The world has experienced several bad situations at just the beginning of this year
KARACHI: It gives one a feeling of grief when we realise sorrowful episodes of destructions have taken place at the start of 2020. The past decade has been hot for movements regarding climate change, with Australia’s bushfires killing millions of creatures and glaciers in the North melting at an alarming rate.
In the very beginning of 2020, the world witnessed the threats of World War III due to the killing of General Qasim Suleimani in Iran on the order of President Trump. Iran retaliated by attacking a US base in Iraq and the threats and rumours of possibly a World War III started to arise. This retaliatory war caused the death of 176 passengers of an Ukrainian airliner when Iran’s Air Defence mistakenly shot down the plane shortly after takeoff. The trends of World War III gave rise to cultural anxiety among people through humour by circulating memes about the war.
The second event occurred in the form of an epidemic that initiated from the city of Wuhan in China and escalated across the world effecting thousands. Italy, Iran, Japan, South Korea are the hot zones after China and have reported a significant amount of confirmed coronavirus cases.
The global economy too has been experiencing the same situation. Global Economic output has decreased as China’s economic output contributes to more than that of the US, Japan and UK combined. All the leading manufacturing companies have halted production due to unavailability of workers at their plants. Some companies have advised their workers to stay at home. Apple has closed its stores in the country and is expecting a decrease in sales of its new models. A hot beverages chain is experiencing a major financial drawback after closing its stores in China which was its second largest market in the world. Furthermore, airlines have suspended flights as travel bans have been issued.
The rapid spread of the coronavirus virus has led to closure of educational institutions and all academic activities around the world have come to a halt.
The world has experienced several bad situations at just the beginning of this year. While climate change remains a hot topic of discussions. Hopefully, the middle of the year will bring some good news. We should always be optimistic. Despite all the issues like turbulence, wars, many kinds of social frictions, we should continue our struggle for world peace. Soon we shall achieve universal brotherhood. We shall overcome all obstacles in the way. We shall live in peace. We will walk hand in hand. We shall overcome someday.
Muhammad Hassan
Published in The Express Tribune, March 7th, 2020.
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