2021 is a year I think many of us want to put behind us. It was another year of Covid-19 pandemic, with worse variant, the Delta variant, rampaging all over. Towards the end, the Omicron variant emerged, which appeared to be even more transmissible. Initial observation seems to indicate that it's less lethal but there's still not enough data to be conclusive as there are other confounding factors like vaccine and prior infections. I honestly thought the pandemic would be over by mid-2021, mostly based on vaccination drive. WHO is right about one thing: no country is safe until every country is safe. It was a plea for the richer countries to help directly/indirectly to vaccinate the poorer countries. Once again, I couldn't travel to visit my sister and her family in Australia. As for my mum and my sister in Penang, I could do it only recently, after 16 months of absence. Despite this difficult time, I am very grateful that we are all safe, fully-vaccinated (some of us alre...