Well with 2010 done and 2011 ahead I have decided that I may join in with everyone else and provide a list of “Awards” (In Name only don’t be expecting any money) and Predictions for the year ahead.
Working in chronological order I will start with the Awards for 2010 first and then deal with 2011 in a subsequent post.
So here are my Awards for 2010.
SPORTS
SPORTS TEAM OF THE YEAR
My sports team of the year is the England Cricket Team, whilst cricket is not my main sport I think that the team who have long been seen as underachievers (Aren’t all England Teams viewed in this way.) but this year they have quite literally taken the world by storm, Winning the third instalment of the 20:20 World Cup before days before the end of the year producing a great performance to retain the ashes – So what if most of them seem to be South African!
SPORTS HERO OF THE YEAR
My Sports Heroes of the year (Joint Heroes) are unsurprisingly from Tottenham had you asked me last year I would have hoped they would have been from England’s World Cup Winning squad (Football not Cricket.) but we all know how that turned out. So instead of an Englishman my picks are a Welshman and a Dutchman. Between Gareth Bale and Rafael Van Der Vaart Tottenham have started to not just deliver some good football – even during the last 20 cold years we have played some great football – but they have actually changed the way Tottenham feel, no longer do we have to look at the list of upcoming fixtures and dread meeting Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool or even Newcastle we now know that when we are on form we can beat anyone and that has come from these two figure heads for the change that has come about in the last five years.
SPORTS TRAVESTY OF THE YEAR
This has to go to FIFA for their Awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar. Now I have no issue with these two countries being made hosts of the tournaments, obviously I would have loved England to get the World Cup in 2018 but if FIFA wanted it to go to Russia and they believe that Russia can put on a great World Cup then that is good enough for me. What I consider the Travesty is the process by which they were awarded the competitions. If FIFA had already decided (As seems to be the case) that they wanted to send the World Cup to areas where it had not previously been held then why make previous host countries go to the expense and trouble of preparing bids and sending delegates when they really had no chance whatsoever.
HONERABLE MENTION IN THE WORLD OF SPORT
An honourable mention in the world of sport this year goes to not an athlete but rather an administrator, Again using my personal bias I have gone for Daniel Levy the CEO of Tottenham Hotspur PLC, The reason I have selected him is that over successive years since Levy and ENIC have run Tottenham they have moved forwards time and again and have improved right up to last seasons achievement of finally competing in the Champions League, for me what makes this all the more remarkable is that it has been achieved not through a big money donor (Although I have never thought that they have limited the money Spurs managers could spend.) but by building year on year and making very astute transfer dealings. There is a very good chance that we may not qualify for next years competition and that Manchester City could spend their way into the top four but at least Daniel Levy has shown that in this big money world there is still the ability for a club to be well managed and still make an impact on the European stage.
TECHNOLOGY
PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Again for people who know me, very little surprise here as my choice for Technology Product of the year which goes to the HTC Desire HD, I have had the HTC Desire for just under a year now and the phone is as near to perfect as I could find, and the HD version is even better, I think that the Apple IOS and Google Android battle will run throughout 2011 and beyond (With Windows Mobile 7 a really unknown quantity at this point.) however for me the freedom represented by Android as well as HTC’s integrated apps (Friend Stream, HTC Sense etc…) really make the HTC Android handhelds stand out above Apple, and while I know there have been many people pointing at lower specs handhelds such as the Wildfire to show Apples dominance this is unfair as the Wildfire should be compared instead with Apple’s entry level smart phones (Which they haven’t got) so it is the two top products the Desire and the iPhone 4 who should be compared and for me the HTC comes out on top.
INNOVATION OF THE YEAR
The innovation that has blown my mind this year was the revelation that Google had completed thousands of miles in a self driven car, my blog post on this subject took me on a variety of emotions from being awestruck that the realty was this close to completion to worries that this could be one change to many for the world and that there was a chance that the economy could not handle the amount of jobs that may well be lost from this new technology (From Taxi Drivers and Driving Instructors to Parking Attendants and Street Cleaners) however for giving me a quick glimpse as to what I have always imagined being the future then this is my Innovation of the Year.
NOT INTERESTED OF THE YEAR
This award might actually be a surprise to some who know me as I am obviously a massive cinema fan and a big technohead but the big invention (Well proliferation anyway.) that I have had no interest in this year is 3D. The enhanced dimension cinemas and televisions that we are all being told we have to get just holds no interest for me at all. Whilst I appreciate that it gives you a greater depth of vision into the movies I really do not find myself forgetting that I am watching a film in the cinema, so what’s the point? I can follow a storyline on a 2D screen just as well so if it is not to give you a greater sense of “being part of the action” it adds nothing, and if it is to make you part of the action then it is simply not good enough to make you forget that it is on a screen. I have pledged that 2011 I will be viewing all films in 2D where possible as this is one giant leap sideways I will gladly see dropped.
CINEMA
FILM OF THE YEAR
For me the film of the year was most probably Inception, Now if you have read my review of the film you will know that it was not actually my favourite film and the ending was quite frankly laughable but in a year in which Hollywood has struggled to produce even a rudimentary amount of originality the concept of this film was as refreshing as watching The Matrix for the first time. It made you realise that there may actually still be one or two people in the movie industry who were capable of independent thought, and hopefully it will not be another 10 years before they have another one.
PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
Obviously I understand that if you want to be taken seriously as a film fan then when Hollywood makes a new version of a non-english speaking movie, you are required to always speak about how much better the original is. However the performance of Chloe Moretz in Let me In, the US remake (Sorry Re-Imagining) of the Swedish Vampire Love Story Let the Right One in, was really a first class performance from the 13 year old which deserves recognition.
WORST FILM OF THE YEAR
This has to go to the Other Guys only the second movie I have not managed to get to the end of, From the very beginning to the point where I left (As they are caught up in an explosion) I do not remember laughing or even understanding what they thought was funny, the main characters were losers whose personalities were such that in fact you wanted them to lose with the supporting characters being equally as cringe worthy that the very idea of any of them coming good would insult every ounce of fairness in the universe.
POLITICS
STORY OF THE YEAR
There was only really one story that dominated this year politically and that is the coming together of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to form a peace time coalition. Back before May there looked to be a wide spread fear that we may get a hung parliament and therefore have to hold another election before the end of the year, on the 5th May it looked as though in fact it would be a Conservative Government followed later on in the night with the realisation that it would be a Hung Government. Most people I think at the time were expecting a Conservative minority government but instead after a couple of weeks of negotiations we were presented with a solution. There rest of the year seemed to consist of the really not news revelations that 1) The Coalition members are not all of the same ideology (Obviously as if they were they would have all been in the same party in the first place) and 2) that the public are not going to enjoy the necessary cuts.
PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR
It may seem like a bit of a cop out here but my Political Personality of the Year goes to David Cameron, aside from obviously securing his position as Prime Minister, brokering an extraordinary coalition agreement and starting to steer the economy away from the financial melt down that Gordon Brown was heading for, This has been quite a year (and a bit) for the PM. Starting last year with the death of his Son Ivan, through the closest fought election battle in memory, including presidential style TV debates (A flop in my opinion.) and then into Number 10 followed closely by the birth of his second daughter and another personal tragedy with the death of his father. So whatever your views are on his politics or even his background (never quite sure why that matters.) you can’t disagree that this has been a very interesting year.
FALSE HERO OF THE YEAR
The False Hero of the Year Award is created especially for Julian Assange, the founder and spokesman of Wikileaks. The reason that I have selected this particular award to be presented to Mr. Assange is that he seems to being held up as a messiah of digital freedoms and whilst I really have no strong feelings of wikileaks one way of the other – I am mostly of the philosophy that the information released is not very interesting, the fact that the US ambassador thinks that a chancellor who has never been in power is inexperienced really isn’t a great shock – the simple fact is that Assange is accused of not one but two counts of molestation, something that makes him a very unlikely hero. He has claimed that if he returned to Sweden to face the allegations he will be quickly smuggled to the US to be incarcerated. Surely the attention that Wikileaks have received over the last year would make any silent transfer an impossibility and therefore the only thing it appears to me that Assange is trying to hide from is the full effect of Swedish law – Sweden which according to the corruption index is the second least corrupt country in the world (After New Zealand) – This leads me to think that therefore the only thing that Assange is scared of is that he will be found guilty in court and have to serve the sentences fitting the crimes he has been accused of.
EMBARRASMENT OF THE YEAR
My final Award is actually the hardest as politically there have been many who could well fit the bill, from the Students who think that attempting to injure Police is not a serious matter, the Train Drivers who think that they should receive quadruple pay for Boxing day as many Londoners were forced to walk to work for basic Sunday payment. Or even Ed Miliband who looks set to be the least electable Labour Leader since Neil Kinnock stood grinning like his Spitting Image doll on the stage at the Labour Party Conference so many years ago. But in the end my Political Zero of the year is Liam Byrne, former Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the cluless individual who left the note “Dear Chief Secretary, Sorry we’ve spent all the money, there’s nothing left.” And in one note of attempted comedy summed up not just the problems facing the coalition but was also to show the disregard that the Labour leaders had for the economy and the public which caused the problem in the first place.
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