What else did 2022 bring?
After the dramatic pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, many had hoped for a year of recovery. But the war against Ukraine, soaring inflation and the effects of climate change have meant that reviews of the year 2022 are once again mainly negative. Commentators nonetheless highlight certain constructive developments, too.
Hunger and exodus
The past year was shaped by the effects of armed conflicts and climate change, Primorske novice sums up:
“According to international humanitarian organisations, 274 million people urgently needed humanitarian aid in 2022. This is more than ever before, and up to 40 million more than in the preceding year, which was already very bleak due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of people forced to flee their home country in 2022 was also record-breaking; there were a hundred million refugees.”
Record inflation in Turkey
Inflation has hit no other country as hard as it hit Turkey, Habertürk stresses:
“We witnessed workers from all sectors protesting against low wage increases, striking, and fighting for their trade union rights. ... Many countries around the world were also affected by the upheavals caused by inflation in 2022. Price increases reached 9.1 percent in the US in June and 11.1 percent in the UK in October. However, in no other country did inflation reach the 80 percent officially announced in Turkey. And in no other country was there such a dramatic gap between the official and the actual inflation rate.”
Without women 2022 would have been devastating
Resistance and progress were driven mainly by women in 2022, notes Deutsche Welle:
“In Iran, women are rebelling against the mullahs after the death of Mahsa Amini on 16 September. ... In Brazil, it was mainly the female electorate that ensured that a misogynist and violence-glorifying president was voted out of office. ... In the Palestinian territories, too, the face of resistance to military violence is female. ... The list could go on indefinitely. All these women have succeeded in ensuring that this year was characterised not just by images of violence, but also by images of hope. ... Without this concentrated force of resistance, this will to live and desire for freedom, 2022 would have been a sad, even devastating year.”