10 years from now in 2016, here are the ten things that 2006 will be most remembered for …
1. The Decline of the Big Brother….
It is the year that world over people lost their fear of the Western powers, represented mostly by the US and it’s immediate Western allies. Financially, politically or economically. The loosing of the War in Iraq, the inability to contain Hamas in Lebanon, the inability to contain the nuclear ambitions of Iran or North Korea, the continued spiralling dollar, the inability to get China to bow down in the revaluation of the Yuan. The sheer audacity of the President of Venezuela publicly denouncing the President of the United states a Devil on US soil in the UN. All were signs of a world now realizing that power balances were shifting elsewhere.
2. Green Power
As scientists released alarming data on the melting of the Glaciers and Artic ice at alarming rates, the consumer increasingly began looking to buy products from ‘Greener’ corporations. Global warming finally came to be accepted as a major issue and threat to Gobal environment . And so in 2006 began the race to save the Planet.
3. The power of the Individual
This year the individual finally found a way to fight back. Against the power of the State, the Corporate behemoth and any other Power Structure. . 2006 will be known as the year that Blogging came into it’s own. Expect now for Tv and News Channels to be challenged by blogTv. Radio by blogRadio. Expect now to see Global alliances to be made by millions of individuals through their Blogs that will threaten the concept of the Nation State.
4. When 15 minutes of fame became 15 seconds of fame.
2006 will be know as the year that long term Iconism in Media was finally challenged. Internet sites like Youtube, Myspace coupled with mobile entertainment gave the consumer such a huge choice as anyone had the ability to put themselves out on the net. New pop idols and stars will rise and fall in a space of weeks as the consumer is hammered with new images and sounds every minute.
5. The coming back of Tuberculosis.
In 2006 the WHO started to ring the alarm bells on new mutated strains of TB. TB threatens to become as ravaging an epidemic as Aids is now. Mass transit and Globalization will make it difficult to contain. The airlines will suffer their greatest loss as air travel becomes the biggest source of spread of the infection.
6. Hritick Roshan
The rise of Hritik Roshan started in 2006, when after Dhoom 2 he made a statement of his readiness to challenge International Stardom. He will go on become India’s first $ 20 million dollar actor.
7. The decline of the human actor.
It was the year that animation films began to far far out gross live action films internationally. With a little Penguin in ‘Happy Feet’ becoming much more popular than a new hyped James Bond. Gradually the big blockbuster films will increasingly be Animation films, and live action films taking a poor second place. Most ‘live’ actors will gravitate to TV sitcoms. Even New Media will generally be animated. The big stars will be lifelike animated characters.
8. The beginnings of the invasion of the Indian mythic characters.
In 2006 the success of Virgin Comics to brand Indianized mythical characters such as Devi into the international markets within one year of inception, will begin a rising tide that will swamp older and Western characters. Such as Batman, Superman, Spiderman etc and other ‘Disney’ characters with newer, more mythic Eastern characters.
9. Low intensity Radioactivity started as the new weapon of Terrorism.
In 2006 an ex KGB operative Alexandra Litivenko was assassinated using Polonium 210. It will give rise to a a new weapon of fear and mass killing to be used by Terrorists.
10. Civil strife in the UK
The seeds were sown in 2006, with the Goverment coming out heavily in favour of banning the Hijab. Along the fear phobia of home grown Islamic terrorists, the Government began to sow the society with fears of mass migration from Eastern Europe. The Prime Minister came out publicly and said that the ‘ British Way of Life’ was under threat. The fear phsycosis that will set in will turn immigrant areas into battle fields. As the trouble spreads to London, Capital and financial management will fly out of the City, depriving the UK of one of it’s largest sources of GDP.
::In 2006 the success of Virgin Comics to brand Indianized mythical characters such as Devi into the international markets within one year of inception, will begin a rising tide that will swamp older and Western characters.
I don’t think I’d say they would swamp the western market, really. Devi was well drawn, but as a comic, it lacked the fluency in writing that is needed to make it a long standing success. I think it mostly has to do with the curiosity value that Indian myths have in the West that led to the sales that it enjoyed. In itself it was, in my opinion, not much better than Witchblade and others of its ilk.
The point I’m trying to make is that increased global awreness will most definitely create a mass market for eastern myths, and even now it’s a strong presence. But after the initial euphoria dies down, the only ones to survive will be quality products. Like the Chinese Wuxia films.
Regards,
Samrat
6,7,8 all great – but will Hrithik go virtual ? – at last, no hugo egos to deal with when making movies, films will become techno-puppetry minus the strings…”Thunderbirds” was set in the 21st Century and featured actors on strings…was this ahead of its time or what ??
…and now Shilpa Shetty on Big Brother….
..Dreamworks’ “Beowulf” looks interesting although to date I have not been impressed by “performance capture”…
By the way, I was chatting to comic book shop owner here recently & he said that most of the Virgin line were being snapped up by non-Asians – nice to see a poster advertising the Ramayana comic there too , & Devi prominently displayed near the door to the shop…
Happy New Year !…
Dear Shekhar
One through six work.
Seven is questionable. Replace the word most with the word some throughout and it makes more sense.
I’m neutral on eight, hoping you’re right, but we’ll see.
Nine is too farfetched (the method has been around for decades, if it were easy to do, it would have been tried).
Ten discounts modern Christian cultures’ ability to adapt their reactions and responses to reality — they’re not driven by heavy dogma, and at those times when heavy dogma appears and attempts to push people to act with coldness or cruelty, it begins to fade pretty fast, because the essence of Christianity is anti-dogmatic compassion. One, three and five support my contention on this, being expressions of the honest will of common people, who most often don’t act from spite or hatred or fear.
Happy New Year, Shekhar! Best wishes and blessings for you and all you love and care about.
love, Heath
Dear Mr. Kapur,
I am sure you are asked this question hundred times a day, but still – is there any way to send you a movie script for your review and consideration to make it into a movie? Sorry for this completely out of place post, but could not think of any other way.
Thanks,
Arnab.
2006 will be remebered for the execution/assasination(?) of Saddam Hussein.
Doesn’t that challenge the first thing on your list- the decline of the BIG Brother?
2006 will be remebered for the execution/assasination(?) of Saddam Hussein.
Doesn’t that challenge the first thing on your list- the decline of the BIG Brother?
2006 will be remebered for the execution/assasination(?) of Saddam Hussein.
Doesn’t that challenge the first thing on your list- the decline of the BIG Brother?
2006 will be remebered for the execution/assasination(?) of Saddam Hussein.
Doesn’t that challenge the first thing on your list- the decline of the BIG Brother?
2006 years since the birth of the story of christ. Amazing , stories can last that long. It doesnt matter to me , since , we needed some refernce point to count time anyway. I wonder who first said ‘Long Live the Augustine Calander’, he was so darn right..heheh.
So be it. Another year – so the constellations of stars are in the same positions as we last saw them a year ago.Nothing new. Human intransigencies and ignorances will endure and in true statistical style some will rise , and some others will fall.
2006 to me is the year when i bumped into Shekhar’s Blog – which is not a bad ending 🙂
Rudra.
hmm.. I wise, 2006 will be remembered. Fact is we live in world of ‘today is by the day’, just few have time & courage to turn back:
:: The Decline of the Big Brother…!?
Now with genX everyone in the family has a word to say/comment to make but ‘Big brother’ makes decisions and will continue to do so. Yes, 2006 events highlights self-confidence among others & divide in US communities. Lets not forget the fact mr.Bush is unpopular so whatever he(/his friends/his policy) does is & will be unpopular not just around the world but within americans as well. superpower status does not mean military and political influence anymore, but also must be at the top of the economic, scientific, and cultural pyramids. Soviet Union was only a partial superpower, and the most recent genuine superpower before the United States was the British Empire. few highl
Economy: possible challenger ‘China’ – the progress that the US economy made from 1945 to 2030 (85 years) would have to be achieved by China in just the 25 years from 2005 to 2030. Even then, this is just the total GDP, not per capita GDP, which would still be merely a fourth of America’s. (assuming US GDP 3.5% and china’s GDP 10%.. by 2030, US economy size $30 trillion in 2006 dollar and china’s will be around $2.2 trillion)
Brand, Inventions & mass-marketing: Creating world-accepting brand such as Nike, Coco-cola, Xerox, Google, (very recently)Youtube,. Europe & Japan had worked very hard in last 50yrs to have few in few specific selectors. Become the nation that produces the new inventions and corporations that are adopted by the mass market into their daily lives. Lets accept American-dominated ‘blogosphere’ emerged as a powerful force of information & media. USSR was ahead of the US in the space race at first, until President Kennedy decided in 1961 to put a man on the moon by 1969. now, China has plans to put a man on the moon by 2024.
Military power: “Have a military capable of waging wars anywhere in the globe (even if it does not actually wage any). Part of the opposition that anti-Americans have to the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is the envy arising from the US being the only country with the means to invade multiple medium-size countries in other continents and still sustain very few casualties. No other country currently is even near having the ability to project military power with such force and range. Mere nuclear weapons are no substitute for this. The inability of the rest of the world to do anything to halt genocide in Darfur is evidence of how such problems can only get addressed if and when America addresses them.”
Education & Immigration: 16 of the world’s top 20 universities are in the US. ofcourse, we can notice odd good B-school poping-up elsewhere but Noone is even close to MIT. so US will continuce to attract top students from Asia, Europe and retain them. “US effectively receives a subsidy of $100 to $200 billion a year, as people educated at the expense of another nation immigrate here and promptly participate in the workforce”. No other country has size & capablities (atleast today) to attract & retain smart people(different nationals).
Entertainment & Culture: No one will be able to (/willing to) address ‘Piracy’ issues (we need smart business-man & business plan to overcome this problem). and “When American teenagers are actively pirating music and movies made in India or China, only then will the US have been surpassed in this area. Take a moment to think how distant this scenario is from current reality.” Forunately or mostly UnForunate that you cannot avoid noticing we are getting Americanized day-by-day.
Europe & Japan have tried for decades, and have only achieved parity with the US on maybe two of these dimensions at most.
PS: US will remain superpower, claims CIA [ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1232272639.cms ]
hope I make sense
2) 2006 began the race to save the Planet – I hope this is true, since everyone accepted problem but so few actions were taken or no-action-plan was drafted.
6) Hritick Roshan.. agreed he is talented but will 20M$ bill make him as popular as tom cruise, will smith, leonardo..!? ofcourse, you will be best judge..;-)
Thanks for your listening
Cheers,
http://www.blogger.com/profile/14317831523155115391
I think the statement about Hrithik Roshan is bogus. He is an Indian actor, so what? What does CHALLENGE International cinema mean anyway? Doesnt he have to work with the production? not challenge it? The way he said it seems like mission, which it is, but a mission for what? Om Puri is a big actor in the states, so is Kal Penn. Hrithik wants to be James Bond, this i heard, but what does that get him in the end? $20 Million? now what?
Hey even when industrialisation was beginning to start every one felt that it is rise of individual over authority because ultimately tools of manufacturing will be controlled by an individual.I accept that power balances will shift because of change but will that necessarily mean that there is going to be some improvement in society’s fundamental structure of slavery or that authority will be of any great change.
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