These days between Christmas and New Year are a good time to reflect on the year that is now drawing to a close and what it has meant for each of us and for everyone as a community. So before 2023 arrives and as we prepare for the festivities that welcome the new – that we want full of prosperity and good things – it’s time to look at the year coming to a close.
2022 was a year when we were tested. The Russian invasion of Ukraine took place in February, almost a year ago, and with it the war returned to Europe, recreating two opposing geopolitical blocs and reviving NATO.
This war has a high financial and human cost. But also politically: the isolation to which the Russian Federation was exposed and the economic sanctions imposed dealt Putin’s plans a serious blow; but perhaps the biggest blow was the military response of the Ukrainians who not only did not give up, but continued to retake territory and reconquer their homeland.
The effects of this conflict were quickly felt on several levels: the global fear of a new economic and financial crisis, the rise in interest rates and the rise in inflation. These were some of the shock waves that quickly spread around the world.
Then the energy problem facing Europe. Faced with this macro scenario, Europe’s social and economic problems are getting worse, putting this continent on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Yet the perseverance of European leaders has prevented greater harm. The measures taken by the various European governments – by the European Union itself, incidentally – are aimed at more integration and joint responses that lead to more concrete and, above all, faster results,
Developing countries also face the problem of the energy crisis and inflation, both of which have a major impact on their huge foreign debt, usually denominated in dollars. The challenge is complex and complicated and only with international support programs, in a true logic of the international community, will it be possible to end the hopeless situation in which many of these countries find themselves.
On the other side of the world, 2022 has not spared China. Still grappling with the pandemic, the Chinese giant has been confronted visibly and organically by its people, using its zero-tolerance policy towards COVID as the pretext to challenge the government.
Pandemic control measures were lifted to mitigate popular protests, and we are now witnessing a brutal increase in the number of people infected. It remains to be seen what costs this resurgence of the pandemic will have on the Chinese economy and on the pandemic situation itself on a global scale.
Across the Atlantic, in the lands of Uncle Sam, the year now drawing to a close was no less challenging. The Democratic party’s board passed the test of the midterm elections and managed to hold on to the necessary majority, avoiding the dreaded Republican “red wave.”
The administration of the Biden/Harris administration is taking its toll, despite the social problems that continue to plague the country. The United States of America has a robust banking system, enough energy to meet its needs, and economic policies that allow the economy to grow and enable companies to hire and pay high wages.
As 2022 draws to a close, we can say it could have been a lot worse, given all the dark clouds that were forming on the horizon. Here the new year can only get better.
To do this, we will have to face the future with an innovative spirit and a lot, a lot of work, for us and for our collective future as a community. Goodbye 22, see you soon 23!
Source: DN
