Mr Annus Horribilis

IF 2013 had been a person, it would have been a sorry sight, bruised by freak accidents, battered by corruption trials and traumatised by the first riot that the country has seen in decades. In fact, while this year is being represented as Mr Annus Horribilis by The Business Times, it has in fact featured several people - Blowtorch Man, Plaid Shirt Man and Samurai Man. All three have more in common than you would have thought possible, for the first man used too much heat, the second urged rioters to cool down and the third lost his cool on the train. At the same time, the person behind the Guy Fawkes mask turned out to be several men, some of whom claim to be part of hacking collective Anonymous, whose cause is associated with the November celebration - a white-knuckled month for corporate Singapore. This culminated in the unsettling discovery of the statements of 647 Standard Chartered private bank customers on then laptop of alleged hacker James Raj Arokiasamy. For all the temptation to bemoan the state of 2013, the year really could have been worse, especially when the state of the rest of the world is considered. In a year that has contained the horror of Homs, the tragedy of typhoon Haiyan and the heartbreak of high school shootings, Singapore's troubles have been more farcical in nature than catastrophic. And as the year winds to a close, the conclusion that is reached is one that is not necessarily intuitive but no less comforting - as a country, we've done alright. Nonetheless, good riddance, 2013.