Epoch Times reporters from Europe and the Middle East to Asia and Down Under asked passers-by: “In your opinion, what was the most important event to happen in your country over the past 12 months?”
Heavy state affairs—new governments, new currencies, wars and corruption—shaped the past year for most people, mixed with a dash of light-hearted celebrity watching.
Shijie Ling, 26, Mechanical Engineer
Chen Shui-bian, definitely. This is an issue of trust and confidence, and also one of ethics. They should lock him up and never let him out, lock him up forever. Why? Because his behaviour lacks ethics and is highly unprincipled. It is also embarrassing for our country to have a president do this, so it is also important and serious for the Taiwanese people.
[Editor’s note: This refers to the ex-President of Taiwan’s indictment for forgery, money-laundering, and misuse of public funds in December 2008]
Timisoara, Romania
Liliana Adam, 27, Marketing Manager
The most important event of the year 2008 in Romania was the wedding of Cristian Chivu, the captain of the Romanian National Football team, with Adelina Elisei, a television sport presenter at Antena 3 National Television. This event was heavily covered by the national mass-media.
Samuel Adamisin, 19, Student
Certainly, the fact that we started to pay with Euros. I can use our own currency in all countries of the Eurozone, which is very convenient. From the countries of the Visegrad Group, the Slovak currency was the only one that didn’t slide down rapidly, so it wasn’t devalued against the others. I study abroad and need to exchange money regularly, so this suits me very well.
[Editor’s note: The Visegrad Group, also called the Visegrad Four or V4, consists of four post-communists countries in Central Europe: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Of those, only Slovakia managed to adopt the Euro currency by January 1, 2009.]
Tomas Vlcek, 23, Student
Well, there wasn’t actually anything so important going on in this country. But if you’re asking from a global point of view, the new year started with the Czech presidency of the European Union, and it has already had to face two major crises—the conflict in the Middle East and the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine—and I think it is going rather well. These are not unexpected events, but probably the most important.
Athens, Greece
George Petrou, 23, Accountant
The issue with the “Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopedi”—even monks betray their faith for money. This disappointed me.
[Editor’s note: In September 2008, the 10th century monastery was involved in a land swap scandal with the federal government, costing the state an estimated €100 million.]
John Marjoram, Retired Builder
The most important thing at present would be the lowering of interest rates. They were creeping up too high. And probably the change of government, which was not necessarily for a good thing, but it’s happened. We, the normal people, are not really sure what is truth, what is fact and what is fiction. Are all these things necessary; is there a recession or is it political? I don’t know.
Auckland, New Zealand
Arthur Wood, 84, Retired Engineer
The change of government—the National Party replaced the Labour Party. National have got different policies. Some of the previous government policies were slanted in favour of the ‘bleeding hearts.’ They seemed to favour criminals more than the victims; judicial decisions were a slap over the wrist with a wet bus ticket. The government should call the tune on sentencing. I have got more hope in this government than the last one.
Beirut, Lebanon
Wissam Attieh, 28, Bio-medical Engineer
The most important thing that happened to Lebanon in the last 12 months is the Doha Agreement. It put an end to three years of political crisis that held governmental and parliamentary life. It also led to the election of Michael Suleiman, former Chief Commander of the army, as president. Economically, protests in downtown have ended and life was back in Beirut city. In the end, things are not great now, but better than before.
Iran Maryam (surname withheld), University Arts Major
The most important event that happened to my country over the previous year was the economic crisis and the war in Gaza; while this war had nothing to do with us it increased the economic pressure in our country.
Dror Marom, 41, Journalist
The most significant thing that happened in Israel in the last year was the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. During his short term in office, Mr. Olmert initiated two wars, in Israel’s northern and southern borders, in which the country’s civil population was exposed to missile threats and suffered casualties, and the ability of Israel to deter its enemies was damaged. Mr. Olmert was forced to leave office after Israel’s police exposed corruption in his past and present posts as Minister and Prime Minister.
Beirut, Lebanon
Ibrahim Achkar, 27, IT Professional
Lebanon is currently known for numerous and grand political events, but for an athletic person such as myself, Beirut International Marathon, held on November 30, was the most important event of the year. It brought the pleasure of sports and competition together with the benefit of a good cause. We enjoyed running under the slogan “With their strength we run.”
