Entertainment

Jacinda Ardern’s COVID mettle.

Jacinda Ardern, the 40 th Prime Minister of New Zealand has shown formidable leadership during the pandemic and in regard to general leadership issues within New Zealand’s territory.Her brilliance has led to her opening huge polling gaps between her and Judith Collins, the leader of New Zealand’s National Party. Her handling of the pandemic led to New Zealand having no new infections for months before it was reintroduced to the country by foreigners.

Not the best year for The Donald

As if the COVID Pandemic wasn’t bad enough, The US President has had a somewhat disastrous past two months. First came tell-all revelations by a family member in her book, then another book by a former ally and lawyer, revealing personal details about his character. All this, followed by audio recordings revealing that he intentionally downplayed the severity of the pandemic back in February. It is a slippery period considering he is seeking re-election.

Kenyans; CS Mutahi Kagwe, Governor Charity Ngilu And MP Babu Owino praised internationally.

The Wall Street Journal back in April recognized a few countries and leader for their stand-out efforts in dealing with the global pandemic. Among those, was Kenya’s own Ministry of Health Cabinet Secretary, Hon. Mutahi Kagwe. According to them, he exuded calmness and made the necessary emphasis on the facts of the disease that at the time had made relatively minimal inroads to the continent. His handling of the crisis was termed “a breath of fresh air”.

Later in the year but still on a related note, another Kenyan was also recognized by the international community. Babu Owino, Embakasi East MP was also recognized by the United Nations and the Voice of America (VOA) for teaching students online amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

China unable to shake COVID tag.

Ever since the breakout of COVID-19, China has had a nightmare of a damagecontrol experience; having to fight multiple fires. A resurgence of the illness has seen them have to re-isolate a whole region, and this in addition to the piling international pressure on China to take some amount of responsibility for the pandemic’s breakout in the first place. China has also been accused of manipulating the numbers to make it seem as though they are successful in containing it. An accusation that has stuck. We wait to see how well China navigates these rocky seas in the coming months.

Sports, COVID and Justice

The COVID pandemic, having ravaged through the world’s collective multi-sector economy, did not spare the sports we know and love. The NBA and other sports were affected by another issue. Race and social justice protests and triggered by the murder of a black man, George Floyd, by four policemen. This caused a downing of tools by some teams and players but due to the intervention of opinion leaders, the players chose to resume and instead use their platforms to communicate their message and force change.

Liverpool’s bitter-sweet season

You have undoubtedly had the whole “It all began when Liverpool were winning the league ...” joke. Liverpool’s English Premier League run was temporarily halted by the suspension of the league due to the pandemic. According to EPL’s site at the time: “It was acknowledged that the Premier League will not resume at the beginning of May – and that the 2019/20 season will only return when it is safe and appropriate to do so.”

Liverpool however needed just a handful of points to ensure they had the league in the bag for the first time since 1990. They did so and lifted the most prestigious trophy in the UK, in front of an empty stadium.

UFC’s series of unfortunate events

Ever since COVID’s impact began to be felt in America’s professional sports sector, Dana White, UFC’s president, has put on a brave, almost defiant face in the eye of the pandemic’s storm. Since the mainland hindered crowded events, Dana had initially planned an event on an island which had come to be known as “fight island”. A mysterious off-shore location where fighters could go about their business un-bothered. This however fell through and UFC ended up being held at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. It was however still missing the much anticipated Khabib vs Tony cursed bout that has now been canceled for a record 5 th time. Instead Tony faced Justin Gaethje and lost by bloody TKO. At this point, it doesn’t seem like we will ever see the bout, with Gaethje, now interim champion, expected to face Khabib next. Khabib oh his part is back in training after grieving the loss of his father, Abdulmanap Numargomedov. A tragedy that brought the MMA world to unite in grief.

Olympics 2020 postponed to 2021

The Tokyo Olympics, 2020, are officially the Tokyo Olympics 2021. They will be held on the 23 rd of July, to the 8 th of August with the Paralympics following from the 24 th of August to the 5 th of September. These delays display the damaging effects of the COVID 19 pandemic and the economic and socio-political strains of handling a world wide stalling of events. Tokyo Officials insist it will go ahead with or without fans and they say they will tolerate no further delays.