2021, Come Easy: After 2020, we all need a year of rehabilitation and renewal

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Imagine for a second you were transposed into the karmic driven world of Earl. And the answer will be (with the help of the name): 2021. And perhaps in the question of innocent trivia is embodied the essence of the past, crazy, surprising and difficult year we have gone through. We pushed aside the Euro football games, the Dubai Expo and the Cannes Film Festival because of the Corona plague, which took over the lives of all human beings on the planet: from New Zealand citizens to Iceland, from Iran to Israel.

Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon, Yoni Rickner

But in the same question, and in answering it, there is also great hope for a new year that will slowly bring us back to routine. And all thanks to the Man of the Year of 2021 – Mr. Vaccine, who will bring us back to the reality we all built with the good – and the bad. One can already bet on Mr. Vaccine as the hero of 2021. And the scientists and scientists who developed it … are already men and women of the decade, if not the century.

We are parting from 2020, a plague year that cruelly illustrated the limitations of globalization on the one hand, but on the other hand proved how we, in many ways, are one small village, when it comes to fear and shock in the face of danger and threats (plague), but also optimism, resourcefulness and much hope ( Vaccines).

2020 celebrations in South Korea // Photo: AP
Reception 2021 in South Korea // Photo: AP

The past year has taught us how much in times of crisis each country has itself (we were saddened by the loneliness of Italy at the beginning of the crisis), But how to get out of the crisis requires giving a shoulder between countries. And they gave to each other. The past year has not changed trends but only accelerated them.

The year 2021 is supposed to bring back to our lives the world of aviation, tourism, education and restaurants from the abysses into which they have sunk, thanks to the tremendous achievement of humanity, also from the fruits of 2020, a deceptive year in which good and evil mingled, flirted with each other. Only here in Israel could we see how illness and peace go hand in hand. I guess by 2090 a few more epidemics will break out, and perhaps speak in praise of our generation, which managed to develop a vaccine for a global epidemic at a speed we did not know.

There is no good without evil but there is also no evil without good. 2021 will go with 2020 hand in hand. The year of vaccination will also be the year of the rehabilitation of the economy, education, family relations, society, the workplace. We will return to socialize at conferences and events, even if there may be fewer of them, and digital will continue to run our daily lives. It’s an inevitable process, which the past year has accelerated – and taught us so much about its benefits, and its limitations. We learned, and it was not easy, that zoom can be a cheap and convenient replacement for conferences and meetings. But man is a social creature, and we will have to find the balance between the interpersonal encounter and the handshake (there is such a thing) and the encounter through the screen. A face-to-face meeting will no longer be a bad word, and maybe at some point we will also stop running to the car because we forgot a mask. We pray that in 2021 we will rediscover life after the mask. With a thorough hand washing I would actually continue. The viruses are not going anywhere.

Fireworks and crowds on the streets with the entry of 2020 in Indonesia // Photo: AP
It is wide - but desolate. Beginning of 2021 in Indonesia // Photo: AP

Their stage

And there are some trends that 2021 will probably not stop. The US will unfortunately continue to lose ground, and with Biden’s election to the presidency, it will probably return to the Obama era and do so voluntarily, while China will continue to run forward with viruses and vaccines at the same time. This will be a year the US tries to rebuild relations with the EU and China. But the salient trends will not change. The union will continue to sink, and its impact will continue to fade consistently. Presumably in 2021 the EU will continue to serve on the standard of the World Score Department. It might become his destiny, unfortunately.
Biden // Photo: AP

2021 will be an election year not only in Israel, but also in Germany. But if in Israel Netanyahu does not intend to step down under the auspices of the polls that give him the lead, then in Germany the chancellor and the most influential woman in the world, Angela Merkel, intends to vacate the arena in September. She does so after entering the Chancellor’s Office in November 2005. We may recall that Germany has years of experience with leaders: Conrad Adenauer (West German leader for 14 years) and of course Helmut Cole (16). But Merkel’s departure from the stage after four terms will undoubtedly be one of the great stories of 2021.

Trump // Photo: Reuters
Queue to get vaccinated in Florida // Photo: AP

We will open the year with the Georgia Senate election, which will reveal to us whether the United States is galloping forward in the colors of the Democrats, who have gained control of the White House and the lower house, or whether the Republicans will be able to maintain a position of power and influence over the Democrats. Will Biden renew the nuclear deal, or will the unrest that may erupt in the wake of the corona undermine the stability of the ayatollahs’ rule.There is a chance that the regime will fall from within, even if the headlines about an attack recur from time to time.

And although there are habits – and trends – that are difficult to change, we live in a changing world. And this is perhaps the best way to start 2021: hopefully, with optimism, but knowing that change can come quickly, that we need to learn to adapt quickly to a new reality, and work on flexibility.

Merkel // Photo: AP

Tomorrow is already here

And if we started with the Tokyo Olympics as an example of what happened last year and are expected to affect next year, then perhaps the fact that Ukraine, until recently part of the Soviet Union, buys vaccines from China, symbolizes how well tomorrow’s world… for my generation, born in the 60s, Tomorrow is already here. 2021 will prove it. We say goodbye to you in 2020 and thank you for the vaccines, and ask you in 2021: Come on, but come on easy. A good civil year and a quick and easy vaccination.

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