Resurrection is painful. Nobody ever said it was easy. 2021 was the year of resurrection from a painful 2020 that left the world scarred and questioning its raison d’être. The world rose slowly out of its torpor with grim determination. There were innumerable setbacks as is wont after such a huge health crisis. Covid showed little signs of going away silently in the night with a terrible onslaught in India and Brazil in the summer. The world rolled out vaccines with dogged determination but with the same short-sightedness with which it approached the climate emergency. Vaccine inequity by country was rife with WHO targets of vaccinating 40% of the population of every country by the end of this year a pipe dream. As a result, we end the year with new variants of the virus coming out in less vaccinated parts of the world.
The climate emergency was front and centre on the world’s mind with the COP26 at Glasgow where lofty commitments were made to end deforestation by 2030, reduce methane emissions by 30% and provide more finance to natural solutions. Word jugglery on “phasing out” vs “phasing down” coal and loose long-term net zero commitments left the world on track to 2.7 degrees rise in temperature and a collective burn – rich and poor countries alike.
The world gave itself no long rope politically either. From the Capitol attacks to the fall of Kabul, the constant military posturing between India and China, rising tension between Russia and EU on several issues to another outbreak in the perennially festering Israel – Palestine conflict, the world repeatedly showed that we don’t need a virus to clean up the planet.
Despite it all we did rise.
In all this chaos, global supply chains held (despite rising container shortages), vaccination numbers steadily rose, transportation links were gradually restored, and a glittering Olympics and Paralympics in Japan gave us hope , with a view of the indomitable human spirit. For India, the wait for an individual gold finally ended with that oft watched javelin throw of Neeraj Chopra.
Space was an exciting frontier of growth in 2021. NASA’s rover Perseverance touched down on Mars, spaceflights by Virgin and Blue Origin and the launch of the James Webb telescope were signature moments of space exploration history. China’s Tiangong space station and Zhurong Mars rover showed that space advancements were no longer privy to the US. Worryingly, signs of a space arms race also became increasingly evident at the end of the year.
The world rediscovered technology in all walks of life with fervour. The rise of Indian unicorns embodied this spirit. Start-ups in all sectors— food delivery, education, payment solutions, logistics, e-commerce – were awash with cash due to the clampdown in the Chinese tech economy. Virtual was here to stay. Hybrid workplace models were accepted as de rigueur despite offices opening.
Cryptocurrency made stratospheric gains with central banks still trying to understand what to make of it all. Responses varied from floating sovereign digital currencies to stark warnings on the volatility of it all. Meanwhile NFTs cocked a snook at all the jitters and made a grand entry into our lives with a $69 million bang.
EVs are poised to take over and the old ICE cars are slowly heading for the exit. The elevation of Elon Musk to the richest man alive was signal enough that this shall come to pass with Tesla Model 3 becoming Europe’s best selling EV. In the Indian version of the story, the 2-wheeler, 3-wheeler and commercial EV segment is set to grow with significant investments this year from Ola, Hero, Bajaj, and start-up Ather Energy.
In the endgame, we learnt quite a lot from the disaster of 2020 and forgot even more. Our resilience is a testament to human spirit and its dogged determination to survive. It’s our blind spots and refusal to see the world as a connected entity that make our decisions fragile and short sighted.
Despite declining trust in institutions, growing inequalities, health crises and an existential climate emergency however, we persevere, make more mistakes, and keep going.
2022 will remain thus a continued chapter of this resurrection
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