A difficult year ends, 2021. Contagions on the rise for the Omicron variant, and, between prudence and fears, new measures to contain the virus and strengthened border controls. A gray year is beginning for Italy and for the world.
Thus we greet a calendar marked by a crisis not only health but also economic-social and relational not yet concluded.
“A wave of irrationality rises alongside the reasonable and wise majority. It is a fatuous sleep of reason, a fatal escape into magical, witchcraft and shamanic thinking, which claims to decipher the occult sense of reality “, explains the Censis 2021 Report. For 5.9% of Italians (about 3 million), Covid it does not exist, for 10.9% the vaccine is useless. For 5.8% the earth is flat and for 10% man has never landed on the moon.
In the uncertainty of the future, a new major emergency and the dramatic decline in the birth rate. According to Istat, in the first nine months of 2021, 12,000 and 500 fewer births than in the same period of 2020, a decline almost double compared to what was observed between January and September of the previous year.
But, with the new year upon us, the real challenge of responsibility is to look forward with confidence.
The Economist has crowned Italy “Country of the Year” for 2021. Not for the greater happiness and well-being but for the better progress in the effectiveness of the vaccination plan and for the competence of the Prime Minister Mario Draghi, a recognized leader at international.
Race against time to achieve the 51 objectives of the NRP, largely already acquired, crucial for the disbursement of resources but also the cornerstone of a political process of European integration.
Fighting the pandemic and economic development are therefore the priorities of a decidedly complex period. In a context that requires ever greater international cooperation and global solidarity, together with individual responsibility and common sense.
And as we look at the data, analyzes and forecasts, what is the favorite gift in the New Year’s horoscope
Health, love or work
And what change and transformation awaits us, for a different and better approach to life
A silent melancholy seems to have cooled everything a bit over the past two years. Projects, wishes and relationships.
In the despair of a broken society, however, a future of hope that starts from the soul and the heart is imposed.
2021 saw feelings and emotions rise again. No longer factors of vulnerability and dispersion but a compass for 2022, in the society overwhelmed by the virus.
A route to question oneself and grasp, even in fragility and imperfection, that special dimension that goes beyond appearance, recovering, in depth, the strength and exceptional nature of feeling.
And the extraordinary perspective of women, always. A greatness defined by an even dark interior part that becomes energy.
While the political debate is increasingly animated for a succession that does not exclude the hope of seeing, in 2022, a woman head of state, in the year that ends and the critical awareness has matured for a greater female presence as a strategic theme of the recovery in the world that awaits us. In a virtuous logic of an inclusive society and acceleration of the economic and productive system.
According to the “European Institute for Gender Equality” report, active policies in favor of women would record an increase of about 11 million jobs in Europe in 2050 and an increase in GDP, at EU level, between 6 and 9%. But equality between men and women in the European Union is improving very slowly, according to the document, and Italy is in fourteenth place in Europe.
Gender equality and Goal 5 of the 2030 Agenda for UN Sustainable Development is a key principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights. A strategic element of the NRP, the national legislative protection is strengthened in favor of equal wages, employment and female entrepreneurship and there is a greater participation of women in the decision-making processes of political and economic life.
Women 2021 certainly did not go unnoticed. More and more at the forefront, in every latitude and sector. From politics to economics and science, from the world of work to the environment, from human rights to literature and sport.
Women leaders in the first person, famous women and not, and every single woman in her own social, family and individual context. United by competence, courage, passion and patience and united by a “vision” of the future that accepts the challenges of tomorrow.
In 2021, awards and successes marked the women’s calendar for the “first time”.
Leading the New York Police Department, first time for a woman, African American Keechant Sewell, “a proven crime fighter, with the emotional intelligence to offer security and justice,” as stated by Mayor Eric Adams. , for a city with a 100% increase in hate crime.
And so Michelle Wu, 36, the daughter of immigrants from Taiwan, made history as the first woman and first Asian to be elected mayor of Boston.
For Kamala Harris, vice president of the United States of America, the first woman to cover (albeit for only 80 minutes), the role of president of the United States of America, 2022 will be a test, after some difficulties that have emerged in recent months . Alessandra Galloni, first woman, in 170 years, managing director of Reuters, and leading a team of about 2,450 journalists and 600 photojournalists. And Maria Chiara Carrozza, expert in bioengineering and biorobotics, the first female president in the history of Cnr, explained: “I pushed myself towards robotics for ethical reasons. I wanted to help fragile people, the disabled, the elderly ”.
First woman to head the secret services in Italy. And Elisabetta Belloni , a diplomat who has always been involved in international emergencies.
And, again, the first European woman (and third in the world) commander of the International Space Station, the first Italian to fly into space, and the astronaut and aviator of the Air Force Samantha Cristoforetti. “Being commander does not mean giving orders, but being a facilitator”, to better coordinate teamwork and make sure that “every problem can be solved”, she said.
Few but increasing, in 2021, women broke the “glass ceiling” in academia. A career traditionally closed to the female universe. After Antonella Polimeni , at the helm of the La Sapienza University of Rome, and rector, in Padua, Daniela Mapelli and, in Florence, Alessandra Petrucci.
The female component of women “for the first time” is increasingly numerous, in the Vatican 2021 of Pope Bergoglio.
After the appointment of the economist Sr. Alessandra Smerilli , undersecretary of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, last in order of time are Sister Raffaella Petrini, Secretary General of the Governorate and Sister Nathalie Becquart,undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops. Secretary General of the Pontifical Lateran and Immaculate Incocciati University , the first lay figure in this role. Promoter of justice of the Vatican City State Court of Appeal (equivalent to the role of public prosecutor), for the first time and a woman, Catia Summaria.
It is impossible to remember all the “special” women of 2021. The
same leadership, in many sectors, based on “values”, not on the “gender” of women. A paradigm shift of thinking, acting and feeling for a disoriented humanity and looking for a turning point for tomorrow that requires courage, together with competence and determination. Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputiand first female Serie A soccer referee, to say enough to sexist chants and violent insults.
And also thanks to Simon Biles who expects, for this year, a special agency against abuses in sport, according to a proposal that has already obtained the support of the European Council. Artistic gymnastics champion (five medals in Rio 2016) retired at the Tokyo Olympics, Simon has obtained, along with hundreds of other girls and boys, a compensation that she will not be able, however, to cancel the injuries for having suffered harassment by the doctor of the national.
And solidarity also has, to a large extent, the face of women in the year that is ending. In large communities as in small associations or privately, all animated by the desire to share and help those in need.
Focsiv 2021 International Volunteer Award to Helene Augusta Ehret , 87, founder of the Missione Calcutta association, 30 years of love for women and girls, rescued from loneliness and mistreatment, and to Prisca Mwaitenele, “Volunteer of the South” award, 46, affected from poliomyelitis to only 4 years, teacher of children with disabilities in Tanzania. Tenacity, altruism and dedication are the light of a life serving others for Focsiv 2021 women.
In civil society, the need for solidarity is growing. The “Buy Nothing” app was born from two women, with 4 million subscribers in 44 countries. Recipe not to waste anything and for the sake of giving, creating a “network” of connection of humanity.
But, perhaps, imagining an uncertain future to be defined, and above all the strength of limits and suffering, the added value of women 2021.
Tried by uncertainty and disorientation, desperate for references, we will be able to recompose the fragments of life with a new feeling
And perhaps, having abolished the iconic “winning” images of the past, we will be able to perceive that the past was not so “perfect”
In the Christmas message, Cardinal Mauro Gambettihe recalled: “The Church is not the people of the perfect but of the people of believers. Whoever has not turned away from God out of dullness, out of fear, out of pride, Peter is a witness of the faith, not of perfection ”. “It is necessary to raise the eyes of the heart, letting oneself be grasped by the promise of redemption, opening oneself to the surprises of life”. Liliana Segre , 91, president of the Extraordinary Commission for the fight against incitement to hatred and violence, and a symbol, in private and institutional life, of a human culture of knowledge against extremism and intolerance, hatred and indifference. “A new female protagonism is no longer just a choice, and a necessity”, to get out of the pandemic “with a different level of civilization”, said the senator.
Exciting the Mameli’s hymn played, at the Quirinale, in the year that passes, by the piano of Frida Bollani , a musician at the age of 16, daughter of art, visually impaired. “I consider it a gift, indeed. Precisely for this reason nature has given me many other things, such as the ability to listen differently than others and perfect pitch. The luck of not seeing, or seeing very little, has allowed me to develop and keep my hearing trained ”, are the powerful words of Frida.
And never, as in 2021, have Paralympic women given so many messages for life. Aware that, beyond architectural barriers, and still along the way to break down the mental ones. “Heroes are created at the Olympics, heroes arrive at the Paralympics”, they recall. Amber Sabatini,20 years old, and “perfectly imperfect”, as she communicates with a tattoo on her body. “Imperfection” which for the athlete, Paralympic gold in athletics 2021, meant strength, in a “second life” that began after the dramatic accident of 2019.
And so Bebe Vio , Paralympic gold in foil at the Tokyo Games, in the uncertainty and in difficulties, a “myth” not only in sports but with the ability to restart from suffering through a winning change of mind and heart.
Women witnesses of the time, in 2021, each in their own way.
Yet, in a world that seems to want to free itself from prejudices, injustices and stereotypes, the violence has not stopped. In Italy alone, 109 femicides in 2021.
Harassment at work, violence in the home, physical and mental. Abuses even in religious life, to “oppress or even manipulate and destroy” consecrated women, as we read in the preface to Salvatore Cernuzio ‘s book “The Veil of Silence” (ed. San Paolo).
In the year 2022 of the recovery and, hopefully, of the defeat of the virus, the future of the soul and heart wants to go towards life, recognizing its value in the fragility of the world. It is the special opportunity not to disperse the extraordinary strength of the interiority and dissipate, together with indifference and violence, a deeper malaise.
Happy New Year 2022!
