When novelist/journalist Chuck Palahniuk noted that this generation could be  “remembered more for what we destroy than what we create,” he could just as easily be describing the unfolding of events in 2019.To be sure, a lot of good things happened.   Austria named its first woman chancellor and the European Union elected its first female president.  The American Congress is the most diverse in its history.  Iguanas were reintroduced to the Galapagos Islands after 184 years.  Single-use plastics are increasingly being banned around the world.  Humpback whales are recovering from near extinction.  Canada has banned whale and dolphin captivity.  Two men were cured of HIV.  The Antarctic ozone hole is now the smallest since its discovery.  The Toronto Raptors won the NBA title.  And Queen Elizabeth published her first post on Instagram.All of these are revealing and gave the last 12 months a kind of desperately needed optimism.Competing with such events, however, are systemic challenges that threatened the hopes of millions in 2019 and taxed politics, human rights, the rule of law and the basic decency of humanity to their extremes.  You know things are getting serious when nation states themselves are rattling sabres.  Perhaps worse, however, has been the fashion in which international collaborations have fallen into decline, replaced with economic and military actions that threatened to destabilize what the world took decades to build following the Second World War.Because of close ties, the political tumult in both Britain and America are likely of most interest to Canadians.  And why not?  What has transpired in both during these last three years has been unlike anything expected or experienced in our ongoing relationships.  Worse, it all seems to undermine the fundamental beliefs in democracies that are facing challenges on numerous and competing fronts.  Britain's descent into Brexit madness, while stabilzed momentarily through a decisive election, can only empower the independence movements in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and could break, and break up, Britain as a result.Few expected the election of Donald Trump to be as tumultuous as it has turned out to be.  The denial of the rule of law, the constant tweets of madness, the unsolved riddle of the behaviour of the Republican Party, and the blowing up of international protocols has not only put democracy itself on trial but decades-old alliances.  And it can only get more chaotic as Americans go to the polls in less than a year's time.The Middle East cauldron has now become more unpredictable than at any time in recent memory.  The intensifying belligerence between America and Iran is pushing things ever closer to military conflict and oil-induced economic chaos.  Trump's withdrawal of troops from northern Syria opened the door for a Turkish invasion, the result of which can only be more bloodshed and instability.  And his decision to splinter the cohesive bond of NATO has made impossible any kind of decisive force against Syria and Russia's expansion.The American president's decision to defy historic protocols and go it alone with Israel has only unsettled that beleaguered nation even further.  It was never going to be easy, but it shouldn't have become this myopic.Sensing Western disarray, China has embarked on a series of adventures that carry grave uncertainty with them.    The oppression of Hong Kong protestors is matched by similar actions against the Muslim minority in the nation's own Xinjiang region.  The Chinese president's expansion of efforts In the South China Sea and disruptive tendencies in the global marketplace are clear signs that America's preoccupation with itself is leaving a world in a more tenuous position.America's stand-off with North Korea seems to pale in comparison with relentless Russian meddling everywhere.  It's now closer to China and its increasing military presence in Syria carries with it a distinctive Cold War feel of previous decades.  And increasing incursions into the American electoral process is now inevitable, given the Republican's party's continual defense of Donald Trump.Venezuela, Brazil and Bolivia – these South American countries are in the process of experimenting with political and economic chaos for the sake of power right under America's nose and hold little interest for the White House.The terrorist attacks in numerous locations around the world, including America, though down from last year, continue to remind us of the volatility of global security.  The possible resurrection of ISIS because of the chaos in Syria and Iraq is already sending a collective shudder down the spine of the global population.This was the world of 2019 and it isn't pretty.  Worse, signs of recovery are proving difficult to spot.  Important elections are looming, treaties left unsigned, bad blood among nations continues, and despite all the crowing about booming economies, poverty has come closer to the doors of hundreds of millions in the advanced nations than in 2018.This is the world Canada must negotiate its way through in 2020, and despite the occasional snippets of good news and opportunities, the systems of governance, politics, economics and military might dominate every global landscape.  However it unfolds, it will be dangerous.Glen Pearson was a career professional firefighter and is a former Member of Parliament from southwestern Ontario. He and his wife adopted three children from South Sudan and reside in London, Ontario. He has been the co-director of the London Food Bank for 32 years. He writes regularly for the London Free Press and also shares his views on a blog entitled “The Parallel Parliament“. Follow him on twitter @GlenPearson.