It was the early evening hours on the last day of 2020. One of the kids and I were traveling on Ensenada’s famous Calle Reforma, frantically looking for food for a laid-back New Year’s Eve party. Among my fellow paisanos, this night is known as Nochevieja. After driving for about 15 minutes, we got stuck in the far-right lane in what we initially guessed to be an auto accident. But, we had no choice but to crawl along in this lane as the exit into KFC was about a mile ahead. However, after a half hour of moving slower than a snail, I gave up and pulled into the middle lane of traffic. We’d need to find another food alternative.
To our surprise, the literally mile-long line of cars wasn’t due to an accident after all. Each driver was patiently waiting their turn to order buckets or boxes of Colonel Sander’s world-famous chicken! Chachi and I just looked at each other and laughed at what we saw. But mercifully, this was just one of the last hurrahs of the wacky, wild and wicked 2020! While nobody on the planet was sad to see 2020 melt into the history books, I wanted to take a look back on some of the wacky, wild and wicked events of 2020:
1. Wacky
— The British royal’s Prince Harry and Princess Meghan decided to strike out on their own financially. However, the announcement took the entire world by surprise, including to an extent, the matriarch of the House of Windsor and ruling monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. In hindsight, I am sure that the pair realize that 2020 was a terrible year for them to strike out on their own. However, Prince Harry already had a net worth of 30 million pounds, thanks mostly to an inheritance from his mother Diana. In addition, his father Prince Charles was also chipping in financially out of revenues from his vast estates in the Duchy of Cornwall. I heard that they could get by on $3 million dollars per year. I wonder if that was a Canadian or U.S. dollar value?
— Evidently in Thailand, monkeys didn’t get the memo about #stayhome, #socialdistancing and wearing a mask in public. In March of 2020, gangs of macaques roaming the streets terrorized the citizenry of Lopburi. With the tourist population nonexistent, the hungry monkeys went on a rampage. On a positive note, the locals didn’t need any further enticements to stay home other than saving their own skin in one way or another. However, in different parts of the world, as the streets became deserted, nature quickly stepped up and took advantage of the situation. But of course, nature abhors a vacuum, right?
— Speaking of science, there were two stories that were truly “out there”. One was that a major star simply disappeared. How does that happen? I mean, we learned in our science courses that stars either explode and turn into a supernova or implode and become a black hole, right? So how does a star simply disappear? This is exactly what happened to a blue star affectionately known as Luminously Blue Variables did in the Kinman Dwarf Galaxy. The second story turned millions of parents into liars. The Pentagon released several videos of honest-to-goodness, real UFOs. But then again, maybe there is a reason why the History Channel increased its UFO – related content in its programming over the past 10 years or so. Upon reflection, I like Stephen Hawking’s advice:
“The Breakthrough Listen project will scan the nearest million stars for signs of life, but I know just the place to start looking. One day we might receive a signal from a planet like Gliese 832c, but we should be wary of answering back.”
“If so, they will be vastly more powerful and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria.”
When it comes to aliens, I am a big believer in living under the radar. Don’t you agree?
2. Wild
— Who would have ever dreamed that the price of crude oil would drop to – $37.63 dollars per barrel? (Yes, the dash in this case is a negative symbol.) This is exactly what happened to West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil on April 20, 2020. Oil prices around the world were a casualty of a huge feud between Russia and Saudi Arabia with initial price discounts of 65%. However, what made matters far worse was the COVID – 19 pandemic, which created a major drop in the demand for processed petroleum products. Some believe that the ripples from 2020 will be felt until at least 2030.
— The U.S. Presidential Election of 2020 was the wildest in American history. While the battle revolved around mail-in ballots, the process had been in place in all states for many years. However, in what was easily the largest turnout of voters in an American election, allegations of wholesale voter fraud have been thrown out by the courts for lack of concrete evidence or other reasons over 60 times. The 2020 Presidential Election set records for voter turnout, most votes cast, most votes for the winning candidate at over 81 million, and most votes for the runner-up with over 74 million.
— Designating Antifa as a terrorist organization. What is Antifa? Short for anti-fascist action, it is a group that opposes the following: fascism, neo-Nazism, sexism and white supremacism. What is shocking is that most Americans would oppose these same issues as well. But at the same time that Antifa was turned into the latest Boogeyman, radical paramilitary groups and well-armed militias were praised and even encouraged to operate in certain areas with impunity.
3. Wicked
— The COVID – 19 pandemic is hands down the most wicked event of 2020. To date, it has infected over 83.6 million people. The latest mutation has the potential to spread at a rate over 70% faster than past versions of the virus. So far, over 1.82 million people have died of the disease. Officially, the United States leads the world in COVID – related deaths with 346 thousand deaths, followed by Brazil (195K), India (149K) and Mexico (126K) Officials in Russia recently admitted that their COVID – related death toll was actually the third highest in the world. Mexico leads the world in the deaths of its healthcare workers with over 1,700. Of the 47.2 million that have recovered from COVID, many have been left with temporary to permanent health problems. These include chest pain, cough, depression, fast heartbeat, fatigue, hair loss, headache, joint pain, loss of smell and taste, memory problems, muscle ache, rash and shortness of breath. Even with several vaccines that are now available, the COVID – 19 virus will continue to be a problem in 2021.
— Rioting around the world that destroyed billions of dollars in properties. Before the start of 2020, there was a prediction that at least 40% of the world’s 195 countries were ripe for civil unrest. The legal demonstrations in 140 cities across the United States after the death of George Floyd were mostly peaceful ones. However, rioters that did take advantage of the situation caused over 2 billion dollars of paid insurance claims to properties in this one event alone. It is estimated that the economic disruptions from rioting in 2020 will last for years to come. Other major protests in 2020 included: Black Lives Matter, Hongkong Freedom Protests, Global Protests For Racial Justice (supporting Black Lives Matter), Anti-lockdown Protests, September Climate Strikes, and, 2020 U.S. Presidential Election Protests.
— The Australian bushfires actually started in mid-2019, but fiercely raged through the first half of 2020. The series of conflagrations affected over 18.6 million hectares (186,000 square kilometers or 76,000 square miles) in a year. The deliberately set and lightning strike triggered fires destroyed 5,900 buildings (2,779 homes) and killed 34 people. Tragically, it is estimated that over 3 billion animals were killed during this period, including 2.46 million reptiles, 143 million mammals, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs.
As I finish my first article of 2021. It is with a thankful heart as COVID – 19 almost swallowed me whole back in October. Like the rest of the world, I look forward to what is in store for us in 2021. Even with countries rushing to vaccinate as many of their citizens as possible, COVID will continue to wreak all sorts of havoc in 2021 and possibly 2022. Even so, I am mindful of the indominable will of the human spirit. And like steel, the more we band together, the stronger that we all become in the end.
Happy New Year!
Anthony Cota
Simple Living 