In Mercatornet, Mathew Otieno gives us his annual review of significant events in Africa during 2021.
Africa is a huge place. But, in a world of Mercator projections and pandemics of ignorance, I repeat it at every opportunity, especially in my annual review of the previous year for MercatorNet: Africa is a huge place.
As in all huge places, a lot of things happened in Africa through 2021, some good, some bad. I’ll review the highlights and then attempt a forecast of storylines in 2022, which is already short a month at the time of this writing – time flies here too!
It is well worth reading the whole piece, but I can't resist quoting the final two paragraphs, which must surely resonate here in the UK too.
Finally, as in much of the rest of the world, Covid-19 is likely to fade entirely into the background during the course of this year. In many ways, this is already the case, but masks can still be spotted, sanitisers and handwashing stations are still in evidence, and governments are still flirting with the possibility of vaccine mandates.
Perhaps, as this cloud lifts, the long march of democracy and human dignity, set back by the grabbing of emergency powers by governments that were destined for the dustbin, will resume apace. Things aren’t looking too bad, but several dinosaurs still waddle about. It’s time we sent a few asteroids their way.
Perhaps, as this cloud lifts, the long march of democracy and human dignity, set back by the grabbing of emergency powers by governments that were destined for the dustbin, will resume apace. Things aren’t looking too bad, but several dinosaurs still waddle about. It’s time we sent a few asteroids their way.
5 comments:
And I am convinced that large asteroids (presaged by large trucks) may be heading their way. There is only so much the white community will take from wokeists before there's a violent almighty backlash, methinks.
I'd almost forgotten the hand-washing. "Happy birthday" twice, wasn't it. With a particular method in a sanctioned sequence, which I had already seen pre-Covid displayed on laminated posters in the toilets at work.
And then the hand-washing became less important, as scientists started saying it was next to useless.
And then we had the masks...
To be fair, some people love it. I still see people in Tesco fumbling to wipe down their baskets with antiseptic spray, their faces covered by masks. I guess drama being preferable to boredom is something that really benefits the controllers.
Tammly - it could be incremental, small awakenings which add up to a political shift. That's my optimistic side.
Sam - "I guess drama being preferable to boredom is something that really benefits the controllers."
Unfortunately that seems to hit the nail on the head. Boredom may be a bigger factor in our lives than we admit.
Another quote from that piece I like:
"The final major African storyline of 2021, which I left for last to underscore its relative unimportance to us, though many in the West wished we could give it pre-eminence, was Covid-19. In short, the famous virus continued to behave as if we don’t exist, while we gladly returned the favour."
djc - yes I like that too.
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