If there is one thing you can count on (in addition to the constants of death, taxes and movie adaptations of comic books sucking), it's that the coming of a new year always spawns a slew of lists in the media recounting the mindless minutia of the previous 12 months.
In addition to the serious and informative hard news, technology and science lists showcasing the highs and lows of 2013, you'll also, unfortunately, find lists of best-looking celebrities without makeup for the year, which actors made the most money, top viral videos and memes, and of course, the lists of who died.
In that same spirit, I'd like to add my own list to the mix, and count down the top five things I'd like to see in 2014.
5 - Starting off locally, I'd like to see the Garibaldi at Squamish development change its name. Don't get me wrong: I'm all for the project, but the acronym spells out GAS, and it's just way too tempting to write headlines like "Environmental agency passes GAS" or the like when covering the project.
4 - Fewer political scandals. Whether it's crack smoking, boozing, liar-liar-pants-totally-on-fire mayors, greedy senators, greedy senator cover-ups or lawmakers sharing pictures of their junk online we get it. Politicians suck and a good many of them are untrustworthy, self-serving wingnuts whose grasp on reality varies greatly with actual facts. Now, could someone please just get on with the whole fixing the economy, saving the environment and bringing about world peace thing?
3 - Human rights/Freedom, etc. This kinda goes along with No. 4, but it's 2014, people. I can't believe that after being here all together for a couple thousand years on the planet, we still get all riled up about the whole "Us" and "Them" mindset. We're straight, they're gay. We're Christians, they're Muslims. We're Americans, they're everybody else, etc. Anyone who is deemed different is still shunned, ridiculed, beaten or killed. Nothing's changed since the first caveman came out of his lair, saw someone who instead lived in a treehouse, and fearfully chucked a rock at the person for his or her obvious lack of morals.
2 - Less attention paid to the cult of celebrity. When Miley Cyrus sticking her tongue out and gyrating tops the news for days instead of real stories about the economy, environment or genocide in war-torn countries, I actually start rooting for end-of-the-world preachers to be right.
1 - And the No. 1 thing I'd like to see for 2014 is fewer ridiculous and completely made-up lists produced at the end of the year just to fill space by lazy journalists who have a New Year's party to get to.
