I love the pseudo-should-auld-aquaintance-be-forgot-melancholy a day like New Year’s Eve is providing en masse. That may also have something to do with me being German. And while the rest of the world has slowly come to grasp the national German obsession with melancholy, you can believe me if I tell you that things have changed. In 2002, many people in this country no longer believed in mere melancholy but have instead turned to outright depression. Thus, they’re clearly not too unhappy to ring out the Old, even though they are not too confident about the New either.

I am not quite sure yet, but I sense the national depression is actually about to end. Maybe 2003 will finally be the year in which people as well as the country leave the decade of post unification paralysis behind and finally get going. A Chancellor’s New Year’s Eve speech usually will not be a useful indicator for political developments, but in conjunction with some reform papers the government floated recently, some of Schroeder’s words could actually mean something this time. The gist of his speech is: We have finally accepted reality and and we will therefore implement the necessary changes. Some will scream. But we will all benefit in the end.

C’mon, 2003, let’s roll. I will certainly see to it.

And now, let me close this blog’s first year by wishing all of you, my gentle readers, a very pleasant New Year’s Eve and a happy 2003!