The decade in review and the decade to come
As we lay the first decade of the noughties to rest what can we expect for the next decade to come?
Can you believe that it’s another decade over and a new one about to begin? Where did the last ten years go? Or were there just too many things happening that by the time we arrived at December 2010 – we hardly saw the time fly.
So what did happen and where to next in this new decade? Well, let’s take a look at some of the really notable events, but without dwelling on them too much because no doubt historians will and already have.
The new millennium dawned with the prospect of global meltdown – we all bought into the Y2K bug, and as a result, billions was spent preparing for something that many now consider to be a con.
At the end of this decade, we faced a real global financial meltdown and, in many cases, people around the world believe that real con-artists were involved – although many bankers and financiers I am sure would disagree.
The year 2000 bought the best Olympics ever and, for a moment, Sydney was the place to be. Four years later, Athens was the place not to be while four years after that Beijing again, was the place to be. Australia won the ashes, lost the ashes and now looks like it will also…lose the ashes.
Shane Warne texted himself into the decade misbehaving and he is leaving the decade well, mis-behaving. Mind you, two thirds of the male population is in awe of the fact he leaves the decade with Liz Hurley in hand.
For those of you who don’t know what the Ashes are or who Shane Warne is – that’s okay, just think cricket bat that was burnt to a cinder a long time ago and a cricket player who just continues to burn. Kerry Packer would be rolling in his grave.
Our Burning Desire for War:
2001 was the year that our world changed. There is, and never will be a doubt about that. The fact remains, all conspiracies and Wiki leaks aside, real people, good people died and as a consequence, the world went to war.
Another Bush was in the Whitehouse, but would a Gore or a Clinton have acted differently given the circumstances? Certainly in the case of Afghanistan, but possibly not, as history can sometimes be a cruel beast depending on whom the writer is.
There were the Madrid, Bali and London bombings. The Australian Embassy was targeted and as we end the decade, Sweden, probably the last country on Earth many people would have believed would be hit by a suicide bomber – was hit.
We started the decade with a number of countries involved in combat and we end the decade ever closer to a larger conflict that has the potential for bigger implications – the Korean Peninsula and the Middle East.
Will Israel take out Iran’s nuclear facilities? Will North Korea, with succession on its mind, take out the South and in return the South the North? War is a ghastly thing and there is no evidence yet to suggest we are tired of it – which is all the pity.
Finance and Foe:
From a financial perspective it seemed we entered the decade in amazing shape. Of course, the Japanese would argue origami is still the best way to describe their economic woes. However, America was strong, we were seeing the rise of the European Zone and it was being touted as China’s new century.
We end the decade with economies in ruin, the jobless lines mounting and entire economic zones in free fall.
Greece is, well Greece… and Spain, well is Spain – Ireland however is another story and the hope of President Obama is fast losing its shine as people begin to wonder if a Palin led Government can somehow make a difference in the economy.
The Canadians are probably just thankful that there is a border.
The Pacific:
In the Pacific, Governments were in turmoil at the beginning of the decade and, at the end, they are still in turmoil. Fiji is not only at war with itself, it is at war within. As the Nuiean Prime Minister winged his way to Cancun, his Deputy was winging his way into his seat.
Australia continued to be the stand-out operator, although internally, when the country is doing well they tend to find every reason why they aren’t doing so well.
In New Zealand, well, New Zealand is, as it always has been – safe.
PNG is still PNG and by all accounts the Solomon Islands still needs rescuing.
Whatever, I wonder, happened to the Indigenous people of Tahiti or those in New Caledonia? The French have been awfully quiet in the Pacific neck of the woods these last ten years.
Death Amongst Us:
We lost some notable people during the last decade and as time marches by we pause and say, “wow, I forgot they had died” – such is the fragility of memory when it comes to death.
Dudley Moore and Johnny Cash, Robert Palmer and Sandra Dee – the brave Farah Fawcett and the even braver Christopher Reeve.
Surprisingly Michael Jackson and unsurprisingly Anna Nicole Smith – and Ok, unsurprisingly Eartha Kitt who batted a good innings (1927 – 2008). The Pope, The Polish President and a number of his entourage.
Sir Edmund Hilary, that tower of human design climbed his last mountain while a quiet New Zealander who could have truly gone on to be a world leader, David Lange, slipped quietly away.
Bhutto was assassinated, Saddam was hung and we’re all still looking for Lord Lucan.
World Leaders:
Governments rose and Governments fell – Silvio and Vladmir just kept rising.
The Bush administration came to power and then left. The Obama administration came to power and is in real risk of leaving sooner than anyone imagined.
John Howard stayed the distance while his successor was unable. In turn, Kevin Rudd’s successor looks destined, like Helen Clark of New Zealand, to do interesting things – they just haven’t revealed themselves yet.
Tony Blair left gracefully, Gordon Brown left ever so close. Ronald Regan and Gerald Ford left for good while Margaret Thatcher is hanging on.
Nelson Mandela is the true global statesman while I ponder whatever happened to John Major, Jacques Chirac, Gorbechev, Kohl, Schroeder, Tung Che Hwa (last seen in Beijing).
Animals and Space:
In the Animal Kingdom we saw the California condor return from the brink, but we saw the White Rhino edge closer to it.
The Pandas have become China’s PR success story and a trip to Indonesia saw at least 20 new species discovered – ah, the fact that an untouched, undiscovered country still lies amid this planetary chaos is amazing indeed.
In space we explored Titan and Mars. In September of 2009 it was an Indian satellite that discovered water on the moon. Towards the end of the decade NASA confirmed that another building block to life had been discovered on the salty floor of a US lake. For NASA though the decade has been a game of two halves: The loss of Columbia and the discovery of life – irony in its truest form. Pluto is no longer a planet, Hubble is amazing, although really expensive and yes the question of UFO’s is still a Hollywood blockbuster.
Mind you, it won’t be long before children grow up believing Harry Potter is real and the Dark Lord is not in fact Stalin, he has a wand and is ready to use it!
Science and the Environment:
We began the decade knowing ful well that something was wrong with our planet. Then, for some reason, science was interrupted by sceptics, yet as the world turns the sea is still rising, the weather is still changing and it appears the world turns more slowly than it once did.
Science tells us our environment is warming and changing in ways we did not think possible for centuries, yet now we are told decades.
We began the decade debating and discussing – we end the decade debating and discussing.
Disasters:
Who can forget the Boxing Day tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people or cyclone Nargis that killed more than 146,000. On the scale of death and events – we certainly had some of the largest in human history.
In the last year alone we have had the Chilean and Haitian earthquakes and the horrible challenge of the floods of Pakistan.
Yet, a stand out also has to have been the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in the sense it literally bought to a stop an entire, major United States City – New Orleans. Like the first footage coming out of Vietnam during the war, there was a real sense that this was a tragedy being reported on a much larger scale and therefore on the screens of hundreds of millions of people around the world – we tend to accept that tragedy befalls developing countries, rightly or wrongly – but how can this be so with an American city on the scale of New Orleans?
Closer to home we celebrated, yet still mourned, the survival of two miners in Tasmania – while in these past few weeks the tragedy of so many men in New Zealand – but, here again on scale – hundreds if not thousands of miners die every year.
2011 and Beyond:
So, here it is – another decade and a new one about to begin. What does this decade hold and will it be much like the last? Let’s take a few bets and see how things pan out:
- Queen Elizabeth will pass away, Charles will take the throne for a short time and individual nations of the Commonwealth will begin the debate again on whether or not it is time for a republic. That debate will grow most likely from Australia and New Zealand.
- Iraq will in fact begin to prosper – unless of course, the dynamics of Iran do not change and the world is confronted with the prospect of an Arab Israeli conflict – drawing in foreign powers.
- The tensions on the Korean Peninsula will in fact get worse before they get better. There is no interest from America or China in a conflict – but, Kim Jung IL will not last the distance and we will do well to be concerned about what happens next inside the country. I would be a betting man if we saw skirmishes within the military of the North that saw Kim’s son do a runner for the border with a swag of cash.
- In 2011, given the events of the last few weeks, Wiki leaks may lead to the downfall of the banking system as we know it – pause, rewind in 12 months time.
- The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is likely to continue as it has for centuries – how is this next decade going to be different? I need convincing, but I live in hope
- South America will emerge as a strong global player – particularly Brazil which begs the question what of Lula? What of the President of Brazil? Is he the next compromise candidate for UN Secretary General?
- China will be China, the USA will be the USA and India will be India – but it will be so much more interesting to see what happens in Indonesia, Russia and Brazil. For absolute weight of numbers you question whether or not we have this whole economic modelling right, or are we simply looking at some of the wrong countries? Russia is about to become Putin country all over again – Indonesia is finding itself and its place in the world while Brazil has already found its place. The USA, and I love her dearly, is starting out all over again while China is just, well being China and India, well, is just trying to convince us all that it has cards to play.
You see, the fact is, you can outline a series of predictions for the decade ahead – but as we have seen, in the blink of an eye those facts turn to assumption and logic begins to take control again.
The ones above appear logical today but can be reversed tomorrow – each of them, by the very nature, are interlocked by a series of political events taking place.
It is like those watching the politics of New South Wales where there is an assumptive view that the Labour party is doomed. Today, it may very well look like the case – but then the Greens were favoured to take out seats in the recent Victorian State election and did not – so have we got the assumption wrong with the only other logical outcome being – the outcome is still unclear? Is it Labour’s to lose or the Liberal Coalition’s to win?
What cannot be reversed remain those strident challenges of our time that really are the central tenants of human existence. The reliance on our environment to sustain us and the reliance on Governments to: protect us; the ability to be fed; to have clean water; to access housing; to be educated; to have health care; and to have freedom of expression and basic, yet fundamental human rights.
In developed countries we got so sceptical of politics we don’t vote yet in many countries in the world they cry out for the right to vote.
For all the predictions of what the next decade can bring I would simply ask that we work together to confront those strident challenges of our time – for if we don’t, a decade on, we will simply be reflecting on the same old people, saying the same old things and doing the same old things. I call them the usual suspects and hand on heart, I tell you they number in the thousands.
At the beginning of every new decade there must be strong and dynamic leadership, hope, a little bit of faith and huge amount of risk. I wager that in ten years time we would have clicked to the solutions that will make us better – or, we would have simply lost the plot.
Sometimes it is as simple as treating people with respect, as human beings and, in the very same way we would expect to be treated – now that is a novel idea that has been around since man began to walk the Earth – it is both simple, yet logical.
Welcome to a new decade, I trust you find it opportune.
Matthew Tukaki is CEO and Executive Chairman of The Sustain Group of Companies, an organisation dedicated to identifying business solutions to climate change and corporate citizenship, social responsibility. Matthew is also the former Head of Drake Australia, the nation’s oldest, and one of the largest, employment services companies. Matthew was, also responsible for a number of other Drake operations across the Asia Pacific including Drake Medical, Solutions, HR, Services and Recruitment. A former Chairman of the WorkWise Group’s Executive Committee, Matthew is also Australia’s elected Representative to the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate citizenship programme with more than 7,700 signatories. Recently, Matthew was called the most influential person in the employment sector in Australia by Radio 2GB and appears regularly on television news and current affairs commenting on the links between employment and the economy.
