2007 was the year in which the long-serving John Howard government was voted out of office in Australia. Political climate change reflected popular attitude towards global warming, and the first official action of the new government led by Kevin Rudd was ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. There will be a similar change of government in Kenya after last Thursday’s elections, when Kenyans finally got a chance to vote out politicians known to be corrupt (after voting them in last time on the promise of fighting corruption.)
Just a few days ago 115 people were killed during the assassination of former Pakistan prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, as a reminder of the many countries in the world where people resort to violence rather than negotiations. In September there was a deadly crackdown by the military government against a peaceful protest by Burmese monks.
In the business world, financial markets took a dive after years of rapid growth, as a result of something which hardly anyone knew about or anticipated: subprime mortgages in the United States. We are yet to see whether the worst is over or yet to come, but it’s a timely reminder for us to invest our treasure in things which will last, and not to store it up where moth and rust consume and thieves break in and steal.