At last, 2008 is taking its place among the history of mankind.
The year has not been the best of years, but ever since September 11, 2001, when has the world been a better place to live?
Terrorism reared its ugly head again in 2008 with the Mumbai attacks where Ms Lo Hwei Yen was the first Singaporean to die from a terror attack aboard.
There was blood spilled on the floors of financial markets everywhere. Stock markets plunged to lows not seen since 2004, wiping out billions of dollars of stock value and many companies and the rich and wealthy saw their personal fortune being halved or worse. The Straits Times Index lost close to 50 percent of its value in 2008.
October was the bleakest month of the year where the ‘mother of all collapses’ happened when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, triggering a chain of events that caused the biggest drops of the year for stock exchanges around the world.
Many Singaporeans lost money, many their savings when their Minibonds became worthless overnight due to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. DBS Bank, the Singapore bank that sold the Minibonds, suffered a dip in confidence and reputation in the way they managed the aftermath, especially when dealing with calls for compensation from the investors.
I personally saw my investment lose a certain amount of value. No, I did not invest in the Minibonds but on the ‘safer’ unit trusts. But since mine is a long term investment strategy, I am not panicking and resort to senseless panic selling, which was the case in October with many investors…
AIG needed the US government to bail it out, preventing the financial markets from plunging into an abyss. Queues snaked around the AIA building in the Central Business Districts as many rush to cash in their policies, fearing they would not see any returns.
The US car industry faces ‘death’ when the country’s big three car manufacturers are running out of funds and need the government to provide monetary relief. Millions of Americans would lose their jobs if they were to close.
Oil price scaled new heights, climbing from Mount Everest to the highest peak found on the barren surface of Mars before plunging to lows that were last seen in 2003/4. The price of rice also rose to new levels before stabilising to something decent.
Every household in Singapore saw utility bills increased by a ridiculous 21 percent. It also became more expensive to take the public transport when fares were raised by the transport operators in October.
Singapore, Hong Kong, Europe, US, one by one, each country enters into a recession as their GDP shrunk, resulting in a looming and deep global recession. Unemployment increases, consumer confidence dip.
Gloom was here, there, everywhere.
Just when you think there should be no more bad news, especially on the financial situation, the Maddoff scandal surfaced.
What a 2008!
Is there anything worse that has not happened?
Well, at least there is hope. Hope in the form of Barrack Obama, the first black American to be elected as a US President.
Everyone now pins his or her hope on this man, this man whom many see could be the next saviour of America and the world. Many hope he will do what Franklin D. Roosevelt, US’ thirty-second president, did to bring America out of the Great Depression in the 1930s.
It is too early to tell whether Obama can perform a Roosevelt but as of now, the team he put together to save the US economy (and the world’s) seems promising.
Lets all pray for Obama, pray that he is THE ONE, hope that he is THE ONE who is destined to be THE GREAT ONE in 2009 to lift the world out of the mess what many said THE WORST ONE (George W. Bush) has created.
Hope is essential. Without hope, there is nothing to look forward to. When there is nothing to look forward to, we will only regress.
Is it Obama’s fate to play the role of the saviour? Is this his destiny?
Goodbye 2008. Hello 2009.
Happy New Year!
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