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If there was a word that kept popping out at me this entire year, it was 'obliviousness'. It just felt to me that so many people spent 2011 being completely oblivious to what was happening around them. Whether it was Middle Eastern dictators who refused to understand why their people were taking to the streets, to Wall Street bankers who kept awarding themselves humongous bonuses even after their banks had gone bankrupt and people had lost their homes, to the politicians who refused to connect all the many floods and other extreme weather to climate change, so many people at the pinnacles of power remained oblivious to changes going on in the world.

Malaysia's 40 richest people saw their fortunes increase last year and they became collectively worth RM156.7 billion as at January 15, up 63 per cent on last year's figure, according to a "Malaysian Business" survey.

"Republican Rep. Todd Akin taught us a little something about what he called "legitimate rape"-a term we weren't previously familiar with-on local TV this week, saying women don't usually get pregnant from rape because "the female body has ways to shut that whole thing down." Thankfully, he stopped there, but the comment kicked up enough that controversy that it may cost Akin his bid for the Senate. Unfortunately for women, that shockingly ignorant and offensive statement is just one more entry into the Rape Statement Hall of Shame. The Daily Beast presents seven more crazy ideas about rape that have been propagated by politicians and frat boys over the years. "

A study by Scheherazade S Rehman and Hossein Askari from George Washington University, published in the Global Economy Journal Vol 10 drew surprising conclusions. The study examined if policies of Muslim countries (or Muslim majority countries) were founded on Islamic principles in comparison to non-Muslim countries. 208 countries were studied. The criteria: economic opportunity, economic freedom, corruption, financial systems and human rights were used to measure the level of 'Islamicity' (based on an information website about Islam and Muslims). The study found that most Islamic countries did not conduct themselves according to Islamic principles concerning economic, financial, political, legal, social and governance issues.

Malaysia's multi-lingual population is driving the country's growth in the contact centre market in Asia Pacific (Apac) according to Interactive Intelligence Inc, a global business telecoms provider.