Zooming out of Gloom... hopefully

When 2008 was about to roll in, the numerology department was working overtime... the significance of the total 2+0+0+8 had them in a dizzy... its a great year or so they said... 12 months later... don't we all think 2008 as one of the most dramatic, impact-ful, draining, eye-opening, gut-wrenching times of most living beings' lifetime.. from the economy that was in a tailspin and the violence that wouldn't stop around the world and the melting glaciers and the deficit in most countries' budget and the increase in hunger deaths and the loss of jobs and the rise in crimes and the .... too many bad headlines...

10 years from now - when, hopefully we are out of this crisis - we will recall 2008 as the year that had too many bad headlines, the year that doomed many a savings account, the year where we started saving on fast food, electricity, gas and anything that can be saved... History will equate 2008 with 1931 the most comparable and deadly ogre of a cousin.... the great depression... History will by then have all things we did wrong in 19 titles on newsstands, of what we should learn, what we missed and how to avoid... and someone will make money on it too...

Human race... we are funny... we commit the mistake , we avoid the reactions, we sidestep the repercussions until it hits us in the face, we smart from it because we have no other choice, some try and stand up, like water off a duck's back we march on and commit the next series of blunders...

2008 was not all that bad... in fact 2008 was the ugly bill for all the sins of 2001 to 2007, the sins also called as failed policies, missed warning signs and general lack of concern for the future... 2008 was the ugly product of all that was wrong in the previous years... 2008 was needed, it was important the human race gets hit on the face with reality.... its a splash of cold water...

No one needs a million dollar home, no one needs a 4 bedroom home, no one needs 3 cars, no one needs 2 cellphones... but almost everyone wants them all and thats how we ended up with 2008... if we only keep paying the interest on a loan the primary never disappears, if we only look 2 days ahead in our life, the deadlines in the next week never shows up early, if we remain short sighted with a head bigger than the stomach we all only deserve 2008...

No one knows which one policy will take us out of this rut and deliver us to the next one... we are all as excited as can be... for what did we get from 2008 that we cant let go off ... other than a pile of bills, a rack of empty headache bottles, a few broken glasses that bore the brunt of our anger as the stock indexes went for a swim-dive.... its a fallacy to expect one policy to be the silver bullet a series of policies are necessary ..

As individuals we need to step up and distinguish our needs from our wants... in times like these we don't need what we want... we should want what we need... the more we realize the difference and cater to our needs... the better we are all off...

Can 2009 be as bad as 2008, well who knows... but every individual can command what happens with them, as more individuals get smart... with a concerted effort to keep ourselves better prepared we will sail through it... and we can even live to describe it to the next generation... of how we learnt WANT, NEED, GREED, PURPOSE and PERSPECTIVE from the year 2008.... Happy New Year