Reflections on 2022
By Nigah Shah
Another year comes to an end. As is the tradition, it is time for a reflection to see what 2022 held for all of us, and the world around us.
As an individual, 2022 was a year filled with changes for me, be it professionally or in terms of family life. From a promotion at previous work to a new opportunity and going from an on-site job to a full-time remote job, thanks to the internet connection we got this year! It was a good year for my professional career!
In terms of family life, we lost two precious lives which devastated our whole family. But, since happiness and sorrows are part of life, we have to move along; we also had two weddings in our family, which helped us overcome the grief to a great extent.
When I look at our society, or village, there have been some major ups and downs. I see a lot of young people taking interest in IT, as access to internet increases. On the other hand we also observed that a major contributor to the local economy, tourism, remained slow this year due to many factors, such as inflation, protet demonstrations, and floods. A lot of people suffered due to the slump in tourism.
One thing that I am sure about is that for Pakistan 2022 proved to be disastrous! Be it the political instability starting at the beginning of the year, or the collapse of the govt in April, the uncertainty and chaos caused a major panic in the trading market, hitting the already fragile economy very hard. And whilst the country was facing a political and economic turmoil, the devastating floods hit, destroying lives and means of livelihood for millions of families. Billions of dollars were lost and the effects are still visible in the society as large swathes of land still remain under water.
We are approaching the end of the year now and the economic situation—as a result of the above stated factors—can be better pictured from figures coming out of SBP; reserves, that were more than $16 billion at the beginning of the year, now stand at less than $6billion! Inflation is sky rocketing and essential food items are getting out of the reach of a common man. The government seems helpless in handling the mess they have created and there’s no plan in sight to stir the economy out of ruins.
At the global scale, with the war that started earlier this year, and which doesn’t seem to be ending any time sooner, between Russia and Ukraine, the adverse impact is becoming visible with each passing day. This war has adversely affected many lives throughout the world, by causing hyper-inflation!
At the same time, climate change has emerged as an even stronger force of destruction this year; it appears to be one of the biggest threats to mankind. The irony is that the world leaders instead of focusing on how to tackle this matter are busy in adding more fuel to the fire in Russia-Ukraine war!
Finally, despite an utter failure of the government and world leaders and catastrophic effects of climate change, let’s not let hope die. 2022 may have been terrible for the majority, even if it was good for some for various reasons, let’s hope and pray that 2023 brings along some fresh air of peace and stability to breath in.
Let’s hope against hope that 2023 proves to be a brighter morning after a long dark night.
Happy New Year!
