2008 End-Of-Year Wishes

Sub-title: "Tranquil Times in Warmer Climes"

Mark Anderson's Top 10 Predictions for 2008

BBC business journalist, Peter Day, recently interviewed American futurist, Mark Anderson, about his top predictions for 2008. You can listen to it here and read more about all of his predictions here. Some of the more interesting ones include:

1. The Users Revolt - with Facebook users leading the charge

2. The Walled Gardens (of cel phone carriers) come down

3. Internet bandwidth dramatically increases, especially in the U.S.

4. Fake Internets, such as those in China, become serious liabilities

5. Carry Along PCs become commonplace - ie. units much smaller than laptops
   

Anderson has others too, though his political bias seems to be reflecting more his hopes than any realistic predicting. For example, he seems to believe that 2008 will be the year that the U.S. Healthcare system gets an enormous overhaul. He's kidding himself that bureaucracies can move that quickly. Furthermore, I suspect that serious international events (ie. Pakistan et al) will more dominate the U.S. presidential election than anything else.

My Hopes for Canada in 2008

Here's a brief list of what I'm hoping for from Canadians in 2008:

1. Political Correctness - More than anything else, I'm convinced that political correctness has corrupted our society and any real discussions that we hope to have. When real debate cannot occur for fear of offending someone then no progress can be made on any issue.
   
   
2. Permanent Victims - I look around the world these days and see some pretty terrible things happening. The dawn of the New Year is the perfect time for Canadians to take a moment to consider how incredibly good we have it. Certainly nothing's perfect and there's always room for improvement. But it's long overdue that the overly pampered cry-babies amongst us are called out for the Permanent Victims that they are.
   
   
3. Human Rights Violations - This is a corollary to #2. When one sees people elsewhere in the world being incarcerated or even murdered for voting or running for office or not covering up "appropriately", I find it incredibly appalling how loosely and frequently some Canadians toss around the term "human rights" when they don't get their way. Have they no shame? Don't they realize that their abuse of this word has desensitized its meaning?
   
   
4. Playing the Race Card - I've noticed an increasing number of people playing the race card whenever they come up against the establishment. This is a special case of #2 that takes advantage of #1. For no organization, be they public or private, wants to be labeled a racist. But in Canada in 2007 I very much doubt that racism is the cause. It's just another technique to get your way or cast unwarranted blame at someone else.
   
   
5. A Return to Responsibility - From the very top of our society to its very depths, isn't it long overdue for people to take responsibility when they mess up? It seems to happen so rarely these days - think of the YVR Taser fiasco - and has set such a poor example for our children.
   
   
6. Generosity Instead of Selfishness - This one seems obvious but in order for it to occur, people need to ensure that they're not violating #1 - #5, especially #2 & #5. In fact, I strongly believe one of the factors contributing to increased selfishness - especially in cities - are too many people not taking responsibility for themselves and their actions.
   
   
7. Cel Phone Dysfunctional User Disorder (CP-Dud) - If a man was walking down the street, talking at high volume or even shouting, would you consider him a bit odd? If a woman at the table next to you in a restaurant was giving everyone in earshot the details of her recent yeast infection, would you consider her a bit odd? Why then, do many people consider it perfectly normally to duplicate this behaviour while on a cel phone? In 2008 I plan to use the Amy Alkon method to combat these annoying twits.
   

With that said, I sincerely wish you and your family the Very Best in 2008, most especially: Liberty, Good Health, and Prosperity!