Year 2011: Occupied with Discontent
December 31, 2011
As 2011 comes to an end, it is time, in retrospect, to reflect upon the tumult that has passed.
- Major natural disasters were again with us. Japan’s tsunami and its thousands of deaths with its incredible images will live in our memory for a long time.
- The rise of the Arab people in the Middle East (Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, etc) offers the glimpse of a better life for millions. Many will soon find out that governments without good economic policies are not much better than dictatorships at creating jobs and opportunities.
- Europeans flirted with disaster as their currency faced the possibility of imminent death. Years of debt-fueled growth and spending finally caught up with profligate nations that are having hard time accepting that the party is over and difficult sacrifices in standard of life lie ahead.
- The Occupy movement however is the face of 2011. Representing discontent on all sorts of issues. Some people invaded City squares to protest budget cuts and inequality, others manifested frustration with an increasingly repressive police state, and some even complained about globalization, capitalism and the market forces that (despite its ups and downs) have given the West the quality of life that it enjoys but that too many have now tragically started to take for granted. 2011 was the year where we discovered we have been living dangerously for quite some time. Of course this has happened before: Will we ever learn?
