On to a better year
2011 was a very bad year, the likes of which we should avoid. Will 2012 be better? Well, we had better try and make it that.…
I don't mean to say it was bad that Mubarak was kicked out of Egypt. That was simply good. He was corrupt and bad for all too long. Neither should we regret that Khadaffi got what he deserved (yes, I mean it!) when he was shot in Libya. Also, let us hope that Bashar Assad is eliminated in Syria—the people there have suffered too much already!—and that various other dictators, be they Arab or otherwise, are sent packing. How about, for instance, China?
What I'm trying to say is that 2011 was bad, not because of the revolts, but because the revolts left too many countries worse off than they were before. The suffering and bloodshed in Syria is enormous with no end in sight. Egypt is run by incompetent military men—women need not apply—and will remain destitute and poor for the foreseeable future. Same goes for the poor world in general and some rich countries (take Saudi Arabia), too. Some Saudis are filthy rich, but freedom there is certainly not around the sand that sits on top of all that oil...
The unrest in the Arab world is the result of two important factors.
Factor one: The lack of freedom. Look on the map and try to find a land not ruled by an autocratic, undemocratic and—quite often—murderous regime. Common folks have no say and he who complains gets jail, or worse.
Factor two: The spread of the Internet. Maybe 2011 was really the year of the web: For the first time in human history, news and opinions could NOT be censored. Everybody (or almost everybody) could partake of facts and opinions. An entirely new kind of freedom suddenly blew in from … well, anywhere … and made downtrodden people realize just how downtrodden they were. All around they began to fight. The result, so far, is mainly chaos, but it is clear that a new kind of freedom is on the march. Well, at least let's hope so.…
The less primitive world (I mean us, mainly the U.S. and Europe) certainly had its problems, too, and will continue to have them in 2012 as well. Worst among these problems is the lack of money. Or rather, the fact that almost everybody, from governments to individuals, has borrowed more money than they are able to repay. Countries like Greece and Italy are bankrupt in all but name. Greece is bad enough, but small in relation to the others. Italy on the other hand is large and therefore dangerous. The same, of course, goes for the United States, which is also in a debt crisis. Turns out the politicians we elect to govern us have found out that votes can be bought with the help of money thrown at different blocks of voters. So money has been thrown and debt has been piling up. It looks rather like a giant confidence trick, but don't say so—we elected them, didn't we?
Yes, we did, and now we are where we are. Which means, most likely, that 2012 will have to be a year of repayment and frugality at best. If the circus goes on, there will be even more hell to pay in 2013.
And having said that, I can only continue by wishing all of you good people who read this paper, a wonderful and profitable New Year.
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World Reporter
Ulf Nilson, World reporter since his first assignments to Hungary in 1956. Correspondent and Sweden’s man in America for 20 years, Ulf Nilson is still a regular columnist in Sweden’s daily Expressen, and regular contributor in Nordstjernan. He has authored or co-authored over fifty books. He lives in southern France or at his beloved Värmdö, just 30 minutes north of Stockholm. He
• covered the US, including Vietnam during the war years
• marched in the civil rights marches
• interviewed Martin Luther King
• met presidents Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and George H. W. Bush
• and, as one of Sweden’s most well-known journalists, also met with every politician, industry leader or cultural personality—all the movers and shakers of Sweden through five decades of a proliferate professional life.
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