2020 for the world
Year 2020 is coming to an end. It has turned out to be a very undesirable year for everyone due to the Covid-19 pandemic that last way longer than we expected and had impacted all of us in every angles. It has led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
There were news saying that the virus was actually not originating from Wuhan, China and that the virus had actually been present way earlier in 2019. But these didn’t bother us anymore as our attention shifts to finding ways to bring the numbers down, contain the virus through vaccines, and ways to resume the economy. Safe distancing and enhanced hygiene measures are still in place, and looks like we have to continue wearing mask when going out for at least another year.
Major global events planned this year such as the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games, Dubai 2020 World Expo, the UEFA Euro 2020, 2020 Thomas and Uber Cup, etc are postponed to next year. By the way, things still remain uncertain even in 2021 as the daily cases remain very high in many countries across the world. As of now, worldwide coronavirus cases have gone close to 80 million with about 1.7 million deaths. There is still no sign of slowing down. It’s quite certain that this will drag on for at least another year even with the arrival of many upcoming certified vaccines.
Other notable events in 2020 that worth highlighting here are the explosion at a port in Beirut on August 4 that killed over 200 people (a blast that looks like it was straight out of a war movie scene), Joe Biden defeating the incumbent Donald Trump in the US presidential election in November and South Korean film ‘Parasite’ becoming the first non-English language film winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards (Oscars) in February.
A major event happened closer to home on February 2020 was the collapse of Pakatan Harapan government in Malaysia and is replaced by Perikatan Nasional coalition that saw the parties lost in the previous 2018 general election coming back to power. Muhyiddin Yassin becomes the new Prime Minister from this backdoor government that is not voted by the people.
2020 FOR ME
Since February, I am no longer able to travel back home (at KL) due to the Covid-19 travel restrictions. I used to return home once or twice every month before that. Over here in Singapore, circuit breaker (a more beautiful term than ‘lockdown’) was implemented for two months from April to June, followed by phased openings on subsequent months (Phase 3 opening will commence on 28 December). Working from home has become the norm…and it’s one week in the office, one week at home work schedule for me now.
I moved to a new room/unit in September to change environment after having stayed in the previous room/unit for more than 2 years. On the other hand, I have bought myself a new iPhone 12 Pro in October to replace my previous iPhone 7 which I have used for over 4 years. I have traveled to Egypt on January during the Chinese New Year holiday with my parents and have traveled to Penang on February with my friend (these was all before the pandemic kicks in). After that, I can only travel within this tiny island of Singapore.
I wish 2021 would be much better for everyone…
(Images in this post are from various online sources)
Vincent Loy's Online Journal 