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Thursday, January 1, 2009

Goodbye 2008 ! (and Good Riddance!)






In all my years there has not been another year like 2008. I began that year with the wish to all that 2008 be Great. Of course, I meant that in every positive way, but instead it turned out to be a great year for everything negative.

Now let’s be clear on one thing. This is not a personal rant. My family and I ended the year in plus territory. We did have our problems along the way, but on balance I can say that for us it was not a bad year overall. However, too many people around us had it tough. Far too many people lost their jobs, their homes, their money, their pensions, their hope, and their lives. I’m talking about complete and utter strangers to me whose pain I feel. The news got so difficult to watch that I simply had to take a holiday from watching it.

There has been one thing after another that made my mouth drop ever lower and my eyes pop even wider. I said that it was as though these are the final days of civilisation. But, here we are in the early days of 2009. Normally we celebrate in hope that things will be better than the last year, but really, do we have any reason to hope and expect that this New Year will be any better. I think that it will probably get worse before it gets better. It’s a question of the bottom. When will it be reached? What major earth-shaking development is just waiting around the corner to shake the world to its core? Everything is suspect and no-one knows anything.

Fundamentally, we have all been reduced to a position whereby our long-term financial plan is a ticket on the lottery. If you win the lottery your problems will then commence in earnest. I have been reading about Bernard Madoff, whom I like to think of as Made-off with the money, and others who stand accused of defrauding people out of very large individual sums of money. The claims to which they were seduced are so outrageous I am shaking my head in wonder as to how they could have been so stupid. We are talking about very intelligent people who amassed large wealth only to give it to shamans. I’m fixated on this as perhaps a sign of the times, a form of desperation.

When looked at as a worldwide event I seriously do wonder whether the world can lose its mind. It appears that way.

Although 2009 will have to bear some of the problems that it has inherited from 2008, it will also be a year of opportunity. The new Obama Administration will be seen in a very positive light for the advancements that it makes, and there is plenty of scope for that. In the areas where things continue to slide it will be understood for a short while that it’s not their fault, but then, people will start to grow impatient. Just fix it! That will be the new order of the day. In many ways I see President Obama in the same way that we saw Will Smith in “Independence Day.” That was not a good position to be in.

So, I end this admittedly dismal blog on as optimistic a note as I can. Take care of your health. If you can maintain good health throughout the coming year you will be doing about as good as you can. You might like to stop smoking and to be cautious about what you take into your bodily system.

I would also like to borrow from the late President John F. Kennedy when he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!”
Copyright © 2009 Eugene Carmichael