2021 So Far: Still Sucks And Somehow Worse For Civil Liberties
I was supposed to do some rants and reviews in January and the first post for 2021 is coming in the second half of March. Sorry about that. It's a mix of being busy and being lazy. I haven't watched many/any movies in 2021 so far and I've got plenty to rant about. But most rants are about my issues with the regime and this one is particularly vindictive. You never know what might earn you a spot on a watchlist.
Still, I thought I'd do a quick rewind of how 2021 has been so far. While I avoid going through most day-to-day media reports, these headline events did happen to catch my attention:
U.S. Capitol Riots:- Trump lost his 2020 re-election but in typical orange dickhead fashion, he refuted the results and claimed that it was "stolen" from him. In a brilliant move, he did the ultimate notice-period-screwjob in the first week of January. He held a rally in Washington D.C. and incited his hardcore supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol - the meeting place of their Congress and the top legislative structure of the country. He did it while Congress was in session, endangering the lives of many elected representatives including his own V.P. Of course, the Democrats tried to impeach him for it which would make him ineligible to hold public office in the future. But the Republicans, having seen first-hand how dangerous their supporters can be, delayed the process and then acquitted the orange gasbag stating that they can't impeach someone who isn't a sitting President. Thus, there still remains a rabid side to the Republican Party with a figurehead by the name of Donald, and whether he runs for re-election or not, he will enjoy heavy political influence in the party for years to come.
New COVID-19 strains:- The biggest pandemic of the millennium so far entered its next natural stage by mutating into a new strain. It was first detected in the UK and the mutation allows the SARS-CoV-2 cells to bind more readily with the ACE2 receptor in humans which allows it to spread to other cells. Basically, this one is harder to get rid off and acts faster on those infected. Science suggests other mutations are likely happening elsewhere that might not have been detected yet.
Protests In India. No Critic Is Safe:- Can't really talk
about it or else this regime will come after me too. Enough said. If you
want to know what happened and why I'm not free enough to talk about it
openly, you should look it up. Things got especially crazy in the last week
of January and have gotten worse since. (hint: people who work in agriculture)
Vaccines are good press:- After poorly planned lockdowns proved to be only slightly less worse than zero community restrictions to try and contain the spread of Covid-19 in most large countries, the governments were in dire need of positive press regarding the situation. The solution? Announcing and clearing the use of effective vaccines. A handful of vaccines were given the greenlight in different countries after completing the crucial testing phases but of course, the supply is still tiny compared to the demand. So, some countries fast tracked vaccines developed by local pharma companies that would reduce dependence on the globally-accepted ones that are harder to get. Unfortunately, some governments, like the Indian one, fasttracked projects that had not cleared the minimum testing criteria at the risk to the public. While there have been no adverse side effects reported from such vaccines, their effectiveness remains questionable. Also, the lack of testing creates lack of trust and thus resistance to vaccination, even among citizens who have gladly accepted the dictatorial nature of the current regimes. But hey! The government got to make a good show and dance about rolling out vaccines to millions of people and "defeating the corona".
That's just some of the stuff that I know a little about. As always, there's a lot more and a lot worse still happening out there across the world. In Africa, in Latin America, in the Middle-East, in East Asia and even in Europe.
The only thing different now is that there are some common sociopolitical issues, even in countries that were not deemed as "third-world": oppressive regimes, coups, violent protests, rising crime, economic crisis and the failures of handling the pandemic. Governments across the world are pushing ahead with policies that threaten free speech and critical expression, suppress the individual identity of a citizen, allow for institutionalized subjugation of minorities on the basis or race and religion, and of course leave little to no room for privacy.
I tried reading up on some of those topics to add to this piece but there's so much that I decided to stop, for sanity's sake. Not because I don't care...but because I can't deal with it all. There are people better suited to talk about it, to do something about it and all I can say is that YOU should look up more than what the mainstream English-speaking and native language channels will tell you. You still might not get the complete picture, but at least you'll be aware of the issue and some of you might even be able to see the patterns in the apparent chaos.
Damn, this took a serious turn. I just wanted to talk about how the year's going. Hope I didn't make you too anxious with my tangent. Here's a little recovery technique: few deep breaths, some water or coke, think about the comforts around you, recognise that today could still be an alright day, and get on with it.
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