Ruminations of the Past Decade

A year and a decade ended yesterday.

As we begin a new year and a fresh decade, let's take a quick look at what we did and what we lost.

Some epoch-defining changes occurred:

The Blahs and Nays:          

• Social media platforms took over our lives, gave us virtual persona and made us do things that couldn't have been imagined earlier (think eating/brushing/birthing/kissing selfies being posted). 

• We made many many friends on social media, and not even a fifth in real life.
• Connecting with family and extended family translated to texts on WhatsApp or Facebook. Phone calls became rare, visits rarer.
• Likes, comments and virtual pats became our lifeline.
• Mobiles with front, back, triple, quadruple, 360 degree cameras started replacing actual camera equipment, though the DSLR still has its followers.

• Mother nature and our home earth have been pushed to the extreme with our overuse of natural resources and large scale urbanization and deforestation. We stand to lose things we took for granted in the last decades, like pure air, clean water, greenery and fossil fuels. Unprecedented natural disasters like floods, forest fires, droughts, earthquakes, landslides, typhoons, cyclones, tsunamis happened, demonstrating the ire of Mother Nature.

• The term couch potato took over a new meaning altogether, with remotes, mobiles, keyboards pinning us to the sofa or desk. With air and water pollution reaching alarming levels, and our own physical exercise being restricted to occasional gym visits or treadmill runs, lifestyle disorders like blood sugar, blood pressure, heart and lung problems, respiratory disorders, brain strokes, mental diseases became our life partners.

• Terrorism continued to terrorize us and hold precious humanity at ransom. Political opportunism, selfish hedonism, gap between have and have-nots spiralled and reached new lows of humaneness.

Sorry to paint a bleak picture till now. 

Let's look at the Yays:           

• Women and child rights were given the importance they deserved. Countries and organizations took gender pay gaps, workplace and sexual discrimination very seriously and acted against these. 

• Celebrities endorsed real causes like environmental protection, religious and ethnic tolerance, pay parity, ecological balance, minimalism in consumption, and conditions of the migrants and displaced communities. Today we have most celebrities shattering their glass walls of privilege, and speaking up against injustice and misrule.

• Gender equality, and gay and transgender rights became a reality. A lot many mental barriers against LGBTQs began to melt away, We realize that we have a long way to go....that itself is a beginning. Marginalised communities now have a distinct voice and support.

• Child and teenage activism increased. The teens and tweens showed world politicians the mirror and voiced out against ecological devastation, rights of displaced people, and over exploitation of the earth's resources. The need to deal with climate change on an emergency level was also driven home effectively.

• Terrorism was dealt with an iron hand, with world leaders uniting against it. Though we have a long way to go before we can make our world a safe place, at least we have made a start.

So these were the major milestones of the decade, as far as I can remember. If you can point out more, please feel free to comment.