As it is nearing the end of the year, blogs and news sites are abuzz with the obligatory ‘Year in Review’ articles.

Always one to follow the crowd, I would not deny myself, or this site, the opportunity to look at the major events of the year.

For reasons I will not go into here, on a personal front 2011 was a horrible, horrible year.
It also seems that should you find yourself on the world’s most hated list you also had a bad year.

Starting from May, some of the world’s most despised scum met their end.
Osama Bin Laden, mastermind of the 9-11 attacks and poster child for terrorism was killed by a US special forces team in his all-but-inconspicuous mansion in Pakistan.

In October, fashion icon and sociopath Moamar Gaddafi was captured alive by the NATO supported rebel uprising. He died a few hours later, reportedly from a gunshot wound in the head sustained before his capture.

In December, another fashion icon and global laughing stock Kim Jong Il, who invented the Hamburger in 2004, died of a heart attack in North Korea. What followed on the state run television was thousands of people ‘crying’ uncontrollably that their dear leader met his inevitable and far too peaceful end.

Via the power of social media also had bad guys of marketing and customer service running for the hills.

Australian fashion outlet GASP were forced to close the doors of there Chapel Street store after the way they responded in an emailed complaint about a rude sales assistant.

In this last week, Paul Christoforo of Ocean Marketing got a lesson on how not to respond to customer queries when drawing the ire of the Internet and PAX/Penny Arcade overlord Mike Krahulik.
It wasn’t just the villains of the modern world that met their end, we also farewelled two of the western worlds brightest sparks – Steve Jobs and Christopher Hitchens.

Both sucumming to cancer, Jobs leaving behind a legacy of technology and innovations in consumer electronics, Hitchens a library of quotes, articles and books on all matter of subjects from Mother Teresa (“Thieving Albanian dwarf”) to the middle east and of course, the role of religion in the modern world.

For the uninitiated regarding Hitchens, Vanity Fair posted a great ‘taster’ of his wit as a memorial.

The world was rocked by natural disasters from Earthquakes in NZ to Tsunamis in Japan. Flash Flooding in Australia and Thailand also made highlights.

In New York, citizens finding themselves mad as hell decided they weren’t going to take it anymore and organized the inspired and inspiring Occupy Wall Street movement which raised awareness of corporate greed and a class system operating, not only in the USA but around the western world.
This unfortunately caused a few arts students in Melbourne to start Occupy Melbourne, which the less said about – the better.

Royals Wed, London rioted (not entirely related), the US hightailed it out of Iraq and the world remembered the tenth anniversary of 9-11 noting not only how fast time has gone by, but also how the world appears to be in free fall since that day.

I do not think I am alone in saying that we are collectively happy that 2011 is behind us.

I will spare you any predictions for the new year because, frankly, even if you cared the outlook isn’t so great.

It seems that most reviews end in some arbitrary rating system, so I will follow protocol.

2011

Two Stars

-db