Wave after wave of unevenness arose, "Delta" did not go, and the mighty "Omicron" spread rapidly around the world. People around the world, who have been tormented by the epidemic for nearly two years, have been thwarted in their eagerness to return to normal life. Although many people mistakenly believe that the epidemic has been alleviated, there will actually be many more cases and deaths of COVID-19 infections in 2021 than in 2020.
Even Europe, which was once "lying flat", could not sit still. Germany and the United Kingdom have become the new epicenters of the epidemic in Europe, and the public said that the epidemic growth was "as rapid as the arrival of a tsunami". Recent confirmed cases in Denmark and Norway have also increased at a record rate, with stricter epidemic prevention measures in both countries. On the road of "coexistence with the new crown", some countries still want to grit their teeth and insist on it, but more countries obviously cannot go on.
On December 18, 2021, a large-scale protest demonstration broke out in London, England, opposing the government's mandatory vaccination of the new crown vaccine and other related epidemic prevention measures. (People's Vision)
Looking back on this year, the unfair distribution of vaccines related to the epidemic, the rise of hate movements everywhere, the frequent coups d'état, and the tension in global supply chains seem to indicate that the world has entered a "chaotic world". But what is the truth?
vaccine! vaccine!
After last year's panic, mass vaccinations that began this year have helped people reduce home quarantines and travel restrictions, especially in the West, where there was a sense of "back to normal" at one point. However, at the beginning of this year, the ugliness of European and American countries fighting against vaccines is still vivid.
On the one hand, developed countries have hoarded vaccines far beyond their own needs, and many vaccines have even been forced to be destroyed after expiration or "donated" to poor countries at the end of the period (of course, this is conditional). On the other hand, poor countries' lack of timely access to vaccines has led to the spread of mutant viruses, which in turn has complicated outbreaks in developed countries. In regions such as South Asia, Latin America and Africa, the situation was not much different for much of the year due to delays in vaccine deliveries: hospitals were full, home isolation and panic, according to Efe.
On May 5, 2021, people held a protest demonstration near the National Mall in Washington, D.C., against the U.S. government's massive stockpiling of vaccines. (People's Vision)
There is an explanation for this "vaccine divide" that deserves pondering – it is a "game of the rich". According to foreign media reports, the NGO People's Vaccine Alliance pointed out that Pfizer-BioNTech uses its monopoly to prioritize the most profitable contracts they have with the richest governments, while delivering vaccines to low-income countries accounts for less than 1% of its total supply; Modena is even less, just 0.2%. Some analysts said that the sum of the profits of the new crown vaccines of these three pharmaceutical companies is as high as 65,000 US dollars per minute!
Coincidentally, a march report in Business Insider proposed the concept of the "COVID-19 Industrial Complex" – a multinational, multi-billion dollar public-private partnership in which governments of developed countries at the top of the food chain use their financial power to create an enabling environment to reward other participants in the CIC.
The epidemic is a natural disaster, but the inequalities under the epidemic are naked human cannibalism.
Hate movements are on the rise
The United States of 2021 begins with a rather "magical": on January 6, a group of Trump supporters besieged Capitol Hill, and crazy thugs broke into the chamber to make a big fuss, and lawmakers fled for their lives. Eventually, a farce turned into a riot that killed 5 people and arrested more than 500 people, causing a worldwide uproar. A photograph of a demonstrator placing his foot on Speaker Pelosi's desk spread around the world, giving a glimpse of how "free" the United States is.
On January 6, 2021, Richard Barnett broke into Pelosi's office to take photos during riots and left a threatening letter for Pelosi. (People's Vision)
The Capitol Hill Rebellion is unprecedented, but it is not a no-brainer. Catalyzed by the epidemic, various persistent diseases in American society, such as deep-rooted racial discrimination, the human tragedy caused by the epidemic out of control, which caused more than 800,000 deaths, and the gap between rich and poor is getting wider and wider... The interweaving and superposition of each other has further torn apart an already divided American society and led to an unprecedented campaign of hate, not only between blacks and whites, but more broadly between whites, other people of color and Asians. This is largely related to former US President Trump's repeated rumors that the virus originated in China.
An FBI official said that hate crimes against Asians have increased significantly since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, increasing by 76% in the last year alone! Just on December 15, California police announced the arrest of a violent robbery gang targeting Asians. More than 100 of the gang's more than 170 crimes against Asians were Asian women. This is a microcosm of america's long-standing "hate crimes", which occurred nearly a year after Biden took office, making the idea that the United States would be better just by replacing Trump seem even more naïve and ridiculous.
Not only in the United States, but also in Europe and Canada, similar hate incidents have been reported from time to time. For example, Professor Chen Mingyu, dean of the Oxford University Law School, revealed that because her skin color was "out of place", she was often questioned by the school's doorman, questioning whether she had the right to enter the school. If the high-ranking people are still like this, the situation of ordinary people will only be worse.
Hate movements have become a cancer that hinders the progress of human society.
The "human design" of American democracy collapsed
Along with hate movements is the global fall of American-style democracy, two sides of the deteriorating human rights situation in the United States.
Throughout August, Afghanistan was shrouded in chaos and bloodshed by the hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops. In a drone strike launched by U.S. forces after the kabul airport explosion, 10 civilians, including 7 children, were killed. But on November 3, a so-called "independent assessment report" from the Pentagon concluded that the incident was "not caused by misconduct or negligence" and recommended that no disciplinary action be imposed.
After 20 years of fighting the war on terror, the United States has left a chicken feather in Afghanistan and the world. Public opinion generally believes that the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan is a complete failure of the United States to export democracy to the outside world.
It is ridiculous that the United States brazenly held the so-called "democracy summit" on December 9. But on the same day, outside the United Nations headquarters in New York, protesters carried a coffin with the words "American democracy" written on it for a "funeral," alleging. No wonder U.S. President Joe Biden recently said of the Capitol Hill riots with a rare outrage: "Do you know what other world leaders are asking me?" 'Will America get better?' ''What about democracy in america?' ’”
Uncle Sam greeted the guests of the "Democracy Summit" at the entrance of the courtyard, but the courtyard was in chaos: unfair division of constituencies, Trump supporters rushing into Capitol Hill... The guest couldn't help but ask, "Did we come at the wrong time?" ”。 (Originally published on the website of the American "Politics Daily")
As the American historian Paul Atwood put it in his book War and Empire, "The history of the United States is a history of war and expansion... War is the American way of life." The hegemonic act of "American-style democracy" has long been firmly labeled as "the world's largest source of chaos."
In 2021, the "human design" of American-style democracy has completely collapsed.
The cheese is gone, the Christmas tree is gone...
This Christmas, many Westerners don't have Christmas trees or Christmas gifts. At the end of the year, the containers in the major ports of the United States were piled up, the progress of operations was slow, and a large number of goods could only float at sea when they could not enter. Japanese media reported that on the routes between the United States and Asia, shipping companies can only prioritize the shipment of empty containers from the United States to China in order to seek higher profits, and reduce the shipping capacity to Japan and other countries.
Some analysts believe that this supply chain crisis is caused by the shortage of goods caused by repeated epidemics and excessive demand. But more analysis points out that the root cause is the trade war with China launched by the United States a few years ago, which caused serious fluctuations in the relationship between supply and demand, resulting in a surge in US imports from China. In the case of the US economy can not function properly due to the epidemic, the dependence on China will only deepen. Forbes magazine pointed out that now, the priority for U.S. companies importing Chinese goods is no longer cost, but whether they can reserve enough supplies.
Jean Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said in a recent interview with Time magazine that in the Port of Los Angeles, the ratio of full containers to imports and exports is 5:1, "which means that our largest export product is air." Dale Rogers, a professor at Arizona State University in the United States, said that as long as the tariff policy during the Trump era remained unchanged, container shipping would become increasingly unbalanced.
Screenshot of time magazine report
The United States may not have imagined that the revolt of unilateralism would come so quickly that it would eventually lift a stone and drop itself in the foot!
A few natural disasters, some man-made disasters
In 2021, there are many more world chaos. For example, since the beginning of this year, there have been frequent coups d'état in Central and West Africa (Sudan, Guinea, Mali, and Niger, where there have been attempted coups), is this "historical inertia" or has the epidemic amplified the crisis? In addition, Indian farmers, who are increasingly struggling to survive, protest the success of the new agricultural law, the cyclical recurrence of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the influx of refugees to the border between Belarus and Poland, causing a humanitarian crisis...
It is irresponsible to blame all problems on the epidemic, but there is no doubt that the epidemic is a mirror that reflects the selfishness and greed of some countries, the external strengths of some countries, and the inequalities and problems that have existed in human society for a long time. This once-in-a-century crisis is a reminder that, today, as nations are increasingly interconnected and interdependent, the international community needs greater solidarity and cooperation than ever before.
Still, it seems hard to be optimistic. A new report released by the Global Preventive Monitoring Council, an independent monitoring body, states that the world is not yet prepared to prevent the next pandemic, especially as the impact of the virus in some countries wanes and the world's attention shifts to other issues, the opportunities for significant change are rapidly shrinking.
If last year in the face of the epidemic that fell from the sky, people were not ready and failed to act quickly according to science; many of the chaos since this year were more man-made disasters; then, next year? What about later? Do you want to get rid of the scars and forget about the pain? Standing on the threshold of the end of the year, we expect the world to get better as soon as possible.
Source: Reference News Network