What was the biggest event of 2013? Was it Nelson
Mandela’s death, the destructive Typhoon Haiyan, or the installation of Pope
Francis to the Papacy? Or was it something else?
In a year where the world’s population
reached 7.198 billion, Gregorian Year MMXIII has revealed no less hype, drama
and tragedy than we’re used to seeing.
Perhaps in terms of enormity the following ten events can be considered
(in reverse ‘countdown’ order of importance) the biggest, most memorable:
NUMBER
TEN – Typhoon Haiyan
One of the strongest cyclones on record,
this storm, and the damage it brought, was the biggest single weather event
bringing mass devastation for the year. Thousands were killed (5,822 confirmed)
and millions misplaced. It devastated portions of South-east
Asia. Winds that topped 270kph (167mph or 75m/s) were officially
recorded. This hurricane has broken a plethora of records. Its damage bill is $2.4
Billion (USD).
NUMBER
NINE – Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Marriage
There are now twenty countries that have
recognised same-sex marriages, though many of these, like in the United States,
only small portions, or States, have passed laws. Same-sex marriage is now a
global discussion point and debate on its merits and problems is an agenda item
for almost every country.
NUMBER
EIGHT – Edward Snowden
American Edward Snowden breaks his oath and discloses mass
surveillance program operations engaged by the US government to news publications.
He flees the country and is later granted temporary asylum in Russia.
NUMBER
SEVEN – Lance Armstrong Disgraced
In January, after a long investigation by
USADA, Lance Armstrong, having long denied using banned substances, admits to
doping in a television interview with Oprah Winfrey.
NUMBER
SIX – Pope Benedict XVI Resigns
The first Pope to resign from the Papal
Office since Pope Gregory XII in 1415 (who was forced to, due to the Western
Schism), and the first Pope to resign under his own initiative since 1294, Pope
Benedict XVI resigns due to declining health and old age. The resignation
process commenced on February 11 and concluded on February 28.
NUMBER
FIVE – Developments in the Middle East
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is deposed by the military with
Adly Mansour appointed interim president. Also, tensions and political unrest
in Syria
reach crisis point.
NUMBER FOUR – Aung San Suu
Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi is Burmese opposition politician and
chairperson of the National League for Democracy in Burma, and the most prominent
contemporary political prisoner in the world. She was released in 2010. Akin to
Nelson Mandala – but in reverse (she was President in 1990 and was then under
house arrest) – Aung San Suu Kyi stated in June that she will run for the 2015
Myanmar presidency in what is likely to be a massive regional development
should she win and be allowed to govern.
NUMBER
THREE – The Boston Marathon
Bombing
Although there were relatively few
fatalities and casualties, the scale of terrorism – to strike at the world’s oldest
marathon event, and one of six ‘majors’ – defied belief, much the same as
London (2005) and Bali (2002), but on a scale far less than September 11, 2001
in New York City. Three died and 264 were injured.
NUMBER
TWO – Pope Francis takes Papacy
Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio,
the 266th Pope) becomes the first Pope to wash the feet of women in the Maundy
Thursday service. Pope Francis seems to continue a more liberal and more
compassionate stance from the Papacy than the traditional Roman Catholic Church
might be remembered for.
NUMBER ONE – Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’s Death
The Twentieth century’s paragon for peace,
unprecedented in the scale of both his personal suffering and global impact he
made for good, died peacefully, aged 95. Twenty-seven years of hard imprisonment
at Robben Island
preceded his single-handed unification of a broken South Africa in the 1990s. Perhaps
most enduring of ‘Madiba’s’ legacies, however, is his personification of grace;
his unstinting forgiveness of his transgressors.
***
Links
to my analyses of 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009 can be found here:
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.
Acknowledgement: source information from various pages on Wikipedia and
HistoryOrb.
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