The Most Memorable Year Ever!

Well, first and foremost, many, many apologies for failing to stay true to my words.  Admittedly, as far as New Year’s resolutions are concerned, I failed miseably last month.  It was indeed a hectic month, although in hindsight, I should not have let that happen in the first place.

Before I do my routine talk on my monthly progress, let’s talk a bit about 2011.  For many, 2011 has been quite an interesting year with a lot of things happening before even its first half concluded.  No, I am not talking about my long-awaited trip I made to Turkey recently (it was worth the waiting, by the way) but real issues and real news.

I wrote in March that I did not expect anything more headline-grabbing than the unprecedented political unrests currently taking place all around Middle East (which have successfully sent a couple of leaders – and perhaps a few more – off the throne) but then one of the biggest recorded calamities ever struck Japan, killing more than 20,000 people, trigerring the nation’s worst nuclear disaster after the twin atomic bombings in 1945 and practically sent the whole world into a dark & gloomy atmosphere.

Thanks to Katie & Willie who tied the knot in the end of April, life became somehow bearable again, at least for the rumouredly 2 billion people who watch the royal wedding, either at home or in the graceful church of Westminster Abbey.  It is of course arguable as to whether most of them cared more on the sacredness of the wedding itself and the apparently inspiring love story behind it or what gowns Kate was going to wear and how to grab them FAST.  Hey, at least it was something to celebrate!  So much so that even in DUBAI, many hotels and restaurants tried to cash in and claim their slices of the pie by throwing a Dubai-style gala royal Friday brunch with the wedding broadcast live from London!  I imagine the same was being done elsewhere in the world.

Not so long afterwards, our fellow Mr. O gave us another reason to “celebrate”: the death of Osama bin Laden and what a surprise it was!  I remembered my buddy texted me early in the morning (my time!) just to say, “Osama is dead”.  Short and simple.  And nobody else talked about poor Katie & Willie, especially when one by one, questions around his death (Osama’s, not Willie’s, mind you!) begun to arise.  How did he die?  Was he really Osama?  How was he buried?  Who was there?  WHO else was there?  Where had he been hiding?  Why did nobody know about this place?  What had Asif (the President of Pakistan) been doing?  Why did Osama and his gang buy a lot of Coke (it was said that the occupants of his hideout used to buy Coke in bulks)?  Blahblahblah…

In all fairness, I completely agree that parts of the story somehow didn’t really add up although  I wouldn’t go as far as saying all of this was just Mr. O’s propaganda to win back his people’s trust and secure a second term as some people surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) suggest.  But then, Dude, what do you expect?  A pre-attack interview with Osama himself taking reporters for a quick tour of his hideout and telling them how nervous he was?  Or his family tree and which members of his family would be there explained in detail?  What?

What matters now is the future.  Osama's death is not going to end terrorism just like that.  It is likely to bring a psychological blow to his clique, yes, but as long as the ideology remains, more and more generations of his like will come, perhaps with even more sophisticated weapons…  You can even see the sprouts start growing here and there.  Go online and read what people think about Osama.  I am very concerned to see many people actually hailing him as a jihad hero and expressed their anger towards the US for killing their hero openly.  How could anybody ever, ever, ever hail somebody like him as a hero?  Somebody who has spread so much hatred against other fellow creatures of God’s, somebody who has initiated many attacks against commoners who have nothing to do with his war at all!  Have these people lost their sense of humanity?  Do they actually know what it is they are fighting for?  Do they seriously think two wrongs will make it right, especially when the wrongdoings they do are aimed at the wrong people?  May God forgive these lost souls and shed onto them some light, amen.

Anyway, just when I thought that was the grand prize, somebody else made a very successful attempt to steal the limelight and set a new world record of… (drums rolling) the first ever recorded suicide from Burj Khalifa!  Top THAT!  Leaping to his death from the 148^th floor of the world’s tallest building, the poor 37-year old cleaner was rumoured to be extremely upset when his request to take a leave was declined by his boss.  Naturally, his company categorically denied this although it didn’t elaborate any more details on this horrific case.  Click here for the news.

 Burj Khalifa (source: burjkhalifa.ae)

2011 is far from finish and I can’t wait to see what’s next.  Hopefully it would be some good and uplifting news.  Haven’t we had enough of sad and depressing news like this?