29 Dec 2016

So you think you found the solution, but it’s just another illusion, the legendary Bob Marley once sung in his aptly named song, So Much Trouble in the World.
For many global watchers, the memory of 2016 will conjure images of a troubled world filled with conflict, terrorist attacks and a new medical pandemic emerging.
At a time the world needed strong leadership to resolve such crises, the citizens of the world’s major political superpower went to the polls, and their biggest ally to a referendum.
The results, a ‘Trump Triumph’ and ‘Brexit’ did not fit the popular opinion of the rest of the world.
Only time will tell whether those key decisions by the citizens of the United States of America and the United Kingdom were, to use the words of Marley, a ‘solution’ or an ‘illusion.’
Despite Trump’s triumph polarizing global opinion, the United States once more became a global model of democratic transition and respect for the popular will of its citizens.  
Trump will replace incumbent Barack Obama in January 2017.
The 16th year of the 21st century of the Anno Domini (AD) period of the Gregorian calendar, 2016 begun with the World Health Organisation (WHO) announcing the outbreak of the Zika virus in January.
A mosquito-borne virus causing birth defects, Zika triggered global panic, particularly in South America, but global action towards fighting the virus eased global concerns as the year wore on.
The Syrian conflict continued to worsen.  Triggered by popular unrest of the Arab Spring of 2011, with President Bashar Al-Assad’s government repressing their citizens’ uprising, the conflict went into its fifth year in 2016.
Syrian opposition groups, which founded the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and seized control of areas surrounding the ancient city of Aleppo, fought the government with both sides drawing international support in what became a proxy war reminiscent of cold war politics. On June 23, the people of the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to leave the European Union.  ‘Brexit’ as the withdrawal vote was termed, led to the resignation of Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, replaced by Theresa May at the helm of the British state house, Number 10 Downing Street.
Republican Donald Trump was elected the president of the United States of America, after a bitterly fought election contest with the more globally appealing Democrat, Hillary Clinton. The United Nations (UN) Security Council elected Portuguese Prime Minister, António Guterres the next secretary general of the UN, set to replace South Korean Ban Ki-moon when 2017 commences.
Plausibly bored by isolation, North Korea drew global attention by testing the odd nuke; drawing international condemnation by launching a long-range rocket into space on February 7, with an even bigger nuclear test conducted by the Pyongyang government in early September.
The 22nd Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) in Marrakech, Morocco, enforced the decisions of Paris convention of 2015.
The nations of the world united at the Rio Olympic Games in Brazil, where Jamaican 100 metre sprinter Usain Bolt was once more the star of what were his last Olympic games.
Africa saw opposition parties do well in elections. The people of the Gambia and Ghana elected theirs opposition leaders, respectively Nana Akufo-Addo and Adama Barrow, into power.    
In South Africa, the governing African National Congress (ANC) lost key municipalities of Johannesburg, Tshwane Metro (Pretoria) and Nelson Mandela Bay (Port Elizabeth) during the country’s municipal elections held on August 3.
Violent clashes erupted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after President Joseph Kabila continued in office after the expiry of his presidential term.
Terrorist group, Boko Haram continued being a thorn in the flesh of the Nigerian state.
Given the events of 2016, Botswana, Africa and the world will enter the New Year with the hope that the common humanity that unites the people will be more accentuated in 2017 to produce a much safer and more secure world. ENDS