PARIS-with its glittering Fireworks and celebrations of New Zealand to Times Square, the world is excited to welcome the new year and hope for better future Saturday, saying goodbye to a year of hurricanes, tsunamis, and economic turmoil that many would rather forget.
Revelers in Australia, Asia, Europe and South Pacific island nation of Samoa, who jumped on the international dateline to be the first to celebrate, 2012 with pyrotechnic displays a welcome boom. Fireworks soared and trigger the red square of Moscow, the crowd in Paris Champs-Elysees boulevard Champagne Cork popped up at midnight, and up to one million revelers estimated hours of New York’s Times Square for the famous crystal ball drop panels.
But around the world, people with catastrophic unemployment and economic uncertainty, hope midnight will change their fate.
“What I see is that the price will go up, and I hope for is to keep working and to my family to enjoy good health,” said Joaquin Cabina, 53, a car mechanic in Madrid.
“2012 will be a better year. It has, “said Franke, 53, who was visiting New York with his family even after losing his job in military logistics this month in Jacksonville, Fla.