Irish Examiner view: Let's put our best feet forward into 2022
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While the Roman god Janus is traditionally presented as two-faced, one glancing backwards and one forwards, he is also the deity of beginnings. And as we land on the opening day of the calendar for 2022, in a year which has huge potential for retrospection and even introspection, we in Ireland need to consider the future.
A quick overview of the diary for the next 12 months domestically shows potential anniversaries for the approval of the Anglo-Irish Treaty (January 7); the formal handover of Dublin Castle (January 16); the sectarian killings of the McMahon family in Belfast (March 23); the introduction of internment in the North (May 22); Sinn Féin’s victory in the Irish Free State’s first general election (June 18); the commencement of the Irish Civil War with the shelling of the Four Courts (June 28); the capture of Waterford and Limerick by Free State forces (July 20) and of Cork City (August 10); the shooting dead of Michael Collins (August 22), and the official creation of the Irish Free State (December 6).
There is plenty there to rally around and reflect upon, and we expect there will be plenty of both.
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But we are not an island in splendid isolation and there is much happening in the world in 2022 which may produce impacts for us.
On Tuesday, Italy will seek a new president but, later this year, in April, we will discover whether Emmanuel Macron has been returned for a second term as president of France, a re-election which would be likely to make him the dominant influence in EU politics for the next five years.
By then, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II may have celebrated her platinum jubilee marking 70 years as the longest-ruling British monarch. Not bad for someone who turned down the 2021 Oldie of the Year award, saying she didn’t qualify because “you are only as old as you feel”.
Egypt marks 100 years of independence this year, and India and Pakistan celebrate 75 years of independence. The Fifa World Cup will be held in Qatar in November and December, away from the crushing summer heat.
And, unless something unforeseen happens, Micheál Martin will hand the Taoiseach’s job back to Leo Varadkar as part of the 2020 rotation agreement.
Already, then, 2022 is shaping up to be busy. And we haven’t even mentioned Covid yet. So we shall. Above all, we must play our part in accelerating the levels of global vaccination.
The World Health Organization target is 70% of population by midsummer — but this will require greatly increased funding, much-improved distribution, and vaccines with an enhanced shelf-life.
According to the Amsterdam-based KIT Royal Tropical Institute, vaccines distributed to African countries under the Covax scheme are often close to expiry and their delivery is ad hoc at best. In Nigeria, where only 2% of the population is fully immunised, more than 1m vaccines close to expiring have been destroyed.
In Ghana (7.4% vaccination rate), jabs at the end of their use-by cycle make it impossible to plan for effective deployment. In Kenya (7.2%), local experts point to the difficulties of getting medicines “over the last mile” because of populations living in remote locations with poor transport infrastructure.
We have had our warning from Omicron — hugely contagious but not apparently as lethal as other variants. We must not take our eyes off the target. We may not be lucky next time.