2015 was a pretty rough year globally. While political instability in some countries continued, natural calamities hit other places. The rise of the sharia backed force namely the Islamic State took an unprecedented leap. There were further technological advancements like that first solar plane that circumvented around the world. Ireland votes to legalize same sex marriage, becoming the first country to legalize same sex marriages.
While the Eurasian Economic Union was formed in Europe, Nepal got its constitution in place for the first time in its history. Eastern Europe continued to remain in turmoil with Russia and Ukraine reaching a ceasefire agreement but the region never went without action till late October this year.
The IS formed a strategic alliance with Boko Haram, thus consolidating their terror agenda further. Paris witnessed similar attacks like those that occurred in Mumbai. The US saw a first terror backed agenda in California post 9-11. The cat and mouse game just got bigger. Sadly, we may witness many more such gory terror attacks around the globe. The UN adopted the Resolution 2199 to combat global terrorism and we have to wait and watch what transpires in 2016!
The global markets continued to show a slow pace in growth with China taking a beating on its books. This affected several countries in Asia particularly and including India, Japan and Thailand.
German-wings a Lufthansa subsidiary, witnessed a crash earlier this year. Malaysian Airlines took another hit when Ukrainian forces downed a commercial jet over eastern Europe. Bomb scares on a France Airlines also made headlines. Russia airlines Metrojet lost 217 passengers this year.
Nepal saw the worst earthquake in its existence on 21 April this year. The death toll has been kept confidential by the government but people estimate it at over 10,000. After the first jolt of 7.3, there have been more than 400 aftershocks since then. Chile witnessed another earthquake while quakes were also reported from Afghanistan, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. 2015 saw a little less than 14,000 earthquakes happening globally!
Friendships were made in 2015. Cuba and US shook hands after 54 years of hostility. Iran opened its nuclear facilities to the UN for the first time to prevent sanctions on it. The Chinese Premier met his Taiwanese counterpart for the first time in 2015. Earth made friends with Pluto with NASA's New Horizons spacecraft doing a close flyby of Pluto, becoming the first spacecraft in earth's history to visit this far. That is an achievement for long distance friendships!
MH 370 continued to remain a mystery ever since it disappeared from radars in March 2014! Volkswagen the auto giant was caught on the wrong foot with fudged diesel emission tests, NASA announced that Mars had water on it, Scientists discovered an earlier unknown human species Homo Naledi in Africa. In December, a global climate change pact was agreed at the COP21 summit, committing all countries to reduce carbon emissions for the first time.
2015 showed that climate change has begun its affect on the world with bizarre rainfall patterns, earthquakes, increased winter temperatures in North America. We must hope that above all other perennial issues, the human race starts looking up to the symptoms of the climate metamorphosis otherwise in reality the film 2012 could just be round the corner!
Happy new year and wishing a splendid 2016 to all!
While the Eurasian Economic Union was formed in Europe, Nepal got its constitution in place for the first time in its history. Eastern Europe continued to remain in turmoil with Russia and Ukraine reaching a ceasefire agreement but the region never went without action till late October this year.
The IS formed a strategic alliance with Boko Haram, thus consolidating their terror agenda further. Paris witnessed similar attacks like those that occurred in Mumbai. The US saw a first terror backed agenda in California post 9-11. The cat and mouse game just got bigger. Sadly, we may witness many more such gory terror attacks around the globe. The UN adopted the Resolution 2199 to combat global terrorism and we have to wait and watch what transpires in 2016!
The global markets continued to show a slow pace in growth with China taking a beating on its books. This affected several countries in Asia particularly and including India, Japan and Thailand.
German-wings a Lufthansa subsidiary, witnessed a crash earlier this year. Malaysian Airlines took another hit when Ukrainian forces downed a commercial jet over eastern Europe. Bomb scares on a France Airlines also made headlines. Russia airlines Metrojet lost 217 passengers this year.
Nepal saw the worst earthquake in its existence on 21 April this year. The death toll has been kept confidential by the government but people estimate it at over 10,000. After the first jolt of 7.3, there have been more than 400 aftershocks since then. Chile witnessed another earthquake while quakes were also reported from Afghanistan, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. 2015 saw a little less than 14,000 earthquakes happening globally!
Friendships were made in 2015. Cuba and US shook hands after 54 years of hostility. Iran opened its nuclear facilities to the UN for the first time to prevent sanctions on it. The Chinese Premier met his Taiwanese counterpart for the first time in 2015. Earth made friends with Pluto with NASA's New Horizons spacecraft doing a close flyby of Pluto, becoming the first spacecraft in earth's history to visit this far. That is an achievement for long distance friendships!
MH 370 continued to remain a mystery ever since it disappeared from radars in March 2014! Volkswagen the auto giant was caught on the wrong foot with fudged diesel emission tests, NASA announced that Mars had water on it, Scientists discovered an earlier unknown human species Homo Naledi in Africa. In December, a global climate change pact was agreed at the COP21 summit, committing all countries to reduce carbon emissions for the first time.
2015 showed that climate change has begun its affect on the world with bizarre rainfall patterns, earthquakes, increased winter temperatures in North America. We must hope that above all other perennial issues, the human race starts looking up to the symptoms of the climate metamorphosis otherwise in reality the film 2012 could just be round the corner!
Happy new year and wishing a splendid 2016 to all!
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