Reminiscence of the 2022 Year of Unexpectations
Climate, pandemics, and conflicts between states reflect that the 2022 year of the whole world remained turbulent. The world has to face new challenges in 2023. Reawakening COVID-19 pandemic disease, climate emergency, migration at large scale, endeavor between dictatorship and democracy, humanitarian crisis, and global terrorism are all gifts of the year 2022. Collectively, this year was another terrible year for the maximum number of people on this planet and for a few people in space. Most of them are taking their legacy to 2023 also. Let’s talk region-wise and their bewilderments for this year which is going to be ended very soon.
Middle East
In 2022, events of the Middle east became the global headlines. Some of them were positive and some of them were negative. The biggest positive headline was the successful event of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar. This was the first opportunity for any Muslim country to host this big event. In the future, it is expected that this event will benefit the country from a tourism and business point of view. It is another chapter that this mega event also gained some negative headlines.
In 2022, The Guardian predicted that in Qatar, after getting approval in 2009, almost 6500 laborers died. These laborers got died during the construction of new seven stadiums, roads, hotels, and a new airport. However, analysts said that most of the audience didn’t pay heed to this and therefore 2022 Qatar World Cup 2022 became a mega-successful event.
There was another important question in 2022 whether Israel and the USA would put economic sanctions on Iran or not. Israel has been threatening air strikes because of the failure of talks on the restoration of the nuclear deal of 2015.
There is another crucial piece of news for this year 2022 Turkiye President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK party has completed its 20 years, being in rule. In this tenure of 20 years, his aggressive foreign policies, conflicts with the EU and the USA, connivance with Russia on Syria, and his Economic policies.
Also Read: US-China Rivalry: Asia Pacific next Battleground?
In 2022, Lebanon has also become a failed state like Yemen. Moreover, there has been a lack of peace in the anarchic states of Libya and Palestine.
Asia Pacific
In 2022, the whole world’s eyes remained focused on China. In February 2022, Winter Olympics happened in Beijing, China. Norway stood at the top of the list on the table of medals in this. Another headline was that Chinese President Xi Jinping completed his third 5-year term. Moreover, he emerged as the most powerful Chinese leader after Mao Zedong.
In the West, analysts disagreed on the point that to what extent Xi’s position is safe. This year China faced the challenges of the economy, climate, and debt crisis.
Asia
In 2022, the Asian country that remained notorious for the violation of human rights is India. It is because India’s Prime Minister became the predator of Muslims in India. In 2022, hundreds of Kashmiris were killed. Moreover, Asia faced terrible situations in Myanmar and Afghanistan under the Taliban. According to David Beasley of the World Food Programme “We are watching 23 million Afghanis going towards hunger”.
Furthermore, 2022 saw North Korea having a breakthrough in its nuclear program and the Philippines‘ new president Bongbong Marcos.
Pakistan, in 2022 faced regime change without completing its 5-year tenure by PTI. This happened after the no-confidence motion of 11 parties that made alliances with one another to overthrow the PTI government. And after holding this country by PDM, Pakistan faced anarchy for the whole remaining year.
Also Read: Muslim Genocide in India
Europe
This year Europe faced the EU’s internal and external problems, migration, and social and economic impacts of COVID-19. In France and Hungary, people created a new political environment after the spring elections. Emanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen in the presidential elections. Macron got 58.6% votes and Marine Le Pen got 41.7% votes.
In Germany, a new start occurred in German politics. After 16 years, a new government replaced Angela Markel and completed one year in power. The three-party alliance made government under the leadership of the chancellor of Social democrat, Olaf Scholz. On the other hand, the Russia–Ukraine war is not hidden from anyone. For the whole year, Bosnia Herzegovina and Balkans faced the challenges of secessionists. As far as Britain is concerned, Brexit was its biggest challenge. In one year many prime ministers tried their luck.
Latin America
In Brazil, on October 30, 2022, during a run-off between Jair Bolsonaro and Lula Da Silva for the selection of the president for the next 4 years, electronic voting happened. Lula Da Silva got 50.9% votes and Bolsonaro got 49.1% of the votes. Bolsonaro didn’t concede this voting and this matter is still in court.
In Chile, Gabriel Boric became the president who is a left-wing politician, and the 37th president of Chile now. He is the youngest leader in this country. Argentina’s president, Alberto Fernandez also faced many challenges but on 18 December 2022 Argentina won the FIFA world cup which was pretty good news for the country. Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador faced ongoing stress with the US president on the issues of trade with Central America and drugs.
Also read: Current Crisis of Pakistan and Way Forward
North America
In 2022, the US, there are surprising results of the midterm elections of 2022. According to its results, Republicans secured 197 seats and Democrats secured 173 seats in Senate. It has been occurring for a long time in the US that the ruling party gets low votes in the mid-term elections. Joe Biden’s policies have failed. In Congress, his party won but not in Senate. This year the US also faced a blow in its Foreign policy. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s direct aggression against Taiwan, and the Israel-Iran conflict reminded headaches for the US.
In Canada, there were expectations from justice Trudeau about the new policies regarding accommodation and care for children. But, he didn’t get a prominent success in the 2021 elections.
Africa
Africa also faced many challenges but regarding Covid-19, Africa got a major breakthrough. Even if we imagine that there are more deaths than reports, it is also an achievement., its biggest reason is that in Africa, the major population includes young people. In Europe, there are old people mostly. In Africa, fewer people reach the age of 80s, that’s why they do not get pandemics easily. According to an estimation, 25 million people spent their lives with HIV AIDS. However, Africa has become the center of international terrorism which became low in the West. Somalia is also facing terrorism on its soil on a large scale. Sudan faced many challenges regarding extreme poverty.
According to the emergency watch list of the International Rescue Committee Charity, 12 out of 20 countries responsible for Humanitarian crises are in Africa. These are Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Mozambique, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, the Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Somalia, Niger, and Sudan. However, the weakest non-African countries are Myanmar, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Haiti, Honduras, Venezuela, and Lebanon.
Also Read: Next Superpower of the World
Antarctica, the Arctic, and the World Next to them
In both regions, 2022 saw more human activities. For instance, in Antarctica, tourism was promoted on large scale by constructing a runway where large airplanes were welcomed. Regarding the use of the resources of Antarctica China has taken much interest. Similarly, in the Arctic, after melting the ice, doors have opened for shipping and trading which was prepared by Russia.
Space has been an interesting place for researchers in 2022. NASA prepared 18 separate missions because it is preparing human’s fly in space. It is a project for a new space station Gateway. According to this project Russia, South Korea, India, and Japan will send spaceships to the moon. The European space agency has a plan for a mission to Mars. In 2022, the US, China, and Russia also did experiments with new weapons like Hypersonic Glide Cars which have the capability of launching nuclear missiles from the sky. Russia also did an experiment on an Anti-Satellite Missile.
