2020 in review, part 1: Remembering a year we want to forget

2020 is nearly over. And man, it sucked. It was so relentlessly awful you’ve probably forgotten some of the crazy stuff that happened – but it wasn’t all grim.

Most of us are so frazzled and exhausted that we can't remember what happened last week, let alone at the start of the year. Here’s a reminder.

It’s not all grimness and despair, honest!

JANUARY

ON FIRE – It was a terrible January. Possibly the worst on record. Kangaroo Island became a fire zone. Two were killed as the fires swept over the island with a strength, speed and ferocity rarely seen, even in South Australia. The damage was shocking and tragic. More than 200,000 hectares of land were burnt, 89 houses destroyed and stock losses were almost 50,000. The iconic Southern Lodge tourism destination was ruined. While KI burnt, equally ferocious fires were scarring Victoria and New South Wales. The Navy was called in to save stranded tourists and residents at Mallacoota on Victoria’s coast.

PERFECT CALL – Say what you like about Donald Trump, and just about everyone has, but you can’t call him dull. You can’t call him smart or caring or truthful either, but that’s not the point here. Trump started what he hoped would be the year of his re-election by facing an impeachment trial in the Senate. Trump had been impeached by the House of Representatives after he asked the Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up dirt on the Biden family to help his re-election campaign, but the Senate would vote along party lines and cleared the President of the charge.

GOING VIRAL – It started in a place most had never heard of, Wuhan in China, but soon became the dominant talking point and defining feature of 2020. It brought along strange words as well that would soon become as natural as breathing. COVID-19 and coronavirus. The danger seemed far away at first, but as it escaped from China, the panic started. It hit Italy with a force that few expected then ripped through Europe, Asia and the United States. Vision of overwhelmed hospitals and stories of cruise liners that had become plague ships were everywhere. By the end of the month the World Health Organisation had declared a global emergency.

FEBRUARY

LION DOWN – General-Motors had landed plenty of punches on Holden fans recently. The end of manufacturing at Elizabeth, dispensing with the Commodore and now, finally, disgracefully, killing the Holden brand after 160 years. The news threw local car yards into chaos. There were 185 Holden dealerships across Australia. It was the end of a long road of mismanagement of Holden by its US masters. One of whom, former GM chief executive Rick Wagoner, made an appearance in Barack Obama’s recent autobiography when he was seeking a bailout. GM’s submission, Obama said showed carmakers were “living in a fantasy world of unrealistic sales projections and vague strategies for getting costs under control’’. Obama made Wagoner quit as a condition for supporting GM.

NUMBERS – A month for some weird numbers. Possibly the most unusual was 02022020. The significance? It was the first time in 909 years the date read the same forward as well as backwards. So, 02/02/2020. And it holds up even if you include the strange way the Americans order their dates. Like 9/11 is September 11, rather than November 9. The last time we had a palindromic date was 11/11/1111. The next one is 12/12/2121. Other big numbers included the 18.2C recorded in Antarctica, making it the warmest day ever on the ice continent. Worrying for other reasons was the Dow Jones dropping 1190.95. Its largest single-day points fall in history, at that point.

MONSTERS INC – For decades, it was Hollywood’s dirty secret. The glamorous name for it was the “casting couch’’. The reality was rape, sexual assault and young women being coerced into sex by powerful men who could make or break their careers. One of the industry’s most powerful men was studio boss Harvey Weinstein, who was found guilty of rape and sexual assault against six women. He would be sentenced to 23 years. Later in the year, Prince Andrew’s friend Ghislaine Maxwell, the ex-girlfriend of society paedophile Jeffrey Epstein who hung himself in jail, was arrested on sex trafficking charges.

MARCH

LOCKDOWN I – The full severity and ramifications of COVID-19 hit South Australia late in the month. As case number rose and panic grew, Premier Steven Marshall had tried to talk down the possibility of a lockdown but eventually had to bow to the obvious, as did the rest of the nation. State borders were closed, pubs shut, as did cafes, restaurants, gyms, theatres, cinemas. Office workers were told to work from home if they could. The streets emptied and the CBD became a ghost town. Toilet paper vanished from the shelves. The atmosphere not helped by mistakes such as letting the Ruby Princess dock in Sydney and allowing passengers to leave unchecked. At least 900 people and 28 deaths were linked to the ship.

LOCKDOWN II – By now, COVID-19 was officially designated as a pandemic. Nowhere seem prepared for the enormity of what was to come. The speed at which the coronavirus spread was overwhelming. Italy imposed a nationwide lockdown in early March, telling 60 million citizens to stay at home. On March 1, the US identified its first case of COVID-19. By the end of the month, US infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci was predicting between 100,000 and 200,000 Americans would die from COVID-19. He sadly underestimated the destruction to come. Moscow would go into lockdown, India put a billion people in there as well, British prime minister Boris Johnson contracted the disease, Spain became another epicentre,

FINAL WHISTLE – It was touch-and-go whether it would be held, or if it was whether spectators would be allowed, but in the end the Australia versus India women’s T20 World Cup final attracted 86,174 fans to the MCG. It was the biggest crowd to ever watch women’s sport in Australia and the biggest to watch a women’s cricket match anywhere. Australia would win given local sport fans a last gap of joy before it was all shut down. The AFL pulled the pin on its season after round one, the A-League and NRL went into hibernation. Globally, the Tokyo Olympics were cancelled and the EURO20 soccer championships were also stopped.

APRIL

HITS HOME – South Australia recorded its first COVID death. Sadly, 75-year-old Francesco Ferraro died in the Royal Adelaide Hospital after contracting the virus interstate. A father of three and grandfather to eight, Mr Ferraro’s family urged South Australians to abide by health directions. Three more South Australians would die in April. Everyone, by now was becoming very familiar with chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier. The previously low-profile public servant was at the centre of the state’s response to the pandemic, along with Premier Steven Marshall and Police Commissioner Grant Stevens. But Spurrier quickly became the favourite for all those tuning into the daily updates.

CAPTAIN’S KNOCK – Amid all the coronavirus misery there was still room for the occasional feel-good, inspirational story. One such tale came out of the United Kingdom, which was suffering heavily. Captain Tom Moore became a national hero after the 99-year-old war veteran raised more than $50 million for the National Health Service walking laps of his garden. Moore raised the money before his 100th birthday on April 30, then made a number one record with a version of “You’ll Never Walk Alone’’ and was then knighted by the Queen and promoted to the rank of Colonel.

TRAGEDY – A horror crash at the intersection of Cross Rd and Fullarton Rd shocked the state. Two women were killed in the three-car crash after a Volkswagen ute became airborne and then hit a street light. One of those killed was a long-servicing police officer, Chief Superintendent Joanne Shanahan. Police Commissioner Grant Stevens described her as a “highly respected member of the organisation’’. The other victim was 53-year-old Tania McNeill, whose family described her as a “kind and loving wife, mother, daughter and sister, who would do anything for anyone’’. Harrison Kitt has pleaded not guilty to two charges of causing death by dangerous driving.

MAY

BLACK LIVES MATTER – The killing of George Floyd by policeman Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, Minnesota, set off a chain reaction that sparked protests all over the world. Floyd was African-American and the vision of the white Chauvin with his knee of the neck of his victim for almost nine minutes while he slowly died was truly sickening. Protests against police brutality and racism sprung up all over America. Most were peaceful but violence erupted during some protests. Black Lives Matter became the most powerful symbol of political protest for 2020. Protests were also held in Adelaide, with attention drawn to the number of Indigenous prisoners who die in custody.

LEFT ALONE – The death of Ann Marie Smith was sad and desperate. The cerebral palsy sufferer died in Royal Adelaide Hospital from profound septic shock, multiple organ failure and malnutrition after being taken from her Kensington Park home where police said she lived in “disgusting and degrading circumstances’’. The 54-year-old had been living alone since 2009, but had a visiting carer. Police said she had not moved from a cane chair in a year. Her carer Rosemary Maione has been charged with manslaughter and an investigation is continuing into the draining of a large sum of money from Annie’s accounts.

RED ALERT – It was probably too much to hope for. It was always more marketing spin than reality. When Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, the slogan was “one country, two systems’’. The promise being that the resolutely free and open Hong Kong would retain control of its legal, economic and administrative systems. And continue to run a free press. But slowly, slowly over the years China has strangled the freedom out of Hong Kong. The locals have resisted and in May took to the streets in force to protest the latest China interference in its independence. The flashpoint was a “security” law aimed at curbing dissent.

JUNE

STOP RIGHT NOW – It would turn out to be bad second half of the year for the now former Transport Minister Stephan Knoll. The man who had been widely tipped to be premier one day launched what he believed to be a vast and necessary reform of Adelaide’s public transport system. It was launched with much fanfare, with Knoll saying the idea was to have more people using public transport. Two weeks later his boss Steven Marshall killed the idea. Whatever the merits of the concept, and possibly it had some, were swept away in a public backlash after it emerged 1000 bus stops would be abolished. Knoll was unable to sell any positives of the plan and the government capitulated.

LIGHT AND TUNNEL – Signs that the state was making progress in the battle against COVID-19 had been evident for a while with falling case numbers and the state was rewarded for its good behaviour with an easing of some restrictions over the course of June. More people were allowed in pubs, gyms and restaurants. Food courts would reopen, a plan was put forward to again open the state’s borders, and the footy was back with a Showdown at the Adelaide Oval. It was the strongest indication yet that a return to some form of normality was within reach.

THE FALLEN – One of the side effects of the Black Lives Matter protests was the swift and decisive action taken by some to remove statues to historical figures whose actions, when looked at in the cold light of day in 2020 didn’t scrub up so well. Taking down statues has, of course, an honourable tradition. Citizens in the old Soviet Union delighted in removing effigies of Lenin. The people of Iraq quickly removed memories of Saddam Hussein. The latest round saw slave trader Edward Colston thrown in the harbour at Bristol in England and the toppling of any number of confederate generals in the US who supported slavery and were on the losing side in the American Civil War.