Evolution, at its adverse has always brought misery to mankind. The change, whenever comes across any primitive mode of living has caused historic mass-destructions running long down in generations. Did, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki followed by series of world wars, gigantic Tsunamis hit, socio-political revolutions, plagues, earthquakes, along with simultaneous nuclear-attack genocides end life on Earth? Destruction, being another form of creation has always added to human resilience, moulding and re-moulding them every single time while enhancing their proficiency in terms of adapting. Adapting as a perfect fit for the purpose of ascertaining their own survival instinct. 2020, apart from being a demanding year for human adaptation, it undoubtedly has been a year of serial trials across the world.
Beginning with a rampant spread of global pandemic - COVID 19, 2020 imposed World health emergency for the first time in global history all the way from North American to the Australian continent. Originating from Wuhan: a city of China, (which has been known for the disputed emergence of Corona Virus) corona virus has engulfed 1.77M lives identified by statistics so far while countries including Italy, Germany, France, Russia and US have been majorly besieged under its destruction.
Adding further to human misery, terms like ‘social-distancing’, ‘self-isolation’, ‘self-help’, ‘self-learning’, ‘quarantine’ and ‘lock-down’ became so common in day to day usage whereas social networking grew in more popularity for business, professional, educational and entertainment purpose. Video conferences on Zoom, and Google Meet became famous medium of e-learning while rise in use of Facebook, Netflix, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter was observed considerably. Work from home became the notion to put in practice, whereas global travelling was paused for unpredictable durations, leaving all trade markets in unforeseen circumstances.
Furthermore, the unfortunate incidences coming one after another kept on reminding that 2020 is not a typically usual year in human history. The fire-breakout in Amazon rainforest of Brazil, Australia on 9 March burnt an estimated area of 18.6 million hectares (46 million acres; 186,000 square kilometres; 72,000 square miles), destroying over 5,900 buildings (including 2,779 homes) and killing at least 34 people still remains green down the memory-lane of 2020.
The tragic Beirut explosion in August 2020 is again a huge setback for International trade marketing caravans enrouting via warm waters of Mediterranean Sea to different sites in world. This explosion occurred due to ignition of 2790 metric tons of ammonium nitrate stored in Beirut port. A loss of almost over 200 human lives in this blast was devastating. It left 7000 injured and over 300,000 internally displaced.
Meanwhile, some valuable people amidst of all these crises, departed from this planet Earth. The sudden death of famous retired Basketball players Kobe Bryant in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California while boarding along with his 13 year old daughter, Gianna and nine others was a real shock not only for the basketball admirers, but the people all across the world payed homage to his humble rendered services.
In addition to this, another star of galaxies Joan Ruth Bader Ginsberg who was an associate justice in Supreme court of United States since 1993 and a global activist of women empowerment bid us farewell on September 16, 2020.
Moreover, Amanullah from Pakistan the super star of comedy breath his last this year on March 6. Not only this, Tariq Aziz the master mind behind popularity of Bazm e Tariq Aziz show, also passed away on June 17th this year.
In addition to this, the tragic deaths of Mir Zafar Ullah Khan Jamali, the former prime minister of Pakistan, Shamim Akhtar ( Nawaz Sharif’s mother) and Khadim Hussein Rizvi, a radical Pakistani religious scholar also occurred in 2020.
Moving forward to socio-political nostalgia, we come across George Floyed’s murder which gave rise to serious serial civil disobedience movements under the banner of famous slogan “Black lives matter” in US. He, a 46-year-old black man, got killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while getting arrested for alleged usage of counterfeit bill. According to two autopsies, his death was a homicide. Derek Chauvin, an American police officer was charged with a second-degree unintentional murder, and a second-degree man slaughter.
2020 was also the year of US elections which brought Joe Bidden and Kamala Harris, on November 7 to the office as elected president and vice-president of US. The quote “While I may be the first woman in office, I will not be the last one” from Kamala’s gratitude speech reverberated across the world and added to her success.
Sports although after facing abandonments across the world were played at different instances in various parts of world. Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Frances Tiafoe were among the winners of the ATP’s top awards for this year. International Kabadi World cup 2020 which was held in Qaddafi stadium Lahore, earlier this year was won by Pakistan against India. Furthermore, Karachi kings won Pakistan Super League 2020.
Year 2020 for Pakistan, where it brought unfortunate incidents like the air crash of PIA’s flight 8303 near Jinnah International Air Port Karachi on 22 May and killed 97, it brought glad accomplishments as the appointment of Nigar Johar as first ever Women officer in Pak Army as lieutenant General and of Raina Khan winning Lady Diana award, bringing laurels to the country.
Moreover, the incident of gang rape of 22 October, on Lahore-Gujranwala motorway raised many allegations on Punjab police and National Highway law and order enforcing agencies this year. While in Sindh, this year Monsoon rains flooding whole of the province unveiled the blocked and flawed sanitation systems.
Furthermore, Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari got engaged on Nov 27 while her sister, Aseefa entered politics of country this December.
Many famous Pakistani celebrities tied knots of marriage this year including Sadaf Kanwal and Shehroz Sabzwari, Sajal Ali and Ahad Raza Mir, Saad Qureshi and Misha Chaudhary. Famous Pakistani cricketer, Aisam ul haq also got married in 2020 while some famous divorces of 2020 include divorce between Bushra Ansari and Iqbal Hussain.
Moreover, this year ends with the rising controversy on between two super-stars of Pakistani singing Industry i.e. Meesha Shafi and Ali Zafar.