Our View: the only certainty in 2021 will be more uncertainty 

All anyone could say about 2020 is good riddance, but that does not mean 2021 is destined to be any better despite everyone’s hopes. Maybe it will and maybe it won’t. The only certainty is that we’re heading into another year of uncertainty.  

To listen to UN bodies recently anyone would think the world was coming to an end. As if coronavirus and its mutant cousins were not bad enough, Professor David Heymann, the chair of the WHO’s strategic and technical advisory group for infectious hazards, said the other day that even though the coronavirus pandemic has been very severe, it is “not necessarily the big one”.

The head of the World Food Programme’s Executive Director David Beasley in December predicted famines “of biblical proportions” in 2021 and UN chief Antonio Guterres wants every country to declare a Climate State of Emergency because we’re running out of time.

Over at the World Economic Forum, which is driving the Great Reset, they’re warning of a ‘Cyberpandemic’ that will dwarf the effects of Covid. It could be weeks. it could be months, they say, but it’s coming and could shut down power, water and the internet.

The doom and gloom coming from these global luminaries is palpable. All we need now is an alert from Nasa that an asteroid is coming or that Planet X is real and could pull the earth out of orbit and into a black hole.

Leaving aside the global catastrophes from the prophets of doom, the realities of 2021 will hit home more on an individual level. More deaths, lockups, restrictions, testing, travel health passes to fly, unemployment, depression and all that they bring, antisocial distancing that diminishes human contact and makes people fear each other as walking germ factories, masks that hide people’s faces and smiles, and polarisation because probably for the first time in history a virus has become a divisive issue.

Many are pinning their hopes on ‘the vaccine’. Will it get rid of Covid? This won’t happen right away because firstly vaccination will be a slow process and secondly the best that can be hoped for from the shots right now is a reduction in symptoms, leading to much fewer deaths. This would of course be a major development but not enough to restore normality for the best part of the coming year. If Covid or its cousins mutate even more, well, all bets will be off.

Looking forward, the only thing left to say about 2021 really is… roll on 2022.

If that sound too pessimistic, it is worth reminding ourselves that the world has been through worse many times over but humanity has soldiered on. 

In the meantime all people can do is try to adapt to each new circumstance as it comes, maintain a sense of humour where possible, see friends and family whenever they are able, try not to let fear run their lives, and find new things to enjoy on a personal level. 

At a minimum, in Cyprus at least, the sun is almost always shining, so best wishes then for a ‘Happier’ New Year and remember; Illegitimi non carborundum.