2009. The good, the bad and the ugly.

2009 has been a writers dream, as it closes I have been thinking a lot about what has happened in the last 12 months and, to an extent, the last decade.  Of course there has been the obligatory celebrity deaths which were as over blown as they always are, and seemingly more important than any one else’s.  I sat in disbelief as almost every news channel beamed tribute to Micheal Jackson, the same media who up until the moment he died still liked to ridicule any of the countless ridiculous things that this former entertainer has said, done, or looked like since 20 years ago when he released the last thing resembling a decent song, so I should be forgiven for not caring even slightly about what they had to say.  Many people still think he was a paedophile (pedophile for the Americans), evidence suggesting he wasn’t recently surfaced, which is good, but ‘Earth Song’ still exists, and that is completely unacceptable.

I guess I will never understand mourning a celebrity, which I am sure is a good thing, but I do end up feeling left out quite a bit.  There was a ‘celebrity’ here in the UK, I refuse to mention her name on this or any other page, but she became famous for being dumb, and for giving oral to some idiot on Big Brother.  She then became the most successful housemate ever before outing herself and her idiot family as a bunch of ignorant, half-witted racists…  Then she died and that was all forgotten.  I get the impression that had Elvis, Tupac and Jesus decided to come back as a rock band, they would have had to wait until the nation stopped mourning her before they could announce the tour dates.

It is easy to joke all the way through one of these round ups because a lot of funny or ridiculous things happened this year, and that is good, you should be able to take fun or humour from things no matter the severity, for example I couldn’t help but laugh when Tony Blair admitted, only weeks ago, to the world that he was in fact the murdering sociopath that most of us knew he was, and that he had no problem lying to us to justify his blood lust… not a hearty belly laugh of course, but one of disbelief and anger, what made matters worse was that no one seemed to care.

It wasn’t all bad looking back, I mean, at least it started well.  In January the first black President of the United States of America took office which pleased me for two big reasons.  Number one, I can’t stand racists and it cracks me up that some people in America are now dealing with their worst nightmare.  Number two, I am just happy that America now has a President that can string a whole sentence together without making it look difficult.

Obama. Man, not man-child.

The general population out did themselves this year with the level of hysteria surrounding the ‘Swine Flu outbreak’, which, much like SARS, MRSA, and Bird Flu, amounted to just about a low level flu that could easily be a common cold.  The adverts on TV suddenly became these awful, obvious and horrific examples of propaganda that Joseph Goebbels would have been happy to put his name to.  UV lights and dirty hand prints make sure that your house will be a germ free zone, so that your children won’t try something silly like being a normal child who plays in the dirt and is only afraid of the monsters under the bed, and an invite to Neverland Ranch.  Soon the world will be ran by a generation of agoraphobics with respiratory problems who get deathly sick if their milk is reaching it’s use by date.

Like these idiots you should disregard the rest of your life... Germs are now all dangerous.

Politics, however, became more and more prominant towards the latter half of the year.  On the world stage there are many differing opinions…  Pro War, Anti War, whatever.  Local politics in Britain suddenly became popular and actually managed to squeeze on to the front pages between the winner of X Factor and Britains Got Talent, just underneath the winners of Strictly Come Dancin, on or off ice…  The funny thing about those shows is they refer to the last one in it as the winner…  But can you really win when you wrap up and sell your dignity?  I think not.

Politicians were discovered to be completely “taking the piss” as they saying goes.  The expenses scandal was one of my favourite news stories of 2009.  It just kept on going, they were claiming for all manner of things, floating duck houses, bell towers, second houses for their lazy children, and porn…  The British National Party had their best year ever when they were invited on to Question Time, where the Fuhrer Nick Griffin was berated by not only the audience but the idiots in the panel who didn’t realise that had they not been so childish we could maybe have just given him enough rope to hang himself.

2010 starts a new decade, which will either be an extention of this one, where we continue to not only settle for, but celebrate mediocrity, or we will realise that after generations of being ripped off by weasels like Bush or Blair we start to work towards something special…  it may be dealing with the climate, or it could be more local like not being scared to stand up to crooks who are ripping us off on a daily basis…  If I am paying so much money to these people I expect a better performance, and a little respect…  If that isn’t forthcoming then surely they are out and we can put someone else in. It shouldn’t fill you with fear, if you don’t like something then change it.  Life could be so much worse, no matter what happens, I always think “I could be in ‘The Hills’, and that makes me feel better.

I apologise for this going on a bit, but it is a whole year I am trying to comment on…  Feel free to comment on your own favourite news from the past year.

As a parting gift for this year I want to quote a man who died during it.  Sir Clement Freud, grandson of Sigmund.  He was a writer, politician, chef, gambler and broadcaster.  Best known for his deadpan wit, he is utterly quotable…  “If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving, you don’t actually live longer; it just seems longer”

Sir Clement Freud. (right)

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. (choose one)

And a great new year.

Henry Hunter. x

Posted by henryhunter on December 23, 2009. Filed under Opinion Editorial,WorldNewsVine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.