It’s that time of the year when time is running out on the year. So it’s time for a year end review. Especially as my Mayan and Aztec friends keep telling me that I might not get a chance next year. So I guess I will spend some time on this one.
For a year supposed to end with our final new year, there was a distinct lack of happiness this year.
What with the rich rich west out with their fiscal begging bowls in the name of financial crisis after crisis. Countries rich all through their not so long history trying to grapple with new found poverty, begging and borrowing from each other as the developing world looks on. “Hey these are the guys who stole our wealth. Now when we want it back, they have squandered it all away” cries the Asians and the Africans. After just getting comfortable with a world without too much communism, capitalism is beginning to look just as bad. So much for America leading the world. Mr Obama gets nightmares of China asking for its money back these days. Europe, with all their shows of unity and common policy, now look like small kids fighting over loose change. The Germans as usual the biggest bully.
Japan was never a happy country, things just got sadder with earthquakes, tsunamis and nuclear disasters. Well it was only a matter of time before all that technology would come back to bite them in the head. I feel for them. All those Sonys and Toyotas are of no use when disaster strikes. Luckily they had shifted all their factories to China a long time back or we might have ended up with Micromax making TVs and cars. South Korea seems to be doing pretty well. Samsung is being said in the same breath as Apple. Hyundai with Toyota. The death of that dictator in the north would have helped.
Talking of deaths, it’s been a pretty bad year for dictators and evil maniacs. Really bad men like Osama and Gaddafi killed by not really that good Western forces. Those who have suffered still suffer. But CNN and BBC tell us the world is a better place. Assange is too broke to tell us any different. Kim of Korea, for all the dastardly acts of his, lived and died at a ripe old age. So unfair it seems. A few good men died too. That good man Steve Jobs died early with a lot more ipods and pads still left in him. A terrible loss. The jury is still out on the Sai Baba, but all those free operations must count for something.
Democratic revolutions abound, powered by disgruntled young men and women, driven by social media. This was the year of the birth of leaderless revolutions, in Egypt, in Tunisia, in Libya, in Wall Street (a country of its own somewhere in the US). No longer do we need strong individuals; all we need is popular web pages. The power of the internet was there to be seen as never before. With Facebook becoming more like Twitter, Google becoming more like Facebook and every literate in the world on at least one of these sites, it seems pretty easy to grab a lot of attention with very little effort. Ask that Madrasan who got drunk.
Comparatively a good year for India. The muddle of corruption has got us an anti corruption movement that seems destined to make a difference, no matter how small. Satyagraha and non violence has not gone out of fashion yet it seems. The next Gandhi named Rahul is here, but how bad can he be. Terrorism did not get any worse than before, the Pakistanis having issues of their own. We won a world cup in the only game we care about. A billion Indians cried out in joy as one Mr Sachin Tendulkar got his hands on the cricket world cup. The media is tainted but shamelessly plods on. Summers were hotter, winters remain colder, the rains poured heavier and everything is costlier. India inc. may not be sprinting ahead but at least has not stopped moving. Other than for the king of good times, the times look pretty okay. Lots of good movies released both in Hollywood and lots of good earners in Bollywood. Every Hollywood movie had the mandatory couple of Indians. Chetan Bhagat wrote the mandatory bad book. A Tamil song became the most happening in North India. And we had our first successful flash mob. Well done that!!
Looking forward to a pretty interesting 2012……
