The Pandemic
The year 2020 taught the world many lessons. It was no less than a nightmare. It all started to crumble when the COVID-19 turned into a pandemic and as soon as early days of March 2020 the world began to restore to lock-downs. So far it has affected more than 20 million people and has caused around 751000 deaths.
The Australian Bush Fires
As if the virus was not enough, the world had to deal with the exhausting wildfires, killing numbers of animal species, destroying natural habitats and trees and contributing to the worsening climate change situation. It accounted for a record of destroying 47 million acres.
‘Black Lives Matter’
Gradually people were accepting the new normal. However, it was no long until the world witnessed yet another humanitarian crisis in form of racial discrimination in the world’s biggest democracy. The murder of George Floyd became a world issue and protests began across the world to support the ‘black lives matter’ cause.
Beirut explosion
Record economic crash since financial crisis 2008 has been part of the year 2020. The lock-downs caused many economic activities to a still stand. The world was still not completely on the road to recovery that Beirut massive explosion shook the world. The accidental detonation of tons of explosives led to death of around 190 people.
Locusts – record attack on Pakistan and India
Pakistan and India faced the worse ever locust attack in decades, destroying numbers of crops. The most heart wrenching event in Pakistan besides everything else was the PIA PK-8303 plane crash. It claimed 97 innocent lives while 2 passengers miraculously survived.
Human Rights Violation and Inequality
The world saw democracy weakening at the hands of autocratic rulers in the year 2020. The healthcare systems proved to be incompetent for any global emergency. Inequality increased and human rights violation seemed inevitable.
While the year 2020 definitely seemed to shower the world with surprise bombs one after the other, there were certain other events that helped people hold on to hope. The vulnerabilities of world were put to test and humanity came out winner.
Charity and Relief Funds
Amidst the massive economic crash and financial crisis, the people who suffered the most were the lower sections of the society. These people were helped by the governments in form of bailouts and relief funds. People helped one another in forms of donations and providing for food rations.
Human interaction regained its importance amidst social distancing and lock-downs
The year 2020 taught the world about human contact. People began to realize how important the human interaction is. In lock-downs and during isolation, people missed their loved ones more than they would have missed them otherwise in the busy life. People once hooked on to social media now craved for human contact. Also, lock-downs proved beneficial for climate change. The carbon emission decreased and showed improvements in deteriorating climate of the world.
#Reallifeheroes
Despite insufficient healthcare facilities, world states managed to provide for the emergency by helping one another. Real life heroes emerged as front-line paramedics, some of whom lost their lives while saving others’ lives. Moreover, the educational system shifted to online learning and it provided a way forward towards changing dynamics of education in the future. The pandemic revealed insufficient crisis management in emergency healthcare, education, and economic spheres where the world needs to be better prepared for.
And finally we bid farewell to the year 2020 with the COVID-19 vaccines
In context of Pakistan, the society saw a major shift from big fat weddings to home weddings. It paved way for normalizing non-extravagant wedding culture in Pakistan. Last but not the least, people successfully received the shots of COVID-19 vaccines just before the end of the year.
Democracy is here to stay
The people of Belarus stood for their democratic rights against their leader who took the seat for the sixth time. Additionally the President-elect Joe Biden in USA proved that the democracy is here to stay.
The world learnt many lessons from 2020 and came out resilient
Undoubtedly the year 2020 was a tough one for the entire world, yet the world survived. Not only did people learn lessons from the year 2020, but also came out to be stronger. The year 2021 is set to start afresh and to work on the gaps in the basic systems of society to ‘work’ during crisis. Humanity came out resilient; the future seems hopeful for a mutual survival no matter what the circumstances might be.
