Sometime in 2005, during the year of the Chinese horoscope wood rooster, a SMS message sent by an old friend flashed on my cell-phone. It read, "A little bird flying above you. You look up and it poops on your eye. You don't get mad and you don't get angry. Instead, you thank God, it's not a flying cow! Now, that's positive thinking."

Taking a cue from this message, shall we rest and find shelter in this positive mental mode as we bid farewell to the wood rooster before ushering in the fire dog on Jan 29, 2006?

With benefit of hindsight, the rooster year turned out to be a year with nothing joyous to crow about. The rooster entered the 2005 Chinese calendar carrying the aftermath of the tsunami catastrophe which happened on Dec 26, the tail-end of the monkey year 2004.

If every wave is viewed as an opportunity by the optimists, certainly the tsunami brought out the best among Malaysians who rallied to help victims at home and abroad.

As an optimistic pessimist, I would paraphrase American philosopher and poet Santayana George's quotation by describing 2005 as the year whereby "life had not been a spectacle or a feast, but a predicament". There was certainly no daily shark-fin soup and good fortune cookies.

Testing time

The rooster year was a testing time and some said the key to everything was patience. "You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it," said a smart lackey of oriental philosophy. Perhaps, he was wise or just plain smart. Smashing the egg is certainly not wise nor respectful to the rooster.

Stay cool and let the rooster make a quiet exit. Don't count the chickens before they hatch. Beware! the fire dog 2006 might not bring good tidings. Be forewarned! Like the windfall of a plentiful durian harvest season, it is "the" time of the year when self-acclaimed fortune tellers and "feng shui" masters reap their wealth through the business of divination. Like bees to flowers, the affordable seek comfort in divinations.

If shark-fin soup and fortune cookies are among the keys to good health in the rooster year, then it is comforting to be told that sizzling rice soup and Chinese cabbage are equally auspicious to health in the year of the fire dog.

You can rest assured that while the bird flu during the rooster year continues to cause worry, no one has come forward warning us that there will be an epidemic of a dog flu come 2006.

Perhaps, bird flu occurring during the rooster year is just plain coincidence, a stroke of nature's play upon mankind.

The world during the 1994 wood dog year, twelve years ago did not witness the resurgence of the bird flu. In fact, the wood dog year brought peace and war.

Israel signed an accord with Palestine on May 4, and a peace treaty with Jordan on October 17, 1994. The same year saw Russia attack secessionist Republic of Chechnya (Dec 11), US sending forces to the Persian Gulf (Oct 7) and Serbian bombs pounding Sarajevo (Jan 5-6).

Milestones were laid in the field of sciences, in medicine, physics and chemistry. Illustratively, Americans Alfred G Gilman and Martin Rodbell were awarded Nobel prizes for discovery of G-proteins that helped cells respond to outside signals.

The American FDA approved the Flavr Savr tomato, the "first" genetically-engineered food product. There was something for the 1994 wood dog to bark about. For the first time, South Africa held its first interracial national election (April 29) and Nelson Mandela was elected president. In comparison, the wood rooster 2005 year can safely be called, the year of natural disasters.

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane (Hurricane Katrina) season was considered the most active and devastating in 154 years, starting as a tropical storm to a full blown catastrophe. Conservatively, some estimated that more than 89,000 people perished from earthquakes throughout the wood rooster year.

Hungry ghosts

Although geologists and "earthquake" experts are unable to predict specific disasters, there is no doubt the earth will undergo more stresses and "shake-ups". How bad is it going to be in the year of the fire dog - between Jan 29, 2006 to February 2007 - remains to be seen. There is no scientific proof to link the correlations between Chinese horoscope years and earthquakes although the study of ancient Chinese alchemy suggested that five elements - air, water, metal, fire and wood or earth - ruled the universe.

The Chinese calendar year 4704 and the Gregorian calendar year 2006 have a peculiarity of additional dates according to Chinese calculation. There is an intercalary month or a double 7th month, notably specified from July 25, 2006 to Aug 23, 2006 and the start of the second 7th month from Aug 24, 2006 to Sept 21, 2006. The 7th month is also popularly known among the Chinese community as the "Hungry Ghost" month. The 8th month only starts from Sept, 22 2006. Following this, the next dog year shall fall on Feb 16, 2018. The Chinese calendar year shall be 4716.

Every dog has its day

Dog lovers do take heart. Bernard Williams once quipped that "there is no psychiatrists in the world like a puppy licking your face". Or a proverb, Sermo Primus, which says, "Who loves me will love my dog also". But not the Shah Alam City Council (MBSA). From Jan1, 2006, the Council will impose a new regulation actively discouraging animal lovers residing in Shah Alam.

Dog licenses will be issued only to corner link and semi-detached houses and bungalows. Dogs will be banned from intermediate link houses. Among other rulings, MBSA will also require all dog license applicants to have the written consent of neighbours. Some residents, however, are not about to "let sleeping dogs lie" and are taking up the matter. It remains to be seen how "dogmatic" MBSA will turn out to be.

Other Malaysians are also dog-tired of crude dogma and bureaucratic mismanagement of local councils. Many national concerns and issues are dogged by weak political will to reach resolutions.

Growing numbers of drug addicts and HIV/Aids victims, rising healthcare costs and living standards, increasing crime rates and poor public safety continue as dog-eared reminders to the government not to lie doggo.

Let us welcome the year of the 2006 fire dog with the new resolution not to bark up the wrong tree when things don't go smoothly. Every dog has its day, you know.

STANLEY KOH is a Buddhist Monk and works for a local think-tank.