HappyNewYear

First, to everyone who reads this column, happy New Year!
As we journey together into 2009 we all wonder what surprises will unfold during this year, and just how many will be pleasant or otherwise.

We cannot ignore the realities of the global financial tsunami currently rolling over us while we hold on to every bit of firm high ground we can find.

It is equally implausible, in fact unwise to overlook the Wars on Terror and those in Afghanistan and Iraq; and how could we avoid mention of the current Middle East battle raging in Gaza and the dangers posed by a resurgent Russia and the Iranian / Islamic nuclear threat.

Some of my readers have written to me expressing their dismay that I have been too pessimistic featuring such concerns in my recent normally upbeat column. I am, by nature an optimist, but I am also a realist and pragmatist. We have had little news of good cheer to make us feel upbeat recently. However I can report that all is not gloom and doom in this corner of the electronic universe.

We have reasons to be generally optimistic that are not based on logic or improving economic trends or even positive signs in our common horoscope. These hopes are based on what we are, and what our system of life has achieved in the past. Our Anglo American democracies have stood the test of time and triumphed over great adversities and powerful adversaries in the past and I believe we shall do so again.

Of course the journey is sometimes very hard, and can, on occasion, leave many casualties, and awful suffering. But in the end we will overcome these problems because ours are the greatest countries in the world, and that’s why the world envies us, and has every reason to do so.

It is no accident that so many people still desperately seek any possible method to live in our midst, its because however bad things seem for this moment, most people recognize that ours are the countries they want to live in. And, if it isn’t the UK or the USA the economic migrant wants a piece of, its New Zealand, Australia or Canada that magnetizes people. There is no coincidence here; our Anglo Saxon systems of democracy, our long-term stability and our innate sense of common decency are desirable to most people in the world.

In our wish to survive the current problems we must do nothing to damage the very core of our national being in its defense, as long as we cherish and protect these values with all our strength we shall overcome all adversities and every adversary.