It has been over a year since I last "blogged" and what a year it has been. Somehow, Churchill's words of "a tormented world," which I quoted in my last blog entry in February 2020 have rung true.
The pandemic hit our little island and affected our everyday lives and continues to do so. When talking of a tormented world, Churchill was referring to the ravages of a world war and how the world would recover from it, but the world has been living another war, a silent, invisible war, one which has taken away lives and ripped families apart, bringing tragedy to people's doorsteps, changing their situation forever.
Some unfortunates however, still remain in a self-imposed darkness, culturally redundant, with no effort made to self educate, form any sound opinions and lack self-evaluation and self-judgement. You would have thought a pandemic would have knocked some sense into them, but there are those who remain unbending and unabashed despite a world-changing event, acting in a selfish and egotistical manner and not learning anything in the last 15 months.
On the other hand, there are those who have learnt painful and difficult lessons during the pandemic and without any other choice available to them, have been forced to re-evaluate their life, often having to confront inner demons and an empty abyss and subsequently change.
In terms of business, some have sunk and some have swum. Those that were tinkering on closure even before the pandemic have now firmly closed their doors for good. Some were run-down establishments that couldn't keep up with the times and were badly managed.
Before the pandemic, Cyprus was doing exceptionally well economically, especially since 2016 up to 2019. This meant the government had the resources to sustain employees and businesses during this difficult period. We should be proud of how we have dealt with the pandemic, limiting the number of deaths. We are third in Europe in putting vaccines into arms and similarly high in testing.
The pandemic still exists, is still mutating, still lurking its ugly head and still causing deaths. Everything hangs in the balance and will remain so for at least the rest of the year. So what have we learnt and what are we learning if anything? Summer is here, restrictions have been eased and we feel freer but at the same time vigilant. Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum has said, "The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine and reset our world." Will we "reflect, reimagine and reset our world?" Have we already done so or do we need more time? Is "a happier sunlit age" brightly shining ahead? We will only have to wait and see.
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