Looking back at 2021: week 1

A new project until the end of the year

I took this photo just before January 6; it looks like they watched events unfolding in Washington DC that day.

I recently moved back to Ottawa, where we all moved back into wintertime last weekend. Some houses in the street already show their Christmas decorations. There is no snow yet, but most of the colorful autumn leaves have been blown off the trees by now, creating a stunning carpet of red and yellow.

Some families in the street wasted no time putting up their Christmas decorations, which signaled for me the start of the countdown to 2022. That is also a perfect moment to reflect on our lives this year. We have 51 days left, so if I cheat a little bit, I can say that each day left of this year can represent one of the 52 weeks of 2021.

52 weeks

It was a year that I took many photographs and a year where many events took place. Some shaped the history of the world, while some others were insignificant to most people but are still worth mentioning.

So expect from now until New Year's Eve a daily picture and a short reference to an event of that week. When I usually don't post anything, the photo and brief reference will be all I send out. On days that I publish on other issues, I will move the photo and memory to the end of the article.

Let's give it a first try; the format and formula may change a bit until I find a formula that works. The first calendar week of 2021 started on Monday, January 4.

Calendar Week 1 of 2021: January 4 - January 10

For this first week of the year, I didn't need to search on the internet to find what happened; on January 6, the world watched the events in Washington DC on live television. So do I even need to summarize?

Viewers in some countries may have recognized the fear, chaos, and confusion when their democracy was violently overthrown. For some, it was a rude awakening to see the fragility of democracy in the U.S.; for others, the attempt's failure proved the strength of the American democracy.

But be aware of the third group that regrets that their attempt failed. History is full of examples of second attempts that have been successful, from Germany in the 1930s to Cuba in the 1960s. A lesson learned is that we should take the first warning for a threat to the stability of democracy seriously to avoid a worse second event. Those opposed to democracy are usually not giving up easily; instead, they are often even more motivated to do better next time. So please pay attention to what they do at the state level to undermine democracy.

I asked you where to find the anger about climate change earlier this week, and now I have another one for you: where is the outrage about undermining democracy? Some day, in a not too distant future, you may regret that America wasn't more alert when the threat of a one-party system became a possibility. If that ever happens, turning the system back into a democracy will be much more challenging.

Meanwhile, in that first week of the year, I enjoyed the nature of the Canadian winter; here is a photo I took that week.

What do you remember from the week of January 4 to January 10, 2021?

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Do you want to follow all 52 weeks of 2021 again? Big and small events, scary and happy news, stories from far away or closer to home, the ones you remember and some you never heard of before? Follow all 52 by subscribing to this newsletter.

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