python panel applets in gnome?

[Arp]

Hi,

Recently I changed from Ubuntu 12.04 to Mint 14 with MATE, which looks and "feels" much better!

Since Mate is a fork of gnome 2.3.... Is it also possible to write python codes for applets that you can place into the panel? I know this was possible in the old gnome, but in gnome 3 its apparently very different.

I have a python script that prints a number to the terminal, once an hour, and i would like to have it printed on to the panel.
Is this possible with MATE?
Thx.