The Year 2022: Perspectives, Audits, and Reflections

It is customary for me to do a piece at the end of every year, for 6 years now, taking a critical look at the various aspects relative to what most of us put in writing or thought as yearly resolutions. Today I decided to take a holistic view from a global angle about the year 2022.
This is largely because, for the first time in those six years, I am writing the last article of the year outside Kenya. Seated with the frailty of a bleeding soul yearning for true purpose, looking outside the window to this expansive farm next to me, over 7,000 kilometers from home I realize the variety in my readership and the best I can do is to simply be aware of that fact.
Internationally
One of the biggest and latest global events took place a few weeks ago. The FIFA world cup. This year’s event was hosted in Qatar and for some reason, I intentionally chose to watch some matches in the Arabic language in solidarity with the hosts. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn any Arabic by the end.
The most interesting thing was the winners, Argentina, were beaten by Saudi Arabia in the group stages. And the star of the finals would inarguably be crowned Kylian Mpappe. The dude scored a total of four goals in the entire game.
I came to the conclusion that you could be the smartest guy there is and still fail to get the top position. Not because you are not able, nay. Maybe the circumstances are not right and in the traditional beliefs, the ‘gods’ are not in your support. Generally, it was a world cup like no other and we look forward to an even more interesting tournament in 2026.
2022 may have been a good year for some countries and a sad one for others. In my birth country Kenya, we had general elections in August which were peaceful and saw a smooth transition of power. As always there were winners and losers. We now have a new government in power and citizens are poignantly expecting the administration to deliver on its mandate.
At the same time, Kenya lost one of its best presidents of all time in April; Emilio Mwai Kibaki. As I followed up with the eulogizing, it was apparent the citizens felt the loss as he is credited with opening up the country to the great economic success that we continue to see today.
Tanzania as well lost a seating president the late Pombe Magufuli. And with that, the EAC saw the first female president; Mama Suluhu Hassan. This continued to prove once again that women too can rise to the very top and govern as presidents.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, the country I am writing from lost its beloved Queen. Queen Elizabeth died in September in her Balmoral residence in Scotland having held that title for 70 years. She was mourned the world over as a great and astounding leader. She was loved by many British people and the rest of the world and will remain in the hearts of many for ages to come. With her death, king Charles III assumed office.

In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and things have not been the same since. Oil prices skyrocketed, supply chains became disrupted and costs of living rose in very many countries around the globe. The war opened up the eyes of many people to the over-dependence on other countries and now governments are strategizing on building sufficient capacity in terms of energy, food, and other critical areas to avoid unforeseen problems.
Other notable events that took place in 2022 include the 2022 winter Olympics in Beijing, and the arrival of the James Webb Telescope at its destination in 2022 though launched on Christmas eve in 2021. The telescope will aid greater space exploration and help us learn more about this universe.
The US 2022 mid-term elections took place as well with the democrats holding the majority seats in the senate and house of representatives. This gives the democrats some strategic governing advantage compared to an equal or lower number of seats.
COP27 took place in Cairo Egypt with more organizations and corporates committing themselves towards the net zero emission goal. However, there is more than the commitment in word and speech. We now seek ways in which to coarse these organizations to share data on their activities to quantitatively determine our progress towards that course.
Personal scale
On a personal scale, I hope you can look at the resolutions you had at the start of the year and audit your present situation and see what needs to be done in the year 2023 to turn things around. The best approach I have learned this year is to ensure you break down your resolutions into small manageable tasks and create a road map of them.
By auditing, you get to know what didn’t work out, and possibly you can tell why it didn’t work so that that becomes your starting point in 2023. Maybe you planned for more than you could manage or you lost some track along the way. Whatever the case, it is important to reflect on your year.
To my friends who managed to meet their goals of starting families, congratulations. To those planning for 2023, there is no better time to start thinking than now. To the others who got jobs and to those that started their businesses, big up.
The greatest lesson for the year and years past is that life goes on. Years roll by. We choose whether to seat and do nothing or we will do our best to turn our world around. The second part is what determines whether we will have what to reflect upon at the end of the year or not. The choice is ours.
Happy festive season from all of us at Daily Focus!