When people in 2090 hold quizzes or participate in game shows, it is safe to say that some of the questions would look like this: "In what year did the Tokyo Olympic Games take place?" And the answer would also be just as baffling: "The 2020 games were held in 2021." This example is basically all you need to know about 2020: crazy, surprising, and difficult. The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship was put on hold; Dubai had to postpone its hosting of World Expo 2020, and the famous 2020 Cannes Film Festival was all but canceled as well. From New Zealand to Iceland, from Iran to Israel, the coronavirus took over our lives.
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But that 2090 question, however bizarre, also underscores the great hope for 2021. We wish this year to become a year of a gradual return to normalcy. This will be the year of the vaccine and Mr. Vaccine will put us back into a reality that we have had to forgo some 10 months ago, both the bad and good. The scientists that created Mr. Vaccine will no doubt get the title "the people of the decade," if not the "people of the century."
We bid farewell to the year of the pandemic that demonstrated, with terrible cruelty, that globalization can only take us so far. But it also proved – on so many levels – that we are indeed a global village when it comes to collective threats, as well as optimism, humanity's can-do spirit and the development of vaccines.
The past year taught us that despite having an interconnected world, each country fends for itself when a pandemic strikes: Italy was all alone the height of the crisis. But it also showed that we know how to lend a hand in order to pull nations up.
Now that we have entered a new year, we can look forward to the resumption of international travel and tourism, as well as to a somewhat normal school year and easier dining out routine. Those industries have begun to emerge from their darkest pandemic moments thanks to great human innovation that rose to the occasion in 2020 – a year that had a mixture of good and bad that would often be rolled into one. In Israel, pandemic and peace deals were very much complementary, with diplomatic breakthroughs unfolding even as the contagion spread. In 2090, people will look back and be amazed at how rapidly things progressed, and how we managed to move forward with vaccines at such an unprecedented pace.
Good always comes alongside the bad, and vice versa. The year 2021 will always be linked to 2020. The year of the vaccine will hopefully go down in history as the year when the economy, education, family relations, our social fabric, and our workplaces recovered. We will once again party in entertainment venues and attend conferences, however limited the options are; our digital reality would continue to dominate many aspects of our daily lives because this is just an irreversible process that has been accelerated by this past year. The digital world's shortcomings and advantages were both fully on display. As social animals, humans will have to adjust continually and reach an equilibrium between physical and online contact. I am old enough to remember people shaking hands and this could become a reality again, just like we might one day not have to run back from the car to get a mask that we had forgotten at home. Let's hope that even when the pandemic is history, thoroughly washing our hands would still be the norm, because viruses are here to stay.
Some of the trends that have begun in 2020 will most likely continue into the new year. The US under soon-to-be-president Joe Biden's leadership will see its status diminish and essentially revert to the Obama era; China will continue to rise, and the EU will continue its slide toward decay and its influence will increasingly wane. It is safe to assume that the EU will continue handing out grades to countries, as this may very well become its sole purpose.
This year will be a year of yet another general election in Israel, but also in Germany. But unlike in Berlin, the leader in Jerusalem has no plans to step down, riding high in the polls. Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed not to seek another term, having served since for over 10 years, like many of her predecessors. But Merkel's departure will be one of the biggest events of 2021.
In the US, 2021 kicks off with two high-stakes Senate races in Georgia, which will decide who occupies two seats in the upper chamber in Congress, and ultimately which party controls the 100-member body. It will also be a year rich with Iran-related stories. Will Biden re-enter the 2015 nuclear deal, or will the ayatollahs lose their grip on power because of massive discontent due to the pandemic? Thus, despite the many reports on a possible US strike to topple the regime, the country could very well implode from within.
Although there are some trends that we cannot change, we live in a changing world. This is perhaps the best way to launch 2021: with optimism, hope, and a willingness to accept that things could change on a dime and we would once again have to adjust to a new reality through our flexibility.
And since we started with the question on the Olympic Games as a way to symbolize crazy 2020, let's end with another form of symbolism: the interconnectivity of vaccines. The fact that Ukraine – a former Soviet republic – now buys vaccines from China underscores the degree to which the world has changed for the good. For someone like me who was born in the 1960s, the future is already here, and 2021 will prove just that. We say goodbye to 2020 and thank it for the vaccines, and ask 2021 to be easy on us. May everyone have a happy new year and may you all get the vaccines in short order.
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