RE: Year in review....sur
News Story of the Year (all categories): The weather/catastropic events. With all the events that went on this year, i can't remember a time in my life in which the weather dominated the headlines. Between the tsunami, hurricaine katrina, and so on.
News Story of the Year-Canadian/Local: Gomery Commission. The report dominated the headlines, led to charges, caused even more tension in the Liberal party and ultimately led to our current election.
News Story of the Year- USA: Not an actual story, but i think the general inadequacies of the Department of Homeland Security was a recurring theme this year. The useless color alert system, recurring border issues, the shooting on the plane incident, the recent spying issues approved by Bush and most importantly, the failure of FEMA to act quickly underlayed the larger issue of just how weak and inefficient this new Department is.
News Story of the Year-International:Third World Poverty as it relates to crisis. Yes, poverty has always existed..but this year, i think people finally began to understand its relations to terrorism, religious animosity, cultural warfare and so on. You had people devastated by the tsunami, most of the people affected being in the lower class. You had the continual problems in Africa, with continued escalating religious and cultural extremeism. You have middle east tensions...the increase in radical terror groups particularly among poor undeducated boys. And the list goes on. I think people are far more aware now that poverty just does not mean people are hungry..how poverty leads to so many other problems.
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Political Play of the year (all categories): Politicians fall over themselves to relieve third world debt by signing the 50 million debt relief at the G8 meeting just before the Live 8 concert, they send money to help with Katrina and the Tsunami...but do little to adjust for third world help in their fiscal budgets.
Political play of the year-Canadian/Local: Belinda crosses the floor. Did any other action by a politician generate so much attention?
Political play of the year- USA: Karl Rove dodges another bullet, while Scooter Libby pays the price in the CIA leak. And you know this one is not over by a long shot....
Political play of the year-International: The Catholic Church goes futher to the right and chooses Ratzinger as the new Pope.
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Entertainment Event of the year (all categories): Live 8 - 20 years after Live Aid, they have another world concert, but what impact did it actually have?
Entertainment Event of the year-Canadian/Local: The proposed legislation bill to stop downloading piracy of songs in Canada becomes null and void as an election is called.
Entertainment Event of the year-USA: Kanye West lashes out at the government over racial issues and Hurricaine Katrina...which causes people to acutally question how race relations have improved and if the lack of response to Katrina was racially motivated.
Entertainment Event of the year-International: Bob Geldof and Bono plan a Live 8 concert on the same day that the G-8 meeting is planned and manages to organize a simultanous event spanning the world.
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Person of the year (all categories):
Person of the year-Canadian: Paul Martin...who else could take over a corrupt predecessor in a hostile takeover, ride the low of the government scandle, have U2's bono show up at his leadership campaign even (than later criticize him), hold on to a minority government, steal not one but two big name conservatives, face one non-confidence issue and win by one vote, be exonerated from the Gomery scandle despite having been in charge of the public purse, lose a confidence vote..but still have a high % of public support and most likely will win another election??? This guy has a horseshoe up is butt!
Person of the year-USA: Cindy Sheehan. This mother of a soldier who died in Iraq became an accidental activist and the face of the war against Iraq. Until than, the anti-war movement was deftly shut down by the established political regieme...but whose going to tell a mother of a dead soldier to shut up? Score one for Sheehan.
Person of the year-International: Tony Blair. He had the highs and lows this year for sure. London won the Olympics, hosted the best of the Live-8 concerts. But he was implicated in knowing that there were no weapons of mass destruction, and his country was bombed in underground transit not once but twice. He had a lot to deal with for sure as the eyes were firmly on the UK this year.
Sports story of the year (all categories): Sports and drugs. The way athletes in non-olympic professional sports achieve success was under scrutiny big time this year. All major sports leagues had to reevaluate their drug policy. In the meantime, records of some stars came under question.
Sports story of the year-Canada: There was only one....when the hell would hocky come back? LOL.
Sports story fo the year-USA: Lance Armstrong wins his 7th tour de france..unprecidented. But than his record came into question by the French over alleged drug use.
Sports story of the year-International: F-1 drivers refuse to drive the USA Grand Prix. Due to safety issues, the majority of the drivers refused to drive in the USA event in chicago. Now the future of F-1 in the USA is in question. And further questions about driver safety in a sport where the risk is high already.... this will have a future impact in motorsports.
Other categories(limit to 2005, not overall):
Favorite athlete: Tony Stewart. He has one the Nascar Cup twice, the Indy cup, and even dirt races series cups. Are we currently witnessing the best autoracer of our generation?
Favorite entertainer: Johnny Cash. Fine, he's dead. But damn, is he not the coolest singer we will ever have known. He started off the same time as Elvis, was a huge force in Country music, battled drugs, covered a Nine Inch Nails song, recorded a album in prison that remains one of the highest selling albums ever, and even after he dies, the legend of Johnny Cash has been reinvented for a new generation. Stars like this seldom come in any industry.
Favorite movie: I was personally fond of Walk the Line, but i liked Legend of Narnia as well. I also liked Pride and Prejudice.
Favorite song/album: Depeche Modes new album Playing the Angel is their best work since Violator. They are the kings of electronic pop.
Favorite tv show: House M.D.
Favorite book: I haven't read any new books that came out this year. I did however read an older book, Christopher Moore's "The Gospel of Jesus according to Biff, Jesus's childhood friend". It is seriously one of the best books i have ever read...very very funny. Go read it damnit.
