Happy New Year, and welcome!

Happy New Year, one and all, and welcome to Bintsterhood, the web rantings and ravings of a fabulous duo of debating hussies. Not content with bitching about the world to one another, and anyone who’ll listen to us, Muireann and myself have decided to throw our two cents up here as well.

2007 was quite the year, but 2008 is looking set to be a real doozy.

Happy New Year, Pakistan! Wouldn’t it be a great gas if the PPP got voted in, and them being led by a nineteen-year-old Oxford fresher, and his Da? Not that he's really eligible yet, but he's probably currently more popular than Musharraf...

Happy New Year, Kenya! Once again, rampant tribalism, ignited by power-hungry politicians, has torn apart a seemingly quite reasonable country. This is really a country to watch out for in 2008.

Happy New Year, Darfur! Here we are, mere months away from the 5th anniversary of the beginning of the genocide in Sudan; oh how the time flies...400,000 dead, millions displaced, and no real end in sight. Will 2008 be the year that the world acts, instead of looking on helplessly?

Happy New Year, stolen babies of Chad, Happy New Year, African National Congress (because corruption charges were all you needed when you live next door to Zimbabwe), Happy New Year, monks of Burma and all the displaced and terrified people of Israel, Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Not that we need to look overseas to see that this year is going to be an interesting one, politically speaking- we can surely look forward to more thrilling tribunals; the hilarious antics of our esteemed health minister should be good for a laugh and I have it on reliable authority that that roguish bastion for welfare and centrism, Jean-Marie LePen, will be visiting our emerald isle to persuade us to say NO! to the Lisbon Treaty…

Happy New Year, Economist! I’m not sure if it’s quite a Guinness Book record, but oil has hit the $100 per barrel mark. On the other hand, the Kyoto Protocol has come into effect. Ten years after it was agreed, but better late than never I suppose. Minister for the Environment John Gormley described the event coinciding with New Year's Day as a "historic moment for the world" and a "hugely significant first step in the global response to climate change". I don’t know what he’s so happy about, Ireland has the highest levels of emissions in Europe and has to magically reduce the output by 12% before 2012, when realistically, it increases every day. He has effectively become the Green Party scapegoat for Fianna Fail to point at every time the Irish Government is criticised..

I’m sure that Muireann will have plenty to say about my words of cynicism, though she knows that really, I’m a hopeless optimist. So Happy New Year, one and all, may 2008 be a total blast!