For the New Year

While I’ve been away from the world of electronica in recent days, I wanted to extend my prayers for peace to you all for the coming New Year. We have experienced unspeakable horrors in the past 365 days, many of which have gone unseen and have been dismissed from memory before the period of mourning has been passed, and yet, history cannot be denied and will not be lied to in the end.

May we find in 2007 the inner strength and peace to live with our neighbours in true outward peace, setting aside our differences and remembering that there is only one small world in which we can call our home.

To everyone that regularly reads my musings, thank you for your support and comments. I am in the process of moving at the present time, so I may not be posting too frequently until the end of January, which is when I shall be fully entrenched in my new digs … Hallelujah!

May the Lord bless you and keep you,
may the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you,
may the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace:
Amen.

... but, it can't end quite yet!

Of course, this post wouldn’t be complete without a few prognostications for the upcoming year (or longer, who knows). This is the great tradition for the media, after all (even as I write this I’m listening to CBC Radio and they’re talking about that very thing), so how can I possibly pass up on the opportunity?

First of all, I must say something about the situation in Iraq … big surprise, right? If The President believes that the execution of Saddam Hussein is going to have any positive effects on the situation in Iraq he should undergo rigorous drug tests: he is either on crack or methamphetamine. The only thing that the execution accomplished, in my humble opinion, is to create a martyr for the hard-line Bathists who are currently involved in the (not a) civil war that the U.S. military forces are so incapable of ending. A dead Hussein shall serve as a marvellous rallying point for all those still desperate to restore the “old” and reject that which has been foisted upon them by the Americans.

While the concept of democracy is wonderful, there are those who may still resent the idea that a foreign nation entered their land, killed their civilians and then installed a puppet government under the auspices of “democracy”. Of course, I could be mistaken.

The U.S. Presidential race, while not reaching its consummation until November of 2008 shall also be something of great interest (for most of the world) as the field of candidates begins to filter out and the cream begins to rise to the top. I will not name specific candidates (Hillary? McCain?) but … let’s put it this way, given the current demographics in the United States, it isn’t difficult to imagine that the Democratic Party would select a woman and a black man for their ticket in the hopes that it would have the broadest appeal to the voters … of course, I could be mistaken.

As for Israel and Palestine, I am sad to say that I do not believe that things are going to improve, or, for that matter, remain the same as they are at this point in time. I do not believe that this current “cease fire” is going to last too much past the end of January, if it makes it that long. I have a very bad feeling that there shall be an act of violence in the middle-east – in Israel/Palestine – so severe that it shocks the world, though it will not be too much of a surprise to the world.

I pray that I am wrong, with all my heart and every fibre of my existence, but I feel – with those same things – that I am not.

Those are my comments …

Happy New Year … Thank you, Ben Heine, for the wonderful cartoon! Your work is an inspiration.