End of Year Musings: 2011 Year in Review

Another year is rapidly coming to a close and there have been so many things that have happened this year that I don't even know if I can remember all of the things that have shaped our year accurately. But I will give it a try....

Almost exactly a year ago, Sidney Crosby was injured (yes I will start with Sports….sue me :-P ). The first of his 2 concussions occurred against the Capitals New Years’ Day and then the more severe of his 2 concussions happened a few days later when he was hit from behind into the boards face first by Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Sidney Crosby’s Injury Impact

It took nearly 10 months for Sid to come back into the NHL fold but only a couple of weeks ago, not only did he return, he returned right where he left off; as the best player in the NHL collecting 4 points in his first game back. After his 10th game however, Sid’s been shelved again for 2 games (as a pre-caution the team insists) after a rough game against the Bruins which saw him endure several hits, but fortunately none of them were to the hit. Several were particularly hard which has now left Sid feeling “less then 100%” necessitating this 2 game sabbatical.

Hopefully, for him as well as the NHL, these 2 games will be all that he will miss as this would be the worst time for the league to lose its top player, yet again, to a head injury or recurrence of his concussion.  With his injury and those of Marc Savard, Marc Staal, Nathan Horton (in the Finals if you recall) and a whole host of others in the past year (including Kris LEtang, Andy McDonald, Marek Zidlicky Chris Pronger  and Claude Giroux only days ago being diagnosed with concussions themselves), the one good thing to come out of it has been a new focus and drive (even if only from the media) to try to force the league to take head hits out of the game.



While it puzzles some that the NHL has been only making incremental moves towards such action, it doesn’t surprise me. I will explain in more detail once I get into the whole Change of Leadership in the NHL Discipline department and “Sherriff Shanny” later on.  At least now the league is at least doing something to try to prevent further brain damage (which in essence is the exact situation that happens when a player suffers a concussion except that it isn’t permanent for most, at least that is what we are being told by doctors) by instituting a new protocol for player who appear to have suffered any kind of brain injury during the course of a game.

When you look back over the course of recent NHL history, it is littered with players whose careers have been drastically shortened due to concussions. The list reads like a who’s who of recent players as well as some of the more marquee players who suffered concussions during their careers over the last 15-20 years; Pat LaFontaine, Paul Kariya, Marc Savard , Eric and Brett Lindros (Brett wasn’t as talented as Eric but still), and then there is Michel Goulet.

A star in the 80’s with the Quebec Nordiques, Goulet was still productive in the early 90’s with the Chicago Blackhawks until he was tripped up on a break away and slid head first into the boards with the back of his head smashing extremely hard. At that time, he was still wearing the same helmet that Wayne Gretzky used to wear; a flimsy Jofa helmet that offer extremely little if any padding on the back of the head. His injury was so severe that he went into convulsions after being taken off the ice on a stretcher and very nearly died. It has been nearly 17 years since his injury and every time I see him during a public appearance, I am reminded of how he acted back during his very first public appearance 1 year after his career ending injury; his eyes a little goofy, his body unsteady, acting almost child-like.

To this day, he has still not and most likely never will recover fully from that horrific injury and yet we are still no closer to pushing head hits out of the game. While it’s true he was not hit in the head by another player, he should still serve as a beacon for other players to see what the effects of a severe head injury can do to you after your career is over.

Ok onto other things. Still in the sports realm of course, the Green Bay Packers have not lost a game since last year, having reeled off 19 straight wins. They won the Super Bowl last year and are still unbeaten this year having a record of 13-0. While people are already anointing Aaron Rodgers as the next big thing (and he will certainly be in elite company if he completes the perfect regular season), something still irks me about how he and Packers management handled the whole change from Legend Brett Favre to making it Rodgers team.

Looking back on it, clearly it was the right move as Favre seems to be the most undecided retired/active player ever but at the time of the change, to me, it felt like Rodgers was a spoiled brat who just wanted things his way. Clearly he was ready for the big time and the Packers made the correct move (and Favre’s comments in the last year show that he may have been more at fault in the strain in their relationship then the general public was ever made aware of) but the whole fallout and subsequent is he retired or not soap opera still (and possibly always will) leave a bitter taste in my mouth because it was essentially caused by Favre being shown the door in Green Bay.

Canadians Vote In Conservative Majority, Jack Layton Wins Opposition Status, Loses Battle with Cancer

 Finally, after 3 Minority Governments,  Prime Minister Harper was able to get the Majority Government he deserved. His political victory, while impressive was slightly overshadowed by the fact the NDP pulled off a stunning victory of their own by usurping the fading Liberal Party (which was absolutely decimated in the Federal Election) and becoming the official Opposition winning almost all of Quebec’s 75 ridings (59 in total) and winning an impressive 103 ridings in total. Jack Layton, for all his faults, ran a great campaign and had his message resonate with more people than ever before.

Unfortunately for Mr. Layton, he never actually got to reap the rewards of his years of service to Canada as he passed away before the legislature came back into session in October. While I never did agree with his political views, he was one of the most passionate political leaders of our time. His love for this country was unsurpassed and his tireless efforts for the causes he supported have left an indelible mark on the fabric of our nation. He leaves behind a huge void on the political scene as is witnessed by the fact his successor (when finally chosen out of the 10 final candidates vying for his vacated role) will most likely never be able to replicate Mr. Layton’s election results. He will be sorely missed. Yet another person cut down by Cancer WAY too soon. What a brutally awful disease.

The Arab Spring

Arab nations seemed to finally have come of age in that their populations began revolutionary marches and demonstrations demanding changes to their nations. It began on Saturday, December 18th 2010 and has had effects in Tunisia and Egypt; caused a civil war in Libya resulting in the fall of its government and the death of Gadhafi; civil uprisings in Bahrain, Syria (which is now in full defiance of the Arab league and under heavy sanctions for their harsh crackdowns on peaceful protestors which have many predicting that nation will be in a civil war very shortly.

In Yemen the demonstrations resulted in the resignation of the Yemeni prime minister. Other major protests in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Oman have led to political changes in some form or another while minor protests in Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Western Sahara have reinforced the notion that Arab youth is tired of living under oppressive strict governments and want change. There have even been clashes at the borders of Israel back in May.

All of this has, in some way shape or form, led to protests around the world and some would argue that they were in fact the genesis of the Occupy Movement (which I will discuss later on). Regardless of what it has spawned, the results speak for themselves. Egyptians forced out Mubarek. Libyans were able to remove Gadhafi from power after a short but intense civil war, Syrians will eventually get the change they want even if it does have to come about after their own civil war very shortly but at least on the face of it, changes are coming and they are giving rise to how powerful people actually are, even in repressive regimes that dominate the Arab world.

US Policitcs turns Nasty, Republicans Use overt Racism to Target President Obama 
I find it unbelievable that President Obama is STILL having his birthplace questioned. It’s gone beyond a matter of being a mere question. To me, it’s an overt form of racism. If Obama were white, there would never be a question like this floated around. It’s ridiculous. Now, over the course of the last 3 years, President Obama has been a huge disappointment to many. He campaigned on the premise of changing the status quo and, to be perfectly blunt, he hasn’t changed a damned thing. While he inherited a financial nightmare from the Bush administrations 8 years of ineptitude, his management of the American Economy over the last 3 plus years, while hampered dramatically by the Republican dominated Senate, has been abysmal.

The US economy has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in the last 3 years. The mortgage meltdown has forced thousands of people out of their homes and bankrupted not only many individual citizens but many financial institutions as well as cities and states that are feeling the economic hardships of this depression-like era that the US is going through right now. In previous eras, at least the US had strong leadership to help guide them through their problems. President Obama has not shown any kind of leadership over the last 3 years and despite that fact, he remains the best choice to continue as President as the Republicans are mired in an ideological malaise that has them yelling at the top of their lungs about nothing that really matters, fighting within themselves about whether they want to teabag each other and their top choice was a serial grouper.

The problem is that, as I mentioned before in a previous note, instead of giving the people a “bailout”, the government bailed out the banks and kept money in their own pockets when its citizens came calling, resulting, in part, in the Occupy movements having a real reason to protest government action. What I don’t understand is why did they wait to start their protests in September and October when it’s starting to get into the colder seasons? Has they started their protests in May, they could have legitimately camped out in every major city all summer long and really made politicians nervous and possibly forced some real change.

But back to my point about the bailouts. Some people would even go so far as to suggest that giving money to big banks and watching how they have handled it (refusing to really change anything or loosen their credit granting to help stem the flow of people towards insolvency, continuing to give out insane bonuses to top executives) has prompted many citizens of the United States towards the exact causes espoused by and implored throughout the Occupy Wall Street movement and helped it have real roots to begin in the first place. Every other occupy movement mimicked the original but, for the most part, were a shadow of the one in New York. The one in Toronto, for example, was a joke. People were basically showing up on the weekend to be, as I call it “weekend protesters” and they had their own political agenda. It was almost like the people trying to organizing the protests had no real agenda and were winging it on a daily basis.

It may seem like I am ripping the Toronto movement a bit much but the truth is, for the most part, I was all for the basic reasons for the movement but once you start attacking any and all political figures simply because you don’t like them or their political beliefs and not because of any real item in particular, that’s when I get a little miffed. For example, there still seems to be this nagging belief that the Prime Minister has this sinister agenda hiding somewhere which will make this country “American” with all the changes that these people seem to think he will bring to this country. The same thing can be said about how the Occupy Toronto Protestors seemed to almost daily attack Mayor Rob Ford.

While I don’t agree with everything either of them do, Mayor Ford has been unfairly criticized by the press and everyone who didn’t vote for him because of the mess he was shackled with that was left behind after 7 years of having an idiot like David Miller running the City of Toronto as Mayor. I agree that there are some things a city shouldn’t be cutting but when you are faced with a massive deficit in a democratic city, you put everything on the table and then try to determine your fiscal priorities. Having the citizens of your city engage in discussions over where the city should and shouldn’t spend its money is a good thing and yet all people know how to do is complain about every idea that comes up.

Boston Wins Cup, Dumbass Vancouverites Riot, Again

The Boston Bruins continued a recent trend of New England Sports dominance by winning the Stanley Cup in 7 games with a 4-0 win over the top team in the NHL last year, the Vancouver Canucks. Th running joke all day was that if the Canucks did end up losing, would there be a repeat of the 1994 Riot when the Canucks lost in 1994? Our questions were answered when the images started flooding in from Canadian news channels and were re-broadcast all over the world, making Vancouver the laughing stock of the world only 18 months after having shown themselves brilliantly on the world stage during the Winter Olympics.

 The shocking display of stupidity by, what would be best described as “Hockey Hooligans” was only amplified by a poorly prepared Vancouver Police department that was slow to act and undermanned for what essentially became a rampant display of drunken idiocy.’ Only in Canada would someone feel the need to riot when their hockey team loses’ was the perceived foreign media reaction as they laughed at the morons in Vancouver.


3 Former or Current NHL Players Found Dead, Russian Plane Crash Kills 46 Members of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv

Almost from the moment the final whistle went off in Vancouver to pronounce the Bruins as Champs, the NHL embarked on possibly the worst off-season in their log and illustrious history. Rick Rypien committed suicide in a hotel room, after years of battles with Depression. Derek Boogard was found dead in a hotel room as well only a few weeks later, after he accidentally overdosed on pain killers. The 3rd death happened again only a few weeks later, once again in a hotel room, when Wade Belak, who had been training to be a part of the Battle of the Blades show in CBC, was found dead under mysterious circumstances. Originally deemed to be a homicide, it was later ruled a suicide as well, which the family refutes to this day. Regardless of how Belak died, the media had a field day and began to link all three deaths to the fact each player or former player wasn’t exactly highly skilled. Two of them were fighters and the third, Rypien, was a third line player at best, who had to scratch and claw for every moment he had of ice time in the NHL.

 Just because they were fighters does not mean that they would be predestined to have an inclination towards drug abuse or suicide and yet that was and is the connection many in the media have been trying to force feed hockey fans as they push hockey towards eliminating fighting altogether.  The day they take fighting out of the game is the day I stop watching. You might as well take the goalies away and raise the nets about 10 feet in the air and call it basketball if you are going to do that.

Shortly before NHL training camps began came word of a tragedy that hadn’t happened in nearly 30 plus years as an entire team perished in a horrific plane crash in Russia. The entire Yaroslavl Lokomotiv team died when their aging and worn-out 40 year old plane crash on takeoff, killing many former NHL players and coaches. The last time an entire team was killed was when the entire Marshall Football team died in the early 1970’s in a plane crash as well. It took years for the school to recover and it will take many years as well for the KHL to recover as a league, not to mention the families of all the players who will never truly get over such a senseless and tragically large loss of life.

Euro-Mess Killing World Economy

Surprise, surprise, the European economy is tanking and the Euro as a currency seems to be the root of the cause. If you know anything about how hard it was to bring this currency into the world, you would know that it took very difficult referendums in several member nations before all the nations in the Euro zone adopted the Euro as its currency.  At the time, many people feared the impending rise in the cost of living that would force people to borrow more and more to continue to live within their lifestyle and, guess what? They were right. But the problem wasn’t so much the people in large debt because of the currency but rather nations themselves.

I’ve heard anecdotally that in some European nations, if you go out of business, you are mandated as a business to continue paying your employees up to 6 months of wages, regardless of your financial standing so if a small restaurant owner goes belly up, he has to still pay all his staff, putting himself into much further debt while suffering through the closure of the business. No wonder no one really wants to open a business in some of these nations.

Back to the point, Germany and France seem to be the only nations that really want to keep things going with regards to the Euro as Merkel of Germany and Sarkozy of France have been working diligently to prop up Ireland, Portugal, Greece and Italy. The problem now seems to be that even with all the bailouts ongoing all over Europe, where is all the money coming from? You can only tax your base so much before they revolt. It’s not a revolution if the people just decide they have had enough and do what they did in 1791 in France when they killed all their leaders. I fear that Europe is heading for a revolt of epic proportions if the leaders continue to focus on austerity measures on everyone else without cutting their own luxuries.

Why is it that whenever austerity measures are brought in, political leaders focus on cutting things everyone else uses without focusing on their own? Why not cut their own pay cheques and budgets first in half? Why not take all the pensions of former members of parliament or former PM’s, Presidents and the like and cut their pensions down? In Portugal alone there are 33 former members of parliament who are working in the private sector while receiving gigantic pension subsidies from the government. WTF?!?! Cut those bastards off first before you cut the pensions and vacation pay of the everyday Joe Blow. I fear this will not end well.

So I have done my best to recap the year as I saw it. Hopefully you had a better year then most. Like everyone else, I had an up and down year as I lost my uncle Joe but found out my sister is pregnant (I thought it was going to be a Girl, but I was wrong).

I hope everyone has a great 2012 and NO the world will not end this year….just for some unfortunately but not everyone. So yes, Nostradamus and the Mayans are wrong people. The Mayans never thought the world would get to 2012 plus years and Nostradamus figured he would just take a shot in the dark at a year so far in the future (for him) that he figured no one would care who he was and what he said….guess not eh?

As always feel free to tell me what you think.

Until Next Time…