Jay,
Your prognosis for what is ahead for the world is pretty dire indeed. You've written late enough HK time morning that I know you didn't get up on the wrong side of the bed!
With 2 20something children on whom I'd invested most of my working life getting them through private education in Switzerland and later the US and the UK, my first thoughts were what lies ahead for them (do you have children, if not, will you have any, if so why..) as the future world seems not to promise them good jobs, exciting, long, healthy lives, relative peace and prosperity for most of the world, freedom to travel, work and live in almost any part of the world, etc.....all this, at least from my 24+ years in Europe, was how I experienced working and living in Europe. And I thought there were only better things to come in the future, what with the Iron Curtain falling in the 90s, China phenomenon and the whole East Bloc opening up, etc.
Intuitively though, and with the 20/20 rearsight vision of the past 2+ years, I would go along with your thoughts, but if this were to last till my entire lifetime, it would be terrible. Do you not have hope that a brand new politician, ideally to be the next President of the US, with entirely new ideas for the world, could bring forth new hope, vitality and new philosophies and approaches to most of the world's problems so that we can have things go more in Maurice' way sometime after 2004....btw, that's what astrologers are predicting :)
Just imagine, the world will be so much more fun, livable, travelable, etc and people from all over so much more easy to get along with. (But Maurice, I still can't see the need for a CDMA2000 phone, not before all the polluted stuff round the world is cleaned up, including the airwaves.
All the best,
Selva |
