2014 Year in Review: Tragedy,
Transition, Triumph
As the year is drawn to a close, it is the time to reflect on the
events that shaped our lives and offered glimpses of the future. Having taken up that task, I was having the
dilemma of which events to review – there have been just too many happenings to
discuss in these limited spaces. Finally, with the help of “Songsoptok”
editors, I pared down the list to these newsworthy items that we hope would be
of interest to the general readership.
Humankind conquered space in unprecedented ways, from injecting
satellite into Mars orbit on a shoestring budget to chasing a fast-moving comet
and landing a probe on it.
World watched Germany humiliating host Brazil in the FIFA World Cup
and then beating Argentina in a thrilling final game.
But 2014 also brought the Ebola scare out of Africa, heightened
tensions in the Middle East and Europe and a bizarre disappearance of a
passenger-filled aircraft without leaving any trace.
Here are our summaries of significant news events of the year that
is about to be consigned to history.
EBOLA OUTBREAK IN WEST AFRICA
In February, the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa started,
infecting nearly 17,000 people and killing at least 6,000 people as of this
reporting. The U.S. Center for Disease Control (C.D.C) reports that this is the
most severe epidemic in recorded history both in terms of numbers of infections
and casualties.
Ebola was discovered in 1976 and was once thought to originate in
gorillas, because human outbreaks began after people ate gorilla meat.
Scientists now believe that bats are the natural reservoir for the
virus, and that apes and humans catch it from eating food that bats have
drooled or defecated on, or by coming in contact with surfaces covered in
infected bat droppings and then touching their eyes or mouths. The current
outbreak seems to have started in a village near Guéckédou, Guinea, where bat
hunting is common, according to Doctors Without Borders.
About 200,000 people are having problems getting food because of
problems caused by the Ebola outbreak. An analysis by the World Food Program
also concluded that if the disease continues to spread at the average rate
observed since mid-September, as many as 750,000 people could lose access to
affordable food by March 2015.
Click here for an interactive map of
the current Ebola outbreaks.
DISAPPEARANCE OF MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT 370
On March 8, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 airliner en
route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, disappeared over the Gulf of Thailand with
239 people on board.
A multinational search
effort, which became the largest and most expensive in history, began in the
Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, where the flight's signal was lost on
secondary surveillance radar, and was soon extended to the Strait of Malacca
and Andaman Sea. The focus of the search shifted to the southern part of the
Indian Ocean, west of Australia. An analysis of possible flight paths was
conducted, identifying a 60,000 km2 (23,000 sq mi) search area,
approximately 2,000 km (1,200 mi) west of Perth, Western Australia. The
underwater search of this area began on 5 October 2014 and will last up to 12
months at a cost of A$60 million (approximately US$56 million or €41 million).
There has been no confirmation of any flight debris, and no crash
site has been found, resulting in many unofficial theories about its
disappearance. Analysis of these communications by multiple agencies has
concluded that the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean.
CRISIS IN UKRAINE
The crisis in Ukraine, the most significant in Europe since the
conclusion of WWII, precipitated with the ousting in February of the then
Moscow-leaning President Viktor Yanukovych from office by the Ukrainian
Parliament. This move followed after days of civil unrest in which about 100
people died in the capital, Kiev.
Within days of Yanukovych’s ouster, pro-Russian insurgency flared
up in Eastern Ukraine. In early March, Russian troops backed by pro-Russian
Ukrainian militia annexed the Crimean Peninsula. On March 16, A referendum on
the status of Crimea was held. Five days later, Russia formally annexed Crimea
after President Vladimir Putin signed a bill finalizing the annexation process.
In response, the G8 group of nations temporarily suspended participation by
Russia.
The event caused much controversy and was condemned by many world
leaders, as well as NATO, as an illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory.
Russia opposes the "annexation" label and claims it was a process of
accession. Ukraine disputes this, as it does not recognize the independence of
the Republic of Crimea or the accession itself as legitimate. The United
Nations General Assembly also rejected the vote and annexation, adopting a
non-binding resolution affirming the "territorial integrity of Ukraine
within its internationally recognized borders."
In a strange twist of fate, Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was
brought down over Eastern Ukraine on July 17, apparently by a missile, killing
298 people on board.
#BRINGBACKOURGIRLS
On April 14, Boko Haram
militants abducted 276 mostly-Christian girls from the Government Secondary
School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria. Houses in Chibok were
also burned down in the incident. The school had been closed for four weeks
prior to the attack due to the deteriorating security situation, but students
from multiple schools had been called in to take final exams in physics.
Boko Haram subsequently claimed that the students were converted to
Islam and married off to members of the group, with a reputed "bride
price" of ₦2,000 each ($12.50/£7.50). Many of the students were taken to
the neighboring countries of Chad and Cameroon, with sightings reported of the
students crossing borders with the militants, and sightings of the students by
villagers living in the Sambisa Forest, considered a refuge for Boko Haram.
Local residents have been able to track the movements of the students with the
help of contacts across north eastern Nigeria.
Parents and others took to social media to complain about the
government's perceived slow and inadequate response. The news caused
international outrage against Boko Haram and the Nigerian government. The hash
tag #BringBackOurGirls began to trend globally on Twitter as the story
continued to spread.
Except for the 53 girls who had managed to escape, the abductees
still remain unaccounted for.
INDIAN GENERAL ELECTION
The Indian General Election for the 16th Lok Sabha
(Lower House of the Parliament) concluded in May after over a month of voting.
It was the longest election in the country's history and the largest-ever election
in the world with 814.5 million eligible voters.
The results were declared on May 16 in which the National
Democratic Alliance, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), won a sweeping
victory, taking 336 seats. The BJP itself won 31.0% of all votes and 282
(51.9%) of all seats. It was the first time since the
1984 Indian general elections that a party won enough seats to govern without
the support of other parties.
Important issues during the campaign included high inflation, lack
of jobs, economic slowdown, corruption, security and terrorism, religious
division and communalism, and infrastructure such as roads, electricity and
water. Corruption also figured high in the issue list.
Narendra Modi, the colorful leader of the BJP, swept into Varanasi,
India’s most ancient city, on May 17th pledging to clean the Ganges, its
holiest and filthiest river. Three days later, in Delhi, BJP parliamentarians
chanted and roared unanimous support for him, and he broke down in tears in
mid-speech. Mr. Modi was sworn in by Pranab Mukherjee, India’s president, as
India’s 14th prime minister on May 26.
FIFA WORLD CUP
On June 12, the 20th
FIFA World Cup opened in 12 cities across Brazil. It was the second time that
Brazil hosted the competition, the first being in 1950.
All world champion teams since the first World Cup in 1930 –
Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Uruguay –
qualified for this competition. The national teams of 31 countries advanced
through qualification competitions to participate with the host nation Brazil
in the final tournament. The title holders, Spain, were eliminated at the group
stage, along with previous winners England and Italy. Uruguay was eliminated in
the Round of 16 and France was eliminated at the quarter-finals.
Host and 2013 Confederations Cup winner Brazil lost to Germany in
the first semi-final in a stunning manner (1-7). Germany won the tournament and
took its fourth title, its first since the reunification of West and East
Germany in 1990. On July 18, Germany defeated Argentina 1–0, the same result as
the 1990 FIFA World Cup Final. With the victory, Germany became the first
European team to win a World Cup in the Americas.
For the first time at World Cup finals, match officials used
goal-line technology, as well as vanishing foam for free kicks.
MIDDLE EAST CONFLICTS
In early June, a Sunni
militant group called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (also known as
the ISIS or ISIL) began an offensive through northern Iraq, aiming to capture
the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad and overthrow the Shiite government. The ongoing
Syrian Civil War has helped the jihadists to control large swaths of
territories in Iraq and Syria. Groups controlling territory in Sinai, eastern
Libya, and Pakistan have been absorbed by ISIL.
On June 29, the group proclaimed a worldwide caliphate, Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi—known by his supporters as Amir al-Mu'minin, Caliph Ibrahim—was
named its caliph, and the group renamed itself the Islamic State. As caliphate,
it claims religious authority over all Muslims worldwide, and aims to bring
Muslim-inhabited regions of the world under its control.
ISIL continues to
promote violent propaganda with targeted killings and beheading of Muslims and
non-Muslims alike. The group has recruited Iraqi children as young as nine to
its ranks. There are many allegations of sexual abuse and enslavement of Iraqi
women and girls, predominantly from the minority Christian and Yazidi
communities.
Meanwhile, amid growing tensions between Israel and Hamas following
the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June and the revenge
killing of a Palestinian teenager in July, Israel launches Operation Protective
Edge. The July 8 offensive on the Palestinian Gaza Strip, the stronghold of
Hamas, started with numerous missile strikes. It was followed by a ground
invasion a week later. In 7 weeks of fighting, 2,100 Palestinians and 71
Israelis were killed.
The stated aim of the Israeli operation was to stop rocket fire
from Gaza into Israel, which increased after an Israeli crackdown on Hamas in
the West Bank was launched in the aftermath of the killing of the Israeli
teenagers. The ground invasion was aimed at destroying Gaza’s tunnel system.
Israeli ground forces withdrew on August 5. The Gaza Health Ministry, UN and
some human rights groups reported that 69–75% of the Palestinian casualties
were civilians; Israeli estimate of that number is 50%.
MARS ORBITER MISSION
On September 24, the scientists and engineers of Indian Space
Research Organization (ISRO) successfully inserted the Mars Orbiter Mission
(MOM) or Mangalyaan (“Mars-craft” in Sanskrit) into Mars orbit after a
year-long voyage through deep space.
It is India's first
interplanetary mission and ISRO has become the fourth space agency to reach
Mars, after the Soviet space program, NASA, and the European Space Agency. It
is also the first nation to reach Mars orbit on its first attempt, and the
first Asian nation to do so.
The mission is a "technology demonstrator" project to
develop the technologies for design, planning, management, and operations of an
interplanetary mission. It carries five instruments that will help advance
knowledge about Mars to achieve its secondary, scientific objective.
The most astounding fact is that the total cost of the mission was
approximately INR450 Crore (US$73 million), making it the least-expensive Mars
mission to date.
#COMETLANDING
On November 12, the European Space Agency achieved a first in space
exploration – successfully landing a probe on a comet zipping at over 31,000
mph!
The Rosetta spacecraft's
Philae probe successfully landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko orbiting between
Mars and Jupiter after a decade-long journey. The lander is named after the
Philae obelisk, which bears a bilingual inscription and was used along with the
Rosetta Stone to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics.
The scientific goals of the mission focus on "elemental,
isotopic, molecular and mineralogical composition of the come tary material,
the characterization of physical properties of the surface and subsurface
material, the large-scale structure and the magnetic and plasma environment of
the nucleus." Several of the instruments on Philae made the first in situ
analysis of a comet, sending back data that will be analyzed to determine the
composition of the surface.
One of the last tweets received from the lander (#CometLanding)
before its batteries went dead: Now that
I’m safely on the ground, here is what my new home #67P looks like from where I
am.
KISS OF LOVE
Kiss of Love protest is a non-violent protest against moral
policing which started in Kerala and later spread to other parts of India. The
movement began when a Facebook page called 'Kiss of love' asked the youth
across Kerala to participate in a protest against moral policing on November 2
at Marine Drive, Cochin. The
movement received widespread support with more than 143,000 'Likes' for the
Facebook page. After the initial protest in Kochi, similar protests were
organized in other major cities of the country.
Various religious and political groups in India have opposed
movement. However, both the Supreme Court of India and Delhi High Court have
made it clear that kissing in public is not an obscene act and no criminal
proceedings can be initiated, for kissing in public,
through landmark judgments.
A Kiss in the Street protest is planned for December 7 in
Kozhikode.
[SUBHODEV DAS]
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