Happy New Year - Retrospective look on 2006

I would like to wish all of you a really happy new year. This year has been quite troublesome and fascinating, to say the least. So what have I done and what will I remember from 2006?

• Creating a blog: That was a turning point for me, I've never been good on doing something on a regular basis, but I've tried. It's really nice to put ones thoughts on the paper. Besides, I've met some really nice people (-wink wink).
• Starting at the Norwegian High School: It doesn't sound like a big deal, but in Norway the high school is the last step before university and before adult life. One also has to choose which direction in life one wants to take during high school. So, my high school is dominated by kids from the better and wealthier neighborhoods in Oslo; the majority have rich parents and I've never seen so many Gucci and Jean Paul clothes in one area. Anyway, I adjusted to them and they adjusted to me, so me going there has proven to be rather eductional, on many levels.
• The death of Saddam Hussein: I compare Saddam with Stalin, besides the fact that they both had moustaches, they developed their nations in many ways and they put their nations on the map, in other words. Nonetheless, their good actions were shadowed by their less good actions and ideologies. Killing their people, eliminating possible opponents and creating a totalitarian regime. Saddam's death is not the end; it's not the begining of the end but rather the end of the beginning.
• Israel and Hezbollah conflict: One could say Israel - Lebanon conflict, but that would be a lie. The lebanese government were passive bystanders to the whole battle, they didn't even do much to help their internal refugees. The conflict went on for a month and two days (12 july - 14 august). Lebanon took much of the beating; infrastructure in Lebanon was severely damaged and thousands of lebanese and isrealis were forced to flee. The war took 1,400 lives, and most of the dead were lebanese civillians.
• War in Somalia: It's still going on, subhanallah. It started with ministers, sponsered by USA, that terroized the people of Mogadishu. An islamic organization got rid of these ministers, but later declared that they wanted to seize power all over Somalia. This put the government in a thight position and they chose (unfortunately) to seek help from Ethiopia. This had a counter-effect, the majority of Somalis who already opposed Ethiopia saw this as betrayal and UIC who claimed patriotism gained much popularity. This week, Ethiopian soldiers moved into Somalia, pushed the UIC out of Mogadishu and the government could again gain control over the lost areas. As of today though, the battles have restarted in the town of Jilib, close to Kismayo. One of UIC's last strongholds.
• The Noble Peace Prize: It was given to Muhammed Yunus, a Bangladeshi bankier who popularized micro-credit and helped bangladeshi women out of poverty. Giving him the peace prize showed that peace isn't a specific term anymore, it has become more vague actually.
• The Muhammed (pbuh) cartoons: Denmark published it and then Norway published them. The cartoons which portrayed our noble prophet in a disrespectful and mocking manner; a riot started in the arab/muslim world which resulted into everything from blocking danish export articles and vandalizing Scandinavian embassies. Luckily this has calmed down.

That's all I can remember, if I've forgotten something very important, feel free to remind me!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

May 2007 prove to be better than 2006!