Who changed the world in 2011?
So who changed the world in 2011 – this year of revolution – technological, political, economic, and more?
Was it Twitter? The Blackberry Messenger? Steve Jobs?
Or was it Aung Sang Suu Kyi prevailing over tyranny? Was it the Occupy movement, the UK’s urban rioters? The bankers? The markets?
Or was it a vegetable salesman in Tunisia who sparked the Arab Spring?
Perhaps it was the scientists at Cerne led by Antonio Ereditato whose team concluded that Einstein’s theory of relativity may be wrong about neutrinos and the speed of light!
Or yet another technology giant? 1354136941001
The canvas is yours, so are the paints. Who or what defined the pinnacle of this year of revolution?
You can follow Jon Snow on Twitter @jonsnowC4 and join the debate using #c42011.
Related posts:
- Has our tolerance of war changed?
- We’ve changed – the single party is over
- Team Green – why teenagers could save the world
- As Mr Bush leaves for Texas, life has changed
- One year on, but what's changed?
There are 38 comments on this post
Capitalism is failing. The market economy enforces the split between rich & wage-slaves. We can use Computers & Cash with Compassion, for the good of all. That’s Democracy.
What democracy?
There are indeed undeserving rich,who inheritted past wealth.There are rich gained at the expense of others.There are also rich gained by work ,effort and entrepaneurism that provides work and taxes to pay for those you seemingly call “wageslaves”.Should they not earn an income?
What is your alternative to a market economy in a global workplace and market?
Capitalism is failing due to management of the economy on flawed models.
Watch this broadcast a few days ago
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b018ksby/HARDtalk_Steve_Keen_Economist/
Capitalism is not failing.
Nor is free market capitalism (because we don’t have it)
Crony Capitalism is failing? well that depends on your point of view. Those at the top of the pyramid seem fairly ok, helping each other out, the rest of us have pretty much had it. I would say that was the point.
Voting with cash works in a free market system much better than in cronyism.
On top of that, we have all been told for years, before the crash, during the crash, and since the crash what was going to happen, but we just didn’t listen. Well except Iceland, they hit the recession early (and so will come out early), because they decided to investigate WHO is actually in debt, and found they could wipe 90% of the debt off their books (as it actually belonged to particular banks) and started prosecuting members of the banks that they found responsible.
Funny how Iceland fell out of the medias scope right as they started doing that. Now that was democracy at work.
Depends how you define capitalism.
If you mean free enterprise or the market economy – it’s not failing. It’s like water it will automatically take the shape of whatever vessel it is in. It cannot even be suppressed effectively as the Chinese and Russians found out, despite applying massive force to that end.
On the other hand if you mean, staggeringly huge, global enterprises that are too big to fail without destroying economies – you may be right. But, it’s much too early to say and my money will be on things remaining much the same after the dust has settled.
But I am curious to know why people who succeed in the tough world of business and generally create wealth and employment (despite the odd mistake) are singled out for special hatred by the left.
When any idiot who can sing a good song, is rather good at pretending to be someone else (acting)or is skilled a kicking a football can make countless millions without a word being said.
Do these people really think that running a multi million pound enterprise doesn’t take a special talent?
Curious isn’t it?
What a momentous question ,Jon.
Many have had their effect on some aspect of our lives in 2011,but very few actually occurred in 2011,rather they came to a culmination in 2011 in deeds committed much earlier.
Certainly the computer and TV have a great and not necessarily good part to play.Bringing instant communication and pictures from around the world.Both could have been a force for good,but instead spread evil,bad manners and quite often the irrelevant “luvvie”culture of self congratulation.
Has anyone changed the world this year?Or have the changes been limited to localised areas.The so called “Arab Spring” may become a world changing phenomena,depending on the outcome and end result,in each country.
The bankers,with their actions of previous years have certainly had a world wide effect,but to me the one who has had the most effect on Britain and now the world was “Edward Heath”.
His insistance and lies that led us into the EEC are now not only seriosly affecting this country but ,Europe and the world.
The banks and the politicians changed the world:
The banks screwed up the current economic system
The politicians tried to solve the problem based on outdated economic theories and models
The Year Capitalism Broke The Western Economy & The Coalition Failed the U.K.
Jon,
Nothing has changed, except for the worse. More poverty, more unemployment, more bank ripoffs than ever, more wars, more mass murder of innocents in other nations, more riots (this time, I am delighted to say, right on your doorstep and worst of the lot), more privatised corruption, more mainstream media ignoring of real issues, more mainstream media neocon lying, more parliamentary corruption. And that’s just for starters.
Of course one can always go to a concert to hide away from reality. But only for a few hours.
Mohamed Bouazizi changed the world. A simple man’s self-sacrifice led to a revolution that continues to sweep the Arab world.
Yes, he’s my suggestion as well.
I’ll second that Daniel.
If there has been anything linking together the anger across the globe it is the reaction against the powerful and privileged throwing their weight around all to serve some arbitrary system of rules and regulations. He was a reminder that at the end of any political or economic argument the only asset with real value are human beings and the work they do for their boss, their colleagues, their friends and their family.
Sadly, as we can see from the appointees in Greece and Italy (and soon who knows where), that western governments are taking a sharp turn away from representing their and even from the pretense of representation.
Bouazizi’s sacrifice and the protests that followed are an inspiration for everyone, not just the Arab world. Israelis, Greeks, New Yorkers, Spanish and even some in London realised that the monopoly of legitimate violence – violence on a terrible scale in Libya and Syria – was not a barrier to challenging and overthrowing the State. Bouazizi’s actions strengthened the resolve of the unhappy, unarmed citizen to open up a democratic space to discuss and challenge many of the issues raised in the comments here. And the Arab Spring will continue to have repercussions as we face the challenges ahead in 2012. Please, let’s have Bouazizi as the man of the year and of the decade!
Mohamed Bouazizi may indeed have changed the world – but are we sure yet that it was for the better ?
Tariq Jahan father of his murdered son in the riots who spoke of the insanity of the riots and brought peace to the upward spiarlling aggression in August must be at the top of the list.
Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of GOd
Who are the heros as far as the public sector workers are concerned. What many fail to realise is that Manchester and many other cities threw Nurses out of the NHS system and gave them no option but to work through agencies where they could save lives of the public NHS patients but not allow them to pay into the pension scheme. Then as nurses literally attended hundreds of interviews,we were rejected so agencies could flourish and money could be made out of us. Of course we didn’t get enough work to pay into private pensions and we were used for our expertise , whilst trusts bellowed they did not have enough nurses and brought thousands from other countries who were then allowed to pay into NHS pensions , an NHS we helped found.
18 years ago in manchester 45 yr olds were expected to retire.. Whose fault is it?
Perhaps they are beginning to reaise what it is to serve and feel justa little abuse.
I would have to say Obama.
Protests seem to rarely do anything, or anything positive these days.
The amazing individuals that do amazing things to help people or advance us morally, culturally, technologically etc. tend to be unsung and disappear between articles of tabloid news or the next wrong thing the west is doing with the economy (same as the last = QE)
But as far as obvious global impact, I would have to say Obama, of all the choices he has made or could have made, we are potentially on the verge WW3, and short of that he has lead or at least been a very public face to put to leading, an expansion of wars throughout the world.
The collective unelected politicians of the EU, along with their expensive army of bureaucrats deserve a special mention in the “for worse” category. Their unfailingly wrong resonse to the debt levels of Europe have taken the problem global. Well done!
“Capitalism has failed” is a nice trite leftie sort of thing to say. Suffice to say, it hasn’t (See Faisal).
Also, if we lose capitalism, we lose freedom. I’d rather keep freedom.
Kes nicely put on both blogs,and seconded
I hope it was the protesters around the world who joined the OWS demonstrations, because that would mean our society is heading towards a more fair distribution of wealth and privilege.
I fear, reinforced by Osborne’s performance on Tuesday and Cameron’s yesterday, that it is probably the bankers who continue to thumb their nose at the rest of us.
Your blog made me reflect on the changes since I was a boy just after the war. I grew up in a more deferential time when it seemed normal for toffs like Macmillan and Douglas Home to rule.
Then came the grammar school boys – Heath and Wilson – and we thought that the class system was breaking down.
Thatcher (enough said) then the smart alecs like Blair. Now we have the worst of all worlds – smart alec toffs, who believe they have the right to rule and are reinvesting in the class war by making the poorest pay for the sins of their wealthy pals.
It’s all rather depressing but cheered by a joke:
A banker, a tory, a teacher and a Daily Mail reader sit near a plate of 10 biscuits. The banker eats 9 then the tory whispers to the DM reader: ‘Look out, the teacher is going to steal your biscuit’
What we learn from the story is that, although the teacher and DM Reader may or may not have managed to acquire a biscuit, the one person who openly sacrificed any hope at all of having a biscuit was the Tory.
Never thought I’d read Sam offering a sympathetic line about a Tory !
But I suppose he’ll tell us next that the Tory acually owned the biscuit factory, where he oppressed his slave workers, thus pocketing untold millions from the fact that the biscuits were available in the first place.
Is there still an OWS protest or demonstration ?
Mudplugger
That the tory owned the biscuit factory didn’t need stating, it was so obvious
Adrian
Around the world protesters are being moved on and attacked (sometimes physically) by governments who claim to listen. Cameron villifies strikers for damaging the economy by leaving work for a day but gave the whole country a day off for the royal wedding.
Meanwhile paid-for lobbyists continue to buy MPs expensive lunches and whisper in their ear pushing whatever cause their paymasters demand.
Conclusion: only those with money get listened to
Hopefully this will be the year when we look back and realise we at last had a government that faced up to reality.
Brown and his disciple Balls may still prefer Greek economics, but that’s not surprising as they spent the last 10 years of the Labour government practising it.
As with every other Labour administration I have known, they spent us into penury and debt. And as in the past, it will take the Conservatives years to get us out of the mess.
Reminds me of Albert Einstein’s definition of madness – doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results
In many ways you are right, Caliban. It is a depressing cycle, especially as, if it is accurate, it means we will have several more years of smug, privileged tories looking after their own at the expense of ordinary people.
Another way of looking at it is that every few years a labour government has to spend more than it should to redress the balance, to dig people out of the drop in their living standards that has engulfed them while tories get richer and richer.
My only hope is that the cycle may have been broken. After all the last ‘labour’ government that you claim created the crisis, was largely led by Tony Blair. And I’ve not seen a more typical tory since Margaret Thatcher.
That may mean we are due a real labour government sometime soon, though it is hard to imagine given the current labour party’s showing on the strike.
Sam – The last Labour government did NOT create the crisis.
It was created by irresponsible bankers and especially in the US, the fraudulent packaging and sale of loans that were bound to fail.
But, and here’s the rub the UK was disastrously unprepared to handle it. The economic cycle of growth and retrenchment (boom and bust if you like emotive language) has been around for centuries. It’s as reliable as the tides.
Traditional Keynesian economics says reduce public debt during the good times, so you can spend during the bad time to stimulate the economy. For Labour that’s public spending and for Conservatives it’s tax cuts – either way it’s extra spending.
The idiot child Brown actually thought he had beaten the economic cycles! Remember “No more boom and bust” (King Canute springs to mind). So he thought he could spend like a drunken sailor during the good times because the bad times would never come. Surprise surprise – they did.
The cause is unimportant. If it was not the Bankers it would have been something else.
So, in Britain we were already up to our ears in debt, and Brown was forced to borrow even more!
Which is why Germany is OK and we are not.
Saltaire, you espouse the spendthrift left wing nature of true socialism.It must be the modern day teaching.
Spend, spend ,spend!!!! Get the country into a mess.Spend on non productive areas of the economy,until there is no money left.
Lose office to the Tories who will put the economy back on its feet.Argue that the privilidged Tories look after their own,because they look after the productive parts of the economy that will build back up the resources for Labour to spend again.
Yes it is time the cycle is broken,and we never again see a Labour government,but that is too much to hope for,with a left wing media.
The problem is we have a coalition where the Liberals have too much power for their number of MP’s and we have a weak “liberal” prime minister
Adrian, I have to admire the way you don’t let the facts get in the way of your prejudice.
How do you come up with a ‘left-wing media’? The Daily Mirror and Guardian ranged against the power of Murdoch, the Mail, Express, Telegraph etc? In your world the left presumably includes the BBC and C4, even though they fall over themselves to be unbiased but do challenge whoever has power at the time.
As to the Tories protecting ‘the productive parts of the economy’, presumably you mean people like Philip Green, Vodafone and other tax dodgers, along with lobbyists, bankers, hedge funds and all those others who have helped produce the current mess.
Their excuse was that the wealth of the few trickles down to the rest. But the widening wealth gap demonstrates that in contrast, the cash is pouring upwards.
And before you quote Brown etc, remember that they only came to power because the pretended to be tories. Can you name a more typical Tory than Blair?
Saltaire,i let facts tell the story.Yes we have a left wing media.Lets face it ,newspapers are a dying commodity,but you are right,there is only really the “Guardian and “Mirror” with a left wing agenda,but add to that the BBC and Channel 4.beamed nightly into millions of homes.How on earth can you claim they fall over themselves to be unbiased.All we seem to get is one of the architects of our demise,schholboy “Balls” pontificating about what is wrong,without reply or even questioning.I’d hate to see the bias if they were not “falling over themselves”
From your comments,presumably you would get rid of the likes of Philip Green and Vodaphone and the many thousands of jobs they provide and maintain.
As for protecting the bankers and their ilk, i believe the Labour party did an excellent job there.Didn’t they knight Fred for his services ??
Where and when did Blair and Brown pretend to be Tories? Is that your excuse because they were not in your opinion left wing enough,despite Brown redistributing money ,like no previous chancellor,but without the necessary controls.He spent money on the unproductive like it grew on trees.
Adrian, your ability to see so clearly with one eye is truly inspirational.
Are you suggesting the shadow chancellor, or anyone else from a left of centre point of view, should not appear on BBC or C4?
Perhaps you would like to keep a log of how often the government view and the opposition view is given. I doubt you will find the left wing bias you complain of. Indeed the fact that both sides complain BBC and C4 are bias tends to suggest they are getting it about right. (that’s correct, I’m not suggesting a right wing bias
As to Philip Green and Vodafone, I have no desire to see them leave. I just want them to pay their share.
If you and I are expected to pay our full tax why should they escape just because the sums involved are higher?
Both rely on the state to educate their staff, keep them healthy and provide an infrastructure that encourages business.
It seems you are quick to complain about subsidising public sector pensions but less concerned about subsidising billionaires.
Very Good Sam! I think the Occupy Movement has to be seen as the most era defining development in the last year.
The riots – though more damaging would be a close second. I guess the bigger picture is a failing global economy and the U.K. in debt with an escalating jobs crisis in the public sector. What’s worse is the rights of the working classes in private sector jobs are being compromised worse. I am 30 year old living in my father’s house, currently unemployed in one of the U.K.’s highest areas of unemployment. The general sense of hopelessness is brutally crippling. Degree’s and other qualifications useless, experience counts for less and those who are unemployed can expect a long waiting period to find any hope. The corporate service industry is not properly regulated and for many the only place to find work because socio-economic issues among others.
I’m sure I’m one of hundreds of thousands, highly qualified, skilled, unemployed on benefit living at home.
For us that biscuit of teaching is the only option – because of socio-economic factors becoming a teacher is very difficult too. In the end the bankers stole it all from us. We are living in a class oppressive era
Maybe it was nobody?
Nobody was prepared in the period 1970 to 2005 to pay sufficient prices for food commodities to encourage farmers to grow more food.
Nobody noticed when more and more fields were left fallow or unharvested.
Nobody took the blame when food shortages began to raise prices for everyone.
Nobody cared when higher and higher food prices caused chaos to the poor of Tunisia, and a young man tried to make a living for his family.
Nobody bothered when the young man was arrested and beaten. Nobody noticed until he set himself on fire.
Nobody could stop the protests about his death and the steeply rising food prices and shortages.
Nobody is the revolutionary.
Jon,
You know those fraudulent bankers and suited up liars and thieves you rant on about every now and then, the ones you refuse to name?
Now why don’t C4 News expose the same kind of people in Britain? What are you scared of? Or are we simply going to get a rant every now and then just to satisfy your outrage?
The lives of millions in this country are being destroyed by crooks and liars linked to a transnational fraud.
So the REAL questions are: WHO are the guilty? and What are YOU going to do about it?
You are a worker in mainstream media, one of the few capable of actually exposing these crooks to the world. It took just one honest journalist to publicly expose Murdoch’s media corruption. So instead of just blogging vague anger why don’t you people in C4 News get off your duff, stop giggling at the likes of that reactionary idiot Jeremy Clarkson, and DO YOUR JOB PROPERLY?
Who knows, you might even “change the world.”
A belated vote for David Attenborough.
I watched the final episode of Frozen Planet last night which must have raised doubts in the minds of even the most ardent climate change deniers.
Even if they don’t accept that it is caused by man, surely man has a responsibility to plan to deal with it so that the fewest possible suffer?
And as there is considerable evidence that man has at least some part to play in creating climate change, doesn’t it make sense to tackle those causes?
Sam ,what a narrow King Canute view,that man can reverse the climate.
I am not saying we have not contributed,but should we go back to the pre industrial revolution?
The one major thing that could be done ,but will not,and over which we have no control, is stop the destruction of the large forested areas or replant fast growing trees to replace those destroyed.
It is over a year since Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26 year old graduate attempting to eke out a meagre existence selling fruit and veg from an unlicenced stall in the provincial Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, set himself alight to protest at the state’s confiscation of his produce. This defiant, ultimate act must surely mean that his name will forever feature in historical accounts of the Arab Spring as its catalyst. As one of a generation of Britons who have inherited the luxury of democracy yet can barely be bothered to vote, I am in awe of this man’s sacrifice. It certainly puts camping in a tent outside St Paul’s Cathedral and popping out for Starbucks in context.