Some reasons to be cheerful....nicked shamelessly from the Spectator. in 1990 the UN announced Millennium Development Goals to halve the number of people in extreme global poverty by 2015....the UN reported at the end of last year that this target was achieved in 2008, that's 'evil' Global Capitalism for you right there, slowly but surely reducing global poverty, slightly at the moaning expense of the obscenly spoilt and indulged in debt west, but a good thing The rich world's economies grew by 6% over the past 7 years but fossil fuel consumption fell by 4% in the same economies. The average life expectancy in Africa reached 55 last year still horribly young compared to much of the world but up from just 50 in 2002. Deaths from AIDS have been falling for the past 5 years and from malaria by a fifth in the same period. The Peace Research Centre in Oslo reports that there have been fewer deaths due to war in the past decade than any decade in the last century. Happy New Year, bleedin' cheer up :)