A new year, a not so new world. I wonder why we’re so eager to welcome the New Year when we often don’t do much to change either our attitudes or the world at large. How else do you explain the Christmas Day attacks in Nigeria and the ones in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan only days before that?

And you can’t even say it’s purely sectarian because everyone is targeted; Christians, Muslims, Atheists, children, old women… I know I said this before but I’m just so sick and tired of this senseless killing. One of those times you wish God would just intervene and perhaps turn all terrorists and would-be-killers into pillars of salt like He did in the Old Testament or simply make them disappear.

Okay maybe I’m getting a little radical too but who can blame me? You know how magazines and newspapers publish their best and worst personalities every end of year, well; these coldblooded killers take the slot for worst people of the year. They share the ‘trophy’ with those Mexican drug lords who get a kick out of executing people and mutilating their bodies. Dear Lord, I hope you’ve prepared a special place in Hell for these thugsl. It has to be the hottest spot.

The feminist in me is also revolted by reports that some female Egyptian protestors were forced to undergo virginity tests. Only one question comes to mind, why are women always victimized? I wonder what a virginity test entails. And what happens when they find you’re not a virgin? Since we haven’t read about any stoning, I guess all the victims were found ‘intact’. Here’s what I think. The men who proposed the tests and those who performed them should be sued, if not arraigned.

I hope by the end of 2012, there will some meaningful changes especially in the Arab world. Perhaps then, we won’t read about women not going to school, driving, voting, running for office… Speaking of changes, I’ve seen one at my bank. In the past, I complained about the long queues and how some customers like to jump the queue as though the rest of us are there to just chill.

I visited recently and right after the metal detector at the main entrance is a token printer which issues you a number according to the service you require from the bank - whether withdrawing (which is usually the one thing I do at the bank), money transfers, utility bill payments etc. Only after your number flashes on the large message board in the banking hall can you be served, many banks already use this system but mine just picked it up. I have mixed feelings about it though.

A part of me is glad that at least now; I won’t have to leave the bank fuming at those unscrupulous people who always jump the queue. Since the message board also relays the appropriate counter one should head to, it will also help do away with incidences where you stand in line for 20 minutes only to reach the counter and be told to go to the next counter.

However on the other hand, I think this system is more time consuming. A good six or seven minutes can be spent fidgeting to get a number from the device for those of us who are not so tech-savvy.  The other problem is that your number runs just once across the message board so if you blink, you miss it and the very next second, it will be another client’s turn to be served. Somebody needs to come up with a rewind or pause button for this.

To be continued...
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