Death, Politics, and Good Things Too! My 2016 Part 1

I think it’s safe to say that 2016 has been a long, tough year for many people. We’ve lost a number of eminent and influential people, and sometimes it has seemed as if it just won’t stop. Politics, war, you name it, things have been going on. For me, 2016 was about action, in a big way. Never stopping for too long, in case terrible 2016 brought me down too far.

With that in mind, a few things happened in my world, and everyone else’s as well. Ahead is a short rundown of one writer’s personal view of local and round-the-world events. Suffice to say it is not a comprehensive list, but here goes.

LOSS

If social media is anything to go by, 2016 was characterised by loss, argument, rivalry and disappointment. For me personally, 2016 was a year spent living with my grandmother’s passing. She was a mother and a friend to me, a matriarch in our family, and one of the closest people ever to my heart. Living a year without her voice and her presence was difficult and strange. Now at last I’ve come to realise her only want was for her children and grandchildren to be happy, and to prosper. For her, I will continue to raise that beacon as I move forward in life. Still, around the world, an unusual number of famous faces have passed. Here is a list of some (I’m told there are many more) that passed away in 2016:

  • Fidel Castro
  • Bhumibol Adulyadej (King of Thailand)
  • Muhammad Ali
  • David Bowie
  • Dr Donald Henderson (you know, got rid of smallpox)
  • Vera Rubin (astrophycisist, found dark matter, small things)
  • PRINCE
  • Leonard Cohen
  • Carrie Fisher
  • George Michael
  • Alan Rickman
  • Glen Frey of the Eagles
  • Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane
  • Maurice White, founder of Earth Wind and Fire
  • Harper Lee (author of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’)
  • Keith Emerson
  • Ron Glass  (Firefly)
  • Anton Yelchin (the young Star Trek ‘Chekhov’)
  • Kenny Baker (R2-D2)
  • Matt Roberts (Three Doors Down)
  • Florence Henderson (The Brady Bunch)
  • Alan Thicke (Growing Pains)
  • Zsa Zsa Gabor
  • Debbie Reynolds

POLITICS AND WORLD EVENTS

During the course of 2016, and as the year wore on, the apparent theme was an inescapable tide of crazy. A continuous barrage of events at home and abroad kept us busy away from our own lives on a consistent basis. There were laughs, tears, serious and simply bizarre works at hand. Here’s a by-no-means-exhaustive summary:

  • As foretold by a great prophet (The Simpsons) Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. The world didn’t end…yet. But the Biden memes were strong.
  • According to many, the world entered an era of ‘post-truth’.
  • Lockout laws were passed in QLD, and the gentrification of a previously thriving music district began in earnest.
  • Lee Lin Chin was nominated for a Gold Logie and Australia rightfully decided she should be Prime Minister. Sadly it wasn’t ratified by parliament.
  • Australia also accepted that the Great Barrier Reef was dying. Senator Pauline Hanson set out to a still-living part of the reef to prove global science wrong with a quick scuba dive.
  • Despite her ongoing foolishness, Hanson appeared as the last true democrat in that she represented the (utterly misguided) wants and needs of her constituents instead of just ignoring them and shoving another tax down their throats. This bizarre piece of information disturbed anyone with a shred of common sense.
  • We also realised that fifty percent of Australians no longer honour ANZAC day, often for anti-war reasons, but remain so culturally violent that campaigns against bullying, violence against women, coward punches and male suicide continued in earnest, both officially and socially. We have a long way to go.
  • The Fake Tradie came into being.
  • Legislation was introduced into Australian Parliament that would allow Police to detain and question individuals, without charge, for up to 14 days if they are suspected of committing or planning terrorist acts. The laws would apply to anyone over 14 years of age. A sign of the times and of things to come. 
  • We caught Daniel Morcombe’s killer and while decrying the horrific nature of his crime, simultaneously and collectively devolved into a bloodthirsty mass.
  • We came to understand the Schroedinger’s Immigrant.
  • A man was discovered floating down the Noosa river in a bin. Drinking.
  • An attempt was made by the corporation Tobie Mining to sue the Colombian government for shutting down a mine that threatened the Amazon rainforest.
  • We had Standing Rock, a small but great victory for people, while everyone ignored Syria because, well..it was the USA and Russia and nobody wants to die.
  • Britain had Brexit, potentially in honour of Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday. Nobody is sure what they’re up to or why anymore.
  • Arnold Scharzenegger, Peter Dinklage and Leonardo DiCaprio all presented themselves as champions for the environment or animal cruelty and continued to be shot down by the public on social media. Well, Peter Dinklage was mostly given great support, people love him dearly.  Gina Rinehart, the Melbourne Cup she enjoyed and the Victorian government she tried to sue…not such a champion.
  • We were beset by a plague of creepy clowns. Yes, clowns. Followed by a spate of violent clowns. Yes, again, clowns. In multiple cities, mostly in the USA but also in a few other places as well. Again, there were some great memes and a good many Simpsons references, in particular, Krusty’s version of ‘Send in the Clowns’
  • Bombs went off all over the place, missiles were fired, people died and died and died and died some more.

John Cleese made my top quote for 2016, around personal attitudes on a broader level when he tweeted “I would like 2016 to be the year when people remembered that science is a method of investigation, and NOT a belief system”.

With that in mind, here’s a list of sites and events dedicated to GOOD things that happened in 2016, because, despite our year-long obsession with unhappiness, pessimism, self-doubt, global doubt, death, destruction, negativity and general selfishness, a lot of good stuff happened in 2016. So if we look beyond our own personal cesspit for a moment, here’s what went on:

  • The Ozone Layer started fixing itself! Scientists think it will now be fully healed by 2050. Sydney Morning Herald
  • The notorious EM-DRIVE (you know, the thing that breaks physics as we know it and could propel us into the stars) was given credence by NASA and they started channelling money into researching it further
  • Mumbai conducted the largest beach clean-up in human history, removing more than 4,000 tonnes of rubbish.
  • It was a great year for movies (come on, you’re mourning all those stars, don’t pretend you don’t watch films – and the still living Leonardo won an Oscar)
  • Norway became the first country in the world to commit to zero deforestation.
  • The Chinese government, one of the biggest populations and powers in the world, placed a ban on new coal mines and doubled its renewables targets for 2020.
  • Global carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels did not grow at all in 2016.  Scientific American
  • I was unsurprised but still happy when a woman won the International Longsword Invitationals.
  • India had a load of good things going on for them (click here to find out what)
  • Peru and Bolivia signed a $500 million deal to preserve Lake Titicaca.
  • More than 20 countries pledged more than $5.3 billion for ocean conservation and created 40 new marine sanctuaries covering an area of 3.4 million square km. Reuters
  • The World Health Organisation released a report showing that, since the year 2000, global malaria deaths have declined by 60%. Our World In Data
  • Thailand became the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. World Health Organisation
  • In the USA, the Obama administration banned offshore exploration and drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic until 2022.
  • IKEA introduced biodegradable packaging made from mushrooms.
  • Liberia was officially cleared of Ebola, meaning there are now no known cases left in West Africa. Vanguard
  • The World Health Organisation announced that measles was eradicated from the Americas, from Canada to Chile.
  • In 1990, more than 60% of people in East Asia lived in extreme poverty. As of 2016, this fell to 3.5%. Vox
  • The Pan African Parliament endorsed a continent-wide ban on female genital mutilation in Africa.
  • The memes were strong (did I mention this?)!
  • Costa Rica ran entirely on renewable energy for over 100 days. Next it is aiming for an entire year with no fossil fuels. The Independent
  • Get this: across 2016, Mexico ,Argentina and Scotland all made huge investments in renewables, and solar energy generated more power than coal in the United Kingdom.

  •  India unveiled the world’s largest solar power plant. They are now on track to be the world’s third biggest solar market in 2017. Al Jazeera

  • Scientists decided they may have found a parallel universe, a fifth force of nature, a warm blooded fish, and that we should all be permanently naked
  • It was announced that the global manatee population is no longer endangered
  • Humpback whales were removed from the endangered species list
  • Giant Pandas were taken off the endangered list
  • Warren Buffett (you know, the corporate leader who invented ‘above the line’ and was the only company head back in the days of 9/11 to take verbal, personal responsibility during times of great tragedy even though he didn’t have to) gave $2.9 billion to charity, again. Not to mention his son, a farmer and environmentalist, quietly continued to spend his billion dollar inheritance on sustainable agriculture and hunger eradication.

  • German government and Canadian families took on a bucket load of refugees, despite public backlash.

  • Elon Musk and his company Tesla proved they could power an entire island with solar, and continued to the dream of servicing space stations while building a colonisation transport to Mars.
  • We started 3D printing limbs in earnest!
  • Science and engineering leaped forward incredibly – click here for more

Guess it wasn’t all bad in 2016! Here’s to 2017 being less focused on death and disruption.