Looking back at 2012

Published : 31 Dec 2012, 12:05 PM
Updated : 31 Dec 2012, 12:05 PM

Time has inevitably rolled out 2013 upon us; it is time for a year-end retrospective – a round-up of some of the major events that took place in 2012. This year has brought into being the proverbial good, the bad and the out-and-out ugly when it comes to memorable moments. Amidst war and tragedy that dominated 2012, there were also host of other remarkable news. In the dreary background of depressed financial stories from Europe, events from the Arab Spring region, still-the-boss U.S.A. and other powerful nations, the conflicts zone countries caught attention. Popular uprising, financial crises, terrorism, violence against women and children, and natural disaster; news from science and tech world, entertainment, and sports: the past 12 months have been captivating.

Europe

Costa Concordia Wreck

The year began quite inauspiciously with a massive man-made disaster. On the night of 13 January, 60,000 tons and more than 9,000 feet plus cruise ship Costa Concordia – twice the size of Titanic capsized after hitting a reef and running aground at Isola del Giglio, Tuscany, Italy. In the frenzied evacuation of the largest shipwreck in history with 4,252 people on board 32 people died. The world saw the disgraceful face of Captain Francesco Schettino abandoning his ship before everyone else was off. The spectacle of ruined Costa Concordia jolted the austerity stricken Europe, especially its south.

Where Arab Spring Sways

Syria Kept Bleeding

The Syrian Spring had been bloody from the onset. To date various estimates put the number of death between 40,000 and 50,000. In 2012, the sectarian battle-line was clearly visible: Sunny uprising vs. the Alawite Shia state power. The Sunnis have had a long list of backers: the rich Gulf countries led by the Saudis and the Qataris, the strategically important Turkey, Mosri's Egypt and above all the free-world heavy-weights. On the other hand, the Alawite Axis includes defiant Iran, Lebanese powerhouse Hezbollah, etc. Russia and China – to a lesser extent, though mellowed a bit at the end of the year, maintained support for Syrian government at the United Nations. On 4 October, the Turkish Parliament authorized "military operations" against Syria; just one-step short of "declaring war" that would involve its troop entering neighbouring Syria. As 2012 drawing to a close, it seemed that the minority Assad regime has been weakening day by day.

Palestinians Gained Friends

On the Palestinian scene, in November we saw senseless savagery – the eight-day Gaza bloodletting. There were 1,500 Israeli air strikes and the same number of Palestinian rocket fires. Israeli bombing killed 177 Palestinian while the opponent's rockets took 5 Jewish lives. Although second-term Obama reiterated Israel's "right of defence", he discouraged Israel from taking "disproportionate military response." He even approved Morsi's intercession to get a ceasefire between the warring parties as well as to stop Israeli ground offensive into Gaza. The Israelis yielded, and on 22 November, the truce finally came into force. The latest war episode cost Israel some of its long trusted friends, especially in Europe. In a week's time on 29 November, the United Nations General Assembly voted to promote Palestine to a "non-member observer state." Oddly, only two countries – U.S.A. and Canada were left to support Israel opposing the resolution.

Morsi's New Egypt

In the country's first free and fair election in more than a generation, on 24 June Mohmmad Morsi was declared President of Egypt. Morsi of Muslim Brotherhood – once banned as a terrorist organization by long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak topped the first round of the election. The murky waters of the just liberated Egyptian politics churned out the worst scenario for the liberal democrats. The second round that pitted Morsi against the last Mubarak-era PM Ahmed Shafiq forced many liberals to choose either Brotherhood candidate or Mobarak's crony. In democracy Egypt remained divided along ideological lines; kept fighting, often violently. Soon after getting elected, Morsi has had a "hard tackle" with the old-guard generals. Not only did he manage to remain on his feet, he even scored. On 12 August, asserting his power Morsi didn't just compel top generals: Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, who led Egypt after Hosni Mubarak was ousted and General Sami Enan to step down, he overturned a constitutional declaration from Tantawi's military council that sought to tie the hands of the civilian president. Ingenious Morsi kept dribbling through; this time – the last instalment of 2012 making international headlines for weeks – it was the hurriedly drafted Egypt's new constitution. Through a two-phase referendum on 15 and 22 November, the Egyptians finally passed the charter. The first phase voting that covered major urban areas like Cairo returned 56% vs. 44% in favour of the new constitution. The final tally was 64% 'aye'. At the dying moment of 2012, negating the West's expectation of a close call, almost two-thirds of the Egyptian may have given a message – "we just want a break from violent chaos and confusion at the moment".

Bahrain – Where Spring Has Gone Unnoticed

On the other side of the Arab world, in Bahrain the strife of majority Bahraini Shia population against the minority Sunni king that has already claimed hundreds of lives found only occasional media coverage in 2012. Only a handful of episodes of atrocities and gross human rights violation could become newsworthy.

Afghanistan

Zombie Soldier

Walking more than a mile from his base, pestering from home to home and kicking doors, a U.S. sergeant in a village in rural southern Afghanistan eventually broke into three houses. This was 11 March; on that day, the beastly soldier with insane rage systematically killed at least 16 civilians, 9 of them children including 4 girls younger than 6 years old. Earlier on 22 February, there was the Bagram Base Quran burning incident; the following 5-day protest resulted in 30 deaths including 4 Americans.

Reminiscence of Soviet Exit

On 14 June, CBS news tallied the American troops killed in Afghanistan; the count was 2,000 in its 11th year. Secretary Panetta announced on 21 September that there were 68,000 U.S. troops on Afghan soil – quite a drop from its peak. To meet Obama's 2014-deadline set for withdrawing virtually all American combat troop out of the country will be an enormous challenge. The technical complexities of pulling out such a massive force, especially its heavy hardware at the face of rebuilt and betrothed Taliban that would be much more difficult than the Soviet Exit, has been of serious concern to the U.S. Military. Adding to this pain, Washington has also got the shifty Pakistani and the Pak Taliban.

Pakistan

Malala Fought Back Cowardly Taliban

Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old school girl was attacked by Pakistani Taliban while returning home on a school bus in Mingora, Swat Valley in north-west Pakistan on 9 October. The brave kid, who came to public attention in 2009 by writing a diary for BBC Urdu Service about life under Taliban and has been campaigning for girls' education, was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen. By any standard including that of the blood-drenched Pakistan, there had been shock and anguish at the news. Everyone wished for her recovery; and she survived to carry on with her unfinished mission.

U.S.A.

Benghazi Debacle

On 11 September – the date that had been etched in the American psyche, the world saw another act of terror being unfolded in another part of the world. This time it was – Benghazi, Libya. On the evening of the day, local militia outfits, allegedly having al-Qaeda connections stormed into the U.S. consulate and a nearby building housing CIA officials killing Ambassador Christopher Stevens and 3 other Americans. The U.S. policymakers, who had been upbeat about their Libya strategy, was shaken out of their blithe complacency. This violent tragedy served as an eye-opener exposing American unpreparedness in this part of the world in the wake of Arab Spring.

Obama Won Again

With 50.86% vs. 47.43%, on November 6 – it was an impressive victory for Obama, the first president since World War II to win a second term in the middle of high unemployment and distressed economy. Though Republican Romney covered more of American landmass wining the vast rural country, Obama outpolled him by his sway in the urban areas heavily populated by minorities.

The Fiscal Cliff

At the end of 2012, Bernanke's fiscal cliff looms. The Americans were told that they would either freefall over the cliff or take a scary slide to the ditch at the base. Yes, the "austerity" pit for the U.S. citizen do really exit, and the never-ending donkey-elephant wrangle and the overall American "laugh now-pay later" political culture helped build this up over time. It was dug over 4 decades, and has been getting wider and deeper ever since, especially during the Bush era. In absence of Congressional action by 31 December, the country would face more than half a trillion dollars in automatic tax increases and spending cuts next year. The likely scenario would be less take-home pay, panic in financial markets, and eventual falling back into a recession.

China

The Chinese Communist Party's 18th Congress – the 10-yearly event held in Beijing on 8-14 November that marked a key power transfer in China. A new generation of leaders took over from the previous leadership with Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang at the helm. Changing the course followed by his predecessor Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao handed over both Party General Secretary and Chairman of the Central Military Commission positions to Xi Jingping. Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang will step into the role of President and Prime Minister of People's Republic of China next year with high expectations of far-reaching reforms both at home and abroad.

Russia

Putin's Second Comeback

Russian presidential election for a new, extended term of six years was held on 4 March. To the West's disappointment, Vladimir Putin won with 64% vote. Putin, who earlier served two-terms from 2000-2008, assumed presidential office for the third term after a break of 4 years when he was the country's Prime Minister. Here is the man returning to the top Kremlin office who has effectively run Russia for the past 12 years – spiky, adamant, apprehensive, and renowned for remarks about western hypocrisy and double standards.

Venezuela

Cancer Could Not Slow Chávez Down

The six-year term Venezuelan presidential election was held on 7. Hugo Chávez of United Socialist Party of Venezuela, who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and under treatment, was elected for a fourth term as President of Venezuela with 55.07% vote ahead of the 44.31% of his pro-American main competitor, Henrique Capriles of Justice First Party backed by opposition coalitions.

Myanmar

Obama Spoke for Democracy & the Rohingyas

On 19 November, Obama became the first U.S. President to visit Myanmar that has been cut off as a pariah state by the West for decades. Earlier the ruling Myanmar generals loosened their grip by releasing Aung San Suu Kyi and staging election. During his brisk six-hour trip Obama declared, "Our goal is to sustain the momentum [towards democracy]". He also found time to bring up the sectarian violence between majority Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslim minority in the Rakhine state that killed hundreds to date. Addressing a full-house audience at the Yangon University, Obama pronounced, "For too long, the people of this state, including ethnic Rakhine, have faced crushing poverty and persecution. But there's no excuse for violence against innocent people." He went on saying, "The Rohingya[s] … hold within themselves the same dignity as you do, and I do. National reconciliation will take time, but for the sake of our common humanity, and for the sake of this country's future, it's necessary to stop incitement and to stop violence."

Violence against Women and Children

Newtown: Angels' Bloodbath

On 14 December in the never-heard-of Newtown, Connecticut a 20-something Adam Lanza shot to kill 26 people at Sandy Cook Elementary School. The 20 children and 6 adults killed in the massacre  – all had devastating set of injuries and were shot multiple times. The children – 12 girls and 8 boys – were all angel-faced 6 or 7 years old. Earlier the killer gunned down his mother with 4 shots before going to the school. The devastated and traumatized Americans did not know what to make out of this story. It was not a terror attack; but, what was it? Heavens only knew what could have been the motive of killing these cute little first-graders. Was it the U.S. gun law, violent video games, or American prized Rambo culture at large?

'Nirbhaya': Shame, Sorrow and Anger

India mourns at the dying days of 2012. Exactly 13 days after she had been gang-raped and sadistically battered by 6 men in a moving bus in Delhi, the medical student Nirbhaya (her media-given name) died in the early hours of 29 November  morning. The 23-year-old girl remained in an extremely critical condition since she was transferred to Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore on 27 November after undergoing 3 operations in a Delhi hospital. In the end, she succumbed to the scale of her injuries. India lost her honour; it is grief, ignominy, and fury all over. Earlier this month the assault prompted violent protests by the ever-increasing literate middle-class in India. As news of Nirbhaya's death spread, the police shut off large parts of the capital and appealed for calm.

Natural Disaster

Superstorm Sandy

Superstorm Sandy slammed the U.S. northeast and mid-Atlantic states for two days – 28-29 October just before Halloween almost following hurricane Irene's path that had made landfall last year. Sandy flooded vital New York City infrastructures including subway tunnels and power stations, and even reworked the New Jersey and Long Island shorelines with its monster winds and a storm surge over 4 meters. It claimed 250 lives, 131 in the U.S. alone, and meted out about $50-billion in damage.

Typhoon Bopha

On 4 December, monster typhoon Bopha hit southern Philippines with a vengeance. The death toll was more than 1,000. A massive search for hundreds of missing persons was underway and would continue for weeks into the New Year's holidays.

Papacy on Spotlight

Corruption Hit Vatican

The Vatican was shaken by a corruption scandal following a 25 January Italian television show, "The Untouchables" on the respected TV network La 7.  It showed several letters that Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who was then deputy-governor of Vatican City, sent to superiors, including Pope Benedict, in 2011 about the corruption. Yet, unabated corrupt management practices of the Vatican have been going on for years.

Tech World News

Year of Smaller & Mobile Devices

In 2012, laptops and tablets outsold all desktop models. This year also saw unveiling of the first quad-core smart phones and tablets with significantly enhanced processing power. Windows 8, featuring much faster start-up, integrated web applications, improved digital media support, and improved touch usage mainly for smaller devices, was released.

Apple-Samsung Duel

Apple and Samsung locked horn in a federal courtroom in San Jose, California. Apple won the day on 24 August when a jury awarded $1.05 billion in damages to Apple. Apple may be prevailing in the legal arena, but it appeared to be losing in the bourse. Apple stock surged to all time high of $702 on 21 September – the day media-darling iphone 5 entered the market. But from there, it has been on a steep descent; we even saw Apple's share shortly dunking into $400s on 17 December. On the other hand, the market appeared to like Samsung whose share since has heaved by 16%.

Cell Phone Market

This year Samsung clinched the leadership in overall cell phone sales controlling 29% of the market toppling the beleaguered Nokia with 24%. In the smartphone market, it also streamed ahead of the rival Apple with 20% vs. 10%; next came Nokia having 5% of the pie. Google's Android operating System has largely contributed to the Samsungs ascendancy.

Facebook: IPO Exploit & Instagram Fiasco

On the day of much-hyped $38-a-piece Facebook IPO – 18 May, things started as Wall Street pundits had foretold. The share took off early on, but soon began floundering down when a technical 'hiccup' with the NASDAQ stock Exchange stopped buy-sell orders. Facebook share, trading way below $38, mostly hurt the regular guy who bought on the market; but the insiders would still prosper. The share has now been running at $20s, after having been into the teens for some time. Late in the year on 17 December, Facebook's photo-sharing site, Instagram in a vague language notified its intension to sell users' stuff to third parties. After the loud rebellion that spread across the cyber space by the users including privacy advocates and even National Geographic that suspended its Instagram account, in 24 hours they backed off, apologized, and promised, "To be clear: it was not our intension to sell your photo." The current incident fits into a pattern of Facebook's tendency to encroach on users' privacy – it would try to push privacy boundary, get busted, recoil, absorb the repercussions to live another day.

Scientific World

Arctic Sea Ice Melting Away

On 16 September, the Arctic Ocean ice-cover reached an all-time low of 3.4 million sq. km since satellite record taking began in 1979, the Scientific American reported. Scientists held that the accelerated disappearance of sea ice, which exceeded the estimates by existing climate models, would expose darker ocean water that would absorb more heat, and therefore melt even more ice – giving rise to a feedback loop for an increased rate of global warming.

ENCODE Made Public

Twelve years after the publication of the human genome, on 5 September, the next step – ENCODE: ENCyclopedia of DNA Elements was published. While the genome made available the sequence of all the nucleotides – the A's, C's, T's and G's in DNA, ENCODE listed the sequences that could be transcribed into RNA as well as the corresponding cell types.

NASA Curiosity Rover on the Red Planet

NASA's car-sized six-wheeled Curiosity rover landed safely on Mars on 6 August. Curiosity's more or less two-year mission has already started with its spectacular HD quality images from more than 56 million km away.

Higg's Boson Found

This year on 4 July, after four decades of hunt for the theoretical elusive particle, physicists representing two experiments at the Large Hadron confirmed that the Higgs boson had been detected. The particle would explain why matter has mass, and help complete the Standard Model – the most accepted theoretical description of all the known particles and forces.

Entertainment

Dance with Gangnam Style

In 2012, video sharing networks have become the most busy entertainment loci challenging era of traditional TV. On 21 December, Gangnam Style has become the first video to hit more than one billion views on YouTube. One million views landmark used to be an achievement for any video; but the Korean music star by setting the bar way up has made the video sharing networks more popular.  Uploaded on July 15, millions have viewed Psy's dance song every hour; e.g. to go from 995 million to a billion views, it took only about 3 hours.

Sports Arena

The London Olympics

The world's biggest sporting event was kicked off in London on 27 July. The star-studded opening ceremony was likened to a mishmash of "Broadway Musical and history lesson." And finally, when the "fat lady sang", the Americans were ecstatic when they emerged as the topper in the overall medal tally ahead of China – the winner in the gold medal category and the last Olympic champion in both overall and gold.

Bangladesh

Corruption

In 2012 we here in Bangladesh has had our stomach full of swindles and rip-offs in Padma-Destiny-Hallmark mega scandals; they just have been sitting there, never getting digested, and giving us a bloated feeling of guilt. The continuous wave of other corruption events in the media including TIB's periodic growls – did not produce any real hit. The only exception, however, has been the Railgate Affair, which has come over and over on screen and in the press and never seemed to lose its audience – perhaps because of its entertainment value.

Journalist Couple killed

The TV journalist couple Sagar-Runi was brutally murdered on 10 February. They were slashed, stabbed and hacked by unknown assassin in their rented home in Dhaka. The whole of Bangladesh was shocked by the horror and a lost sense of security. Throughout the rest of 2012, everyone, especially the journalists have repeatedly been demanding that the killer be apprehended and brought to justice.

Ilias Ali Vanished

BNP leader Ilias Ali disappeared along with his driver while both were in his car on 17 April; he would not come back in 2012.

Sin against Civilization

On 30 September, the nation woke to the news of rampaging crowd burning Buddhist shrines and homes at Ramu. The image of the great statue of the Buddha, in his lotus seat still meditating, in the midst of the smouldering ruins of the Lal Ching temple – shocked us as a people. The Ramu incident questioned our sense of nationhood, civility, and humanity.

Horror Show of Political Audacity

On the Human Rights Day, 10 December the nation watched the exhibition of callous bigotry of almighty politics on TV in the horror killing of Bishwajit by a gang of thugs.

Casualties of Bangladesh's Development

On 24-25 November 112 people perished in the Tazreen Fashions factory. The horror of the fire was compared to that of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City in 1911 that killed 146 garment workers. In both cases, the deaths were due to inadequate factory safety standards and, unthinkably, managements' decisions to block exits. We all just have to remember it is over a century since we left 1911. And we have come a long way. Our garment industry, a substantial part of the nation's economy, has already become the second largest exporter of apparel in the world thanks to its lower manufacturing wages. A little care for their factory safety and overall wellbeing of the garment workers would not hurt, but rather through sustainable growth would help the industry thrive in the international market.

Silver lining on the Horizon

Wait, it is not all the way doom and gloom for us in Bangladesh. Something in us has been pulling us up through the muddy path we found ourselves in; and the pace of our moving forward has not been too bad either. Yes, we admit we could have done a good deal better. This year the CIA World Factbook showed that the estimated 2012 Life Expectancy at birth – one of the most important development indices and a measure of overall quality of life – in Bangladesh was 70.06 years, about 3 point higher than that of India having per capita GDP twice that of ours. Many of our other development statistics have also been higher compared to others in our league.  In the Global Trends 2030, a publication of the National Intelligence Council – a report meant for newly elected U.S. president alluded to Bangladesh as an N-11 / Next-11 nation, a term coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill in 2005. The Economist and the Guardian in November and December also ran articles hailing Bangladesh as a breakout nation by 2030.

Now is the time we shook off our off-putting attitude and cynical outlook, and rose above our disappointments, doubts, and distress; together as a nation we will overcome and go places. So watch out world, here comes Bangladesh!

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Mushfique Ahmed is a professor of Department of Geology and Mining, University of Rajshahi.