At this time of year, it's customary to recap the year - to think on the things that have happened over the previous 12 months and how we have come out the other side.
However, 2020 has been a singular year in that instead of the usual 12 months, it seemed to have taken 4325 months to get to December.
And we've seen total public idiocy, as people flaunt the rules and continue to do whatever they want without masks or social distancing despite outbreaks in what we'd all hoped was our recovery phase.
Was it really only a year ago that bushfires scorched 24 million hectares of our sunburnt country? Thirty-three people perished, 3000 homes were lost, and three billion animals were either killed or displaced. The international community stood with us, as donations flooded in and overseas firefighters flew to help us fight the flames while our skies turned ruby as many retreated to the beaches for rescue. Here on the NSW/Victoria border, the air was thick with smoke, and an orange hue glazed our horizons as an ever-present reminder of how we were living on the whims of the wind.
I thought this would be the defining event of 2020. Then someone ate a bat in China and the world all but imploded.
For those of us wishing we were a movie star, we all found ourselves in what felt like some sort of end of days movie. While we faced rations on foodstuffs, the apocalyptic movies got one thing wrong - we weren't fighting over water or you know, life-sustaining food. Supermarkets were literally hiring security guards to protect new shipments of toilet paper when they came in and break up fights between people willing to fight to the death over two-ply. We were going, ahem... batshit crazy... over loo roll (see what I did there?!). Not. Our. Proudest. Moment.
In Australia, we've fared better than most. We've had just over 28k cases and suffered just under 1000 deaths from Coronavirus, but each of those 908 losses has been felt keenly and we've suffered the aftershocks deeply.
We've seen monumental stuff-ups like the Ruby Princess and hotel quarantine. We've seen the struggles of Victoria battling under harsh restrictions and total lockdown. We've seen both international and state border closures. And we've seen total public idiocy as people flaunt the rules and continue to do whatever they want without masks or social distancing despite outbreaks in what we'd all hoped was our recovery phase. Footage from the 2020 Boxing Day sales in Sydney, despite the hotspots in the city, prove that we haven't learned our lesson since the days of Bondi Beach during the opening credits of this horror film.
We saw our government finally raise the social security payments to a figure that puts recipients just over the poverty line, but they were careful to remind us that this was temporary. They maintained the policy line that the best form of welfare was in fact a job (no shit Sherlock) and it was clear that the raise in income support was to ensure our economy doesn't completely collapse rather than give us the misguided impression that they were trying to help vulnerable people you know, survive. Now it's Christmas, this rate has been reduced to the point of poverty again. I think I'm gonna die of not surprise.
During the height of the pandemic in Australia, 2.3million Australians - that's one in five - were either experiencing unemployment or reduced hours. We've had to pivot and innovate, rethink not just how we do business, but what our products and services should be. But wait, there's more.
The death of George Floyd in the US as a police officer took a knee on his neck, and the growing Black Lives Matter movement that touched international shores has served to shine a much-needed light on racism and discrimination in our society, but especially on black deaths in custody. In Australia, 434 Aboriginal people have died in police and prison custody and there has been a staggering 857 per cent increase in the incarceration rate of Aboriginal women since 1991. Maybe "we didn't start the fire," but it's our job not to continue to fan the flames.
We've lost so much this year. We've had to fight for what feels like everything. I think the only hope we have to escape 2020 in one piece, is for all of us to close our eyes and yell "JUMANJI" at midnight on New Year's Eve. I know I'm keen to leave this jungle, aren't you?
Zoë Wundenberg is a careers consultant and un/employment advocate at impressability.com.au
