I’m declaring this year the Global Year of Hope.
Yes so far it is a year of Hope -- at first in the sense of ``I feel hopeful!'' that Anna Hazare and his anti-corruption tribe would succeed in his battle….. and now with the knowledge that he is probably on his way to winning the war, in the sense of ``I hope this year never ends!''
It’s also a year of Change, especially in Egypt and Libya, where the tired old "dicktaters" of yesteryear finally lost out and the reins of power are now held by a group of fresh, young, idealistic, new-idea outsiders such as 76 year old Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and 59 year old Mahmoud Jabril.
As a result Rakhee Sawant, rejecting``business as usual,'' finally stopped trying to solve her frustrations by getting engaged on television reality shows, and instead started trying to solve them through yoga by offering to wed Baba Ramdev.
To be sure, it is a year that sees plenty of bad news. But in almost every instance, there is offsetting good news:
BAD NEWS: The economy remains critically weak, with rising unemployment, a severely depressed real-estate market, more and more farmer suicides, the total collapse of Indian Test Cricket and the steep increases in food prices.
GOOD NEWS: More people are buying Blackberries than i Phones.
BAD NEWS: The downward spiral of the Sensex continues, resulting in severe depression amongst hundreds of experienced stockbrokers and an apparently permanent deterioration in the quality of their sex lives since they switched to IDEA 3g cellular services.
GOOD NEWS: A lot more people are tweeting.
BAD NEWS: Maureen Chao the American Vice-Consul views Tamilians as dirty and dark.
GOOD NEWS: Commercials advertising fairness creams and underarm deodorants are flooding the television screen.
BAD NEWS: Ominous problems loom abroad as -- among other difficulties -- the move to repatriate black money stashed in Swiss banks went sour, and there doesn’t seem any hope for 1500 Indian students who were admitted to the fake Tri-Valley University, in Pleasanton, California.
GOOD NEWS: They finally brought Israeli drug dealer Yaniv Benain, alias Atala back to Goa and charged him with cheating politicos and cops out of their drug commissions….and Ajmal Kasab is still alive and eating biryani dinners.
In short, it is a year that we will be happy to reminisce about. But before we do, let's swallow our anti-corruption medication and ask ourselves this question.”Should A.R.Rehman compose the Anna Hazare-Ram Lila Maidan-Victory Anthem, or should we call in Lady Gaga?"
