Happy New Year !
Wishing You All The Best in 2012.
Hong Kong & Macau
Berlin, Germany
Chamonix, France
Figueres, Spain
Milano, Italy
Before we welcome the arrival of 2012, I will do a little personal review of the world events of 2011. This past year seems to be packed with big news, more so than 2010 and other years past.
Is it me (who is bored or just me consuming more information because of the electronic gadgets)?
Are more things in the world going out of control? or is it the efficiency of news gathering and dissemination? Probably a bit of both, depending on one’s point of view, access to and appetite for media.
Remember these news and how they grab your attention in 2011?
- Changes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen – people rising up against repressive establishments.
- Japan earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor disaster – can people afford to not have nuclear energy ?
- Osama bin Laden, Muammar Gadaffi, Kim Jong-Il – better future for the people now ?
- Steve Jobs – greatest toy maker of all time !
- Royal wedding – cheers, yawn …
- European financial crisis – mismanaged establishments galore.
- Anti-austerity protests, London riot, and Occupy movement – people rising up against mismanaged establishments.
- News International phone hacking scandel – the people, the paparazzi and the establishment.
- Wikileaks, Anonymous hacks – some people rising up against some establishments.
- US political deadlocks – a mismanaged establishment that cannot be fixed by petty and radical people !
I just came across an article “On Distraction” by Alain de Botton (more about him in the next post) which touches on what I am thinking:
The obsession with current events is relentless. We are made to feel that at any point, somewhere on the globe, something may occur to sweep away old certainties—something that, if we failed to learn about it instantaneously, could leave us wholly unable to comprehend ourselves or our fellows. We are continuously challenged to discover new works of culture—and, in the process, we don’t allow any one of them to assume a weight in our minds …
The need to diet, which we know so well in relation to food, and which runs so contrary to our natural impulses, should be brought to bear on what we now have to relearn in relation to knowledge, people, and ideas. Our minds, no less than our bodies, require periods of fasting.
Let’s see how 2012 turns out, I hope for the better for all of us.
In case you are wondering, the above photos were taken in Hong Kong (crowd), Berlin (graffiti), Lausanne (sculpture) and Barcelona (spiral).