Was 2013 a good year for you, one to celebrate? … or are you glad to see the back of it, and pleased to celebrate the arrival of 2014?

Either way, there was one helluva celebration a couple of nights ago. What do you reckon: around the world, maybe $100 million, maybe $200 million, maybe more, blown up in fireworks alone. A martian would be excused for thinking things are going really well. And that is also, of course, what our political leaders want us to think.

Money has been printed, interest rates are low, stock markets nearly everywhere are up (not in China!), house prices are rising (especially in China!).

If you are one of the “haves” already, what’s not to like? For the “haves”, 2013 was indeed a good year, for some of them, a stellar year.

But what about the hugely increasing number of “have-nots”? No fireworks for them. From the US and Europe to the poorest in Africa, these are the people that need food, shelter and security, a subsistence income or a job. 2013 wasn’t so good for them. Their boats didn’t rise on the Wall Street tide.

2013 didn’t see any breakthrough, or even much forward progress, on the big issues facing humanity and the planet: inequality, population growth, natural resources husbandry, pollution, changing climate. The self interested elite minority have no economic interest to tackle these issues: in fact, the opposite is usually true. They know what’s best for them, they think they know what’s best for all, and they’re in control. And, that’s the way it should be … in their opinion!

And that brings me to what I think was the biggest story for 2013: Edward Snowden. From the moment I watched the original interview in Hong Kong, I thought now THIS is a story. If you’ve never seen it, spend 13 minutes and go here. And then watch this story develop in 2014.

Above all, this is exposure of the lengths that those in control will go to to maintain their power in this modern wired, globalised world. The rest is (interesting) detail.