2011, what a year. I have already begun to read with interest, both in the newspapers and on the internet, the round-ups which starved newsrooms around the world are churning out.

Not much goes on at this time of the year, and well, the pictorials, television features and newspaper reviews give us a good overview of what has happened over the past year. Where do we start? Locally, we had the MPs and their honoraria, Franco Debono’s revolts, the disastrous launch of the new public transport system and much, much more. On the international scene, things were even wilder. We saw the earthquakes in Japan, the revolutions to our immediate south, royal weddings and riots on the streets of London, Paris, Athens and Rome.

It seems that while everyone hopes that 2012 will bring better things, many really believe that it is going to be an even harder year as Europe tries to dig itself out of its debt dilemma. We can never predict what the world is going to throw at us in terms of physiological effects, but it does not take a seer to predict that things are going to be tough, very tough. Let us hope that we can weather the storm which is about to batter us.

■ John Fenech

Naxxar