RIYADH, 3 January 2005 — Economy and business-wise, 2004 was a good (although not great) year for the world, but not so in human, social and political terms. Mankind itself has not been kind to its namesake, heaping numerous man-made disasters on top of nature’s inevitable fury. The year started with turmoil in Iraq, culminating in a war that continues tearing the world apart to this day.
Global terrorism reared its ugly head and created so many innocent new victims in Madrid, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Politics and internecine warfare created victims in Darfur, Congo, Rwanda and Ukraine (and many more).
Some countries have been paralyzed by their internal disability to move on, while some have even managed to take big strides… backward. The events of 2004 seem to be shouting to us loudly that human progress is not always a straight march forward toward prosperity, an idea many of us have always taken for granted. Unless we keep our vigilance, unless we work harder to preserve all people’s right to humanity, peace, prosperity and happiness, we will continue to stumble on self-created roadblocks and minefields along the way.
Global turmoil, mostly of the man-made variety, has taken its toll on the world’s economy. The year 2004 was a year of missed opportunity. We started out with great promise after two years of recession. We cannot say with any degree of certainty what derailed that promise.
Was it the Iraq war? Was it the rapid rise of oil price to heights never seen since the mid-1980s? Was it the shackles imposed on the international flow of people, goods and services imposed by the war on terrorism? Or, was it terrorism itself? We are starting the New Year with a much lower level of promise than last year. The turmoil we started last year has yet to be unwound. Progress that we should have made in terms of global trade, WTO, etc. not only have been stalled, but reversed in many ways.
It is easy to wish everyone prosperity and happiness on the dot at 12 midnight on New Year’s eve. But, will the world’s economy and us humans fulfill our promise and pledge to ourselves to make this a better world for all? Happy New Year!
(Khan H. Zahid is chief economist and vice president at Riyad Bank. He is based in Riyadh.)