For Flight 2010, seat belts are still required

So this is Christmas, as John Lennon sang, and for columnists that means it’s time for a year-end wrap-up, and a peek ahead at what the new year has in store.

This column dutifully observed this particular rite as 2009 approached. In the interest of full disclosure, it bears revisiting some of those predictions to see how they fared.

Thankfully, no reports have surfaced of fisticuffs in Abu Dhabi between housewives and workers over taxis, defying a forecast printed in this space that a scarcity of public conveyance would lead to violence. The addition of thousands of taxis and buses, combined with the impact on demand of the global economic crisis, appears to have ensured peace on the streets.