What can we expect for the New Year?

Predictions are difficult. They’re risky. Who can predict the future?

That’s why they are more like a catalogue of our desires or a wish list – and the hope for their fulfillment rather than normal predictions.

What is certain, for now at least, is the sense of hope by which we are possessed. The hope that ‘the new’ brings. The hope of having a good year.

However, the new year does not come in a vacuum. It succeeds the old one. It comes with a legacy, baggage – big and heavy.

The hope, then, is that in time, within 2023, the situation inherited will be cleared up and that the new year will turn into a good year. That is, a year not without any problems – that is not possible – but with few problems.

The big, visible, general problems that 2023 inherits are the serious international economic situation and the war in Ukraine.
The economic one will pass. We’ve been through enough similar situations.

But the war in Ukraine, a war that has been raging since February, exposes the whole of humanity to serious danger. The longer it is delayed, the greater the danger. After all, this is the first time that humanity has been seriously threatened with nuclear war. In other words, annihilation. Who would have thought that this would happen in 2022?

In the Greek sphere, the major issue is of course the Greek-Turkish conflict. A situation that, while it seems to be a single Greek-Turkish issue, is a more general one. Because a possible Greek-Turkish conflict would affect the whole region – and beyond.

Turkey’s threats of war against Greece are so frequent and have been going on for so long that we are getting used to them. They no longer cause us much surprise or concern.
But how common are threats of war by one country against another? And how can one get used to them or not take them seriously?

If 2022 has taught us anything, if Putin has taught us anything, it is that we ought to take them seriously.

In 2023 Greece will hold elections. That is, of course, a good thing. That is how democracy works.

It is expected that the outcome of the elections will be such that it will confirm that hope triumphs over fear. That the future will overcome the past.

And thus the country will be able to consolidate the important achievements it has recently attained. And, moreover, it will be given opportunities for new ones.

Turning to the United States, we must begin by noting that American society continues to be divided – however, not as much as in the past. Rather, people are tired of Trump and Biden. New faces are being sought. In 2023 this situation will become clearer, as we will go to elections in 2024.

Like I said, predictions are risky. That’s why I avoid them.

But hope dies hard.

From the bottom of my heart, I wish you health, peace, happiness, and spiritual uplift for 2023.

And thank you for reading us.