“Every sunset is an opportunity to reset.” - Richie Norton
Considering the circumstances should we try and erase the year 2020 from our lives? Well, the thought of deleting it from the calendar is like herding cats, but should we psychologically erase it from our minds? The answer is NO!
Here are few instances that will make us think that 2020 is maybe the worst year of our lives:
- The world was on the brink of facing the ultimate Third World War!
In January, World War 3 concerns were triggered around the globe after the death of Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani in a US airstrike. Russia and India were also facing growing tensions. Conflict between Iran and Israel caused low intensity warfare across the Middle-East. The world was then stressing about how worse the situation will be if this war started and the amount of mass destruction it will cause. Now World War 3 concerns have arisen again, after China sent a survey ship back into Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone. While US blamed China for practicing unfair trading practices and using a biological weapon for world dominance, China defiantly enhanced relations with Russia and US sparked controversies with both South Korea and Japan. Both US and China militaries are now stationed in Taiwan, waiting for an order from the government. Albert Einstein once said “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
- Black summer, commonly known as Australian Bushfire
Being no stranger to bushfires,2019-2020 Bushfire proved to be unprecedented. It aroused due to several forest fires in June 2019 destroying unimaginably large forest area and wildlife. 80 percent of the Blue Mountains World Heritage area in NSW and 53 percent of the Gondwana world heritage rainforests in Queensland (QLD) were burned. Impact of the bushfires was about $A3.5 billion/$2.4 billion USD and may lead banks to slash economic growth forecasts. Not only the Environmental Organisation were worried but the world was panicking about this dynamic situation.
- And the very well-known Covid-19!
After poor assessment of the virus by China, many countries initiated full lockdown causing financial crisis around the globe. US Unemployment claims have jumped to the highest after Hurricane Harvey and US Labour Department saw the steepest downturn after the Great Depression. According to CDC, the world might see a worse second wave along with the seasonal flu. India has been hit bad due to the pandemic and according to the IMF Chief Economist India will see a GDP growth rate of 0.5% this year when initial expected rate was above 6%. The world was brimming with indigence and the underprivileged were suffering the most.
No one could have imagined that in its few months 2020 would bring so many disasters shattering the world to its lowest. Each and every individual somewhere feels that time has stopped and nothing can be done to get their lives back to track. Everyone is living in fear and are intimidated by the mere thought of catching the virus. As little magicians, we always thought that it would be great if we could stop motion for some time and live our lives to the fullest but when this is actually happening now, we feel fatigued. When you have to stay at home for a couple of days and social distancing is the only solution, why not think about rejuvenating ourselves rather than living in stress? This is not the time to think about what mistakes you have done in the past, this is the time to learn how you can develop so that you do not repeat those mistakes in the future. It is time to innovate and make the world a better place to live! Rather than erasing the year from our lives, we have to learn something out of it and secure ourselves from the very beginning of another such pandemic. This is the time to change specially when earth is giving us a second opportunity to rejuvenate yourselves.
BY MUSKAN BARODIA
LITERARY SOURCES: IMF, OECD, STATISTA, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, CENTER FOR DISASTER PHILANTHROPY, RUSSIAN FEDERAL FORESTRY AGENCY, ARMS CONTROL ASSOCIATION
