So maybe goodbye

or "farewell" or "Auf Wiedersehen" or "Tschüss" or "au revoir" or "ciao" or "tot ziens" or "sawasdee krap" or  "hejdå" or "farvel " ....

Addressed principally to my small group of regular readers, although everyone is, as ever, welcome.

There are 365 items to date (before this article) on this blog. It would be possible for a reader to select one item per day to study each day of the year. As in a leap year you will need an extra item for February 29th, you create one more article (hence this) and let the reader decide what to read that day. Every four years, like a German election cycle or an American Presidential cycle.

I started writing this blog in 2010. My concern then as now was to get beyond the clutter of individual instances (the "tabloid" approach), and get to the grist of the issues (like the "quality" press). Facts. Analysis, long-term picture. Escape the situation where you cannot see the wood for the trees.

I have not always succeeded - I too get stuck in the here and now rather than looking to the future. Some of the best stuff IMHO I wrote when I first started out - only I seem to read that now, so .....

At times you are deadly serious, at times you are funny, at times you are cynical, at times you are downright pessimistic, at times despite all the events pointing to the contrary, you can see a light shining at the end of the tunnel.  You need the latter - once that goes out .....

The impersonal mixes with the personal. The individual voice is suddenly part of the crowd. And suddenly everything fades to shadow and you are alone again, the voice of wisdom in a world dominated by stupidity, the selfless voice among the selfish cat-calls.

You mix history, politics, economics, various languages, various branches of science, geography, maths, music, the arts in general. All the learning required to understand the reality of what is happening out there. You blend, you mix, but you stay rational. Silencing your emotions is not always easy, but emotional shouting matches are never really won, remember that! Bitterness always remains for the loser.

So where are we?

See most polls out there where people can decide for themselves (exclude chronic dictatorships where voicing your opinion is not allowed), and you will hear that the world is headed in the wrong direction. So then we have an election and vote into power a load of people who do not understand this.

And the repeat errors are there and obvious for the trained observer. The Asian crash (principally Thailand) of 1997, the crash in the Western world in 2008 (principally the US, but Europe is still paying heavily for it), Thaksin Shinawatra in Thailand in 2001, Mitt Romney (George W. Bush Mark II!) in the US (almost certainly) in 2012.

Do we ever learn? Do we want to? But if you do not learn the lesson, you do not pass the exam.

After our Pyrrhic victory over the bureaucracy and the corporatocracy (74 Euro extra that we could not afford), the passport is sorted out, and as of Wednesday at 1410 I shall be with my wife on a plane to Bangkok. Three weeks holiday and family visit for her, three weeks reading and counting the days for me. Once in a while, when visiting the university where her sister teaches for example, I might get to open my mouth. Maybe I will finally get round to learning Thai. Someone who can manage French, German and Dutch should be able to manage that. But Thai is a tonal language, and my singing voice is not amazing!

No laptop - I have been told to leave that at home. No translation work - as not only my wife has said "no" to that, perhaps more disturbingly my doctor has also told me to take a break (German word "Pause").

In 2013 I need to find something else to do, a surer form of income. Some chance of that! Or rather no chance of that!!!!

And as of today I am putting this blog to sleep. Maybe for a few weeks, maybe forever. Its words will be still out there, its comments are worthy of study in many instances. Hopefully some people will have learned something, maybe I will have informed and entertained the world and will in my absence continue to do so.

Like Cincinnatus though the time has come to withdraw myself and my opinions to the shadows and anonymity of the real world.

So farewell, thanks for visiting and viel Glück!