This time last year I ended my column like this:
“With what’s ahead in this coming year, I’ll be excited to write my column this time next year. Another installment in the X-Men film series will be released (I’m a geek, whatever); the iPhone 5 is coming (sucks to be an iPhone 4 owner, so I?hear); and hopefully there will be something good to write about from the provincial election.”
Well the results are in. X-Men First Class was awesome, although, there were some continuity issues from other films, but with different writers, directors, etc., it’s bound to happen.
The iPhone 5 never came. The iPhone 4S was released in November, but it wasn’t the revolution in the Apple handset that everyone was hoping for. The iPhone 5 is promised for summer 2012, and from what I’ve read, it’s supposed to be overhauled, with a bigger screen and faster everything.
As for the provincial election, nothing really amazing happened. Here in Huron-Bruce, newcomer Lisa Thompson beat two-term MPP?and cabinet minister Carol Mitchell, and I?think that was the biggest deal in all of Ontario. Dalton McGuinty lost his majority; but who didn’t see that coming?
But a lot of political excitment did come out of 2011 outside of Ontario, starting in Tunisia, where protests led to the ousting of longtime president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011 after a 24-year rule.
Then we saw the fall of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule as Egyptians protested in Cairo in January. He announced his resignation in February.
Then Libya followed suit, although, their protest evolved into all out civil war, prompting a NATO response, and the eventual execution of Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.
Major protests are also being seen in Algeria, Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, Jordan, Oman, Jordan, and now it’s getting heavy in Syria. And the world is watching North Korea with the recent passing of Kim Jong Il.
And the Occupy protests. All I can say is that it just goes to show how frustrated people are, and they don’t know what else to do about it.
And although it looked like the world might end, Harold Camping’s May 21 apocolyptic “prophesy” turned out to be hooey. Then he had a stroke which affected his speech. Think someone was telling him to shut up?
I’m sure that won’t be the last mention we hear about Doomsday. According to the Mayans (an extinct civilization, by the way) the calendar ends as of Dec. 21. But for what it’s worth, my hunch tells me I’ll be doing exactly what I’m doing right now at that time, writing my year-end column and looking forward to 2013.