Looking back on it, 2009 was a pretty grim year, for the world and for the Philippines. Due to economic measures put in place at the beginning of President Arroyo’s administration, the Philippines joined its Asian neighbors in weathering the global economic crisis better than America or most European countries.

But the Philippines suffered its own disasters, with the havoc wreaked by powerful typhoons Ondoy and Peping and ending with the unparalleled massacre in the south. The highlights were boxer Manny Pacquiao’s acknowledged role as a world champion; Efren Peñaflorida’s international recognition for bringing school to children with his pushcart schoolhouse, and teenage vocalist Charice Pempengco’s “Best New Artist” award.

With the rise of China and India as global powers, the prediction of an economic and political shift in power from West to East is becoming more than idle speculation. Already Asia is the center of global recovery. The West must deal with the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the fragility of the government and reconstruction in Iraq, the ongoing uncertainty of nuclear agreements with Iran and high unemployment.

Although Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful use, it has not allowed verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and as demonstrations have continued since the contested election, the elite Revolutionary Guard has become more powerful than the clerics.

Climate change has finally been accepted as a reality by most countries who have gotten serious about efforts to cut emissions and reduce their dependence on imported oil. The Philippines has taken a regional leadership role in tackling climate change with efforts to lower emissions and develop alternate sources of energy, to cut its dependence on fossil fuels. It is already number two in the world in the development of geothermal power, and new contracts have been signed for the development of more solar power nationwide and wind power in the North, which has a consistent supply of wind. As an island nation, the Philippines is vulnerable to rising sea levels caused by glaciers melting.

As economic and political power shifts from West to East, the World Economic Forum, which will hold its annual meeting in Davos the last week of January, will focus on “The Global Re-design Initiative” which takes a look at the changing world of the near future. There was, historically, a British Century followed by an American Century. Today, Asia has the world’s most dynamic economies, and global decisions cannot be made without including China and India. This may well, as analysts are predicting, be an Asian Century.