A Look Back

End of another year... Guess it's time to reflect and kick-start 2006 with goals and resolutions

Reflection (at a less personal level): This year has been very eventful, we witnessed -

Great Catastrophes:
Indian Ocean Tsunami killed an estimated 179,000 people, days before the New Year
Katrina, one of the deadliest storms in history, killed well over a thousand people in the US
Earthquake in South Asia, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, killed more than 70,000 people

Humanity - triumph & defeat
China ratified an anti-secession law aimed at preventing Taiwan from declaring independence
Pope John Paul II died at the age of 84
Live 8, heightened awareness of the Make Poverty History campaign
Bombings at the peak of the morning rush hour in London, killed at least 52 people
Historic pullout from Gaza, ended 38 years of occupation
According to a Gallup poll, six in 10 blacks said if most of hurricane Katrina’s victims were white the rescues would have come faster.
The U.S. death toll in the war in Iraq reached 2,000 in Oct
Civil unrest in France
The WTO concluded in Hong Kong

Amusing Occasions:
Bush in his inaugural address outlined a U.S. policy "with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."
Resignation of Tung Chee Hwa
Anti-Japanese demonstrations in China
Prince Charles & Camilla Parker Bowles Wedding
MJ found not guilty of child molestation
Landslide victory of PM Junichiro Koizumi and party
Opening of the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort
The trial of Saddam Hussein

Headline Seizers:
Bird Flu
Same sex Marriages
Oil and Gold Price surge
Violence in Iraq
Kyoto Protocol
The Schiavo debate

WHY Hong Kong?

LONG before any trade minister sets foot in Hong Kong, it has become clear that next week's meeting of the World Trade Organisation will fall depressingly short of its goals. Officially, the gathering is meant to agree on the broad contours of a deal to free trade in farm goods, industrial tariffs and services. Thanks, in particular, to Europe's intransigence over cutting farm tariffs, that will not happen. The ministers may be able to report modest progress (such as a vague promise to accelerate the elimination of cotton subsidies) but the guts of a Doha deal will be delayed yet again. - Economist


On the eve of WTO, I cant help askin WHY?

They are goin to go thru the motions...

According to the World Bank's latest estimates, a likely Doha compromise would modestly raise global income, but would produce scant gains for poor countries and barely dent the number of people living in extreme poverty. Although economic models do not capture all the gains from liberalising trade, there is little doubt that the Doha round is turning out to be less good for the poor than it could be. - Economist

If the rich aint budging... and talks aint gonna help the poor... then WHY?

And in particular... WHY Hong Kong?
Coz only we had relatively trouble free lives?
OR our officials wanted excitement in theirs', having had fiasco-free headlines lately!