prob many have noticed - that three very significant events have happened recently.

1) Gerald Ford's passing

The longest living US president at the age of 93 passed away Boxing Day 2006.

Gerald Rudolph Ford will always be remembered as the one who became President after Nixon, widely regarded as one of the most talented ever resigned under a cloud of controversy in what was known as the Watergate scandal.

The Ford administration saw the withdrawal of American forces from the Vietnam War, the execution of the Helsinki Accords and the continuing specter of inflation and recession. Ford came under intense criticism for granting a preemptive pardon to President Richard Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal, and was subsequently defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election. However, this act would later come to be seen as one of great courage that healed the nation after the subsequent catastrophes of the assassination of President Kennedy, Vietnam and Watergate. For his pardon of Nixon, he was awarded the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage award by Sen. Ted and Caroline Kennedy. (Wikipedia)

Personally, I felt that Ford was one of the most insignificant US presidents in history. A lack of raw and pure talent eluded the man, therefore preventing him from really leaving his own mark in the hallways of the Oval Office. Nevertheless every individual US president is and always will be significant, and the pardon of Nixon certainly became his single greatest act which galvanised a nation seemingly mired in internal confusion and frustration.

2) Ban Ki-moon becomes UN Secretary General

It is widely known that the position of the UN Secretary General, like the President of the United States is one of the most important roles in the affairs of the current world.

Outgoing Secretary General Kofi Annan was certainly one of the most effective persons to have ever held the role. Although the oil-for-food programme and sex scandals within the United Nations served to undermine his popularity and effectiveness, Annan's addressing of the HIV/Aids pandemic, affirmative standing against the United States in various issues such as the invasion of Iraq and decisiveness in reaction to a world shaken by 9/11 and a new spectrum of nuclear threats will be testament to a great leader who has also been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The next five years are going to be difficult for Ban, as he seeks to achieve ultimate peace and stability in an ever-changing and volatile social and political world.

3) Saddam Hussein hanged

It is often said that winners write history, while losers fade into distant memory.

In its entirety this isn't exactly true, but it does prove the point. Inevitably the word "loser" is subject to evaluation, but under international recognitions the same names ring out - Adolf Hitler, Ferdinand Marcos, Jeffrey Skilling and many more of similar circumstances - having risen to great heights but ultimately plummeting to shameful lows.

Certainly now, the name Saddām Husayn Aabdu-Al-majīd al-tikrītī will be engraved in that list.

However it is also often said that it is the actions of a few remarkable men change the course of human history,

and that, in its entirety, is relatively true.

Again, Saddam Hussein qualifies for that list. The Iraqi dictator ruled his country for 24 years, building Iraq into a power to be reckoned with in the Middle East. His ruthless determination and violent form of leadership saw him brutally supress opponents to cement his position at the top, but nevertheless there lingers no question about his ability as he led his nation through the Iraq-Iran war and the Gulf war.

However the political landscape after 9/11 cost Hussein dearly as suspicions of Iraq owning weapons of mass destruction led to the Iraq invasion of 2003 and he was captured in December of the same year. Eventually Hussein was tried by the Iraq special tribunal and convicted of crimes against humanity, resulting in death by hanging.

It seemed not long ago that Tojo was tried by an International tribunal and sentenced to his death for war crimes. However Tojo is not considered a war criminal under Japanese law and his memory is enshrined at the Yasukuni war shrine (THE one Koizumi got himself mixed all over in controversy).

Sometimes I ponder about a world where the Axis Powers won World War II, where people are educated from young that socialism is the ideal ideology (catch the pun if you will), or maybe even where a certain Roman Emperor ruthlessly crushed Christianity, or a certain Chinese Emperor crushed Buddhism.

Certainly, our history would have been changed forever.

Okay and with that 2006 is now history and tomorrow's the first day of school. Let's see how exciting it can get yeah?