“2020, the worst year in history” – Corriere.it

A big red cross in 2020. And a title that does not beat around the bush: “The worst year in history.” “The worst year of all”. This is the case with which Time, the American weekly that chooses the “Person of the Year” each December, will be published on physical and digital newsstands on Monday the 14th. “There have been worst years in the history of the United States, and certainly the worst years in the history of the world. – begins the opening article, entrusted to film critics Stephanie zacharek – but most of us, who are alive today, have never seen anything like it. The question is, in fact, purely generational: “I should be over 100 years old to remember the devastation of World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918; about 90 to get an idea of ​​the economic deprivation caused by the Great Depression; and to have more than 80 years to keep a memory of the Second World War and its horrors ”. Zacharek affirms then that the rest of the population, like a child who did not have wheels to learn to ride a bicycle, was not prepared to face it “a virus that originated, perhaps, from a single bat and ended up disrupting the life of everyone on the planet and killing around 1.5 million people».

What have we learned from 2020?
But Covid wasn’t the only event that made 2020 a year to forget. In fact, the article also mentions “the recurrence of natural disasters that confirm how much we have betrayed nature “and”a contested choice on the basis of fantasy“(The one from the US, ed). There are also references to the disappearance of figures such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Lewis, Kobe Bryant, Chadwick Boseman, and George Floyd. “We learned a lot in 2020, but what exactly have we learned?” Asks the author. “We slowed down. We learned what was important. We play board games and puzzles and we really talk and listen to our children.“A general rediscovery of the little things. Like” walking in the sun when we were told we couldn’t go outside except to exercise, “going back to” meeting a friend for a glass of wine, “” a privilege and a pleasure. that, in the previous months, we weren’t sure we would have had ”- and, when the museums reopened,“ reunited with the paintings we love ”. Also “We had a lot of time to get to know each other better“An activity that, however, often generates more questions than answers:” This is not the time to be hard on ourselves for not knowing exactly what we want – reflects Zacharek – in addition to continuing to be healthy and alive and doing what that we can to make sure the same applies to our neighbors and ours Dear. “Better times will come:”Americans are inherently optimistic, ”Zacharek concludes. Our optimism is our most ridiculous but also our greatest trait. It cannot always be tomorrow in the United States. Sometimes we have to get past the darkest hour. The dawn awaits its moment».

The toto-names
If this is the premise, the wait to find out who will be the “Person of the Year” 2020 can only grow more. What will Time focus on? In one or more figures linked to Covid-19 or will you look for the surprise effect? It will be known on Thursday night. (Friday morning in Italy), when the Nbc a special TV special will air. As always, the verdict will be determined by journalists at the magazine, but alternatives informally offered online to readers include, among others, Anthony Fauci of the World Health Organization, essential workers (doctors, nurses, riders, haulers, supermarket clerks, etc.), Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Xi Jinping, Jack Dorsey, Eric Yuan, Jeff Bezos, the creators of TikTok, and the activists of Black Lives Matter. It only remains to wait a few more days. Meanwhile, the “Young man of the year” section was inaugurated: the 15-year-old scientist won the title Gitanjali rao, for the occasion interviewed by Angelina Jolie.