2018 – A year in review of major world events
2018 was full of revelations between nations. Relations between countries fractured and climate change affected the world immensely. There was an atmosphere of the Cold War, with weapons being threatened to be used at times and political mind games being played. It was also a time of clashing ideologies, with left wing, right wing and centrist parties fighting it out for parliament. Attitudes had swung in regards to migration and globalisation in many areas of the world.
Women's rights were advanced and many people had achieved the justiced the justice that they wanted. We also celebrated the achievements of remarkable people. ......
2018, in a nutshell was Brexit, Trump, Canada, China, Saudi Arabia, #MeToo and Australia. Some of this all played out in the form of colliding geopolitics. Additionally, natural disasters had hit the world immensely, with climate change causing havoc!Trump rocked the global markets, with the instability of the US White House and the raising of import taxes against the China. He also quit the United Nations due to "bias" against Israel. Global leaders such as Macron and Merkel defied had lost their respect for Trump (albeit, if there was any). Unfortunately, Trump was laughed at on the world stage at the UN. The world’s middle East was inflamed when Trump relocated the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Brexit still hangs in the balance. The Withdrawal Act was approved by British parliament, thus, meaning that the EU cannot make laws for the UK. A draft agreement for withdrawing between the EU and the UK has been achieved. This has great significance as the UK enters a transition period, whereby effects on the economy are to be delayed and/or reduced until after the transition period. Furthermore, the UK started talks with Australia and the US.
While all of that was going on,
China’s relations with the US and Australia deteriorated. The US and Australia constantly feared China’s “expansion” overseas, with the projects in the South Pacific and Africa.
The US and Australia were one of the first countries to block China from building a 5G network. Japan, New Zealand and the UK bar Huawei (one of China’s biggest companies) from building the infrastructure for the networks. China’s foreign minister accused Australia of having misplaced fear, just like the US and Russia during the Cold War.
Canada and
Saudi Arabia had a fued over human rights. Samar Badawi was arrested in Saudi Arabia. They had been made Canadian citizens earlier in 2018 and Canada had called for their release. Saudi Arabia stated in a strong tone...that:
The negative and surprising attitude of #Canada is an entirely false claim and utterly incorrect.
Saudi's foreign minister ordered that the Canadian Ambassador leave within 24 hours and had suspended all trade with Canada. Later on in the year Justin Trudeau cancelled an arms sale deal with them.
We are engaged with the export permits to try and see if there is a way of no longer exporting these vehicles to Saudi Arabia
.
China's presence had increased in the world. After having already built a base in Djibouti, they announced their intention to start bases in Vanuatu and Afghanistan. Furthermore, they had deployed missiles in the Spratly islands, alarming the US and Australia.
In an unrelated matter…#
MeToo overtook the world. Certain bad men in high positions stood down. Some of these bad men include:
- John Kricfalusi - Persued two underage girls in high school
- Andre Passos - Accused of sexual assault
- Mario Testino
- Bill Cosby
- Harvey Weinstein - Charged for the rape, criminal sex act, sex abuse and sexual misconduct of two seperate women. There were also more allegations.
In other parts of the world, there was much instabilityThere were riots in Spain due to Catalonia’s bid for independence from Spain. Hundreds and thousands of people were involved in the protests, but the amount of deaths were low. Even till now, there are incidents where the Spanish police are clashing with Catalan separatists.
France’s yellow jackets (rural farmers and some middle-class people) rioted on the streets in protest against Macron due to frustrations about increasing fuel and wealth taxes. Property was damaged, businesses had to close and more than 1000 people were arrested. These riots have continued since November 17. There has only been 10 deaths. Macron called the protesters "thugs", but later addressed the issues and said that he will scrap the taxes on fuel.
Aung Sung Suu Chi had her most prestigious human rights prize stripped from her, due to inaction regarding the Rohingan Muslims. For context, the Rohingan Muslims have been discriminated against by the Buddhist country.
In the
Middle East and surrounding areas, fighting in Syria and Yemen continued to devastate communities. Deaths in Yemen increased by 164%. Fighting has been present and Yemen for more than five years, with more than 8000 people killed.
Onto natural disasters. In December, an estimated 430 people died and 1500 injured when a tsunami crashed into
Indonesia. Sadly, many people were asleep (when it struck at night).
Earlier in the year for
Indonesia, an earthquake and tsunami struck on the 28th of September. 844 people died and more than 2 million people were impacted.
Fires devastated
North and
Southern California during the month of November. Over 230, 000 acres were burned to a crisp and 91 people died. It was the deadliest fire in the state’s history and more than 10,000 homes were destroyed.
In
July,
Japan had a huge flood. Over 100 people died, and more than 2 million people had to abandon their homes. Less than a month after the floods, a week long heatwave occurred, where 65 people died and 22000 were taken to hospital.
In February, Papua New Guinea suffered a 7.5 magnitude earthquake, whereby the amount of people killed was unknown. Many people were buried under collapses.
China and
India experienced floods in 2018. In July more than 200 rivers flooded in China , causing 25.9 Billion Yuan in damages. In August, India suffered floods that lasted from July to August. More than 400 people died and 1 million people were impacted. Both incidents caused more than 1 billion dollars in damages.
Sweden and
South Africa experienced sever hot weather. From June to September, high degree temperatures caused the deaths of more than 600 people. South Africa had the threat of running out of water, but those restrictions were eased in December.
The far-right movement gained ground overseas (as did anti refugee sentiment).In Poland 200,000 people took part in an independence march, where nationalists burned flares and carried fascist flags.
A STRING of European countries quit the UN migration pact, due to pressures from far-right parliament members. Such countries include
Slovakia, Israel, Poland, Austria and Bulgeria. In
France, Le Pen (Far right leader) pulled ahead of Macron in the EU polls. This is quite significant as it has never happened before!
Japan, South Korea and Italy refused to accept many refugees. Japan had 20,000 applicants, but only accepted 20. South Korea straight out refused to grant refugees to hundreds of Yemenis. The word of refugees on South Korea sparked many protests. As for
Italy, they refused the acceptance of 300 refugees that were accepted in the Mediterranean Sea.
We allow them to stay for one year,” But if the situation in Yemen improves enough for them to return home, we will revoke their permit to stay or will not extend it.
Onto slightly lighter news.. (not really)Privacy issues were a major focus with tech companies after the
Facebook Analytica data breach and
Google data leaks. Facebook exposed over 5 million member’s data in the most recent December leaks. Over 40 million people were exposed in a September Facebook breach! For Google… 500,000 users were exposed between 2015 and 2018.
Japan continued commercial whaling in December and
China increased its control over the population. Japan stated that:
It will stop its so-called scientific whaling in the Antarctic Ocean, and only fish in seas near Japan and the country's exclusive economic zone.
This was a small win for the world, but alas, there will always be an uproar (especially when whales are endangered).
As for
China, the social credit system judged people by all their actions and gave them scores. People with bad scores had serious repercussions on their mobility and things that people take for action. For outsiders watching into China, it was a major overstep in turns of government regulation and spying of people's behaviour.
Another piece of news to come out of
China was the
CRISPR editing of embryos, by the Chinese scientist He Jiankui. His discovery rocked the world and was widely condemned. His tenure at the university was revoked, with the reputation of himself in the international community... tarnished.
North Korean's leader visited South Korea in an unprecedented event in the demilitarised zone. It was a monumental sign of events, as it signalled the defusing of tensions between the two nations!
Zuma, the president of South Africa stepped down after allegations of corruptions, fraud and money laundering over many years. He resisted against charges, but alas.. his time was up and he had to go.
Thousands of students in the
US protested on the streets against gun violance. Students, teachers and parents took part in the stance against what was happening in the nation.
12 boys and one coach in
Thailand were trapped in July after heavy rains. More rain threatened to come and drown them all, but the global community's divers came together. All boys and the coach were rescued!
Venezuala's economy was in freefall. Many people were driven or left the nation due to power cuts, food and medicine shortages and hyper inflation. Prices had doubled every 26 days. A loaf of bread that costed 20 dollars in July, would cost 80 Dollars in September.
Individuals, whom had made great impact on the world passed away (Just a few here)Aretha Franklin was the "Queen of Soul". She brought gospel and soul to the world of music with her amazing voice. In the later years, she had problems with her pancreas and unfortunately passed away at 76.
Stan Lee, whom brought us many memorable comics such as Daredevil, Black Panther and Iron Man (Just to name a few), had suffered from pneumonia. He lost his battle at the age of 95.
H W Bush was a controversial figure. He intitiated the Iraq War and is now blamed for the instability in the Middle East that still continues today. He also gave many Americans the largest income tax cut (in US history) and staved off a crashing of the US financial System. The creation of the Medicare Part D, which gave subsidised medicines for citizens was also his doing.
Stephen Hawking passed away at the age of 76, after many contributions to relativity and his studies of quantum mechanics. He was respected in the world and many people mourned the loss of such a contributing individual. He was known for his scientific theories and also humour. In his words:
Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.
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