Interesting Times

摘要

As in the legendary Chinese curse, I mean. As I sat down in front of my PC for my yearly lucubration on the strategic status of the world, I wanted to make a deliberate point of trying not to sound too pessimistic and ring too many alarm bells. "Cam 'on", I said to myself, "don't be the perpetual Cassandra and wear the readers' patience thin with your continuous Chicken Little-style warning about the sky being about to fall. Point rather at the positive developments, such as for instance ... ah ... err... hum ... Why, at least your could say... ... ... ... ...." Well, never mind.