I will always remember 2011 as the year in which we bade farewell to Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, the late Saudi Crown prince, and the year that saw the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi, and his subsequent brutal death.

Prince Sultan left us on 22/10. All the Saudis, and the Arabs and Muslims with them, mourned him, for he, beyond being Prince and the Heir Apparent, was also known as the Sultan of Charity, having been a one-man charitable organization throughout his life.

Two days before the Crown Prince passed away, Muammar Gaddafi, the man who had been a scourge for Libya and its people, was killed. His forty-two years in power were all miserable, yet I condemn his murder, his killers and their brutality that deserves to be pursued by the International War Crimes Tribunal as it has declared – since there is evidence that the Libyan leader was tortured before he was killed in a manner that can be considered a war crime.

Perhaps there is in the death of Prince Sultan and the killing of Gaddafi, a lesson to all Arab rulers, as each person reaps what he sows.

The year 2011 witnessed many other deaths, from political leaders, to thinkers, writers, intellectuals, and movie stars, as well as thespians and singers. Then before the year ended, the Czech novelist Vaclav Havel passed away on the 18th of this month, followed the next day by Kim Jon-Il, the North Korean dictator.

Once again, a comparison forces itself upon us. Havel is a champion of freedom who fought against communism until it collapsed. When Czechoslovakia split in two in 1993, he became President of the Czech Republic. His last battle was leading a campaign against Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus or the “last dictator in Europe”, as Havel saw him.

By contrast, Kim Jong-Il inherited dictatorship from his father Kim Il-sung two decades ago or so, and pursued the same extremist isolationist policy of his father, starving his people in the process. So much so that the last international agreement he signed a few days before he died stipulated that North Korea would suspend uranium enrichment in return for food aid from the United States and other nations. It is enough to look at the difference between North and South Korea to know how democracy creates a strong and prosperous economy, and dictatorship hunger, poverty and disease.

Nevertheless, there is one odd thing. Following the death of the reformer Havel, I read that he was more popular outside his country than within it, while I saw after the death of the North Korean dictator people in his country crying bitterly in bereavement for him. I leave the task of explaining this to historians.

The year began with the death of Mohammed Bouazizi on 4/1, after he immolated himself out of desperation on 17/12/2010. His death was the spark of an unprecedented and unexpected wave of Arab uprisings, which has since turned everything upside down in Arab politics.

And among those who passed away this year was Khaled Gamal Abdel-Nasser (15/9). We in the Arab Levant used to call Gamal Abdel Nasser "Abu Khaled”, a nickname that the Egyptians themselves do not use. Also among the departed is Mohammed Bassiouni, the Egyptian Ambassador to Israel (18/9), Saad Shazly (10/2) a hero of the October War [Yom Kippur War], the politician Talaat Sadat (20/11), and the famous writer and journalist Ahmed Bahgat (11/12).

Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. commando raid near Islamabad (2/5). Then after him in Yemen, and also in a raid, Anwar al-Awlaki was killed, a frontrunner for the succession of bin Laden. Meanwhile, the last American occupation soldier to be killed in Iraq was David Hickman (14/11), who was the 4474th American victim.

Other notable deaths included Dr. Kamal Salibi, the renowned Lebanese historian (1/9) (I had studied one course under him at the American University of Beirut). Steve Jobs also passed away, Apple’s genius CEO who was born to a Syrian father, and who died on (5/10), and the controversial British writer Christopher Hitchens (15/12), mentioned in this column when I commented on his visit to Beirut, and a street quarrel he had with supporters of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.

The year also saw the death of Egyptian actor Kamal Shenawi (22/10), nicknamed the First Boy of the Screen, and American actor Peter Falk, the protagonist of the TV series Colombo, in addition to actresses Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Russel and the British actress Susannah York, along with the golden voice Amy Winehouse who was 27, and who died of alcohol – and drug – abuse.

Finally, I conclude with what is a personal loss for me. My friend Tarif Kamal passed away, leaving his friends and families with lasting grief, after an incurable disease that did not spare him in the end.

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