We've been to hell and back, but the worst is yet to come

The ended year will be etched in world history as a terrible year. It has been the perfect Greek annus horribilis, a season rich in unending tragedy, pain and suffering. In the first instalment of this column in January last year, I doubted the euphoric wisdom of shouting away ‘old years’ and shouting in ‘happy new years,’ almost as if we had sacred covenants with time. I questioned the notion of inherently happy years and sad years. It would seem that I was wrong.  

The year 2020 was inherently tragic. It especially brought with it a strange bug, the new coronavirus (Covid-19), imported from the previous year. The bug has literally put the world on its knees. Even as we start 2021, the entire global community is in liminal space, bringing with it into the new year all the challenges of the ended year. Disease, fear, death, unemployment and loss of income, homelessness, domestic helplessness and unease, despair and sundry misery is the new year’s heritage from the past two years.