2021: Is It Going To Be 2020 Pro Max?
Today is New year’s eve! We will be bouncing into a new year. 2020 will be an unforgettable year! We have just few hours to go and time enough to look back at how this year has been to us. Most people can boldly say that this year was the most terrifying year of their lives. A year that was full of awful surprises every step of the way. Waking up in 2020, while being something to be grateful for, was also filled with uneasy anticipation of what would happen next.
Is it strange that this anxiety and fear of 2020 seems to have followed us to the threshold of another year? Will 2021 be 2020 pro max? Will there be improvements? How will we survive if there isn’t? The best way to predict this thing is through constructive analysis and we will begin by enumerating a few of the major horrible things that happened in 2020 and try and deduce what we have conquered and what we might still have to tackle in 2021.
These are some “disasters” that occurred in 2020:
Australian Fires
As of 14 January 2020, 18.626 million hectares (46.03 million acres) was burnt or is burning across all Australian states and territories.[54] Ecologists from The University of Sydney estimated 480 million mammals, birds, and reptiles were lost since September with concerns that entire species of plants and animals may have been wiped out by bushfire,[55][56] later expanded to more than a billion.[57]
In February 2020 it was reported that researchers from Charles Sturt University found that the deaths of nine smoky mice were from “severe lung disease” caused by smoke haze that contained PM2.5 particles coming from bushfires 50 kilometres away.[58]
By the time the fires had been extinguished there, they destroyed 2,448 homes, as well as 284 facilities and more than 5,000 outbuildings in New South Wales alone.[59] Twenty-six people were confirmed to have been killed in New South Wales since October.[59] The last fatality reported was on 23 January 2020 following the death of a man near Moruya.
Source: Wikipedia
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Economic Collapse
The recession that hit the world this year has been called the Covid-19 recession. Lots of countries were affected. Millions of people lost their jobs or were displaced. Children starved to death. In countries like Nigeria and Yemen, famine looms. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the Covid-19 recession.
The COVID-19 recession is a severe global economic crisis which has caused a recession in some nations and in others a depression.[who?] It is the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression. The economic crisis began due to the economic consequences of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The first major sign of a recession was the collapse of markets during the 2020 stock market crash, which began in late February and lasted through March. But the stock market crash was short-lived, and many market indices around the world recovered or set new records by Autumn 2020. As of September 2020, every advanced economy is or had been in a recession or depression, whilst all emerging economies are in recession. Modeling by the World Bank suggests that in some regions a full recovery will not be achieved until 2025 or beyond.
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Coronavirus
The Coronavirus pandemic that began in 2019 ravaged the whole world, killing 1.7 million people in 17 continents. Many countries that were worst hit by the virus were affected due to slow response to the virus. By March 2020 when most countries had begun to lockdown or were already in economic lockdown, thousands of people were already dead.
In Italy alone, 69,200 lives have been lost. In the USA, 300,000 lives have been lost while in South Africa and Nigeria, 27,568 and 1267 lives have been lost respectively.
With almost two million persons dead, it is safe to assume that millions of families have lost their loved ones, particularly the older generation and the very young. Despite the danger associated with the deadly virus, thousands of people across countries and continents in the world have refused to believe its existence or wear a mask. This group of persons are called Covidiots.
Image Source: Unsplash.com
Natural disasters
Even the earth was a bit doozy this year. The natural disasters that occurred this year were record breaking. In no particular order, I will be mentioning a few.
The Indonesian flood claimed lives and destroyed properties in the country’s capital. People who died either drowned or suffered from electric shock.
Antarctica is turning green due to global warming. Most of us have this fairy tale idea about the frozen continent Antarctica which we see in our minds eye as a place full of fluffy clouds and snow. 2020 dashed that fairy tale to pieces. Green algae are currently ruining the snowy beauty of that continent and there’s nothing we can do but cry.
Police Brutality
Apart from the Covid-19 pandemic this year, police brutality has been another deadly pandemic that has ravaged many countries in the world.
The BlackLivesMatter protests sparked off when police men caused the death of a Black man named George Floyd. People of all colours took to the streets protesting their right to live without discrimination and fear. The protests were hijacked by hoodlums who took to looting and arson causing the loss of jobs and great losses for small business owners.
In Nigeria, the EndSars protests began when Nigerian youth decided that they had endured enough hardship at the hands of law enforcement agents who were charged to protect them. They York to the streets demanding police reforms and for greedy and corrupt leaders to step down from their positions in government. Their demands were however not met and the protests were also hijacked by hoodlums who went around ending the lives of innocent protesters, looting, breaking of prisons, destruction of police stations and many more criminal activities.
Image Source: Unsplash.com
World War III Scare
Here’s an excerpt of an article on our site. “When Trump sent missiles to Iran and these missiles killed Soleimani, the whole world held its breath. Iran, as expected, was irate and they mourned. We mourned along with them but a part of all of us begged them not to retaliate. Not because we were trying to deny them the justice they crave for but because we realize that any step they take is one more step towards the dreaded World War III.
Let us not forget that Trump has threatened to attack 52 sites (including civilian sites) if Iran retaliates and they have just retaliated. What happens now? Will the bloodshed begin or will one of these powerful countries behave like the “bigger person” and call off this catfight with prospects of blooming into a full-blown world war?”. Find full article here.
World War 3 didn’t finally happen but boy, the possibility alone was scary!
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Will 2021 be 2020 Pro Max?
What will you do if someone offers you a chance to relive all the hard times of this year? I bet you will run away very quickly! Even though we are stepping into a new year, there are some things that might not change even though we hope they will. Some of these things were the scariest part of the year and that’s not encouraging at all.
Covid-19
After hearing that the much anticipated Covid-19 vaccine does not prevent the transfer of the virus, I hurriedly took my phone and Google searched “will Covid-19 disappear?”. The results I got were not encouraging. Most predicted that the virus would never disappear but some people would develop immunity to it. It will become the same as all the other infectious diseases we are all too familiar with.
What this means is that in the future, if someone starts to sneeze real bad, people will no longer run for cover, instead they’ll stand and have conversations like this:
Speaker A: “Ouch. Seems like he’s got Covid-19”
Speaker B: “Damn. Thats bad. He should take care of that”
Speaker A: “Yeah, just one shot will do it”.
Natural Disasters
The natural disasters this year have been horrific and terrible but it is sad to know that 2021 and the years after could be worse.
Colorado University environmental sciences chief Waleed Abdalati, NASA’s former chief scientist, said the trajectory of worsening disasters and climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas is clear, and basic physics.
“I strongly believe we’re going to look back in 10 years, certainly 20 and definitely 50 and say, ‘Wow, 2020 was a crazy year, but I miss it,’” Abdalati said.
That’s because what’s happening now is just the type of crazy climate scientists anticipated 10 or 20 years ago.
Source: PBS
Police Brutality
Just like the fight for peace, justice and equality, the fight to end police brutality is not one that would end in a day. Police reforms that were demanded during the Black Lives Matter and Endsars protests are yet to be implemented. Man’s inhumanity to man will continue until the human race is purged.
Image Source: Unsplash.com
Is There Hope For 2021?
Yes there is! 2021 could be one of the best years of our lives. 2020 has taught all of us lessons we will never forget. Taught us to love, to be attentive and grateful for the little things around us. I am sure that if we go into 2021 with these virtues we have acquired through the hardship of this year, we will definitely make 2021 a novel year to live in.
Now tell me, what is your new year resolution? Don’t forget to like and share. Happy New Year In Advance!!!
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