Has 2020 Proven To Be A Disastrous Year?

At the start of the year 2020, many people around the world were highly optimistic that this decade will be highly productive for humanity. But just after five months of 2020, many are wondering if this year could get even worse. 

A series of bad events even kicked off the year that could have detrimental consequences in the long run, even if things do get improve. 

The most devastating in a series of unfortunate events is the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that brought the entire world to a standstill. In this article, we will look at some of the worst incidents that will prove that 2020 has been a disastrous year:

Coronavirus Pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic, also known as COVID-19, is a 2020 calamity that has resulted in causing massive human suffering and significant global economic disruption. The COVID-19 outbreak was first identified in Wuhan, a city in China’s Hubei province in December 2019. On March 11 2020, it was recognized as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). As of June 5 2020, more than 6 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported in more than 180 countries across the world, resulting in more than 383,000 deaths.

Source: BBC

Australian Bushfire

The year started with the drastic bushfire which was happened in the Australia Amazon bushfire. The Australian bushfire season 2019–2020 started in June 2019 with many intense and unregulated fires, primarily in the country southeast. The fires have since been contained and extinguished which peaked during December 2019 and January 2020.

Source: Vox

Australia encounters fires every year, but the situation this year is unparalleled, which comes on the back of a heat-wave and warming climate. Over 1 billion animals are believed to be dead and an estimated 2,000 homes were lost. It is expected the overall economic losses would reach US$ 100 billion.

Ukrainian Jetliner Crash in Iran

The tension between US and Iran was at the rise at the start of the year. This eventually increased when Iran’ Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander and most infamous spy, Qassem Soleimani, got killed in a US drone strike.

The killing of Qassem Soleimani was then followed by the crash of Ukrainian jetliner which was unintentionally shot down by the Iran’s military which eventually killed all the 176 people who were onboard on that plane. Few hours ago before the plane crash, a ballistic missile attack was launched by Iran in response to the killing of Qassem Soleimani, in which it targeted two military bases in Iraq which were retained by the US troops.

Source: Middle East Monitor

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Communal Riots in Delhi

The 2020 Delhi riots started on the night of February 23 in which the Hindu mobs killed 53 people. Amongst those, majority were Muslims who were beaten, set on fire or shot by Hindu mobs in North East Delhi. Moreover, these riots also damaged various public and private properties and caused numerous waves of carnage.

Source: OpIndia

The riots were due to various factors, including the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the harsh attitude of the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) in Delhi elections. Moreover, a group of Muslims were blocking the road in the North East Delhi to demonstrate their protest against the CAA which didn’t impress a BJP leader and eventually provoked the Hindu mobs to remove the protesting group of Muslims through violence.

Death of Kobe Bryant in Helicopter crash

On January 26, a helicopter crashed near Los Angeles in which NBA legend Kobe Bryant along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven other people on that helicopter died on the spot. The local media reported that the helicopter was going to sports academy which is located in city close to the Thousand Oaks, California where a youth tournament was being held in which Bryant was supposed to coach his daughter’s basketball team.

 

Source: ABC News

The Demise of Irrfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor

Bollywood lost two of its finest actors in a time span of just two days. Irrfan and Rishi Kapoor were suffering from different forms of cancer and then eventually left the world on April 29 and 30, 2020 respectively. The entire Bollywood fraternity was deeply shocked with the sad demise of Irrfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor.

Source: Hindustan Times

Devastating Floods in Indonesia

Floods in Indonesia's capital Jakarta and nearby towns on the early hours of January 1 killed 66 people and forced almost 400,000 to flee their homes. At least 182 neighborhoods had been submerged in the city's greater area, inundating thousands of homes and buildings.

Overnight rains caused more rivers to burst their banks in greater Jakarta, sending muddy water up to five feet deep into residential and commercial areas. According to the country's disaster management agency BNPB, many of the victims drowned or were buried by landslides. Several died of hypothermia and electric shocks.

Source: Asia News

George Floyd Death

A 46 year old black man by the name of George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota when a white police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd had been handcuffed face down in the street. Floyd was initially arrested on the suspicion of passing a counterfeit bill at a nearby market in Minneapolis.

Source: BBC

After Floyd‘s death, a series of violent protests and demonstrations started in Minneapolis that has now spread throughout USA.