Must try harder

... and so this is Christmas, and what, in the immortal words of J.W. Lennon, have we done? Another year's over and a new one is just about to be, uhm, begun. To be perfectly honest I don't think ‘we’ have done very much at all. Looking back on the year in politics, the arts, entertainment, technology and economics it all looks very very poor to me. So let's hope 2008 is a better year than 2007.

What the hell is the United Nations for? I thought it was bad when Kofi was the chief talker; now we've got Banky Moon or is that Ban Kimoon. War, civil war, famine, poor sanitation, lack of clean drinking water. Yes, global warming is a problem, but if I didn't know where I and my family were getting the next meal from, the size of the ice mountains in the north pole would be of little interest to me.

Is China's industrialization the biggest threat to the world? Well, since 20 percent of the world actually lives in China I wouldn't think so. Maybe they ought to look at countries' pollution in proportion to its head of population and then they wouldn't be too far off by heading south to Australia. Give China a break. They haven't been polluting for that long and they probably won't be polluting that much for very much longer either.

Hang on a second... isn't that why Iran wants to develop their nuclear technology? They realise, not unlike Blair and Brown, that nuclear technology is a much cleaner, more efficient way of generating power. And the oil won't last forever... High time the automobile industry started wheeling out those hydrogen powered cars.

House prices are coming down. Thank God. I'm already on the housing ladder so this, if you take note of what the media says, should bother me. But it doesn't. Not at all. I don't care if my house loses a hundred grand in value. I was happy with the price I paid for it originally and I still think it's (relatively) fair. As long as the whole market drops I should be able to sell, when I want to, and buy with little problem. House prices are over inflated and the true value is not what they are being traded for. Remember this little rule: something is worth only what you are willing to pay for it or be paid for it.

Which leads me to my next gripe. What's happened to the movies? Why is it all rubbish? Golden Compass? No idea where I was or what was going on. Hitman? Shit, man. Die Hard 4.0? Pointless. Bee Movie? I fell asleep, so it might have been good. This year, the movies that have impressed me? The Bourne Ultimatum, The Hoax (with Richard Gere), and... er... Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

When you go to the movies you enter with anticipation. You know you want to be entertained but you don't know how the movies going to pull it off. Thus when you're assalted with the likes of Pirate of the Caribbean 3, or Shrek 3, or 300, or Ghost Rider, or Transformers, then it's time to be talking about a refund policy. Satisfaction or your money back. Even, let the patron pay what he thinks the movie was worth. To be honest the studios should be paying me for the collective hours I've wasted.

Happy New Year.