Let's Remember - January 2021

Let's Remember: January 2021

  January. The most chaotic way to start a hopeful year (crossing my hands). 2021 has started off with a bang! From Inauguration to Storming the Capitol, from COVID-19 vaccines to State of Emergencies. Let's Remember: January 2021.

New Year's...Again...(January 1)

    Welcome back. Same things till we have to this every year. New Year's is very different to many people. Some people thinks its just a thing we have to do each year, some people go all crazy about it. But this year, it was completely pointless to hype up about it. Now let's talk about the ring around the roses, New Year's Resolutions. 

    I don't know about you reader, but I hate New Year's Resolutions. Even though I have been 'semi-forced' to do it, I think Resolutions get little if not nothing done at all. It is just a small piece of paper that is probably thrown at the end of the year. Instead, I usually do a New Year's Theme. Now I do not want to brag and type out a 300-word document all about Themes, so I want to link a video to fellow educational-youtuber CGP Grey, who made a great video about setting New Year's Themes.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watchapp=desktop&feature=youtu.be&v=NVGuFdX5gE

    Hands up if you did stay up to countdown 2021. Well I did, for once. I usually stay up for these type of countdown things. I don't know about other countries and their countdown but in Singapore (my home country), we decided to scrap off the fireworks in the Marina Bay area (basically the central district of Singapore). Instead, we brought the fireworks to the heartlands. 

    Next up, let's talk about Time Zones. For the first time in my life, I realise how defunct and weird time zones are. For example, Australia is 3 hours ahead of Singapore. To summarise, Australia is the frontline for New Year Celebrations. Now when I went to bed at midnight in Singapore, and woke up at 8 in the morning, I realise that New York City is still 5 hours away from the countdown. My suggestion for this is to get rid of 'Time Zones' on  December 31 and January 1. So that we can all leap across into a new year TOGETHER. Anyway, that's my notes for New Year's Day.

Washington, District of Chaos (January 6)

     Touchy subject alert. At 12 noon, a group of 'mobsters?' entered the capitol building while congress was certifying the 2020 election results. Since time zones are the a thing, it was 4 in the morning when the storming happened so I was asleep. I only knew about such a subject at 3 in the afternoon since I was in school. Anyway, we are going off track. Let's go to the election.

    On November 7, 2020, Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election with a record number of votes. Biden became the candidate with the most amount of votes ever casted to a presidential candidate, 81 million votes by the way. Trump did not concede, instead filing lawsuits which were mostly ignored. Some recounts happened, but Biden won by 7 Million votes! The more than the population of Bhutan, Cyprus, Qatar, Maldives, Luxembourg and Comoros combined! But by December, some world leaders, actually most world leaders had already acknowledged what Trump would not. Biden won, Trump lost. So now you got context, let's go to the not context.

    To explain are summarise, Trump personally ordered a group of 'mobsters?' to storm the capitol building. More hoo-haa occurs. The 'mob?' enters the building holding it for a brief moment before the police reconquered the building. Before the storming, some republicans who were in a way 'loyal' to Trump, wanted to try to overturn the election. Thankfully, after the storming, those who tried to overturn the election turned their backs on that ludacris idea. After a long day, The riots left 5 people dead and Twitter, a 'political tool' used by Trump to connect to his 80 million followers+, decided to ban him. (Screaming echoes) To connect, Trump used another account and released a video after much pressure by many including very prominently, Joe Biden. His video requested his 'fans?' to go home. So that was exactly what they did. And that was basically it. The storming became part of another impeachment  of Donald Trump but shhh.... that's for later.

A Rich-Man's Business (January 6)

    Teslas are selling fast man! I linked this to the small news of none other than Elon Musk who surpasses Jeff Bezos as the richest or the wealthiest person in the world. At $186 billion, who knew a founder of a company who owns a company of a few car samples and a private rocket business could surpass a huge mega-billion dollar enterprise with its own cargo airline and its business having placed its mark on every parts of the world with a 'buy' button clicked every second. To be fair though, I did not know Elon Musk was skyrocketing in business.

    Let's begin with my thoughts about wealthy people. Bill Gates is still my favourite 'wealthy' person because he does a huge amount of work into virus research and charity work. Warren Buffet would be the same although I am clueless about his background and his company. Jeff Bezos was cool, I like him and his humble background but I usually think of him as like an 'Evil Mastermind' among the population. I do not use Amazon though I am very very very wary of its impact and its size. In 2020, Bezos donated a huge amount of money to Climate Change so I guess that was cool.

    I knew about Musk's takeover of 'wealthiest person' around 3 weeks after he became 'wealthiest person'. I know little if not not much about him. I know three facts about him and that's it.

1. He was born in South Africa.
2. He has triplets whose names I cannot remember.
3. He owns Tesla and SpaceX

    I don't know if he had a humble background or what though, I think I like him. He's cool. But his rise to 'wealthiest person' was way faster than I would have thought. But Elon Musk is 49 years old! That is "young" for 'wealthiest person' title. That is all I am surprised with it I guess?

Impeachment 2.0 (January 14) - Original Article on Farren's Opinion Corner

    Is it just me or is Impeachment now a hobby by congress? Well, in the last 50 years impeachment has occurred 3 times along with an almost impeachment. But the 2021 impeachment was the first time a president was impeached twice! As you read about in the 'Washington, District of Chaos", Trump personally ordered a 'mob?' to storm the United States Capitol. Afterwards, a bunch of democrats and republicans pressured him to resign. If not, Trump would either be impeached or to be removed from office via the 25th Amendment or the 14th Amendment. Trump persisted on for another 14 days in the White House. So a bunch of democrats decided write just one article of impeachment. Article I, 'Incitement of Insurrection'. The article was voted on in the house. All democrats and another 10 republicans sided to vote 'yea' for the article. Just like that, he was Impeached!

    As of writing the first article on Farren's Opinion Corner, a senate trial date was yet to be announced. But here's the news people. Extra! Extra! Read All About It! Trump's senate trial will be held on February 8. So stay tuned people 'Donald Trump Second Impeachment (Part 2)' will be a thing soon.

So Help Me God. (January 20)

    Everyone has been talking about it and still talking about it. Joseph R. Biden Jr. along with his running mate Kamala Harris was sworn in on January 20th. Before we begin, after the storming of the United States Capitol, Trump announced he will work to an orderly transition for Biden but said he will not attend his Inauguration. Vice-President Mike Pence said he will attend the inauguration though. So anyway, to the inauguration ceremony we go.

    Because of timezone insanity, I stayed up to watch the inauguration but was slightly forced to sleep. I only watched the part where Joe Biden entered the capitol building. But instead of writing this on my thoughts. I am going to straight up copy my notes from January 21 after watching the inauguration.

Lady Gaga sings the Star-Spangled Banner

    I have tried to sing The Star-Spangled Banner before, tremendously failing. There are way too many high notes. Although, Lady Gaga who have sang the anthem before in other places, did it very smoothly. I don't know how she pulled it off though. But it was executed greatly. Go watch Lady Gaga at the Inaguration.

Kamala Harris sworn in as Vice-President

    Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first female vice-president and all the other 'first time things' tagged to her. When Biden was announced as nominee and Harris was chosen as running mate, I was a little surprised. Harris, who was running for president under a weird slogan of 'Kamala Harris for the people'. I think she is 'overrated', although it is a remarkable achievement as the first female VP.

Joe Biden sworn in as Commander-In-Chief

    Biden becomes 46th President. Great! To be honest, I lean towards Biden. He is cool and everything but I like him because he is feels like the 'Average Joe' (How coincidental, Joe Biden is the average Joe!). He came from a 'humble' background, lost a wife and daughter and then a son a few years back, ran for president twice before 2020 and lost. Became Vice-President under Obama, loves Ice Cream (I like Ice Cream). So watching him sworn in is quite humbling against Trump, a billionaire. 

The Hill We Climb & The Mittens We Wear

    Time for the big things and hits from the Inauguration. First up, Amanda Gorman's ' The Hill We Climb' poem thing. I originally thought she was overrated but I think now, she has been giving so many compliments about reading the poem that I have to back down. I think she's great though, her book is selling fast! She is cool and 'The Hill We Climb' is a book I want to read now.

    Finally, the meme of the inauguration. Bernie Sanders' mittens he wore to the inauguration and that really cold air he was in. First of, allow me to explain, Bernie Sanders used to be my favourite candidate in the primaries. Until Biden crushed him and other candidates during Super Tuesday. Sanders dropped out in April and so I went all in with Biden afterwards. That meme has been everywhere since inauguration. And now, Bernie is chair of senate budget. "Oopsie-Doopsie! We lost Georgia and the senate!"

COVID. COV-Boom! (January 25) - COVID-19 article on Farren's Opinion Corner

    I was watching a video on YouTube when a swarm of notifications from various news sources plowed into my phone. 'COVID-19 cases cross 100 Million worldwide.' Can you believe we are here! In 9 months, we went from 1 Million to 100 Million! The world is going insane! For comparison, that's just slightly lower than the population of the 14th most populated country, Egypt with 102 million people. COVID-19 cases with 100 million people and growing way faster than the world population. Now, 1 in 78 people have COVID-19 with cases growing +1 Million every day. As I mentioned on my original article about COVID-19. 'The Novel Coronavirus: One Year On', there is light at the end of the tunnel. The Coronavirus has a vaccine with thousands being inoculated a day. So we are progessing! COVID-19 will last but not for that much longer. Quick section, let's move on!

Leaders Leading Vaccines (January 29)

    On January 9th, My homeland's Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, took the COVID-19 vaccine in hopes to encourage the public to get inoculated while getting himself safe. (As of writing this article, Lee Hsien Loong has received his second jab). Afterwards, I noticed a trend. Big world leaders led the first fight to getting people to get a jab. 

    In my honest opinion, I do not know what the public is thinking about getting the vaccine. In Singapore, getting a vaccine is voluntary for all above a certain age. (I am not eligible for the vaccine). So how about that vaccine, well if I was asked to take the vaccine, I wouldn't. 

    Let's be honest, no one wants to be the guinea pig of the vaccine. I am grateful for all the healthcare workers or 'Frontliners' getting the vaccine for self-protection. Although, since Singapore's vaccination exercise in voluntary. Please do not get me wrong by the way, I want and encourage all to get the vaccine and I think world leaders leading this fight to encourage is great. So please in my own words. "Get the vaccine...It could save your life...".

Happy Reading

Trump Impeachment Article: https://farrenopinioncorner.blogspot.com/2021/01/donald-trumps-second-impeachment.html

COVID-19 Article: https://farrenopinioncorner.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-novel-coronavirus-one-year-on.html

Small Note: Hello Mr Lim!