2020 was a mixture of good, bad and downright ugly stuff!

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. It was a year of many happenings on the local, regional and international arenas. A mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly. Some years, like 2020, are too much to bear.

Many will agree that 2020 was a year that pushed 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 United States 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 the 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 the 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 on being the leader of the democratic world.

5. Harry and Meghan had to shed their royal titles, choosing to live like ordinary mortals after the Brits could not help their racist rants about Meghan being black.

 Then there were the uglier things such as:

1.Death by hanging of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

2.Continued violence against women and girls in Malawi; with the escalation in defilement cases, including defilement of 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 Malawi Electoral Commission chairperson Jane Ansah announced the results, the international observers endorsed the elections as free and fair.

4. Death by petrol bombing of a father, a mother and two children by ruling DPP operatives in the run-up to 2020 fresh elections.

5. Following his defeat in the US 2020 presidential elections, Donald Trump’s inability to concede defeat and fuelling unproven conspiracy theories of voter fraud have been likened to post-election events in third world or undemocratic countries.

Alas, there was some good out of 2020:

1.  Malawi’s Constitutional Court decision to annul the 2019 presidential elections and call for fresh elections (the five judges received the Chatham House annual award for the decision); the justices also refused bribes to influence their decision.

2. Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda in Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal upheld the lower court’s decision.

3. The Malawi opposition united formed Tonse Alliance (nine political parties) to fight former president Peter Mutharika. Chakwera and Chilima triumphed.

4. Lawyers that are presented the opposition – they know the law and the Constitution like the backs of their hands.

5. Malawians resolved to protest, daily poured onto streets chanting “where are you judges, they have stolen my vote!”

6. The Malawi Defence Force stepped in to protect Malawians in the demonstrations.

7. Former president 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 a great spillover effect on men and boys.

8. Outside Malawi, Queen Elizabeth II took charge and spoke about the grave dangers of Covid-19, later Premier Boris Johnson tested positive.

9. Former US vice-president Joe Biden won the US presidency and Kamala Harris becomes the first woman, first black woman, and the first child of immigrant parents (Jamaica and India) to be elected US Vice-President.

10.  A Covid-19 vaccine is developed by Pfizer and Moderna.

I am so tired, let 2021 come over already!