Smile, There's a New Year Ahead! (Part 1)

Ladies & Gentlemen, welcome to 2011! One year older, one year wiser. In the face of adversity past, present and future, let us put things into perspective, remain positive and count our blessings.

Keep on rocking!

2010 had its share of human and ecological disasters (Haïti, the BP oil disaster, Iceland volcano, and Pakistan, to name just four). It was also a year of further economic meltdown, exemplified by certain representatives of the Euro Zone (namely Greece, Spain and Ireland).

2010 was not all about doom and gloom though. Some people's survival was short of a miracle (Chili miners) and consequently this took the focus off the negative to give hope a huge boost. Hope in the future, hope in better things, hope in life, in life itself.

For most of us, 2010 was just a continuation of previous years, with those personal beliefs yo-yoing up and down the barometer of faith and happiness. On a personal note, 2010 was a mixed affair. In fact, I am one of those tens of thousands of economic casualties directly incumbent to the greed of Yuppie Boy down The City, Wall Street and other market places, playing legoes with our corporate profits and bonuses, spitting his Tiffany dummy out, throwing a wobbly and getting us all laid off in one sneeze.

The Glass Pavilion, Santa Barbara CA: yours for a cool USD28,500,000

Money never sleeps and money makes the world go round. The world of finance is finding novel ways to reconstruct, 'merge & acquire', reap all the cash rewards and incentives that it doesn't deserve. Our meagre consolation is that what goes around comes around. Sooner or later, the Madoffs, the Kerviels, the Leesons, the Enrons of this world (their emissaries and those 'faceless' figureheads) will get caught up in the Karma loop one way or another, yet sadly knocking off further innocent lives in their fall from grace.

If the legal judicial system does not always act in fairness and impartiality, at least we can console ourselves with one equality certainty: as sure as we are born, we sure are mere mortals. And the only wealth we may take with us to the after-world is unmaterialistic: personal knowledge and advancement, and wisdom (or lack thereof...). (to be continued)