Hope, Change and Recession, Volume III

The key event of early 2011 was the Arab Spring Like all revolutions, despair sparked hope which sparked actions which eventually went beyond the control of anyone. It is many decades too early to determine their impact. Of less global importance, but a source of immense satisfaction was the US Navy Seal Team Six’s operation in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden. Far less inspiring was the meltdown at Japan’s nuclear plant at Fukushima. General elections in Canada and Portugal as well as regional and local balloting in Spain and the UK showed that the economic crisis had become a key factor in politics. In the US, the Tea Party began to show that was as uncontrollable as the streets of Cairo, although mercifully less violent. Republican Speaker John Boehner, allegedly the most powerful member of Congress, was reduced to relying on Democratic votes to pass significant legislation. Meanwhile, the GOP candidates who wished to challenge Barack Obama for the presidency in 2012 began announcing their attentions. And at the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, BP experienced a drilling disaster that had thousands of gallons of crude oil gushing into the ocean.