The year 2020 has gone down in history as the time that a nanoscopic virus managed to bring our modern world, with all its latest scientific and medical discoveries, and cutting-edge information and communication technologies, to a virtual standstill. With the world entering the first year of the second decade of this century, the COVID-19 crisis that shut down the entire world for most of 2020 continues to be the center of news, as it festers around the world snatching lives and destroying livelihoods.
As we look back and ponder on the year gone by, it is true that there has been a preponderance of desponding stories during 2020, but there were also several uplifting and empowering narratives that we need to remember. Widespread infections and the heavy human toll inflicted by the virus in 2020 led to a global crisis of unprecedented proportion. After a lull in mid-year the virus returned in fury in the last-quarter to cause more rampage, while a new more infectious variant of the virus was reported in some places.
Stark statistics of COVID-19 are indeed foreboding. The number of people mowed down by the virus is slowly creeping towards the two million mark, even as infected cases pose to touch the 100 million milestone in the first-half of the new year. Among the few solaces to emerge from the viral statistics is that recoveries of those infected have been robust.
Of the nearly 85 million people infected so far, 71 percent have recovered and only 2 percent have succumbed to the infection; and of the 27 percent still active cases only a miniscule 0.5 percent are in serious or critical condition. The other glimmer of hope in an otherwise bleak scenario has been the launch of several vaccines that have proven to be effective in preventing the infection, though a treatment for the illness still remains elusive.
A year defined by the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in social and economic disruption on a global scale, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The menacing shadow cast by the tiny virus sent people scurrying for the presumed safety of face masks, social distancing and practicing hand and face hygiene, while they pondered about a world gone topsy-turvy in the span of less than 12 months.
Hardly a moment in 2020 was free of the shadow of COVID-19; political and social events, mega exhibitions, sporting extravaganzas and religious and cultural festivals around the world had to be cancelled or were postponed. And, if the pandemic was not enough of a calamity for the world in 2020, climate-watchers have labeled it “the worst year in terms of climate change”, largely due to several major climate disasters worldwide, including storms, floods and bushfires.
A United Nations progress report published in December 2020 also indicated that none of the international Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2020 could be achieved. And, even as more vaccines get safety approval for use, the international community needs to work together to ensure a more equitable distribution of the limited number of vaccines, especially to those who urgently need it but cannot afford it.
Pandemics are not new to humans, they have been associated with people throughout human history, with the first reported cases occurring around 3000BCE. Over millennia, infections and mortality from plagues and other pestilences have resulted in the wiping-out of entire civilizations, the creation of religious, social and economic upheavals, and the transforming of political histories and the redrawing geographical boundaries of states around the world.
Microscopic bacteria and viruses have on their own annihilated more humans than our most powerful weapons of war, or all the natural disasters and calamities that have affected us down the ages. The great plague, the deadliest pandemic in human history, or ‘Black Death’ as it is widely known, ravaged humanity in several waves of infections for more than 300 years from the 14th to 17th centuries.
Black Death, which originated in Central- or East-Asia and peaked in Europe by 1351, is reported to have killed between 75 million and 200 million people in Eurasia and North Africa alone, and infected hundreds of millions more globally. By comparison, the current pandemic has been relatively mild, claiming the lives of less than two million and afflicting around 83 million people worldwide in 2020.
Let us take a look at some of the other major happenings around the world, while still paying heed to the pandemic’s effect on global events.
January 01: The Australian bushfires that overlapped from 2019 to the new year are believed to have killed as many as 500 million animals, besides destroying property and infrastructure across New South Wales, and Victoria states of Australia.
January 03: The US uses an armed drone to strike at Baghdad International Airport killing Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Iran responds with a token retaliation by striking US camps in Iraq.
January 10: The Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin Said, dies aged 79. Haitham bin Tariq is sworn in as his successor.
January 30: The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, terming it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
February 11: The pandemic gets a name with the World Health Organization (WHO) naming the disease COVID-19, and the virus responsible as SARS-CoV 2.
February 29: A conditional peace agreement is signed between the US and the Taliban in Qatar, with the US agreeing to begin gradually withdrawing troops from Afghanistan on 10 March.
March 9: Oil prices plunge by as much as 30 percent in early trading, the biggest fall since 1991, over the Russia-Saudi spat on oil production and the impact of COVID-19 on il demand.
March 16: The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 2,997.10, the single largest point drop in history and the second-largest percentage drop ever at 12.93 percent, an even greater crash than Black Monday (1929).
March 20: Bhadla Solar Park in the Indian state of Rajasthan is commissioned and becomes the world’s largest solar park. Spread over a total area of 57 sq km the park has a capacity to generate 2245MW.
March 24: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Japan suspend the 2020 Summer Olympics until 2021 due to the pandemic. A week later, the IOC announces that the Summer Olympics are rescheduled from23 July to 8 August, 2021
March 30: The price of Brent Crude falls 9 percent to US$23 per barrel, the lowest level since November 2002, over the continuing disagreement on oil production cuts between Russia and Saudi Arabia.
April 2: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide passes the 1 million mark, which makes for ominous headlines on global media platforms.
May 4: World Expos governing body’s Member States vote to confirm one-year postponement of Expo 2020 due to the ongoing health crisis. The global mega event that is slated to be held in Dubai will now run from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022.
May 15: Researchers announce that a 2.5 cm millipede fossil belonging to the Kampecaris genus, discovered on the island of Kerrera in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, is the world’s oldest-known land animal, which lived 425 million years ago in the Silurian period.
May 24: Mining corporation Rio Tinto issues an apology to the two Aboriginal peoples who are the traditional owners of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge caves in the Pilbara area of Western Australia, for inadvertently blowing it up. On the same day, a ‘once in a decade’ storm batters 3,000 kilometres of the coast of Western Australia. Coincidence? Actually, yes.
May 26: Protests caused by the killing of George Floyd break out across hundreds of cities in the US and around the world. These are followed by further protests and rallies on June 6 against racism and police brutality around the world.
May 27: The Chinese National People’s Congress votes in favour of national security legislation that criminalizes ‘secession’, ‘subversion’, ‘terrorism’ and foreign interference in Hong Kong. The legislation also grants sweeping powers to the Chinese central government to suppress the Hong Kong democracy movement.
June 15: At least 20 Indian soldiers and over 40 Chinese forces are killed or injured in skirmishes in the disputed Galwan Valley, the largest escalation along the Sino-Indian border in five decades.
June 28: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 10 million worldwide. The US continues to report the highest number of any country as it reaches 2.5 million, a quarter of all cases globally. The global death toll from COVID-19 exceeds half a million.
June 30: China passes the controversial Hong Kong national security law, allowing China to crack down on opposition to Beijing at home or abroad.
July 10: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan orders the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul to be reverted to a mosque following a supreme court annulment of a 1934 presidential decree that made it into a museum.
July 21: European leaders agree to create a €750 billion (US$858 billion) recovery fund to rebuild EU economies impacted by the pandemic.
August1: The Barakah nuclear power plant in the UAE became operational following delays since 2017. It is the first commercial nuclear power station in the Arab world.
August 4: An explosion caused by unsafely stored ammonium nitrate kills over 220 people, injures thousands, and severely damages the port in Beirut, Lebanon. Damage is estimated at $10–15 billion, and an estimated 300,000 people are left homeless. The following day, the Lebanese government declares a two-week state of emergency.
August 7: Air India Express Flight 1344 crashes after overrunning the runway at Calicut International Airport in Kerala, India, killing 19 of the 191 people on board.
August 11: Russian President Vladimir Putin announces that Russia has approved the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine.
August 13: Israel and the UAE agree to normalise relations, marking the third Israel–Arab peace deal.
September 4: Bahrain and Israel agree to normalise relations, marking the fourth Israel–Arab peace deal.
September 20: BuzzFeed News and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) release the FinCEN Files, a collection of 2,657 documents relating to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network describing over 200,000 suspicious transactions valued at over US$2 trillion that occurred from 1999 to 2017 across multiple global financial institutions.
September 29: The Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Sabah dies at the age of 91. Crown Prince Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah is named his successor.
September 30: The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 exceeds one million.
October 10 – Armenia and Azerbaijan agree on a ceasefire in the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
November 9: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 50 million worldwide. On the same day, the first successful phase III trial of a COVID-19 vaccine was announced by drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech. Interim test results show the vaccine to be 90 percent effective.
November 15: The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is signed by 15 Asia-Pacific countries to form the world’s largest free-trade bloc, covering a third of the world’s population.
November 16: Moderna’s mRNA vaccine is proven to be 94.5 percent effective against COVID-19 based on interim results, including severe illnesses. The vaccine has been cited as being among those that are easier to distribute as no ultra-cold storage is required.
November 23: AstraZeneca’s AZD1222 vaccine, developed in collaboration with Oxford University, is shown to be 70 percent effective in protecting against COVID-19. The efficacy can be raised to 90 percent if an initial half dose is followed by a full dose a month later, based on interim data.
December 2: The United Kingdom approves Pfizer-BioNTech’s BNT162b2 vaccine, being the first country in the world to do so.
December 5: Russia begins mass vaccination against COVID-19 with the Sputnik V candidate.
December 8: The United Kingdom becomes the first nation to begin a mass inoculation campaign using tozinameran, more commonly known as the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The US and Canada follow a week later.
December 20: A highly infectious new strain of SARS-CoV-2 begins spreading in the UK, Europe and Australia provoking international border closures.
December 24: The United Kingdom and the European Union agree to a comprehensive free trade agreement prior to the end of the transition period.
Kuwait in 2020
Throughout 2020, Kuwait had its hands full fighting a tenacious COVID-19 crisis. The government responded to early reports of infection by immediately closing the airport, seaport and land borders; clamping down on movement of people and shuttering businesses, schools and economic activity. Then several months later, the authorities began the slow process of reopening the country in a staggered manner, attempting to kick-start the economy, and deciding who to let in into the country from among tens of thousands of expatriates stranded abroad.
If the virus was not enough of a headache for the government, it was also saddled with running a country on a deficit budget amid rapidly depleting reserves, and struggling to implement its policies. In the midst of the pandemic it also had to conduct regular parliamentary sessions as demanded by the Constitution, as well as hold a general election at the end of the year.
Virus or not, the scheduled National Assembly sessions were as usual raucous and contentious affairs, with grillings galore and government bills inching their way forward while being thwarted from all sides. Ministers resigned, new ones took office, the cabinet ended its term, and the country engaged in a whittled-down election campaign and general elections.
Two back-to-back tragedies for Kuwait that occurred in 2020 was the demise of the late Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (91) on 29 September. The late Amir who ably helmed the country since 2006 pursued reconciliation policies at home and in the region, while continuing humanitarian efforts globally. Within a span of less than three months, Kuwait suffered another blow with the demise of former Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad, the eldest son of the former Amir.
His Highness Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah was sworn in as the new Amir of Kuwait on 30 September, and His Highness Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah was appointed as the country’s Crown Prince on 8 October. Following general elections on 5 December, a new cabinet headed by incumbent Prime Minister Sabah Al Khaled Al Sabah was sworn in on 14 December and the first session of the 16th legislative term opened on 15 December.
