A new year is upon us. Mariner wishes the best for mankind and especially for his readers. Today, his town has a bright winter Sun; it is cold and quiet outside. For a moment one can sense fulfillment and satisfaction for another year passed. For a moment. Unfortunately, this is not Norman Rockwell’s world; it is not Mickey Rooney’s world or Judy Garland’s or even George Herbert Walker Bush’s world. It is our world. It’s a failing world everywhere. Something is wrong with how the planet’s humans are doing things. Consider a few realities:
Out of 195 nations that exist today, only ten are not engaged in war. Only Botswana, Chile, Costa Rica, Japan, Mauritius, Panama, Qatar, Switzerland, Uruguay and Vietnam are free from conflict.
24 nations are facing a full-blown debt crisis and there are 14 more that are rapidly heading toward one. Right now, the debt to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) ratio for the entire planet is an all-time record high of 286 percent, and globally there are approximately 200 TRILLION dollars of debt on the books.
By 2050 climate change will reduce the world’s GDP by $21 trillion.
The world population was estimated to have reached 7.5 billion on April 24, 2017. Unfortunately, of the 7.5 billion, 600 million will die from starvation.
Mariner could go on noting the bad state of political, social and quality of life failures but already he is too depressed.
Happy New Year
Ancient Mariner
You had me at ‘for a moment.’ It is wonderful that the sun is shining and the mariner is full of goodwill toward mankind and his readers! All best wishes for 2019 to the mariner and all of us on this little blue planet. God bless us, every one!