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ShareThe platitudes of a happy new year are behind us already. But each time one of those landed in my inbox, it made me wonder how happy 2009 can be. Whichever way I looked at it, the answer was the same -- happiness in 2009 had to be a team game.
"Stay safe!" or the more chilling "Have a Kasab-free year!" were some of the messages I inevitably got. The question is how. All the sabre-rattling seems unconvincing against a nuclear-armed neighbour. So, after each new denial from across the border, it becomes clearer the main hope is that an Obama-led US will see the futility of relying on the Pak army to do its bidding, and take the lead in international fora to act against the terrorists based in Pakistan who are a threat to the whole world. China's leaders too need to see how an unstable region affects its ticket to power: prosperity for its people.
If the threat from terrorists is something we have grown used to now in Mumbai, a new cloud hanging over us at the start of the year is the threat to our jobs. Financial stimuli have provided little solace. Interest rates and EMIs remain high. Again, the solution has to be global. The world will have to find a middle ground between the liberal capitalism of the West and its authoritarian variety in China to strengthen financial systems and recharge the Chindia growth story.
Equally in need of recharging is our atmosphere which is getting choked with carbon emissions. For sceptics, I recommend a winter evening's drive down the Eastern Expressway which I have to take to get to Thane. So yes, I'm an interested party in this year's climate change conference in Copenhagen to find a successor to the Kyoto protocol. Here too, everyone'spinning their hopes on Obama taking the US on a new path, and pragmatic responses from China and India which are wary of impeding growth but aware of the need for more climate-friendly technologies and less fuel consumption.
Finally, a year-end viral attack that laid me low was a reminder of how resilient microbes are getting. AIDS came out of Africa, SARS out of China, and unless countries share information, the next big bug won't be stopped. Babies falling victim to melamine in milk, and fisheries in the US reporting pollutants carried across from China were examples of how inter-connected the world has become. We're all in the same boat and need large doses of Obama's audacious hope to see us through 2009.
