2017 IS OVER, BUT THE WORLD IS STILL FUCKED
NEWSFLASH! Time is a human invention and the shit that went down in 2017 isn’t just wiped clean once the clock ticks past midnight. 2017 was a year in which a sexist, white supremacist, islamophobic, homophobic, transphobic, compulsive liar and ugly orange Cheeto became official leader of the free world. It’s a dark time.
Sure, there was some good stuff – the day after said asshole was inaugurated up to two million people worldwide in 161 cities in all seven continents protested in the Women’s Marches. Moonlight, an LGBT+ film with an all-black cast won the Oscar for best picture. There is now a international movement called “Time’s Up” to combat sexual harassment in the wake of Wanker Weinstein and the #metoo campaign. Women in Saudi Arabia now have the right to drive.
We can’t just ignore the bad shit though, that doesn’t make it go away.
There’s the ongoing war in Yemen that’s on its third year, the Egyptian mosque attack that killed 305 people, the Manchester bombing, the earthquake in Mexico, the Rohingya refugee crisis.
Protests in Venezuela against their own government resulted in thousands of arrests and 66 deaths.
Hurricanes Irma, Maria and Harvey served as solid reminders of the very real threat of climate change, Irma being the strongest ever recorded from the Atlantic and Puerto Rico is still largely without power after Maria. This occurring within the same year as the United States withdrawing from, and being the only country to not take part in the Paris Climate Accords.
The Las Vegas shooting, where 58 people where killed, provoked discussions about gun control once again in a country rife with mass shootings, and Nazis openly marched in Virginia.
However, we have evidence that despots can be gotten rid of, Robert Mugabe’s 37 year rule of Zimbabwe came to an end, he left the country with debts, a worthless currency and an 80%+ unemployment rate - but he’s out of power.
Let’s not just HOPE that 2018 is less shit, let’s actually get involved and do something about it.
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Illustration by Ronan Porter