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Some years stand out because they change the course of history and some because they change us. 2011 has been a year which has invariably accomplished both. It’s changed the way we think about our society, about politics, about the possibilities for social change.
Without meandering into hyperbole, it’s safe to say that it’s been an extraordinary year, full of tragedy and tumult that could rank it with 1968 and 1945 as an era-defining 12 months.
It began with the revolution in Tunisia, which sparked a struggle and resistance that has swept through the world like wildfire.
The phenomenon came to be known as the Arab Spring, had millions of Egyptians, Syrians, Bahrainis and Libyans rise up against Western-backed dictators and agendas that have condemned people to poverty and repression for decades.
The revolutions in the Middle East in turn inspired workers the world over, spreading to the occupations of hundreds of public squares in Spain, and fanning the winds of workers’ struggle in Greece and eventually to the streets of New York as a global wave of resistance threaded its way to the US in the form of the Occupy movement, rallying against the inequalities endemic to the system.
The Occupy movement has shaken US politics and changed the conversation in the country. It has shone a spotlight on the concerns of millions of working-class Americans and acted as a lightning rod for the discontent with unemployment, home evictions and the growing gap between rich and poor which is every bit as much the experience in the wealthiest country in the world as it is in the poorer nations.
In Japan, a nation was wrecked by a disastrous Tsunami and the resulting nuclear crisis that has called to question the feasibility of nuclear power on a planet in which natural disasters seem to be increasing and getting more catastrophic with every year.
For Pakistan, the year started on a violent note with the brutal murder of Salman Taseer, a lone voice of reason and sanity, which struck a blow to the progressive voices in the country. That same month CIA contractor Raymond Davis gunned down two Pakistan civilians who, he said, were trying to rob him on a crowded Lahore street.
The incident created a diplomatic row that was resolved in March when the US agreed to pay "blood money" to the victims' families in exchange for Davis's release. Pakistan requested that the CIA reduce the number of agents deployed to Pakistan and halt drone strikes targeting militants in the northwest region of the country.
Little did we know that a bigger bombshell was to explode only a few months down the road as an undercover raid by American special forces snuck into Pakistani airspace and killed Osama bin Laden, found living in the garrison town of Abottabad — a hop, skip and a jump away from one of Pakistan’s premier military academies.
It sent the already tenuous ties between the US and Pakistan into downward spiral. A symbiotic relationship based on mistrust and suspicion, grew even more unstable and steadily deteriorated throughout the year, calling into question Pakistan’s allegiances and culminating in an “accidental” Nato airstike that killed 26 Pakistani soldiers that has brought things to the brink.
In the shadow of this upheaval, of the notorious scandal known as Memogate, is Imran Khan’s meteoric rise from fringe candidate to supposed saviour in recent months has given hope to many, while at the same time fuelling the fires of resident cynics jaded by decades of dashed hopes and disenchantment.
From a broader perspective, years from now we’ll look back at the first decade of the 21st century — when food prices spiked, energy prices soared, world population surged, tornados ploughed through cities, floods and droughts set records, populations were displaced and governments were threatened by the confluence of it all — and ask ourselves: What were we thinking?
The year has certainly triggered a transformation and set in motion paradigm shifts around the world, the outcomes of which are still uncertain.
We live in interesting times goes the cliché. Interesting indeed.
Here’s to 2012, and hoping the Mayans were wrong.
The writer is a reporter at Dawn.com
