2020 — the decade

Today is the last day of this year or rather decade because the things that happened in this single year usually require almost a decade if not more to happen. It was sort of a crash course where we paced through enormous events crammed in a single year. I’m sure many people feel they have aged very fast. The year started with the impeachment of President Trump. The strongest man in the world was reeling from that debacle when the world, especially his world, was rocked by the virus.

President Trump could not be brought down with the Russia collusion scandal. Even the impeachment — that resulted from his immoral, unprofessional, and unpresidential behaviour by asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Bidens — could not hurt him. Arguably, both, the impeachment and the Mueller-led investigation into the Russia collusion resulted in his approval ratings going up.

What eventually got him was the virus. The media drumbeat — and it was noisy — which relentlessly reminded the American people that the enormous number of American deaths due to the virus are because of President Trump’s slow response. Leakers and authors revealed that the serial killer behind the corona deaths in America was the man in the Oval Office. Trump lost the election to Biden, who might prove to be an anathema to world peace. Regardless, for the first time since 1992, we saw a one-term president in America in 2020.

Peace in Afghanistan remained elusive even though the strongest man had the strongest will to end the war. Billionaires added more billions to their net worth. Yet, many poor became poorer. People became more connected through online platforms yet became increasingly isolated from one another. The world transitioned to a phase of online purchasing, which was expected in the future. Electricity bills went up due to people being indoors. More domestic fights and pregnancies became memes in 2020. Online streaming and daytime dreaming became the norm. Masks became another addition to our permanent accessories. In America, it also became a symbol of political affiliation.

Climate change continued to be omnipresent in our lives in the form of wildfires, hurricanes, and extreme heat. Yet, our painkiller for that was the ritualistic procrastination or worse, denial. The sad reality is that while we all have our fingerprints on climate change, the same cannot be said about the fight against it. The only democratic, yet, unequal act connecting humanity in 2020 remained everyone’s contribution to climate change. Fiction literally invaded science as we saw the conspiracy theories surrounding Covid-19. The developed and developing world had unbelievably similar behaviour regarding conspiracy theories about the virus.

In Pakistan, hypocrisy was on full display this year. The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) made a mockery of social distancing guidelines for curbing the spread of corona. If this virus spreads due to these rallies, which it will, the children of the poor would die of starvation if the virus spares them. The children of corrupt rich politicians, Maryam and Bilawal, would get the best healthcare in Pakistan or abroad, if they get sick. The PDM has nothing democratic in its entire make-up. It is led by the children of two notoriously corrupt thieves.

If there was even a hint of democracy in their corrupt cartel, they would have let other more experienced politicians take charge. But in business empires owned by corruption czars, only the heirs take charge. In a nutshell, democracy continued to erode globally in 2020 — another threat to world peace. I personally cannot wait for the stroke of midnight, not for celebrating the coming year but for the end of this dreaded one we just lived through.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2020.

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