Lindsey Dawson: 2008 - Fickle, feisty and fascinating?

Courtesy of Lindsey Dawson.

If you’re not already back in the office, kitchen, ward, classroom, factory, studio, field, or wherever it is that you work, you soon will be. And I have a feeling it’s going to be a fickle, feisty, fascinating year. Here’s what we can expect more of in the coming months...

MORE POLITICS
What a battle we’ll witness in the US, with Americans desperate for new blood in Washington. Barack Obama has surged ahead of everyone else in the Democratic race, with Hillary back in third place (bit of a shock for her there) in the Iowa caucus, which is the process that begins the year-long presidential bunfight. Ninety seven of Iowans are white, so Obama’s win was BIG and could even lead to a black family residing in the White House. Now, wouldn’t that be history-making!

He made a fabulous speech – check it out at YouTube by typing in “Obama’s Iowa Victory Speech”. It’s a cracker. So is Huckabee’s, also up on YouTube. Huckabee, the surprise Republican winner, said something that will resonate for many New Zealanders: “When one is elected to public office, one is not elected to be a part of the ruling class: one is elected to be part of the serving class.”

After all the legislation forced through in NZ last year, I suspect many of us feel that our government has developed a “ruling class” mentality. Party bosses should be thinking on that as our own election looms. We, the electorate, like to be listened to. We, too, might bite back.

But back to Obama. His victory speech was inspired. There’s a sense of destiny in this guy, who launches with such ease into such crowd-pleasing lines as: “We can change this country – brick by brick, block by block and hand by calloused hand.”

His popularity may not last (the New Hampshire primary comes hard on the heels of the Iowa event) but he’s galvanised his country. When was the last time you heard a New Zealand politician emote like that?

Meanwhile, the only brick featuring in New Zealand news was the white one daubed with black letters that some activist hurled at Helen Clark’s office window in a less-than-gracious Christmas message. The hurler promised more such word-bricks in the year ahead. Here, too, the battle has begun and it promises, sadly, to be vicious.

MORE TECHNOLOGY
Expect more and more amazing developments in web, tech and wireless stuff. A couple of years ago I’d hardly heard of YouTube, let alone used it as a source of instant video after a big event (such as I’ve done here. I love it!). And given the passing of the bitterly debated Electoral Finance Act here late last year, expect to see an explosion of blogs, websites and underground viral message-spreading this year as citizens use the internet to promote political debate and point-scoring instead of spending those forbidden dollars on overt advertising.

MORE OIL PRICE ANGST
I filled my car yesterday, hoping to get in before the last price rise. Fat chance. Even though my tank had been a quarter full it still cost $82 to top it up, despite hauling out one of those 4c-off supermarket receipts. No surprise this, of course. I wrote in my blog (www.outlouder.blogspot.com ) back on October 21 about the prospect of oil rising to $100 per barrel, and it did that just a day or two ago before sinking back - slightly. I heard a commentator on CNBC yesterday opine that it could be headed up to $115 before long. So are we headed for $2-per-litre fuel? What would that mean for you?

MORE VOLATILITY
Bad day on Wall Street today. Bad day yesterday, too. House prices diving in US and UK. American dollar diving some more. Northern polar cap melting. Unnerving times in Pakistan. Horrible happenings in Kenya. Severe weather all over the place. And still we have the uneasy, queasy, slightly-better-but-still-dire pressure cooker of Iraq. Who knows how this year’s going to unfold?

BUT THERE’LL ALSO BE MORE BRILLIANCE
The world is packed full of wonderful musicians, scientists, healers, helpers, writers, artists, dreamers and thinkers. The human race is endlessly inventive. Let’s celebrate and engage in ongoing creativity and positivity in the face of all the negativities listed above.

AND MORE HUMOUR
I’m loving funny people more and more. There’s a need for giggles and guffaws. I went walking on the beach yesterday with earphones to catch up on old podcasts (see, isn’t technology great?) and listened to a fabulous interview writer Kurt Vonnegut did with a PBS (America) interviewer before his death last year at 83.

Vonnegut, author of classic war novel, Slaughter House Five, was a serious guy. He was pretty disgusted, actually, with today’s world, but had a sense of humour that carried him through appalling times in World War II and served him right up to the end.

“How’s life?” asked the interviewer, his voice full of the gravity with which one approaches a literary genius.

Vonnegut let out a gust of laughter. “Well, nearly over, thank God,” he said cheerfully. “I’m practically 83 and there won’t be much more for me to put up with, I don’t think.” The great man was talking about sueing his cigarette company. “They promise, on the packet, that they’re going to kill me,” he complained with a chortle, “and they still haven’t done it.”

Vonnegut reckoned we need to take more notice of the times when we’re happy. He talked of his Uncle Alex, who “would sit down in the shade of an apple tree in summertime , drinking a lemonade. We’d be talking back and forth, buzzing like honey bees. And Uncle Alex would all of a sudden say, ‘If this isn’t nice, what is?’ And then we’d realise how happy we were and how we might have missed it.”

I carried on along the beach in the sun with the wise old man’s voice in my ears, smiling to myself. And happy.

AND MORE HEALTHY LIVING
As obesity news keeps coming at us we’ll be more and more conscious this year of how we should be eating well and exercising to keep trim and live as long as Vonnegut. (Though without those cigarettes, he might not have died at 83 and would still be with us!).

Meantime, we can still laugh. Go to my blog (www.outlouder.blogspot.com ) for a brief, comic piece about how a big butt on a woman ain’t always a bad thing!


PS If you wish to join Lindsey’s mailing list to receive her occasional letters direct, feel free to contact her at lindseyoutloud@xtra.co.nz

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