HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED
Time Magazine does this thing every year; it publishes brief synopses of what they've chosen as the ten most significant events that year, labeled as very short headlines. Here is 2010, e.g.
(1) Deepwater Horizon
(2) Rise of the Tea Party
(3) Healthcare Quagmire
(4) Economic Quagmire
(5) Islamaphobia/Ground Zero Mosque
(6) McChrystal and Afghanistan
(7) Arizona Immigration Law
(8) US/China Tension (Korea & naval maneuvers)
(9) The iPad
(10) Citizens United prevails in court
So, in a minute, I'll type in the rest of these, from 2011 to 2016. Here is the game, though. You make your own list of what you think the top ten will be for 2017, BUT you also have to give a short explanation of how you extrapolated from 2010-2016 into 2017. Put on your best Interpreter of History hat, and explain in 300-500 words what you think the trendlines are that give these events some coherence. A list of ten, then some verbiage. It will look a lot like the red writing here.
Here are the rest from Time:
2011
(1) Arab Spring Blooms
(2) Bin Laden Killed
(3) Tsunami and Fukishima
(4) Europe's Financial Crisis
(5) Destrruction of Gaddafi and Libya
(6) Arab Spring's Weeds
(7) Famine in the Horn of Africa
(8) Occupy Wall Street
(9) Republican Presidential Race
(10) The Economy (bump in Wall Street and growth)
2012
(1) India's Corruption Woes
(2) Afghanistan Quagmire
(3) Asia Troubled Waters (conflict over South China Sea)
(4) Latin America Seeks Drug Law Reform
(5) N Korea and China Both Get New Leadership
(6) Coup and Potential Civil War in Mali
(7) American Oil Boom
(8) Military Suicide
(9) Obama Supports Gay Marriage
(10) Fall of Petraeus
2013
(1) Supertyphoon Haiyan
(2) India's Rape Epidemic
(3) Chinese Naval Tensions (again/still)
(4) Rana Plaza Collapses in Bangaldesh
(5) Francis, The Progressive Pope
(6) Snowden Shakes the World
(7) The End of Egypt's Revolution
(8) Syrian Civil War
(9) Moore, Oklahoma Tornado
(10) The IRS Overreaches
2014 (Switching now to The Atlantic, because Time's went behind a paywall)
(1) Flight 370 Disappears
(2) Scotland Votes to Stay (Barely)
(3) Eurozone Falters
(4) Modi Wins in India
(5) Ebola Epidemic
(6) Fight for Crimea
(7) Israel Crushes Gaza
(8) New Group: ISIS
(9) Ferguson
(10) Republicans Win Senate
2015
(1) The Greek Debt Crisis
(2) IRS Hacked
(3) Eurozone - Death by a Thousand Bailouts
(4) Marriage Equality
(5) Black Lives Matter
(6) Earthquake in Nepal
(7) Hillary Squares Up for Electon
(8) Syrian Refugee Crsis
(9) China's Stock Market Crashes
(10) Cuba-US Relations Restored
2016
(1) Colombian Peace Deal
(2) Brazilian "Impeachment"
(3) Failed Coup in Turkey
(4) Aleppo Falls
(5) Duerte Ascends in the Philippines
(6) TPP Flops
(7) North Korea Conducts Missile Tests
(8) Britain BREXITs
(9) Donald Trump Defeats Hillary Clinton
(10) Clinton Encounters Sanders
2017
Your turn.
Hadn't heard of this game before. Here's my ten:
ReplyDeleteTrump fires FBI director
Tensions rise on Korean Peninsula
Hurricanes Irma and Maria
Raqqa falls
Las Vegas shooting kills 58
Catalonia independence
Mogadishu massacre kills 300
Alt-right march in Charlottesville, VA
Ethnic cleansing in Burma of Rohingya minority
Violent protests in Venezuela
There is still time for the Justice department's special prosector to complete the Russia investigation.
DeleteIn no particular order:
ReplyDelete1. Russian Hacking
2. Shooting in Vegas
3. U.S. - Korea friction
4. Hurricanes
5. ISIS pushed out of Iraq
6. Burma - Buddhists killing Muslims
7. Bergdahl pleads guilty
8. France elects Macron
I can only think of 8. My list is basically a summary of the large scale events that the news/media has talked about this past year (I don't explicitly watch the news or pay attention to world events so my knowledge in this area is limited). Recurring topics in the 2010-2016 lists are war, politics, economics, religion, and disease. These lists also seem to be major events from the perspective of the U.S. (or U.S. media/government) and nothing about the environment, pollution, or waste was mentioned. I think my list is consistent with the trends in the 2010-2016 lists; however, I had no need to consider what events Time or the Atlantic would choose since I couldn't think of any more than 8 events to begin with.
Overall, I think the 2010-2017 lists are reasonable accounts of major events that happened in the world (with emphasis on America). Then again my view of major events is probably biased by what the media chooses to present and thus what many people talk about.
heh, still six weeks to go. A lot can happen.
ReplyDeleteMy list:
1. Historic massive wildfires in Siberian taiga
2. Permafrost turns to dried peat in Greenland, catches fire and burns for weeks
3. Offshore wind farm energy achieves cost parity with gas, oil, nuclear in Europe
4. Incompetent Trump presidency exposes vulnerabilities of American political mythos, national self-image, ballot system
5. USA's Democratic Party 2016 Presidential nomination campaign confirmed to be rigged by its internal establishment
6. US news media and entertainment industries rocked by multiple sexual harassment scandals
7. North Korea advances atomic weapons, missile program
8. Saudi palace intrigue consolidates power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
9. Quantum computers achieve working prototype status
10. CRISPR gene editing precision improves
It's a liminal, transition year. A great many beginnings, with outcomes and results yet to be ascertained. Not much concluded or resolved.