Hello everyone!
We can all agree that 2016 was a very tumultuous year, so lets take a look at some of the things that happened.
US Politics
Wow, talk about a crazy year in US politics, and then especially for the republicans. Who would have ever guessed that Donald Trump would become the next president of the United States. What started out as a race between 17 republican contestants, ended up with Donald Trump winning the Republican bid for the presidency.
He truly “demolished” his “adversaries” in debates and via Twitter, accusing the other contestants of lying (lying Ted), or linking Ted Cruz his father with the JFK assassination (which he later denied).
The way Trump worked was as follows. He usually linked to an online source, and then asked his followers on Twitter if they had seen this story, or had read some article. Most of the times that’s all he did. He just put a rumor out there and let his followers do the rest. That’s also how he took on “crooked Hillary”, with rumors and innuendos.
He also promised his followers, depending in which state he was, everything they wanted to hear, but that he can never truly accomplish (like the wall to keep out the Mexicans). Believe me folks, that will never happen, because it’s impossible. Trump would do anything, and say anything to get elected.
Click here to go to Politifact which checks all the political facts for you, with sources included.
Hillary Clinton on the other hand focused too much on everything Trump said, and never truly addressed real issues that the voters cared about. And Trump could just about say and do anything he wanted, without losing too much momentum in the race for the White House.
In my honest opinion, I think the American public was just tired of the establishment, and truly wanted change. I just hope Trump can deliver on just that. Change.
Brexit
2016 Will also be remembered as the year that the UK decided to leave the European Union. Back in 2015 PM David Cameron made a promise to hold a referendum, in which the UK population could decide to stay in the EU, or leave the EU, and I think he regrets that decision until the end of days tbh. What seemed like a shoe in for the people who wanted to stay in the EU, turned out to be a big delusion.
In the months leading up to the referendum on June 23rd, the leave camp, and stay camp, vigorously campaigned throughout the entire UK to spread their words of wisdom, whether to stay or leave.
One of the Leave camp front runners, was Nigel Farage from UKIP, who was a member of the European Parliament, but was always against the growing power of the EU. After the Brexit vote, he decided to leave politics, just like David Cameron.
72.2% Of all registered voters cast their votes and it truly was a very close race right up until the end, when the end result turned out to be in favor of a Brexit, with 51.9% voting leave. People went to bed thinking it was all ok for the stay votes, but woke up to a real nightmare, in their opinion, when they saw the end results.
Since that time the Pound has dropped significantly in value, but I predict it will bounce back up when things finally settle down, and the UK has left the EU, which will be in late 2018. I am sure many trade agreements will be made before and after that, so not all hope is lost for the UK.
Sport
– It seems that hell has frozen over this year, because the Cubs won the World Series after a dry spell of over 108 years! They beat the Cleveland Indians in the best of seven series, with a thrilling final game on November 2nd. The Indians were ahead 3-1 after the first 4 games, but the Cubs managed to even the score in game 5 and 6, and in the last game won with 8 to 7 after an amazing game, which got interrupted by heavy rainfall just before the 10th inning.
– In Formula 1, we got a new champion with Nico Rosberg, who had followed in his fathers footsteps, Keke Rosberg who won the World Championship in 1982. At the FIA Prize Giving Ceremony in Vienna, Nico Rosberg announced his retirement from F1 driving after he spent 10 years reaching his end goal, which was to win the World Drivers’ Championship. A new Face to the 2016 F1 scene was the dutch driver Max Verstappen (son of former F1 driver Jos Verstappen), who brought some needed thrill back to the sport. With his daring driving, and in some cases amazing comebacks from behind the field, he was able to get to 5th place in the Championship. He started the season at Torro Rosso (training grounds for Red Bull), but got promoted to Red Bull after only 4 races. He immediately won his first race in the upcoming race in Spain, and became the youngest driver ever to win a Formula One Grand Prix.
– On the 28th of may, Real Madrid won the Champions League by beating Atlético Madrid in Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in Milan. At the end of the regular playing time, the score was 1-1 so penalties were needed to settle the score, and Real was able to score all 5 of them against only 3 from Atlético.
– Chris Froome from Team Sky won the Tour De France on July 24th with a nice lead of 4 minutes and 5 seconds on Romain Bardet from team AG2R. Froome was able to defend the Yellow Jersey since stage 8, which was a race from Pau to Bagnères-de-Luchon, which he won in a downhill finish.
ISIS
2016 has been a very bad year for ISIS, in regards to Iraq and Syria, where they lost large parts of the ground they had taken over in 2014, when they first came to attention and power. They lost several large cities, and many small towns when Iraqi forces (who had fled large cities when ISIS drove them out) finally started to work together with other forces, with the Air support of the US and many other countries (Including the Netherlands).
Unfortunately, ISIS has also inspired some people in the west to carry out terrorist attacks in 2016, like in Belgium, France, Germany and the US. But also Turkey, Yemen, Libya, Egypt, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan have been the target of ISIS inspired terrorist attacks.
So this will mean that security all over the world will be much tighter in 2017, at least I hope it will be, to thwart any possible attacks, or plans made by a bunch of religious fanatics, who think they can rule the world by means of terror.
In Memoriam
Sadly we lost some great icons this year, and I will only list a few of those. If you want to see the entire list of famous people who passed away this year, feel free to click here to go to a Reddit list.
– David Bowie passed away on January 10th, from cancer at the age of 69. Bowie is most known for his legendary hits Let’s Dance, China Girl, Heroes, Changes, and of course Space Oddity. Below is a video compilation of some of his greatest hits performed live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XphK_B4l0Do
– Alan Rickman passed away on January 14th, at the age of 69, and also from cancer. He is most know for his role as Snape in the Harry Potter movies, but he also played an amazing role as Hans Gruber in the first Die Hard movie. Below some of his most memorable scenes.
– On March 24th, the greatest soccer player ever ( in my honest opinion), Johan Cruijff passed away at the age of 68th from cancer. Cruijff started his professional soccer career at the age of 17 at Ajax in 1964, where he had played since he was only 6 years. In 1973 he went on to play for FC Barcelona till 1978, and after that he went to the US, where he played till 1981. He then moved back to Ajax where he stayed till 1983, and he ended his career in 1984 at Feyenoord Rotterdam, which has been a major rival team in the Netherlands. He also played for the Dutch national team from 1966 till 1977, where he played a total of 48 games and scored 33 goals in that period. Cruijff was also famous for his jersey number 14, which he was wearing since 1970 when he was left with just that shirt number at a game against PSV. Below are some of his greatest moments in soccer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srx8rZc1jcs
– Prince (Rogers Nelson) passed away on April 21st at the age of 57. Prince was a musical genius, who won 7 Emmy awards, a Golden Globe and an Academy award for his movie Purple Rain. Prince could play multiple instruments, and even produce his own songs, and he was a big influence to other musicians. Some of his greatest works are Purple Rain, When Doves Cry, 1999, Kiss, Diamonds and Pearls, Little Red Corvette, Cream, and Sign of the Times of course. Below is a live performance from Prince in 2011.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=3RZHo7YAzHU
– On December 25th George Michael (Georgios Kyriacos Panagiotou) passed away at the age of 53. He started his real musical career in 1981, when he and his friend Andrew Ridgeley formed Wham!, after they had first formed a Ska band with some other friends, but were not very successful. They scored several hits, including Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Young Guns, Club Tropicana, and of course, Everything She Wants. His first solo single, Careless Whisper, became a great hit in over 25 countries. In 1986 Wham! officially broke up, and George went on with a solo career. He scored many hits as a solo artist, including A Different Corner, I Want Your Sex, Faith, Father Figure, One More Try, Fast Love, Outside, Too Funky, and of course, Praying For Time. Below are some of his best songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWq8gp1vop4
– Carrie Fisher passed away on December 27th at the age of 60 from a heart attack. Carrie is of course mostly known for her role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars universe, with the most memorable scene of course, her wearing a skimpy slave outfit in Return of the Jedi. But Carrie was not just a very sexy woman, she was also very funny. Below is a clip from a roast she did on George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars.
– On a very sad note, her mother Debbie Reynolds died one day later at the age of 84, and also from a heart attack.
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On a side note, these are all my personal views on matters, so if you don’t agree with some of the views, feel free to leave a respectful reply at the bottom.
Regards,
J