Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time
/For many of us, a new year is the time to look back at what happened or did not happen over the last year and to make at least a few plans for the year to come but this last year, of course, has been dominated by a pandemic and, looking forward, it could well be be more of the same and more of the same for the foreseeable future ....
It feels as if our normal lives have been on hold for too long so, when the pandemic ends or new outbreaks of the virus have been contained, the temptation will be to try to get back to how it was before and put our lives back on track and as quickly as possible .... but is that the right approach? It's understandable but shouldn't all the deaths and all that disruption - the suspension of our normal - show us that, actually, it could all happen again and could even be worse next time?
In Denmark, we are not in a strict lockdown now but people are still wary .... generally, social distancing is respected; people are avoiding public transport; as many as can are working from home and there are large and well used virus test centres set up around the city.
There has been no panic buying; very very few people have refused to comply with guide lines and regulations; government systems for news and for telling people what they should or should not do were up and running quickly; inoculation programmes have run smoothly and on-line systems for booking appointments for jabs were easy to use and worked. For the three jabs I had over the year, booking online for time slots worked, the centres I went to were clean, bright and efficient and the staff brilliant .... calm and organised but friendly. It was all a role model for how these things can be dealt with in an affluent country in Europe.
And maybe that is where there is one area that has to be reassessed by national governments and global organisations ....
The pandemic was and still is a global problem that can only be dealt with by global solutions but it has revealed that a world-wide response to a world wide problem is far from easy and far from equitable.
That should ring warning bells about how we tackle global warming and climate change and that will have an impact on every country and on everyone.
