Happy New Year, all!
It really has been a while. But it’s great to be back here, committing the proverbial pen to paper and sharing my thoughts with you.
2011 is well and truly gone, and I’m struggling to get used to referring to 2012 as ‘this year’ and not ‘next year’. As I’m sure you noticed I went on a bit of a hiatus last year, with my last post being in way back in April. I was aiming to post at least once a week, but that didn’t quite work out as planned!
So let’s see. What were the highlights from last year that I could (and should) have written about?
The Arab Spring. I remember being in Kenya at the beginning of the year when that all kicked off. I always worry about protests. To be sure, it is an electorate’s right to protest, but depending on the country, governing administration and their respect for different opinions and human life, it can all go horribly wrong if the big guns are rolled out. However, countries like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen and by extension, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Syria will never be the same again. I doff my hat to those brave enough to campaign for what they believed in, and pay tribute to those who paid for displaying such courage with their lives.
The military campaign in Libya, spearheaded by the United Kingdom. External intervention in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation never fails to stir passions all over the world, and I am no exception. If at all it can be justified, why do we intervene in some countries and not others? Iraq and Afghanistan still bear the scars of being invaded years ago, and the jury is still out as to whether those countries are better off post-’emancipation’. My hope is that, with the demise of Gaddafi will come true freedom and prosperity for Libyans, as well as the ability to determine their collective destiny.
An earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and the subsequent nuclear fallout. An estimated 20,000 people were either killed or missing and alerts were issued at nuclear power plants across the country, the worst being at Fukushima. It was heartbreaking to see the destruction and I could not help thinking that, in spite of all the advances in science and technology, there are some things we will just never be able to control. Sadly, natural disasters are one such thing.
The Royal Wedding! Wills wed Kate in a beautiful ceremony at Westminster Abbey in April. I - along with an estimated two billion people around the world! – watched and wished them well.
Voting referendum in the United Kingdom. As part of the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement of 2010, the nation went to the polls to decide whether to continue using the current system of First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) to elect our Members of Parliament, or to change to the Alternative Vote (AV). The outcome was overwhelming, with an estimated 68% of those who turned out voting not to change to AV. I must say that I did not support changing the voting system. The referendum commitment was only made to appease the Liberal Democrats and persuade them to form a government with the Conservatives. Ah well! At least the farce that the electorate is unhappy with the voting system was put to the test and well and truly laid to rest.
Osama Bin Laden was killed by the United States Navy in a covert operation in Pakistan, and subsequently buried at sea. A difficult one for all sorts of reasons. I felt relief that the man who changed the world as we know it a decade ago was no longer around to plan dastardly deeds and sow seeds of destruction among those either sympathetic to his cause or vulnerable enough to buy into it. But at the same time, I felt chills to see footage of Americans dancing in the streets. Also, the United States is purported to have carried out the operation without the knowledge of the Pakistani authorities, who they accused of harbouring Bin Laden and other undesirable elements. The Pakistanis countered by claiming they had told the Americans of Bin Laden’s whereabouts long before the operation. Will we ever know the truth? What we do know is that since then, relations have been tense between Pakistan and the United States.
More sad news with the terror attacks in Norway. Turns out they were carried out by a right-wing extremist, and his trial for the murders of about 80 people is still ongoing. I can never understand the depths of such hatred, or exactly what the carnage he brought about is meant to achieve.
A petrol pipeline exploded in Nairobi, killing 100 in September. May not be front page news, but is poignant to me because I was in the area at the time!
Specifically in the UK, there was a flurry of activity around the phone hacking scandal involving the News of the World, which culminated in the newspaper’s shutdown. It is hard to believe how far this went, and I for one am still convinced that this deplorable practice was not restricted to the News of the World alone. I think journalists truly forgot the difference between what is in the public interest, and what simply interests the public. MPs’ expenses? In the public interest. Details of Hugh Grant’s or Sienna Miller’s private life? Not so much. A public inquiry was set up to review and investigate the culture, ethics and practices of the British press, and is still ongoing.
Then there were the riots in August. People claim they were in response to the killing of Mark Duggan - a 29 year-old black man - by police in Tottenham, but his family were at great pains to distance themselves from the violence which ensued in parts of London, Birmingham, Bristol, Leicester, Manchester and Liverpool. After a very slow start, the police finally took control of the situation. But not before 5 people were killed, several injured and millions of pounds worth of damage intentionally and wilfully caused. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) subsequently found that Duggan was unarmed and continue to investigate. In my book, it is clear that the police have a lot to answer for. How is it that an unarmed man is shot, but during the riots we watched on TV while they stood back – in some cases for hours! – looking on while the rioters destroyed entire high streets and set people’s homes on fire? They seem to be reactive instead of proactive most of the time, and when they do act – as in the cases of Jean Charles de Menezes, Ian Tomlinson and now Mark Duggan – the intelligence is flawed, with fatal consequences. However, none of this excuses the wanton looting we saw during those four days. Neither do poverty or challenging economic conditions, which some have tried to use as get-out clauses for this. It has been encouraging to see the police and courts working to bring the culprits to book, and I hope that those whose lives and business were disrupted by the disturbances are able to get back to normal soon.
Public sector workers protested government plans to restructure their pension packages, which would mean they have to pay more into them and work longer before retiring. Nobody wants that, I guess. But public sector workers live in another world in which the nation’s population is much smaller and younger, and where their present packages are affordable. There needs to be an understanding that the world we live in has changed, and part of the reason for the structural deficit now being tackled with such determination by this government is a culture of spending much more than we can afford, which has gone on for far too long.
Then who can forget the economy, and more specifically, the eurozone which had the international markets on tenterhooks all year? The euro is an interesting one, and I think I should do it justice by giving it an article of its own. I admit to being eurosceptic; I think reviewing it from a perspective of economic prosperity is extremely myopic. There is a lot more at stake here; you only need to look at the very subtle but very definite exits of democratic governments in Greece and Italy. The United Kingdom is very fortunate to be outside the eurozone, but its challenge is to resist being sucked in through other vehicles such as the European Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Justice and bailout packages.
Phew! So that’s the year in summary from where I sit. And me personally? I’m going to try – again! – to write regularly this year. More often. I enjoy it, and think I do it quite well. I need to develop the discipline of making time to do it, just like I do with going to work, reading, and exercising. So, I’ll be back writing articles and fiction, as well as reviewing books I’ve read or shows I’ve seen.
I have a failed business behind me now too! I celebrate that, not because it is easy to admit but because I had the courage to try, and will be trying again in the not-so-distant future. I admire the risk-taking and entrepreneurship of people like Sir Richard Branson and while I’m not in his league yet, at least I have experienced it and can say ‘I tried’.
Health-wise, I got the ‘thumbs-up’ after a couple of anxious months. Trust me, there’s nothing like a health scare to make you grateful for what you have!
That’s it, folks. All that remains is for me to wish you a very Happy New Year again. Have a good one!
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Happy New Year 2012!
Happy New Year, all!
It really has been a while. But it’s great to be back here, committing the proverbial pen to paper and sharing my thoughts with you.
2011 is well and truly gone, and I’m struggling to get used to referring to 2012 as ‘this year’ and not ‘next year’. As I’m sure you noticed I went on a bit of a hiatus last year, with my last post being in way back in April. I was aiming to post at least once a week, but that didn’t quite work out as planned!
So let’s see. What were the highlights from last year that I could (and should) have written about?
The Arab Spring. I remember being in Kenya at the beginning of the year when that all kicked off. I always worry about protests. To be sure, it is an electorate’s right to protest, but depending on the country, governing administration and their respect for different opinions and human life, it can all go horribly wrong if the big guns are rolled out. However, countries like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen and by extension, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Syria will never be the same again. I doff my hat to those brave enough to campaign for what they believed in, and pay tribute to those who paid for displaying such courage with their lives.
The military campaign in Libya, spearheaded by the United Kingdom. External intervention in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation never fails to stir passions all over the world, and I am no exception. If at all it can be justified, why do we intervene in some countries and not others? Iraq and Afghanistan still bear the scars of being invaded years ago, and the jury is still out as to whether those countries are better off post-’emancipation’. My hope is that, with the demise of Gaddafi will come true freedom and prosperity for Libyans, as well as the ability to determine their collective destiny.
An earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and the subsequent nuclear fallout. An estimated 20,000 people were either killed or missing and alerts were issued at nuclear power plants across the country, the worst being at Fukushima. It was heartbreaking to see the destruction and I could not help thinking that, in spite of all the advances in science and technology, there are some things we will just never be able to control. Sadly, natural disasters are one such thing.
The Royal Wedding! Wills wed Kate in a beautiful ceremony at Westminster Abbey in April. I - along with an estimated two billion people around the world! – watched and wished them well.
Voting referendum in the United Kingdom. As part of the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement of 2010, the nation went to the polls to decide whether to continue using the current system of First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) to elect our Members of Parliament, or to change to the Alternative Vote (AV). The outcome was overwhelming, with an estimated 68% of those who turned out voting not to change to AV. I must say that I did not support changing the voting system. The referendum commitment was only made to appease the Liberal Democrats and persuade them to form a government with the Conservatives. Ah well! At least the farce that the electorate is unhappy with the voting system was put to the test and well and truly laid to rest.
Osama Bin Laden was killed by the United States Navy in a covert operation in Pakistan, and subsequently buried at sea. A difficult one for all sorts of reasons. I felt relief that the man who changed the world as we know it a decade ago was no longer around to plan dastardly deeds and sow seeds of destruction among those either sympathetic to his cause or vulnerable enough to buy into it. But at the same time, I felt chills to see footage of Americans dancing in the streets. Also, the United States is purported to have carried out the operation without the knowledge of the Pakistani authorities, who they accused of harbouring Bin Laden and other undesirable elements. The Pakistanis countered by claiming they had told the Americans of Bin Laden’s whereabouts long before the operation. Will we ever know the truth? What we do know is that since then, relations have been tense between Pakistan and the United States.
More sad news with the terror attacks in Norway. Turns out they were carried out by a right-wing extremist, and his trial for the murders of about 80 people is still ongoing. I can never understand the depths of such hatred, or exactly what the carnage he brought about is meant to achieve.
A petrol pipeline exploded in Nairobi, killing 100 in September. May not be front page news, but is poignant to me because I was in the area at the time!
Specifically in the UK, there was a flurry of activity around the phone hacking scandal involving the News of the World, which culminated in the newspaper’s shutdown. It is hard to believe how far this went, and I for one am still convinced that this deplorable practice was not restricted to the News of the World alone. I think journalists truly forgot the difference between what is in the public interest, and what simply interests the public. MPs’ expenses? In the public interest. Details of Hugh Grant’s or Sienna Miller’s private life? Not so much. A public inquiry was set up to review and investigate the culture, ethics and practices of the British press, and is still ongoing.
Then there were the riots in August. People claim they were in response to the killing of Mark Duggan - a 29 year-old black man - by police in Tottenham, but his family were at great pains to distance themselves from the violence which ensued in parts of London, Birmingham, Bristol, Leicester, Manchester and Liverpool. After a very slow start, the police finally took control of the situation. But not before 5 people were killed, several injured and millions of pounds worth of damage intentionally and wilfully caused. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) subsequently found that Duggan was unarmed and continue to investigate. In my book, it is clear that the police have a lot to answer for. How is it that an unarmed man is shot, but during the riots we watched on TV while they stood back – in some cases for hours! – looking on while the rioters destroyed entire high streets and set people’s homes on fire? They seem to be reactive instead of proactive most of the time, and when they do act – as in the cases of Jean Charles de Menezes, Ian Tomlinson and now Mark Duggan – the intelligence is flawed, with fatal consequences. However, none of this excuses the wanton looting we saw during those four days. Neither do poverty or challenging economic conditions, which some have tried to use as get-out clauses for this. It has been encouraging to see the police and courts working to bring the culprits to book, and I hope that those whose lives and business were disrupted by the disturbances are able to get back to normal soon.
Public sector workers protested government plans to restructure their pension packages, which would mean they have to pay more into them and work longer before retiring. Nobody wants that, I guess. But public sector workers live in another world in which the nation’s population is much smaller and younger, and where their present packages are affordable. There needs to be an understanding that the world we live in has changed, and part of the reason for the structural deficit now being tackled with such determination by this government is a culture of spending much more than we can afford, which has gone on for far too long.
Then who can forget the economy, and more specifically, the eurozone which had the international markets on tenterhooks all year? The euro is an interesting one, and I think I should do it justice by giving it an article of its own. I admit to being eurosceptic; I think reviewing it from a perspective of economic prosperity is extremely myopic. There is a lot more at stake here; you only need to look at the very subtle but very definite exits of democratic governments in Greece and Italy. The United Kingdom is very fortunate to be outside the eurozone, but its challenge is to resist being sucked in through other vehicles such as the European Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Justice and bailout packages.
Phew! So that’s the year in summary from where I sit. And me personally? I’m going to try – again! – to write regularly this year. More often. I enjoy it, and think I do it quite well. I need to develop the discipline of making time to do it, just like I do with going to work, reading, and exercising. So, I’ll be back writing articles and fiction, as well as reviewing books I’ve read or shows I’ve seen.
I have a failed business behind me now too! I celebrate that, not because it is easy to admit but because I had the courage to try, and will be trying again in the not-so-distant future. I admire the risk-taking and entrepreneurship of people like Sir Richard Branson and while I’m not in his league yet, at least I have experienced it and can say ‘I tried’.
Health-wise, I got the ‘thumbs-up’ after a couple of anxious months. Trust me, there’s nothing like a health scare to make you grateful for what you have!
That’s it, folks. All that remains is for me to wish you a very Happy New Year again. Have a good one!
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