9 The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts. Haggai 2:9
The bags of 2020 are packed, and this time next week will be clearly out the doors of our lives forever. The year was a year of many happenings, on the local, regional, and international arenas. A discombobulating mixture of the good, the bad, and the utterly ugly; if there is any wonder why there is so much hullabaloo, glee and much gaiety on every December 31, it boils down to the fact that some years, like 2020, are honestly speaking (writing), much to bear.
Many will agree that 2020 was a year that punished humanity to the limits. There was the dreaded pandemic dubbed COVID-19, currently there are 78 million cases, of which 1,724,041 have died (over 300,000 in the US alone, and over 55 million have thankfully recovered. Locally, Malawi has had over 6,000 cases with over 5,600 recoveries, and 187 deaths.
The talking point for 2020, the bad it brought shall be listed as follows:
1. Covid 19 pandemic, with the USA leading in number of deaths due to bad leadership that followed conspiracy theories instead of the science. Among the millions lost to COVID include a friend, an in-law, and a cousin.
2. There was uncontrollable outpouring of tears shed when news circulated of the tragic plane crash of basketball legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter.
3. The death of another legend, the iconic legal giant Ruth Bader Ginsburg, after numerous battles with cancer, shocked both men and women.
4. Escalating violence and shooting of unarmed black persons and racial tension in the US, was a major thorn in the flesh of a country that prides itself of being the leader of the democratic world.
5. Sadly Harry and Megan had to shed their royal titles, choosing to live as ordinary mortals after the Brits could not help their racist rants about Meghan being black.
Then there were the uglier other things such as:
1. Death by hanging of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, connected with high-profiled persons as Donald Trump, Prince Andrew (stripped of his royal privileges), Clinton.
2. Continued violence against women and girls in Malawi; with escalation in defilement cases, some as a man defiling a five-month old baby.
3. Party observers uncovering the nation-wide Tippexed tally sheets in the 2019 elections that tipped in favor of then incumbent President Peter Mutharika; as former MEC Chair announced the results, the international observers endorsed the elections as free and fair.
4. Death by petrol bombing of a father and two children by ruling DPP operatives in run up to 2020 fresh elections.
5. Following his defeat in the US 2020 Presidential elections, Donald Trump’s inability to concede defeat and fueling unproven conspiracy theories of voter fraud, has been likened to events of post-election events in third world or undemocratic countries.
Alas, there was some good out of 2020:
1. Malawi’s ConCourt decision to annual the 2019 presidential elections and call for fresh elections (the 5 justices received the Chatham House annual award for the decision); the justices also refused money to influence their decision.
2. Chief Justice Andy Nyirenda and his panel of Court of Appeals upheld the lower court decision.
3. The Malawi opposition united formed Tonse Alliance (9 political parties) to fight APM. Team Chakwera and Chilima triumphed.
4. Lawyers that presented the opposition – they know the law and the constitution like the backs of their hands. Mordecai was the MVP of the elections case.
5. Malawians, young and old, male and female, resolved to protest, daily poured onto streets chanting “where are you judges, they’ve stolen my vote!”
6. The Malawi Defense Force daily stepped in to protect Malawians in the demonstrations and later during voting.
7. Former President Dr. Joyce Banda deserves special mention as the torchbearer of the Beijing Platform for Action. She is Malawi’s beacon of hope for gender equality and economic empowerment of women and girls; with great spillover effect on men and boys.
8. Outside Malawi, Queen Elizabeth II took charge and spoke about the grave dangers of Covid-19 as Premier Johnson failed to do so; he later tested positive.
9. Former VP Joe Biden won the US presidency, and Kamala Harris becomes the first woman, first black woman, first child of immigrant parents (Jamaica and India) to be elected US Vice President.
10. A vaccine is developed by Pfizer and Moderna.
I am so tired, let 2021 come over already!
