As we quickly approach the end of 2014, I wanted to take a quick time-out to look back at the year and list a few milestone events that I believed shaped this year – for good or bad.
I’ve kept the list short because I wanted to hear from you to learn which events touched you this year and why.. so here goes:
With the recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, the death toll has now risen over 7,000 with the WHO confirming that the toll could be higher given the lack of reliable data collection methods. Places like Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have been the hardest hit areas.
The Winter Olympics taking place in Russia in February saw a spotlight being shined on the country’s human rights record. Controversy surrounded the games and soon after Russia annexes Crimea.
The world was focused on Scotland this year when she voted to either bow down to the monarchy or not. The queen was in and a resounding NO against independence was echoed throughout Britain.
The world’s deadliest terrorist group ISIS gained territory in Syria and Iraq and earned themselves a a scary reputation for medieval-style violence after the beheading of western journalists. The digital savvy organization harnessed the power of the WWW to spread their carnage.
The Rosetta Spacecraft landed on a comet that is orbiting between Jupiter and Mars and the world goes absolutely nut-so about it. This took 10 years to achieve!
Ashraf Ghani is sworn in as the new president of Afghanistan as Western forces march out of the war- torn country.
The Boko Haram militants kidnap 219 Nigerian schoolgirls. The world starts hashtagging #BringBackOurGirls and it goes viral on social media. The outcome was poor as most of the girls were converted to Islam and married off.
The world was left scratching their heads on March 8th as Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 suddenly vanishes from the face of the earth. The most expensive multinational search party was assembled but nothing was found – not even debris.
CANNES – Ellen Degeneres’s famous selfie with Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Kevin Spacey and others was valued at a whopping $800 million to $1 billion due to the massive sharing it received on social media, according to Publicis CEO Maurice Levy.