'Ell even

2011 was a tumultuous year: the waters rose up, the ground rose up, the ocean rose up, the people rose up.

While the Right were simultaneously crediting the Arab Spring to the Bush invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, and decrying Western protesters as disorganised rabble who should hie thee to the nearest barber (these old farts obviously living a nineteen fifties wet dream), the truth is that this was the year of uprising.

Protests can be as unpredictable as natural disasters and little good came out of the London riots save to illustrate that there was more discontent under Cameron than under the previous Labour government. If the Occupy movement can continue to highlight the excesses of senior executive salaries and bonuses, especially in the wake of the GFC, then they will have a legitimate - if inconvenient  - stand that will have to be directly addressed.

Realistically, celebrating the people rising up in one country but not another is the kind of ideological blindsiding that only conservatives would engage in. When the protests degenerate into looting and violence, then that is a sign that there is something amiss, but the message - whatever it may be - should be squarely met.

It was good to see so many dictators and powerlords tumble. In that, this year rivalled 1989.

Personally I was okay with the fairly binary year and continue to enjoy the benefits of current and future technology, but globally it seemed intent on proving that the earlier tsunamis and tso forth were a drop in the bucket.