2014 has been, well kinda shitty, honestly. Like pretty nice for the most part, but every time you start to really think about it it's been kinda shitty. But maybe I'm just feeling pessimistic. That's weird. But anyway.
I thought I'd make a list of some of the things, in memory of the passed year. So here is..
14 BIGGEST THINGS/NEWS/DISCOVERIES/WHATEVER OF 2014!
- Malala Yousafzai
This year's Nobel peace prize winner is Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl and an activist for female education. In October 2012 she was shot in the face by a Taliban, but survived and has since then been speaking publicly about the importance of feminism and education, especially for girls.
(Nobel acceptance speech, speech at UN last year) - Ferguson
I made a whole post about this issue back in August. The frankly brutal murder of unarmed teen Micheal Brown on August 9th sparked up a nationwide discussion in the USA. Almost the whole city of Ferguson started to protest against Brown's killer, a police officer by the name of Darren Wilson, who, believe it or not, was not charged with murder like he should've been. And the sad part is that after that there wasn't a single week where a black person wasn't killed by a police officer: Eric Garner, Tamir Rice (who was twelve!!!!), Antonio Martin, and Andy Lopez, to name a few, and I'm pretty sure no one has been charged. This is ridiculous.
(wikipedia pages for Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Andy Lopez, the video of Eric Garners murder, eyewitness accounts of Michael Browns murder, grand jury transcript of case against Wilson, documents released in said case) - Ukraine
I'm not actually sure what is going on with Ukraine. There's been all kinds on protests and conflicts and general unrest. It's something to do with Russia, I think. But it's been on the news a lot.
(wikipedia article, a BBC article with maps and shit) - Rosetta mission
The ESA landed, for the first time ever, a probe on a comet. It was amazing.
(the official ESA site, a BBC article on the Philea probe) - Ebola
Ebloa has been big news everywhere recently. The disease had an outbreak in West Africa and while it is a survivable disease, the bad healthcare facilities in the poorer regions of West Africa has really amped up the mortality rate. There has been a few cases outside Africa as well, but personally I find it unlikely it will spread into such an epidemic the US news stations seem to want people to believe.
(World Health Organization site on Ebola) - Same-sex marriage
Some local news for a change. The Finnish parliament voted on the bill for the legalization of same-sex marriage. While it has not yet passed into law, the only vote left is whether or not is will pass into law, and at this point it's highly unlikely for the bill to not pass. So that's great!
(an article on how the MPs voted, some interviews, and charts) - Global warming
The IPCC told everyone that the global warming is a real thing. For real.
(the IPCC website, the Fifth Assessment Report) - CIA
The CIA was in a bit of a pinch when leaks revealed they use brutal torture methods to interrogate people and the government lies about it.
(news article about the thing) - Cuba
The United States and Cuba have finally started to try and patch up their relationship, after more than 50 years. They will try to re-establish diplomatic relations, make it easier to travel and expand import and export, among other things.
(the official White House site on it) - Malaysian Airlines
Malaysian airlines has had a bad year, with one plane missing and one crashed. Malaysian Airlines flight 370 set off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8th heading to Beijing, but its signal was lost somewhere over the South China Sea. The aircraft had 239 people on board and it hasn't been found yet. Another Malaysian Airlines flight left Amsterdam on July 17th for Kuala Lumpur, but it crashed in Ukraine, allegedly shot.
(news on flight 370, a BBC article on flight MH17) - ISIS
ISIS is a group of Islamic extremists fighting for... I don't even know. To get back the land they think should be theirs? I don't even. They are not nice people.
(NBC news) - The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
The ice bucket challenge is a phenomenon that swept the internet in July and August. It was a publicity stunt to raise awareness for the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and raise money for charities that fight/study said disease. Essentially, once tagged you take a bucket of water with ice in it and dump it on your head. Then you nominate a bunch of other people to do the same and donate some money to the charity. Some people criticize the ice bucket challenge for focusing on the fun and not the charity part, but it has raised the awareness and donations grandly.
(wikipedia article, a BBC article about it) - Scotland
Scotland voted this year on a big thing; whether or not they wanted to be independent from the UK. The vote took place on 19th of September and with over 3.6 million votes the answer was no, 55% against and 45% for independence.
(a BBC news article) - Emma Watson
What better way to end this list than the same way I started it; a badass woman giving an inspiring speech. Emma Watson took the podium at the UN this September with a brilliant speech on gender equality and feminism. And it was... It was just... Just go watch it.
(the speech, a UN Women article, the HeForShe site)
That's it then! The 14 most important things in 2014. In my opinion anyway. There's been good and there's been bad but I'm just glad we keep moving forward.
Well, I guess 2014 is over. It's been decent. Happy 2015!
Pie out.
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