Let's Look Back at the Events of 2009

Hi Everyone,

2010 is approaching. Once again, the new year is here. Let's take a look on what has been happening in 2009. From the economic downturn to sports and scandals, 2009 has been a good year with several shocking revelations.

Who would imagine that Tiger Woods, the world number 1 golfer who has such a clean image suddenly involved in an accident? This event led to him confessing that he had relationship with other ladies even when he is married. His image was suddenly gone. Well, here are some of the top events in 2009:

News

1. Barack Obama became the 1st African-American  inaugurated as U.S 56th president on 20th January. (Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/1/20/nation/20090128134237&sec=nation)



2. U.S President Barack Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on October 2009 for his efforts in strengthening international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8298580.stm)
   



3. Earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 hits Samoa just before the Padang earthquakes happened. It killed 22. Several areas triggered tsunami warnings after it happened. Source: (http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/29/samoa.earthquake/index.html)
   



4. 2 earthquakes with magnitudes 7.9 and 6.8 respectively hit Padang on 30th September 2009 and early October 2009. It triggered a tsunami warning. About 230,000 people died. (Source:www.smh.com.au/...earthquake...padang-in.../20091001-gdel.html)



5. MCA made headlines this year during the EGM when President Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat narrowly lost in a vote of no confidence in his leadership and Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek becoming a normal MCA member. Then followed by the presence of a 3rd faction which has no confidence in the current president and deputy president. Later President Ong comes out with the Greater Unity Plan in which some of the CC members rejected it. The CC members who rejected it now wants to hold fresh polls. 13 CC members have resigned so that fresh pools can be held.



6. Cigarette packs now costs RM6.40 per pack minimum



7. Credit card holders will be charged a tax of RM50 for principal and RM25 for supplementary card holders effective 2010. This was introduced by Datuk Seri Najib during the October budget to curb overspending and reduce debts.



8. Yasmin Ahmad, Malaysia's film maker passed away on 25th July 2009. She was remembered as a film maker who produced advertisements that capture the essence of racial harmony in Malaysia. (Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/7/25/nation/20090726030133&sec=nation)
   



9. Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, 50 and Farah Fawcett from Charlie's Angels have passed away on 26th June 2009. Michael Jackson was due to start his 'This Is It' tour in July around the world. (Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/26/nation/20090626082443&sec=nation)
   

Scandals

1. Teoh Beng Hock, Ean Yong Hian Wah's political aide was found dead in the afternoon the next day after he was interrogated by the MACC
2. Rape scandal in Sarawak involving the Penans
3. Mohammad Saiful Bukhari accused Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim of sodomising him in 2008
   

Health

1. Influenza A (H1N1)
2. Meningitis outbreak at Malacca in May 2009
   
3. Dengue and Chikunguya cases are on the rise
4. Leptospirosis outbreak with 2 Myanmar nationals died at Juru detention centre at Seberang Prai, Penang (Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/5/19/nation/20090519114600&sec=nation)
   

Technology

1. The Sony TX1 with the shooting panaroma feature was launched



2. The Olympus PEN E-P2 camera was launched last month
   



3. Olympus PEN camera celebrated it's 50th anniversary this year. A limited edition PEN camera was launched again a few months ago.
   



4. The new IPod Nano 5th Generation with a video camera and radio capabilites was launched in September this year. I just bought my IPod Nano in January this year and a new model was launched 8 months later.
   



5. The new IPhone 3G(S) with a 3.2 Megapixels camera, copy and paste feature and 3G speed wireless access was launched in the middle of this year



6. 2009 saw the emergence of netbooks with the main feature of surfing the net. These netbooks are using Intel Atom processors.
   

Sports

1. Tiger Woods sex scandal after his car accident near his home. He was said to have a relationship with a waitress, Rachel Uchitel. A few days later, he confessed to have the relationship and other girls began to appear. Seemed he had a lot of relationships before even while his wife, Elin was pregnant.
   



2. Michael Schumacher signed a deal to be one of the F1 drivers for the Mercedes Petronas F1 team. It is his F1 return after 3 years of retirement



3. Lionel Messi was awarded the Fifa World Player of the Year award



4. Manchester City's former manager, Mark Hughes was sacked after his team's 4-3 win over Sunderland. Roberto Mancini replaces him as the new manager. Mark Hughes did not know about his sacking until after his team's win over Sunderland.



5. Malaysia's Women badminton team won the gold at the 25th Sea Games held in Laos a few weeks back after a 32 year wait



6. Malaysia's football team emerged champions at the 25th Sea Games held in Laos by beating Vietnam 1-0 in the finals.
   



7. Serena Williams was handed a point penalty on match point at U.S Open during her game against Kim Clijsters. She was angry with the umpire and said something in this lines: "I'm going to shove this ball down your f------ throat". She also continued to scream to the official with a jabbed finger and with more profanity and threats (Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/blog/busted_racquet/post/Serena-Williams-berates-official-loses-match-fo?urn=ten,189028).
   



8. Roger Federer regained the number 1 ranking from Rafael Nadal on 6th July 2009 (Source: http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Top-Players/Roger-Federer.aspx?t=rh)



9. Manny Pacquiao, the six time U.S boxing champion is scheduled to fight Floyd Mayweather in March 2010 but was cancelled due to Floyed insisting that Manny goes through blood tests first to check for doping. (Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/12/28/sports/5373273&sec=sports)
   



10. Andre Agassi admitted in his biography that he took crystal meth and lied to ATP to avoid a ban



11. Michael Phelps was photographed using marijuana. He later admitted to taking it and apologised to everyone. He is now making a comeback in the swimming arena



12. BMW and Toyota decided to pull out from Formula One this year



13. Renault's F1 team boss, Flavia Briatore was found guilty to deliberately told it's former F1 driver, Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash his car so that Fernando Alonso can win the race at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. Renault has been suspended for 2 years and Flavia Briatore has stepped down as Renault F1's team manager (Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/23/sports/4763347&sec=sports)
    

Cars

1. Kia Forte was launched at Paviliion KL last month (Source: http://paultan.org/2009/11/25/kia-forte-here-in-malaysia-amazing-value-for-money/) . It won the Car of the Year award and Car of the Month Award (August) with American car website, NADAguides.com. (Source: http://blog.autoworld.com.my/index.php/2009/12/10/kia-forte-picks-up-coty-award-from-nadaguides-com/)
   



2. The Toyota Camry facelift model was launched a few months ago. It remains the number 1 executive car after Honda Accord with the latter closing in the gap. Difference of slightly more than 1K cars sold
   



3. Ford agress to sell its Volvo business to a Chinese automobile company, Geely for $2 billion (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8428066.stm, http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/12/17/business/5319250&sec=business)



4. Toyota Prius was the top selling car in Japan for 5th consecutive month in a row in Japan (Source: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/6/business/20091006133323&sec=business)



5. Toyota Prius 3rd Generation was launched in Malaysia on 4th August 2009 with the price tag of RM175K. Now we can save the environment by buying a Toyota Prius but it would much too expensive for most of us. Similar to a Toyota Camry 2.4V price. (Source: http://paultan.org/2009/08/04/rm175k-toyota-prius-now-available-in-malaysia/). Honda Civic Hybrid's selling price was also lowered to RM128K this year from around RM160K previously.
   

Movies

1. Sherlock Holmes (December 2009) 
2. Nine (December 2009)
   
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel (December 2009)
   
4. Bodyguards and Assassins (December 2009)
   
5. Avatar (December 2009)
6. The Princess and The Frog (December 2009)
7. A Christmas Carol (November 2009)
   
8. The Twilight Saga: New Moon (November 2009)
9. 2012 (November 2009)
   
10. G-Force (September 2009)
    
11. The Final Destination (August 2009)
    
12. G.I Joe (August 2009)
13. Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (July 2009)
14. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (July 2009)
    
15. UP (June 2009)
    
16. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (June 2009)
17. Star Trek (May 2009)
18. Wolverine (April 2009)
19. Slumdog Millionaire (February 2009 - Malaysia)
    

Entertainment

1. Taylor Swift won more than 30 awards this year for her work in the Fearless album. Love Story, You Belong With Me, Fifteen and Teardrops on my Guitar remain her top songs for this year. Congratulations to Taylor Swift



2. 2009 also saw Lady Gaga being as good. From her first single from her album, Just Dance, she continued to dominate the charts with songs such as Bad Romance, Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say), Paparazzi and Poker Face



3. The band Boys Like Girls had a duet with Taylor Swift in their song, Two Is Better Than One



4. Tony Braxton made a comeback with her song, Yesterday



5. Whitney Houston made a comeback with the album, I Look To You since 2002 (Source: http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/07/15/whitney-houston-debuts-i-look-to-you-songs-album-cover/)



6. Paula Abdul will not continue her contract with American Idol as a judge in 2010
   

These are among the main highlights and news of the year 2009. The biggest news still making headlines is the Tiger Woods scandal with AT&T also withdrawing their sponsorship.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo