Enjoy surfing and have a break from  news of events that come in waves or relentlessly creep up on us. Angry people riot in the U.K.  They riot by social media.  Watch the latest struggles on CCTV.  Is that what all those cameras are for?  While probably not a doomsday fundamentalist, to me it seems that the brave new world has crept up on us and produces certain vibes.  It is not, by any means, the end of life as we know it.  Yet...

Riots are widespread and commonplace from the U.K., Paris (a few years ago), Greece, to the Middle East and beyond.

Thousands of refugees are in transit and beat at the doors of the well-off, without success.

Famine is gripping thousands of displaced families.

For all our higher education and the cyber age, global finances are beyond control.  Nations face bankrupcy. At least Australia has escaped that path.

Hardship?  The Mayor of London was overseas and the P.M. had to cut short a holiday in Italy.

Two examples of leaders who exemplify a bright new age, Obama or Gillard, are denied progress by those who just want to deprive them of success no matter what it costs the country, the economy or the environment. What is very promising in Australia is in struggle against negative forces that I thought we had seen the back of.