Now yes, the last day of the year has arrived, it is time to compile the maps and key data of a key year for 'old' dramas that are going further and new ones that, be careful, threaten to stay.
Whether you look far or close, 2023 leaves behind infinite challenges. Gathering what is central, what will last, is not easy, especially because of its number: it abounds!
Israel and Palestine, for example, have accumulated three quarters of a century of conflict and this year they add thousands more deaths to their history. Precisely for this reason it is insisted that if you come from afar, you will surely go far...
The map has gone from the 1947 limits to different ones a year later, to others in 1967, and to others in 1999. Today, it continues to be mutable. Tel Aviv targets Gaza and the West Bank after the Hamas massacre, but what to do once it controls – if it ends up controlling... – the strip? Nothing announces peace.
In parallel and largely in the Middle East, the Russian invasion of Ukraine falls off the radar, although if at the end of the war there were thousands of deaths, millions of displaced people and infinite consequences – for example, energy – for everyone, now it is the same. with the difference that what only a year ago no one wanted to see published, today barely raises dust. “It looks like Russia is winning,” she reads.
That is why it is advisable to look at the resistance, which will predictably gain prominence. The non-violent one, with women and surzhik as the vanguard. And the violent one, which adds cases that are drops in the ocean of the occupation but that insist that the war remains alive behind one front and another no matter how much they are more or less stable in the east of the country.
Furthermore, in the Hamas attack, no one explains how it is possible that the technological advances that Tel Aviv always treasures left it blind to Hamas' analog attack. Nor how is it possible that in the Ukrainian war, Elon Musk's Starlink satellites could blind Kyiv without prior notice when the tycoon feared a nuclear escalation.
That is why it is put on the table how relevant technology already is for everything. Also the dependencies it creates. Also that today “the world – there is nothing – remains in the hands of Musk” because he conditions here and there, even the US army and Beijing.
In addition, it is clear that wars that come to land are turning, no matter how much there is talk of a digitalized world. And with it, the large blocks of countries.
For example, NATO is revitalized and expanded with Finland and Sweden (in the absence of the not yet fully completed OK of Turkey-Erdogan). For example, Russia extends its influence in Africa while France mourns the farewell of Françafrique. For example, China continues its Belt and Road initiative, covering almost the entire global South despite very recent setbacks in the North, such as the departure of Giorgia Meloni's Italy.
The EU even puts back on the table the idea of expanding by swallowing “two monsters”, Ukraine and the Balkans.
We'll see what it turns out to be.
But there is no doubt that it is feared that Beijing will carry out an old threat with global consequences: taking over Taiwan, a rebellious island since the founding of the People's Republic that has prospered in its democratization and which the United States supports. .
The increase in hostility from mainland China against Taiwan is evident as the alternative of Hong Kong coexistence increasingly becomes a thing of the past. And it goes without saying that this is a sensitive area: the transit point for everything that is imported from the factory of the world that is still China to Europe and the area of origin of dozens of critical products for Europe, from China more than from anywhere. another country on the globe but also from Taiwan in chips.
This global review of the present that speaks of the future, however, cannot ignore the disagreements seen in the great climate conference, COP28, held in Dubai, which has not yet provided a clear or effective solution to the climate crisis. .
Therefore, in light of this, this special report that covers from east to west and from north to south the zero zones of the Mediterranean, which are many, serves as an example of what may be to come, because it heats up – for example – between three and five times faster than the global oceans.
To make it more local: in Spain summer already arrives a month early. And time is ticking.
And here it is global. Because 2023 ends and although outside everything is challenges, there is no shortage of them inside.
In Spain it is known that the debate on the amnesty for the process is going on for a long time. Also, it seems that the blocking of the renewal of the Judiciary body, which is celebrating its fifth year, is going to last a long time. But in parallel, social challenges abound. Although it depends on which Spain you look at.
To summarize:
● Beyond the fact that the economy is getting better, especially in terms of unemployment figures or that the coalition government has agreed to promote a working day of 37.5 hours a week (in reality, it is already a reality in part of the country). , especially in public entities), inequalities at street level stand out.
And often, one side or the other of the street, the train track, the park, remain two antagonistic worlds.
● Aging, in parallel, is increasing, and with it the needs to be covered by the elderly while their infrastructures, for example with respect to nursing homes, are stagnant at numbers of places below those recommended: 2.36 places for every 100 people over 65 years of age compared to the objective of five.
They are, therefore, a business that is mostly privatized, especially in large cities and the populated Spanish periphery. Less so in the aging and more rural interior of the country.
But the dilemma only aims to get bigger.
● At the same time, young people are scarce today and Spain sees the largest hole in the youth population in Europe while the academic evaluation results continue to accumulate failures.
● And all this with social spending that is lagging and in which Madrid and Barcelona are at the bottom of social investment despite being the two largest population centers in the country.
On the opposite side, the Basque Country, Navarra, the two Castiles and Extremadura stand out.
In short, both are data that make you think twice about the future that has been dragging on for years. Seen in greater perspective, they certify that although Spain is Europe, Europe is still far away in many standards of unemployment, precariousness and more.
Time to react?
There is so much to do. And in 2024 Spain once again faces the test of the polls. It will be time to choose. However, whatever is chosen, no matter how it goes, whoever wins in the Galician or Basque or European elections scheduled for June, it is worth remembering that lately the polls seem to generate more currents of opinion than certainties.
It is called the “democracy bubble.” The 2023 elections put it back on the table. Don't forget whichever way you look at it.
And finally, a little history.
In 2023 La Vanguardia dived to the depths where the last sunken ship of the Spanish Empire rests. Then it was expressed that “the official disinterest is surprising, or not: it is the story of a failure.” What this story teaches about that time and radiates to others in the present is not wasted.
