What Shaped the World

As the year 2009 draws to a close, let’s look back to a few major events that shaped the year – events of significant importance. These events were the talking points of the year, unique only to year 2009.

These events vary from tragedies to the end of an era and the beginning of another. This list is not demographically, culturally nor socially biased. It is on a global scale. Here, I have listed the five biggest events that shaped the world in the past year based on chronological order.

20 Jan 2009

Barack Obama Sworn Into the White House

The world was all in praise for Barrack Hussein Obama for having been elected as the 44th President of the United States with seemingly consummate ease. Not only that, but he is the first black President too to reign supreme over the Oval Office. That showed that democracy is well and alive in the world, or rather in the US at least.

Obama had been inaugurated along with his Vice-President, Joe Biden. These two Democrats had their hands full with an array of global issues to tackle as well as a sinking US economy. It has henceforth been a very steep learning curve from the man who once stayed in Indonesia for a couple of years. But looking back at the year, he has done an extremely commendable job given that it is only his first year in office.

Around April 2009

A H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic

Arguably the most lethal flu strain since the H5N1 Bird Flu had been discovered. At first, people from all nooks of the world were praying for their lives as health officials could not verify the extent of the flu strain. One thing for sure was that the flu strain was highly contagious, and therefore in a matter of weeks, it had spread to every place on Earth.

Schools shut down, medical services were tested to the limit and the media kept tab and reported on each and every person that died due to H1N1. The cure was sought for the flu and the World Health Organisation held a series of high levels talks to ascertain the complexity of the situation at hand. Even now, the virus is spreading, but it has become apparent that it is not as deadly as feared before.

18 May 2009

Tamil Tigers Felled

In a civil war that had engulfed the Sri Lankan people for the last few decades, the leader of the so-called separatists, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was killed in a heated gunfire exchange with the nations army. The cause that they were fighting for was that they wanted a separate homeland for the Tamils in the northern sector, who had been much-maligned in the development of the majorly Ceylonese Sri Lanka.

It was obvious that the Tamil Tigers were going to be defeated as they ran out of resources and also lacked the manpower to match that at the disposal of the army. Plus, the fact that Sri Lanka was given foreign aid made the job much simpler. The culmination of the bloodshed has resulted in a much more peaceful Sri Lanka now.

1 June 2009

Air France Jet That Disappeared

In what has been potentially the most mind-boggling tragedy in the airline industry, the disappearance of the Air France Jet had many scientists, investigators and the lay-men like you and me figuring out just how could that be possible. With cutting-edge technology and state-of-the-art tools, I find it rather amusing that till today, the question has gone by unanswered.

The closest authorities have come to solving the issues is by claiming that a lightning bolt is to be blamed for the misfortune. Pieces of the body of the airplane have also been recovered randomly, but to offer no clue whatsoever. Probably this will continue to ridicule the folks from the airline industry in years to come, but many people have become jittery about boarding a plane as a consequence of this.

25 June 2009

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

In the annals of history, there has never been a single case of death to influence the world to this extent. For the great artist he was, many around the world shed tears. To honour him, many simultaneous simulations of his popular dance acts that accompanied his music were held around the globe, and his albums started selling like hot cakes again.

Nobody cared anymore – weather was he a molester, whether he was white– because as far as everyone was concerned, it was the passing away of a gem of a man. Drug overdose was the reason to his death. It came as a sudden shock to the world too, and newspapers, magazines and blogs were teeming with tributes to him. One man that would live long in the hearts of many in the world for sure.

--The End--