ENDEMIC. That’s the state the world is longing for, signalling the end of the Covid-19 pandemic and the truce with SARS-CoV-2 that would allow the virus and humankind to live with each other.

WELCOME to 2022. This is my first column for the new year and if you are expecting me to rage against the nasty and horribly depressing issues and controversies that continue to plague us – the latest involving the MACC chief commissioner – I will disappoint you.

SO much for my plan to write a perky last column for 2021 in the hope of spreading a little festive cheer amid the year-long overcast of gloom and doom.

I CONSIDER myself a good and responsible citizen. I heeded what my government and the experts said about Covid-19 and dutifully stayed home, observed all the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and, yes, got vaccinated.

LAST month, Malaysians were left with a sour taste in our mouths when we learned that scandal-tainted former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had asked the Cabinet for land and a house said to be valued at RM100mil.

THE whiskey won by a whisker. That’s probably not accurate but I couldn’t resist the play on words.

​​​​​​​WE have met our first “Karen” in Malaysia. That’s not her real name, but she became famous (or should I say infamous) a week ago when a video of her kicking up a big fuss at a luxury boutique in a KL shopping mall after she was prevented from entering the shop without a face mask went viral. She also refused to check in with the MySejahtera app.

These two amazing but completely different Netflix Korean dramas show the worst and best of humanity. But why did the former become the massively runaway hit?

TODAY I am revisiting a concern which I wrote about two years ago: elderly drivers becoming road menaces.

MY son has bought a manbag. No, I’m not talking about the classic leather briefcases guys carry for work. It’s also not the hard case that middle-aged blokes like his father attach to their belts to carry their handphones.

WHAT would you say if I told you aliens – as in extraterrestrials (ETs) – tried to warn us against destroying our environment 27 years ago?

A COUPLE of weeks ago, someone from the Agriculture Department contacted The Star asking to speak to me.