2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 15,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 3 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

Dear all – family, friends and visitors!

It’s been a turbulent year allround for all of us.
The world, as was to be expected, did not come to an end and will not for a while.
But that does not make it any better.
We, that is all of us, are still searching for a better world, a world where all have access to a share in the world’s resources and to opportunities for development and growth.
The world belongs to all and all are responsible for the exploitation and management of it’s wealth.

Just as the natural world is one great complex living organism, so is the great community of all the people of this world. While the natural world for a long time to come will have the power to heal itself, the same is true as well for the world body of people.
We all need to cool down though, in a manner of speaking.
Sit down and look at our assets in what is common and in what is different in all of us.
We need to cool down and take time to consider the many potential choices at our disposal over the last 2000 years.
There is the material to work with – a growing body of evidence for wisdom.
New insights are at hand and can be implemented if only … and I am not talking climate change.

Before that each one has to look at her and his personal life.
Am I in integrity?
If not, I need to find out what is wrong and how to find the balance again in my life.
It does not bode well for the overall health of the greater body of people where people feel  tortured in mind, body and soul. We have to let go of anxieties without fear of exposure.
Then, on a communal level, again, we have to find truth and honesty in what we want and what we in fact can deliver.
Hushing up things will not improve our standing.
On a world level our main concern should be to find common ground and take responsibility as well.
A quick glance at things no longer acceptable in their present form:
The Israeli-Palestinian divide.
The Iranian threat.
The maligning of Islam.
The subjugation of women in the name of religion.
The indebtedness of states.
The interference of state powers in the lives of ordinary people.

And a quick wish list for the coming year:

One Israeli-Palestinian State.
The integration of Iran into the world community.
Improved relationship among all world religions and forms of faith.
The liberation of all marginalised members of the world body of people.
A general cooling off period for all economies.
A general lifting of veils in respect of money transactions the world over.

Finally, climate change.
The world climate I mean, is the one that we can change:
for the world body of people to find its own integrity.
For that to happen it first has to become real with you and me.

Wishing you all well for the coming year.
With love
Colleen & Walter
Betty’s Bay, 31 December 2012