Who am I? Am I the result of my experiences combined with some genetic predispositions? What is my self image? I have so many different personality facets that it is difficult to answer the simple question "who am I". There is the Business Mala, the Cat Lover Mala, the Political Mala, the Lover Mala, the Artsy Mala, the Ibiza Mala, the Gothic Mala, the Party Mala, the Wise Grandma Mala, the Kid Mala and so much more. I see myself not as one person, but as a group of persons. I am my own state, with my own people! :) Not in the sense of a split personality with different subjects trying to gain control, but more like a discussion panel with very diverse panelists in a civilized discussion, who have different experiences and different opinions.

A key element to identity are also values. So what are my values? I try to live eco-friendly, I have my principles which I follow, I am not particularly a family values person. I value primarily scientific values, like inquisiteness and curiosity, (social)courage and the guts to stand tall against a Goliath, I value humour, I value honesty, candour, civic behaviour, loyalty and benevolence. Although I seem to be a happy-go-lucky person to many, honestly I am a very serious person I guess, because all the worlds troubles bug me. If politics were not that much about talking and more about doing, I would join politics (I had a brief political career with the young social democrats a long time ago on a national level, but most of them were pompous smartasses and I decided that helping out in a homeless shelter is more grassroots than "Salon-Socialism"). As such I'd rather join special interest groups fighting for specific causes.

Let's look into my Futuroscope and see what the future may bring in the next years:

• we have reached the tipping point and are now on top of the mudslide. It can't always go up, and whatever goes up will come down again. Global economies will drift towards recession when the US hits recession end of this year and the aftershock reaching Europe early 2008. The US mortgage market will continue to see difficulties which will increase dramatically in the next two years, due to decreased family incomes in general and a rise in mortgage rates.
• Big China crash and as a result massive job cuts in Europe and the US, layoffs in China will cause protests and violent retaliation by the Red Army.
• Germany will declare that in a few years they'll be bankrupt, necessary reforms will not be done, resulting in almost civil war like protests in all major German cities. Massive protests in Germany as the number of the poor will rise, clashes between neonazis and the police will increase. State pensions will not be paid out, havoc on the streets, while neofascists and leftwing chaots fight eachother in an almost civil war like state. After a few months of total chaos, Germany will once again crave for order and a strong leader. Edmund Stoiber - head of Bavaria - will become Kanzler! :)
• After a very warm spring, a very hot summer will lead to water shortages in major European and American cities. Many older people will die from the heat.
• Poverty will rise in the whole of Europe, as the Babyboomers enter their pension age and the young are few and increasingly jobless and poor. Pensions will be cut and old people forced to work longer or take on side jobs to sustain themselves. Dementia, Diabetes and Obesity will challenge the health ministries of all the developed world. Euthanasia will become legal in most European countries and misused by hospitals and old people's homes.
• The Spanish Flu in 1918 mostly struck young people below 30. Today many young people and children live in dire conditions and are poor, which will dramatically increase in the next few years. The Bird Flu will strike in the next few years with the same strength as the Spanish Flu in 1918 and once again wipe out a whole generation globally.
• Israel will strike a pre-emptive attack against Iran in 2007, Iran will strike back with missiles, US will intervene. This chaos will ultimately lead to a democratic win and a republican landslide in 2008
• Hillary will be nominated Democratic candidate for the presidential elections, Obama will run as independent and become President 2008
• Britney and Williams will finish their careers and possibly their lives too this year
• A major earthquake will shakedown our town