2021

September to December

The latter part of the year was dominated by a reflective tone, as historic anniversaries passed. Tiptoeing tentatively into September, the 20th anniversary of 9/11 was commemorated, with America mourning the almost 3,000 people that lost their lives on that fateful day. Similarly, painful anniversaries were marked on 11 December as El Salvador shed tears for the 40th anniversary of the El Mozote massacre – the deadliest in modern Latin American history with almost 1,000 people slaughtered, half of them children. 

Commemorations also coincided with celebrations – particularly for the queer community. A look back at the 40 years of the HIV epidemic reopened discourse into the Western world’s shameful stigmatisation of the illness. Seven days later, cheers were heard as Chile legalised Gay Marriage on 7 December – a landmark vote in the midst of the country’s grapple for structural social change. 

Reflection on the history of British women’s tennis helped victory taste that much sweeter as Emma Raducanu became the first British woman to win a grand slam title since 1977, after her triumph in the U.S. Open at age 18. The milestone win also helped her gain a ticket to this winter’s hottest event: the Met Gala 2021. 

Speaking of winter’s hottest events, COP26 was held in Glasgow on 30 November to ensure that temperature rises are kept within 1.5C in the fight against climate change. While countries promised to stop deforestation, the agreement reached was cut short of its potential, with India and China feeling the heat after vetoing the phase-out of coal use for the weaker phase-down. 

Elsewhere, the diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was announced as the Western world criticised China for its human rights record. Yet, it is not only the East that has similarly battled human rights issues this year. A truck crash in Mexico on 10 December, that saw many of the migrants hiding inside it killed, raised questions about Biden’s border policy and the perilous journey Latinos make in order to reach the supposed land of the free. 

Some of this much sought-after freedom also became evident this year, as a Californian Court freed Britney Spears from her thirteen-year long conservatorship on 12 November. Around the globe, we witnessed other freedoms that were equally important. On 22 October, Melbourne residents were freed from their 260-day-long lockdown – the longest in the world. Barbados was arguably freed from the Commonwealth, after removing Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state and becoming the world’s newest republic on 30 November. 

The freeing, or rather, leaking of the Pandora Papers also saw almost 12 million documents arrive into the public consciousness on 3 October – revealing hidden wealth, tax avoidance, and money laundering by the powerful. Such revelations highlighted the prevalent political dissonance of 2021 between those with and without power. 

Arguably, such dissonance had been consistently observed by Britain this year. Political turbulence and deep division undeniably prompted the terrorist attack that saw the murder of Sir David Amess, who was killed while holding a constituency surgery in a local church. The threat to the safety of MPs is a further setback democracy has faced this year. 

However, democracy stood strong through Germany’s elections. New Chancellor, Olaf Scholz was sworn in on 8 December, after taking power from Angela Merkel’s 16 years of power.  

While we desperately held out for some good news as 2022 approached, our hopes were thwarted.  The development of the Omicron variant on 26 November, after rapidly being detected by South African scientists, meant the pandemic loomed over the world again. With the exponential rise in cases, the UK government officially entered its winter Plan B with the aim to protect the NHS from being overwhelmed. We were faced with familiar memories of being told to work from home, wear our face coverings, and to ‘get boosted’ with vaccines.