Daily News Editorial

The Globe: The year that was

31 December 2016

Globally, the biggest surprise of 2016 was the victory of business mogul Donald Trump at the US Presidential Election. Although opponent Hillary Clinton, who came within a hair’s breadth of becoming the first woman President in US history, won the popular vote, Trump carried the Electoral College vote. With Trump already making many controversial statements on Twitter, 2017 is already off to an unpredictable start.

The other biggest global upheaval was the UK’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) following the result of a referendum on “Brexit”. The terms of the divorce are still mired in controversy, so it will take a few years for this to actually happen. Nevertheless, Brexit has already disrupted the British and even the global economy.

Amidst the misery of war in many parts of the world, there was good news for peace in the form of a peace deal between the FARC Colombian rebels and the Government in August. While the first accord was rejected by voters, a second, slightly changed version was approved by the country’s congress.

While 2016 was a bad year for women aspiring for power, it was equally bad for women already in power, as Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and South Korean President Park Geun-hye found out. Rousseff was impeached and to add insult to injury, her successor formed an all-male Cabinet. Park faced the same fate, but South Korea’s Constitutional Court is still reviewing the National Assembly’s decision to oust her. Brazil and South Korea, the ninth and eleventh largest economies in the world, cannot afford political instability. This is especially applicable to South Korea, whose northern neighbour has been conducting regular nuclear and missile tests.

Turkey was in turmoil following an Army-led coup attempt aimed at ousting President Recept Tayyip Ergodan on July 15. Turks responded to an appeal by Ergodan to rally in his support and the coup fizzled out, making him stronger. A subsequent purge saw action against nearly 100,000 officials in both military and civil agencies of the Government.

Elections were held in many countries around the world, but the Philippine Presidential Election was the second most interesting one after that of the US. Rodrigo Duterte won the Presidency in May and has immediately changed the way Manila does business. His vigilante campaign against drug pushers and addicts has drawn mixed reactions, but many Filipinos are more worried about his announced threat of “separation” from the US. After all, the two countries have been allies for a long time.

There was bad news all around from the world’s war zones, including Syria and Afghanistan. Syria, a battleground for Syrian Forces, local militias, ISIS and foreign forces saw the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in several decades as refugees scrambled to reach European shores and died in their hundreds. The pictures of shell-shocked, injured children have moved hearts around the world, but even after the fall of Aleppo the conflict, which has already claimed half a million lives, shows no sign of abating.

ISIS led or inspired terrorism continued to be a serious threat to world peace. The year saw major terror attacks in Nice, Berlin, Pakistan, Belgium, USA and Bangladesh. The world must come together to wipe out ISIS terror and according to the latest reports, thousands of their cadres have perished in the fighting in Syria.

The passing away of Fidel Castro in Cuba marked the end of an era. His brother Raul, who has promised not to embrace capitalism, has taken many steps to liberalize sectors that were “closed” during Fidel’s era. Significantly, US-based airlines began direct scheduled flights to Havana and other Cuban cities following the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Even as Cuba-US ties are growing, the US is increasingly at odds with Israel, one of its strongest allies. The ties reached a new low following the US abstention on a UNSC vote on Israeli settlements and Secretary of State John Kerry’s firm “no alternative” call for a two-state solution on Wednesday. Israel is hoping for better times under strongly pro-Israel Trump. The release of Panama Papers, which revealed how the wealthy, including corrupt politicians, hide their money in offshore accounts caused a stir worldwide and led to demands for any ill-gotten gains to be repatriated.

It was a bad year for the movie, literature, sports and music worlds, with several legends passing away. The year came to a close with the loss of singer George Michael and actress Carrie Fisher of Star Wars fame. Her mother and actress Debbie Reynolds (of “Singing in the Rain” fame) also passed away. David Bowie, Prince, Alan Rickman, Harper Lee, Nancy Reagan, Muhammed Ali, Michael Cimino, Gene Wilder, Arnold Palmer, Leonard Cohen, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Richard Adams were among the others who bid farewell. But it was not all about sadness – the inimitable Bob Dylan was left speechless after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. As Dylan says, “the times they are a changin” and what will be the surprises in store for 2017?