Celebrate 2020!
... be optimistic for 2021
Last year, this time, there was great anticipation ahead of the big year, 2020. For many it was going to be the year of visions. a new decade was about to unfold, and it seemed as though people had many resolutions.
Unfortunately, however, on a national level, we started 2020 with some gruesome killings, which progressed throughout the year. But what’s new? Jamaica’s season of crime and violence is an everyday one.
We later learnt that the infamous novel coronavirus pandemic was a threat to the world, and this required some level of strict measures to be implemented to contain its spread. It goes without saying that the ongoing effects of the pandemic have significantly affected lives and livelihoods; thousands of people have contracted the virus, almost 300 people have died in Jamaica, several people have lost their jobs, students’ access to quality education is being compromised, health care workers have become drained, etc.
All these experiences have now caused people to project a cautious hope heading into 2021. For once, in a long time, social media platforms are not flooded with the traditional resolutions. People just simply do not know what to expect; however, there is a ray of hope with the different vaccines.
Undoubtedly, the Christmas season is one of the most preferable and appreciated times of the year. After all, for many, “it is the most wonderful time of the year”. It is a moment where lots of families get an opportunity to see each other — at least that once yearly. Certainly, this Christmas will not be a conventional one, especially with curfews, loss of loved ones, absence of some overseas family, etc. However, while we have little to no control over these situations, we can intentionally lift our spirits and “mek di Christmas [and new year] ketch wi inna good mood”.
Many of us were unsure of whether we would be alive to see this day, but we have made it thus far.
Despite the tumultuous year, many people have had their greatest achievements in 2020. While others were being made redundant, some of you were being promoted. Or just the mere fact that your job was maintained, that is a great blessing. For high school and university graduates, the conditions may not have been the most ideal, and people may say that you have obtained a “corona certificate/degree”, but maybe things would have played out differently if you had to take those courses and sit those exams under normal circumstances. Congratulations to you all.
Additionally, many entrepreneurs have registered their businesses and have recorded reasonable profits to date. For others, it may have been that a broken familial or amicable relationship has been restored. Some folks have got married; some are now land, vehicle, and homeowners. Some churches have finally shifted their focus from that of tithes and offerings to being more compassionate and Christ-like.
The idea is that we may have had doubts about how this year would have ended, but we have enough to celebrate. How thankful are you? Grammy Award-winning contemporary reggae artiste Koffee, in her song Toast, said, “Gratitude is a must.” So, cheer up and give thanks!
Some families may not have the usual big dinner this Christmas, but eat and be merry. Make every moment count. Live within your means; this is not a competition with your neighbour. Also, be reminded that January is usually one of the longest months of the year, and the Jamaica Public Service is likely to send you a higher than usual electricity bill.
As we close the year, we empathise and sympathise with those families who are mourning the loss of their loved ones. We continue to salute our front-line health care workers, as well as those who work in shipping and logistics (sometimes we do not seem to understand their relevance in this pandemic). Over 9,000 COVID-19 victims have recovered; this is awesome news. We also commend our armed forces for the brilliant work they have done this year. Irrefutably, we have seen some great results, albeit that the more they try to control crime and violence, the more it seems to spiral out of control.
No one really knows what lies ahead. Will 2021 be a better year? Will we have a third wave of the virus?
The faith-based believers can sing, “Because He [Jesus] lives I can face tomorrow,” or they may find assurance in, “Many things about tomorrow, I don’t seem to understand. But I know who holds tomorrow, and I know who holds my hand.”
Happy holidays, Jamaica! Joyeuses fêtes la Jamaïque !
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
1981: Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, is born in Norfolk, Virginia.
OTHER EVENTS
1612: Italian astronomer
Galileo Galilei observes the planet Neptune, but mistakes it for a star. (Neptune isn’t officially discovered until 1846 by Johann Gottfried Galle.)
1694: Queen Mary II of England dies after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William III.
1832: John C Calhoun becomes the first US vice-president to resign, stepping down over differences with President Andrew Jackson.
1836: Spain recognises independence of Mexico.
1846: Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the union.
1869: William E Semple of Ohio patents chewing gum.
1897: Cyrano de Bergerac, the play by Edmond Rostand, premieres in Paris.
1917: Bessarabia proclaims independence as Moldavian Republic.
1938: Iraq severs relations with France.
1942: Japanese planes bomb Calcutta, India, in World War II.
1948: Premier Nokrashy Pasha of Egypt is assassinated.
1950: Chinese forces cross the 38th parallel in Korea.
1961: The Tennessee Williams play Night of the Iguana opens on Broadway.
1966: China detonates its fifth atomic bomb.
1968: Israeli commandos raid Beirut Airport, destroying 13 aircraft.
1970: Military court in Spain sentences six Basque separatists to death.
1972: Four Arab guerrillas hold six hostages in the Israeli embassy in Bangkok for 19 hours, then free their prisoners and fly to Cairo, Egypt.
1973: Alexander Solzhenitsyn publishes Gulag Archipelago, an exposé of the Soviet prison system.
1974: Leftist guerrillas in Managua, Nicaragua, invade a Christmas party for the US ambassador, killing three guards and taking several prominent Nicaraguans hostage.
1984: Cambodian guerrillas counter-attack for the fourthstraight day despite withering artillery fire from a Vietnameseoccupying refugee camp along the Thai-cambodian border.
1989: Alexander Dubcek, the former Czechoslovak Communist leader who was deposed in a Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968, is named chairman of the country’s Parliament.
1990: Indian Government opens talks with Sikh leaders on ending a seven-year-old secessionist struggle in Punjab.
1991: Croatian President Franjo Tudjman vows to recapture all territory lost to Serb-led forces in Yugoslavia’s civil war.
1992: Western forces take control of Belet Huen, Somalia, the eighth and final town they plan to use to distribute food and medicine to starving Somalis.
1993: Bulgaria orders Russian ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky to leave the country.
1994: Central Intelligence Ahency director R James
Woolsey resigns in aftermath of the discovery of an American spy for Moscow.
1995: Judges in Beijing reject an appeal by dissident Wei Jingsheng, upholding his 14-year sentence on charges of trying to overthrow the Government.
1996: Peru’s official negotiator enters the Japanese ambassador’s residence where Tupac Amaru guerrillas hold 103 hostages, the Government’s first face-to-face contact with the guerrillas. Afterward, the guerrillas release 20 hostages.
1997: Egypt’s highest court backs a ban on female genital mutilation.
1998: In western India,
Hindu radicals burn down a church and storm three others with axes, iron rods, and hammers, sending Christian missionaries fleeing for safety in the tenth such attack since Christmas.
2001: Challenging Yasser Arafat’s truce call, the militant Islamic Jihad group claims responsibility for a suicide attack in the Gaza Strip that was thwarted by Israeli troops.
2002: Iraq gives United Nations weapons inspectors a list of more than 500 scientists who had knowledge of its weapons programmes.
2004: Police capture a reputed leader of the Norte del Valle drug cartel as part of a Us-backed effort to dismantle a gang accused of trafficking half of all cocaine sold in the United States in the 1990s.
2005: A Russian parliamentary commission investigating the deadly school siege in Beslan criticises officials for not following orders and for trying to disguise the seriousness of the terrorist attack that left more than 330 people dead.
2006: Ten people show signs of low-level exposure to polonium-210, the rare radioactive element that killed one-time Russian intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko. Seven were staff from London’s Millennium Hotel Pine Bar, which Litvinenko visited the day he became ill.
2007: Hundreds of thousands of mourners gather in front of the mausoleum where Benazir Bhutto is to be interred in southern Pakistan the same day the Government says al-qaeda and the Taliban were responsible for her death.
2008: A single-file line of schoolchildren in Afghanistan walks past a military checkpoint as a bombloaded truck veers toward them and explodes, killing 14. 2009: Israel announces it is building nearly 700 new apartments for Jews in east Jerusalem, where Palestinians hope to set up the capital of a future State.
2010: Pakistan’s Usallied ruling party suffers a fresh blow to its fragile hold on power when a coalition partner says it will quit the Cabinet, deepening the nation’s political turmoil.
2011: North Korea’s next leader escorts his father’s hearse in an elaborate State funeral, bowing and saluting in front of tens of thousands of citizens who wail and stamp their feet in grief for Kim Jong Il.
2012: President Vladimir Putin signs Bill banning Americans from adopting Russian children, abruptly terminating the prospects of more than 50 youngsters planning to join new families.
2016: Actress Debbie Reynolds, who lit up the screen in Singin’ in the Rain and other Hollywood classics, dies at age 84, a day after losing her daughter, Carrie Fisher, who was 60. Former world No 1 Ana Ivanovic said she was retiring from tennis after a series of injuries meant she could no longer play at the highest level.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Juan Zorrilla de San Martin, Uruguayan poet (1855-1931); Woodrow Wilson, US president (1856-1924); Philip Wilson Steer, English artist (1860-1942); Sir Arthur S Eddington, English scientist (1882-1944); Earl
Hines, US jazz pianist (19051983); King Birenda of Nepal (1945-2001); Maggie Smith, British actress (1934- ); Denzel Washington, US actor (1954- ); Sienna Miller, British actress (1981- ); John Legend, US singer (1978- ); Peter Phillips, Member of Parliament in Jamaica’s House of Representatives and former president of the People’s National Party (1949- )