2019 ended with a loud bang, although it wasn’t a smooth year, but certainly loud enough for many people to notice. As we step into a new decade, we can always learn a bit from the history so that we will not repeat them in the future. Of course we are not going too far into the past, we are going to look back at 2019 and see some of the most important events that happen that shook the world.
1) Forest Fire Everywhere
2019 is one hot year, figuratively and literally. There are many wildfires around the world and some of them happened in the weirdest place of all. In the United States, the California Wildfire took many lives and houses along with natural habitat. The end-of-year wildfire in Australia devastated many people and wildlife alike, and the tundra and snow forests in Alaska and Siberia respectively were also on fire. Those are some of the high profile wildfire incidents that were reported widely, at the time of writing this article, there are more wildfires in the Africa region and South America region still burning as of now. Think again when you take in oxygen, they may be scarce if these burning continues.
2) Impeachment of Donald Trump
Exactly one week before Christmas, one of the biggest holiday season in a year, Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States of America, was impeached by congress and now facing trial for the removal of office. This means Donald Trump is the third US president to be impeached in history. While what he has done that led to the impeachment is too long for this discussion, this impeachment will send a ripple around the world. Being one of the biggest and strongest country on earth, the impeachment could cause a lot of distress towards the US, especially towards their ally. The result of this trial and impeachment is still yet to be observed, but it is nonetheless one of the biggest event of 2019
3) Hong Kong Demonstration
Another political driven event that took up a lot of column space on newspaper (do people still read them?) and our social media page, but it is a serious issue that we should look at. The origin of the demonstration started when Hong Kong people were displease with the extradition bill proposed by Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong. The demonstration is still ongoing at the time of writing this article and it has heavily affected many people around the region and Hong Kong citizens. Businesses pulling out of the island and
4) PMD ban in Singapore
Let’s bring things back to our home ground, Singapore, what happened in our Lion City? PMD, Personal Mobility Device, are banned in Singapore in November, the ban will then enforce on 1st January 2020. This has affected hundreds and thousands of food delivery riders, as PMD is their main form of transport without forking out a lot of money for a motorbike, which is the cheapest option other than PMD. This PMD ban passed, due to the multiple collision cases throughout the years, there are some cases where elderly people died from collision injuries. Voices were loud, calling to ban PMD as many claims the riders are too much of a threat on the road. Even though many riders adhere to strict regulations and maintaining a safe speed, they are also affected by the ban, rendered many PMD worthless.
5) The End of Eras
2019 is also a year where many legends come to an end, many eras wrapping up and saying good byes. The Marvel Cinematic Universe ended the “Infinity Gauntlet” saga with “Avengers: Endgame”, many fan beloved characters like Iron Man and Captain America ended their stories and passed baton down to the next generation of heroes. Another big movie franchise also ended their latest saga, “Star Wars” ended what their fans like to call, the sequel trilogy, with “Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker”. According to Kathleen Kennedy, the current president of Lucasfilm, the Skywalker saga has ended and all is possible in the future. Another fan favorite film series also ended just a little before Christmas, Ip man. Ip man series ended the franchise on the 4th entry in the series and it ended with a bang, breaking box office record everywhere. Ip man series is so popular that it even beat Star Wars twice in box office with Ip man 3 and Ip man 4. Fans may be disappointed that Donnie Yen, who played as Ip man, announced that “Ip man 4” is his last Kung Fu film and he would focus on other various projects.
