2021, A Year That Has Been
Covering my past year of blogging in a capsule and also a throwback to my posts of this year. I write on Socio-Politics, International Relations, Law, Technology, MUN etc.
2020 was my best year for blogging, I had written an article same time last year. In that article, I talked about why 2020 was the best year for blogging in general and not just for me. In addition to that, I had included my best articles of the year for each topic. I am going to do the same thing here. Hope you will enjoy this article of mine.
Challenges
Throughout the year, the medium buzz was negative. A lot of people complained about the negative growth curve, decreasing stats, lower earnings, dropping views etc. There was also a piece of news on how changes in algorithms had a negative impact on creators.
With an increasing amount of writers participating in the partner program, we can see medium impose new restrictions on entry, ie. 100 followers and a minimum of two publish a month. This is indeed a challenge for many writers on the platform.
Good news
Medium despite various challenges had this year, proved to be highly supportive of the creators, unveiling contests, creators support, webinars, creator program, bonus, etc. Most of the writers have participated and won the challenges and bonuses.
Best Collection of this year
Now, I am here to convey the hall of fame of my articles for the year 2021, which I consider my best.
Political Science Theory
Pegasus is spyware that was developed by Israeli based-NSO. This can potentially spy on phones and leak real-time information. This article explains the massive media revelation in the month of July on Pegasus and how it was used by various countries for surveillance.
This article doesn’t come under pure political theory but comes under politics and techno-politics where technology is affected by politics and vice-versa. This is a very important topic to discuss at this age. Got published in Dialogue and Discourse.
International Relations
Wars in the 21st century are not fought for wealth but also for dominance. Correcting the past is also another way how countries justify conflicts. Disputed regions are very important for the understanding causes of conflicts, wars, religious, cultural and ethnic tensions. These regions also show how fragile borders are.
In this article, I have covered the top ten disputed regions in the world, which are still disputed and are conflict-ridden at present. This topic is an important part of International Relations.
Science and Technology
Science and Technology is an interesting area for blogging. I entered into technical writing much later after I started writing on politics. This area is one of the most interesting areas to engage in writing because we learn a lot about the topic the process.
The radio may just be a box that we have in our homes. But it has a long and interesting history. Radiowaves were popular forms of communication later on by both military and then for civilian use. This article was released on World Radio Day, emphasising the history, technology and relevance of Radio in our lives.
History
For the first time, I tried a direct hand on history and I must say it was fine. Cuban Missile Crisis is an important historic event that shaped the Cold War and also brought the world close to yet another world war. Read the article to understand this historic event that everyone might have forgotten about.
COVID-19
The pandemic is still not over. More variants are emerging and life is struggling to get back to normalcy. India had faced its worst face of COVID-19 pandemic, in the month of April, May and June 2021. This period was not only about the second wave but also the incidents that followed due to the same.
I explore various probable causes for the same, and why the second wave occurred in the first place. Please do read and understand the same.
Politics
COVID-19 has been the political statement of the year. Whether we need restrictions, lockdowns, the origin of the virus, quarantine, RTPCR etc. have been extremely controversial. Now it's the vaccine that has become the most controversial subject.
Vaccines when they were rolled out, were the source of power, wealth and dominance. Rich countries used to hoard them and not leave anything for developing and underdeveloped countries. Today, the situation has slightly improved but we have a long way to go.
Vaccine distribution has to be proper and we must ensure that we need to fight this pandemic effectively. Political parties This article is dedicated to that. We also had a discussion which was later converted to a podcast. Got published in Dialogue and Discourse.
Indian Politics
Amidst the vaccine rollout in India, and we had believed that COVID-19 had vanished after the first wave and there were assembly elections to five Indian states- Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry. These are the regions where regional players are very strong compared to national parties. Got published in Thoughts and Ideas.
These were the only important elections for the year, so effort from all the sides was for elections, then polling happened followed by the second wave. Despite the deadly second wave, the election results were quite predictable, at the same time, it had multiple consequences which I had covered in detail.
Election based Analysis
Just like I told you above, my home state of Kerala was going to the polls with four other states. I had done massive coverage on the same, covering four articles on the same issue. One on Kerala politics, a podcast episode, how to vote and the various issues, and finally the election analysis.
Here I have attached my third article, on what all were the issues which you should keep in mind before voting. Got published in Thoughts and Ideas.
MUN
MUN has been one of my favourite things to do during my college days. I still enjoy the same. I talk to my friends and prominent MUNners about what exactly did they like about MUNs and how MUNs have shaped the way they are. This is uploaded as a podcast episode. Do check it out. Got published in MUNner’s Daily.
Personal Journal
I discuss my future plans here. The contents are a surprise :P
Some important achievements and milestones
Wrote an article on American Election results and the incidents that followed.
This article crossed 1.5k views, which I wrote on Myanmar’s military coup.
Voted in Kerala Assembly elections after deep diving in it. Got infected from COVID-19 and recovered successfully.
Got done with the B.Tech project. I completed my bachelor's from college this year. Got a campus placement and later chose to change my career path.
Started fortnight and monthly news capsules on both personal and medium blogs.
The placement guide I had prepared has crossed 1.2k views in a short period of time.
That’s all folks putting an end to this year’s grand blogs. Thank you for your support and help. Hope you love the contents which I do, and supposedly will help you get the knowledge. I usually do a useful and analytical type of story which are actually different from the usual ones which you see on Medium.
I wish you all a happy and prosperous 2022!
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