become more confident 19 months after the worst recession since the Great Depression ended. Lower Social Security taxes and higher stock prices will embolden Americans to spend more and help power the economy, they say.

Well, as far as I'm conerned, that's good news.

NURIN ALERT! NURIN ALERT!

There is no denying that the story of Nurin Jazlin can never be forgotten.
The 8 yr-old went missing near her home in Wangsa Maju, KL< in August, 2007 and her dead brutalized body was found stuffed in a sports bag miles away in Petaling Jaya in September, almost a month later.

Today, some 3 years later, the Malaysian government is going to put into place a child abduction alert, modelled on AMBER (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alert that's being used in the US.

It's going to be called NUR (Nationwide Urgent Response) Alert. But, wait. The original name is NURIN (Nationwide Urgent Response Information Network) Alert. intiated and advocated by a group of bloggers soon after Nurin's body was found.

I sense the exasperation in Nuraina's blog. She pushed for it in her blog. I remember very well. Farina, a reader of Jalan Sudin, who also is a blogger (PrincessJournal) reminded Nuraina of AMBER Alert in the US. Immediately, Nuraina blogged about it and if I remember correctly, Rocky's Bru suggested that it should be called NURIN Alert, after Nurin and to stand for Nationwide Urgent Response Information Network.

The initiative started in the blogospher and gained huge support.

Nope. The government never thought about having this alert system.

Nurin's killer is still out there somewhere. The beast has not been caught.

We all wept for little Nurin. As Nuraina said -- we remember Nurin. She did not die in vain.

Yes. There were other kids too. We weep for them.

But we remember Nurin because she came back, dead. We all failed her.

So, please please...let's do it for our kids. Let's call it NURIN Alert.