A Decade To Remember

End of a year, end of a decade. Surely a great end if we consider all the set backs we (World) had.
The decade will always be known as rise of unexpected in power. Be it IT sector to lead the global economy, Path Finder hitting Mars surface, Chandrayan discovering water on moon, Obama to lead world’s most powerful country, recession hitting world economy harder than ever before, China becoming global power house, global warming evaporating smiles off the face of global leaders as well as from glaciers, nature showing it’s ugly face consistently sometime as Tsunami, sometime as Hurricane, sometime as earthquake or Osama Bin Laden’s rise from an unknown Soviet war rebel to the face of terror for world. Which ever way you would like to sum this decade but for me the decade has gone to terrorism and natural calamities.
It’s hard to believe that in last ten years world has become less & less safe to live. Blame it to global warming eroding ice and water from world or hard core extremists challenging in open and taking away lives of innocent people. We now live in a shadow of horror of past by nature, terror outfits etc, etc. I wonder what has provoked the world to be sitting on trigger of a bomb which can explode anytime, is it us the human greed or the apocalypse is set to hit humanity (As expected in 2012) which is just showing its trailers periodically. Irregular weather extremes like draughts, floods or excess snowfall all are pointing towards a grave danger, are we ready to face the ultimate Armageddon?
My earliest memories of this decade starts with blur memory of the birth of 1 billionth Indian and burst of dotcom bubble but it was the haunting image of world trade center collapsing live in front of my eyes and like the world I also saw it in disbelief. It might not have done the greatest human loss but what it did was engraving the greatest fear in heart of every individual and it made a statement that now you are not safe anywhere. The same year 2001 saw one of the worst earthquakes India had in Gujarat wiping out almost entire Bhuj region and thousands of lives. 2002 was the year when one of the worst fraud hit US market, Enron &Xerox together shows more than 5 billion $ amount in their balance sheet which never existed. But it was the Chechen rebels in Moscow who took hostage 700 people in one theater causing human tragedy of half of their lives named the year on their name. The year belonged to Chechen rebels for their ruthless poaching. Year 2003 started on a sad note of US space shuttle Columbia crashed killing all seven astronauts onboard, a tragedy for human race and a big setback for US space program. This was the same year when Saddam Hussein was capture by US army, needless to say after killing thousands of innocent lives. Year 2004 was a quiet year but until 26th Dec 2004 when South Asia was hit by one of the worst earthquake and which redacted Tsunami wave which claimed lives of almost million people across the continent. Year 2005 saw worst of Hurricane disaster in US, Hurricane Katrina claiming thousands of lives in state of New Orleans just after Indian financial capital witness one of the worst flood in history of country which claimed several hundred lives and made a never sleeping city Mumbai to halt for almost two days. It was year 2006 after which India was under constant attacks from across the borders. 11th July 2006 was the day when Mumbai local trains were hit by a series of bomb blasts claiming lives of almost 200 hundred people and again made the city to almost halt for a day. The year also bid adieu to legacy of Saddam Hussein when he was hung on Iraq (Really?) court order. This signed off the last legacy of Gulf. The year 2007 goes to Pakistan for all bad reasons, the year saw Musharraf declaring state of emergency in Pakistan and later Benazir Butto’s assassination erupted political havoc in country which resulted a new wave of Taliban hitting Pakistan and a situation of literal anarchy in the country. Ever since the Pakistan is under constant attach from the Taliban extremists and internal terror outfits. Year 2007 also set stage for the worst recession that will later going to wipe off almost 20% of total world GDP. Year 2008 saw plunge in stock and money markets across the world, almost all small and big economy was hit badly. The most prominent names in US money market like Lehmann Brothers, Merrill Lynch collapsed on the verge of unprecedented losses. The too big to fall companies like Citi Group, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley also joined the party and the wall street almost came to a stop. It was only the Government’s stimulus which brought them back on life otherwise we would have to bid adieu to these majors as well. The year 2008 saw end of Investment banking era. If this wasn’t enough, last few days of the year brought tears in eyes of people across the globe when Pakistani terrorists attacked Mumbai and almost killed 200 hostages in a span of 3 days before they were neutralized by Indian army. This once again signed off a year on a tearful note. The year also witnessed the next super power in making when in summer China hosted Olympics, with the grandeur of even it was very easy to understand what they are up to in next coming years. The year 2009 saw first Afro-American Barrack Obama swearing in as President of the world’s biggest super power United States of America, surely a day to remember. The year saw a path to recovery in world economy which crawled back to its normal routine not until makings millions across the globe unemployed and starving for food. The year saw the worst unemployment rate across the globe, the year ended on a tragic end of Chandrayan mission when Indian space agency lost all it’s contact with it’s spaceship Chandrayan although prior to this, the mission had already delivered one of the most critical piece of information which is discovery of water on moon.
In whatever way I try to conclude I see more grim reason than reasons to smile.
As we enter a new decade, a new beginning, I just wish that we as a human race would work together to make the world a better place to live sooner than later.