The year 2009 has been one of the most momentous years in our times. It will arguably go down as a year we saw and heard a lot and acted little.

It will be remembered as a year characterised by a stack mixture of successes and failures in many quarters in the world. It will go down in history as a year we weren?t quite sure of what to hear, what to feel, how to act and perhaps what to do. It was a year we heard fine speeches, but the simplicity of the glamorous voices belied a conflict of interest that was marred by banquets in the hotels and gunfire in the forests.  It was a year when some people marched for peace, yet got war; a year some cried for freedom, yet got more terror; a year when some went to bed in luxurious couches and woke up in floods; a year when we yearned for fresh air, yet got more pollution. It was year the banks told us that we could not withdraw our monies because there wasn?t enough for all of us. The bankers told us the reasons, but we failed to understand their Malthusian or better still, their Adam Smith?s theories. It was an inexplicable sort of year for all of us the world over. 2009, a year of funny contrasts!

It was the year we had many ?firsts,? the first taking place in the world?s most popular country where voters for the first time decided to choose substance over skin and insisted that the 44th American president would be a black. We saw Barack Obama took the oath of office at the American Congress building in Capital Hill and held the same Bible held by Abraham Lincoln, the 16th American president and the man believed to have ended slavery. That symbolism represented the year, sort of! And the charismatic young president (the first American president of Muslim origin!) thanked voters by saying: ?I am thankful of the people who elected me in the memory of our forefathers.?

The truth about the year was that anything was possible. ?Impossible is nothing,? we joked. The most unlikely people did the most unlikely things. In another big country, another president was denied by an acronym called the ICC from travelling abroad. Reason? He was charged with war crimes in a militarised zone called Darfur. Omar Hassan al-Bashir dismissed the arrest warrant as mockery of Sudanese democracy, but decided not to defy the ban.

The year also brought back a word that had been buried since in the 1930s. We were told that all the banks will get broke and GDP and GNP would be history as monster Recession has come back. The economics called it economic slowdown, depression, slump, collapse, decline and so forth. Luckily for us, they tried to allay our fears and suggested rescue packages to institutions that would keep air in our lungs. We cried a little and later laughed, happy that it was all part of the funny tale of the year.

But the year had lot more in store for us. In another big island nation, we saw three big men with names difficult to pronounce battled it out in a palace. A disc jockey invited former president, Didier R Askiraka to his radio talk show. This angered President Marc Ravolomanana who ordered the arrest of the DJ and subsequent closure of his radio station. This further angered the populace who marched with the DJ to the palace with the military acting indifferent. The military chiefs, initially neutral in the whole show, finally handed the state to the DJ, one Andry Rajoelina whose popularity within the army and the populace forced the angry Ravolomanana into exile.

But Africa?s first DJ president has a soft head and decided to rule as transitional president. He even called the two ex-presidents to help him run the country. The merry-go-round excited all of us. Funny year!

In South Africa, we saw Zacob Zuma took over from caretaker President Kgalema Motlanthe, who also took over from one Mr. T. Mbeki. We enjoy that merry-go-round and again. And we were made to forgive Zuma for his admission of polygamy and as well as his deliberate act of allowing three of his wives to attend his inauguration. Even his controversial acquittal of rape in 2006 escaped our memory at the time of his inauguration. Perhaps we were carried away by his violent anti-apartheid antics and the fact that he shared prison home with one popular fellow we all know as Madiba or Mandela!

In far Latin America, another president is ousted in power in Honduras over presidential term limits. He fled to Nicaragua but three months later, Manuel Zelaya sneaked back home and sought refuge at the embassy of the soccer-fever country of Brazil. The Americans called the act ?reckless,? but Zelaya defended the act by insisting that ?I am the legitimate president chosen by the people and that is why I came back.? But the junta would not listen to his claim of legitimacy and their transitional mandate ended when Porfirio Lobo won the pools only to spend the Christmas answering questions of his legitimacy after the pools were said to be marred by irregularities again. Honduras of 2009.

What?s the problem?
There was no problem of legitimacy in Zambia, but a stubborn monkey stole the headlines in that country. President Rupiah Banda thought it was wise to brief journalists under a big tree in his presidential backyard inhabited by at least four hundred monkeys. One of the monkeys, either excited or angered by the briefing, decided to punctuate the meeting with urine. It urinated on President Banda as mark of freedom of excretion of anywhere in the backyard. We were amused by the incident, but Banda wasn?t. The following day, grounds men and guards busied themselves removing the monkeys from the luxurious yard and transported them to the wild, or at best, to some remote nature reserves in the country. Why punish the whole pack of monkeys for the foolery of only one? That?s not democratic! Or is it?

In June, the world mourned the death of King of Pop, American Idol, American Superstar, Michael Jackson. The news was so shocking that not a single music lover remained untouched, especially that his sickness was unknown to many. The announcements on BBC, CNN, Fox News, CFI, GRTS and so forth transfixed many into some fantasy status at least for while. Speculations over the cause of his death went wild like bush fires. We were all confused, but remained calmed, except the pop fanatics who wanted his doctor to be taken to the Guillotine. Jackson memorial shows and eulogies engulfed us for three months or more.

In Niger, Mamadou Tandja did not learn from Zelaya of Honduras. He won an unpopular referendum to scrap presidential limits; unpopular parliamentary elections and unpopular local government elections. His reasons for re-lection: to complete the first oil refinery, to build the first dam over River Niger and to develop the first uranium mines in the north. But the elections earned him an exit ticket from the ECOWAS brotherhood. Contrary to our beliefs, elections can sometimes send one out of the door, instead inside through it, at least in Niger!

And our most popular country in Africa was in the spotlight again for two reasons. The first was a war between religious sets and the military and the other was war between sickness and the head of a government. In an Afghan-like manner, the year saw spate of religious violence in several northern states of Nigeria with deaths on both side of the religious divide. As if that was not enough for a country known for its oil riches and political unrest, the president got ill, or rather sick. We were told that President Umaru Musa Yar?Adua signed the 2009 Supplementary Appropriation Bill on his sick bed in King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Jeddah, South Arabia.

The doctors, instead of giving us the layman?s meaning of his sickness, told us that the statesman is suffering from peridarditis, which is said to be associated with connective tissue disorders such as systematic lupus erythematosis, rheumatoid arthritis and rheumatic fever, uraemia, neoplasia, myxoedema and amyloid disease. The medical phraseology frightened us. As the list is very scaring, we argued that the cardiothoracic surgeons should have just called it skin disease so that it would be easy to cure. Our shallow argument: the shorter the name of the disease, the easier is it to cure. How funny were in 2009!

Yet again, we got another newspaper headline at the tail end of the year. Another Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab ended the year in a US jail charged with attempting to blow up a jet he boarded in Amsterdam that was heading to Detroit. At least our vigilance, or that of one passenger, helped to save the lives of 290. During the year, even Charles Taylor of all people spoke plain when he confessed that he committed atrocities in Sierra Leone, though he told the ICC that the media exaggerated the numbers he was said to have massacred. At the end of the year, none of us had any clue as to what would happen to him. That was 2009 again! No clue for man of his calibre!

In Somalia, we were made to see a graduation ceremony turned into carnage when a suicide bomber of Western origin broke the solemn music and murdered four ministers and some twenty others. In Zimbabwe, we watched the funny tale of power in two hands. The power-sharing government between Mugabe?s ZANU-PF and Tsvangirai?s MDC continued to struggle amidst chaos and suspicion. We were left perplexed as to who held more power, if power really existed anywhere between them. We got angry with the two politicians but sympathised with the ordinary people.

In a country where River Gambia got its source, a military leader was shot in the head (or on the right side of his neck as his would-be assassin later claimed on BBC). Even with bullets in his skin, the captain president continued to be blamed for the massacre of 157 pro-democracy activists crowded in a stadium where they should have vehemently supported the Sly Nationals to help them qualify for South Africa, or better still, Angola. Captain M. D. Camara ended the year nursing his wounds in a Moroccan hospital while the fugitive Aboubacar Toumba Diakite busied himself announcing his presence in a hideout in Conakry with two hundred marksmen ready to fight back if attacked.

In Guinea Bissau, and contrary to all odds, the country held a peaceful election after two military heavyweights killed each other. And in far China, a British is executed for his trade in illicit drugs, the first European to get that penalty in China over half a century.

In The Gambia, the president?s call for ?back-to-land? is heeded by many and more NERICA rice was grown more than any other year. We all smiled as price of rice went down. But we felt it hard when that of sugar sky-rocketed during the year. We hosted the Beijing + 15 Review Meeting and the event reminded us of the year 2006 when the Smiling Coast welcomed the AU fraternity in grand style. Chiefs met in Farafenni and agreed that they have a role to play in national development. A man from Sukuta (the town we love so much, yet where we won?t put out mouths!) went to State House to thank the president for his infertility treatment. Ahmadinejad of Iran visited The Gambia on his 5-day tour of Africa and Latin America.

The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference also stole the headlines as the world met to rescue an ailing planet. We heard fine speeches, and promises of fresh air and more food. But we also saw large crowds and loud dissenting voices, all of them sceptical of the men and women in suits and ties; all expressing concerns that the ensuing communiqués might not worth more than the papers they were written.

Even the sports, the year look different. Ronaldo moved to Spain amidst controversy and riches and joined Kaka, only to attract Karim Benzema of Lyon and Alonso of Liverpool to begin another Galacticos. Rio de Janeiro won the right to host the 2016 Olympics and Roger Federa?s win over Andy Roddict at Wimbledon in the Men?s Singles made the first to win sixteen grand slams thus earning him a slot in the sporting history books.  In golf, it wasn?t very sweet as one millionaire Woods was engulfed in an extra-marital scandal and threatened to leave the sport, but was soon convinced that it was his mistakes that made him to be human. He calmed his nerves and took the stick again.

Still in sports, little Gambia was in the mix of things during the year. We celebrated our African Under-7 triumph in Algeria and soon saw a benevolent president made each of the heroes a millionaire. -Africa Under-17 cup in Nigeria ended in a brutal fashion. Conspiracy theorists started blaming MRI tests in Dakar and unfair team selection.

It was so an inexplicable that we couldn?t prevent many things from happening, for the twelve months of the year. We could not stop the Somalia pirates from taking more ships. We could not stop suicide bombing in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nor were we able to stop them in Somalia, Israel and Palestine. At least we heard few of them in the Tamil area of Sri Lanka! We could not stop global warming, despite the fine rhetorics in every ?environment? conference.

But we accomplished few good things in the year. Computer wizardry and technology increased. Mobile phones got cheaper and one could find one in the most unlikely place or with the most unlikely person. We said this before, but it needs repeating, cost of rice went down in The Gambia and more roads got built. The Congo basin got calmer and fewer shots were fired in Darfur and Iraq. And now, bring on 2010. As we enter the New Year. We will continue to smile and keep the ?Smiling Coast? brand alive. For in twelve months, we will judge this year too, both here and abroad and hope that history will be kind to all of us. Kind of!!