By Morf Morford, Tacoma Daily Index
2022 was a year like no other. In a sense, that is true of every year. But 2022 defied expectations from the very beginning.
Unlike 2021, which literally began with a contested presidential election and an insurrection on our Capitol steps, 2022 began quietly. Until late February, when Russia initiated the first active land war in Europe since World War II.
Wars and rumors…
To put it simply, the “short” war did not go as expected. In fact, on a military, economic and public relations basis, this war has been a disaster – for Ukraine, Russia, most of Europe and much of Southeast Asia and Africa.
Russia cut off fuel oil supplies to Europe and grain shipments from Ukraine were impeded, if not blocked, to increasingly desperate markets across Asia and Africa.
President (for life) Putin declared the possible use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
For what ever reason, North Korea has tested several rockets and missiles in the past year or two – including an intermediate-range rocket that flew over Japan. And had the capacity to reach the USA. And carry nuclear warheads.
China increased its rhetoric about “reclaiming” Taiwan.
Culture wars
As if the threat of literal war around the world was not enough, many of us in the USA decided to “declare war” on fellow citizens, and schools and any, maybe even all, public spaces.
Almost any topic or gathering became a forum for actual (or imaginary) paranoia or hysteria.
Whether it was CRT (NOT cathode ray tubes) or antifa or cat litter boxes or personal pronouns, politicians and other media talking-heads got a lot of air time (or even got elected) fulminating about phantasms on the political or cultural horizon.
For better or worse, politicians (and many other public figures who should know better) have learned that these issues are polarizing topics and positions that have limited (but often passionate) voter and viewer appeal.
You don’t have to be a political scientist to see that these rantings have, at minimum, the potential to inspire fundamental bigotries leading to ever greater and more damaging, and permanent divisions. And ever more increasingly violent reactions.
If “woke” and “anti-woke” seem like fragments from an alien language, you are not alone. In fact, you are in the clear majority.
I am sure we will all be glad when our vocabulary and our attention has more enduring and consequential reference points.
2022 has given us much to not be proud of – I nominate culture wars as the most embarrassing aspect of the year.
Second only to some of the pop culture heroes/villains the year gave us…
Twitter & Tesla
Elon Musk, for example, dominated headlines toward the end of 2022 for his “creative” leadership of Twitter and Tesla. Both companies saw record declines in sales and stock value in December.
Thanks to Musk’s erratic management style, public support (if not infatuation) with electric cars and social media has declined dramatically.
FTX, a multi-billion dollar cyber-currency company few of us had heard of before November of 2022, crashed and filed for bankruptcy, unleashing a wave of related financial (especially cyber-currency) disruptions.
The death of a Queen
Queen Elizabeth, the longest reigning monarch in British history, died in September. She had held the throne since February 1952.
And then there were 8 billion of us
Those who keep track of such things say that world population passed 8 billion in November of 2022. Many demographers project a gradual (or even not so gradual) population decline. We shall see.
Europe, North America and Asia have seen population declines. Africa is seeing the most dramatic population growth.
Crime and punishment
Crime (and sometimes punishment) locally and nationally dominated our headlines in 2022.
Most of us, especially those accustomed to the fever-pitch news of cable TV, ascribed crime (especially the violent types) to the “liberal cities” like San Francisco and New York City. A look at actual facts tells a slightly different story.
Black males, for example, are vastly more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators.
Memphis, TN, St.Louis, MO and even Pine Bluff, AR, not New York or Chicago, had the highest per capita violent crime rate for several years – according to the FBI’s 2020 Uniform Crime Report.
Weather
In almost every corner of the world, every aspect of weather seemed to acquire a dangerous edge; heat waves, historic rainfall, devastating flash floods, wildfires, hurricanes and persistent drought dominated our headlines and conversations. And budgets. And food supply chains.
Annual harvests around the world were convulsed by unproductive weather, resulting in record shortages, even famines across Africa and much of Asia. And higher prices for everyone else.
For those of us in the USA, summer 2022 was the third hottest on record. For us in the Pacific Northwest, it was not only the hottest and longest summer (with 80 degree days well into October), it was also the driest.
Our normally drizzly November had more than 15 days with no precipitation. Even December was drier than usual.
The year ended with an Arctic blast which sent below freezing temperatures as far south as Mexico and Florida. These ice storms paralyzed all modes of travel over Christmas – and several days beyond.
We in the Puget Sound area experienced our first freezing rain in about twenty years. Freezing rain, for those who don’t know, is when rain meets frozen ground (and everything else, from power lines to tree branches) and freezes on contact.
Grinch-mas in Pierce County
At least four substations in rural Pierce County were damaged early Christmas morning which led to power outages for several thousand residents and businesses. This was during the sub-freezing weather.
The FBI is assisting local law enforcement in investigating an alleged white supremacist group who has been planning a system of power outages across the U.S. by attacking the grid.
Modern day Manger scene
Also on Christmas day, Texas sent several bus loads of immigrants to the neighborhood of Vice President Kamala Harris. Dressed for warm weather, these families were left on a suburban sidewalk with no shelter or services. I believe this was meant to be a record setting re-enactment of a living Nativity on a large scale.
Housing
The housing (and housing construction) market sizzled in 2022 – until it suddenly didn’t.
Interest rates increased seven times in 2022. An average of about half a percentage point each time.
Home mortgage rates passed 7% – about double what they were in January.
As expected, or perhaps even intended, home sales dropped dramatically in the second half of the year.
On a related note, credit card interest rates surpassed 22% by the end of the year.
Inflation
In January of 2022, few Americans even knew the definition of inflation as an economic term. By the end of the year, we all knew.
Inflation reached a near 40 year high in the USA.
It reached even higher levels in Europe.
Recession, another term that was an abstraction to many in January, looks ever more likely in 2023 – especially in Europe.
French baguette earns UNESCO protection
While American have been recognized, almost world wide, for having “the worst bread in the universe”, the same is not true of the French.
The iconic baguette, the long, crusty loaf bread that is a delicious staple of French life, has been awarded special protected status, placing it in a culinary pantheon alongside other regional food delicacies from around the world and on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, including the making of Neapolitan pizza, kimchi, Belgian beer culture, the “Mediterranean diet”, and Arabic coffee.
In contrast to its American counterpart, authentic baguettes can only be made with four ingredients — flour, water, salt and yeast or leavening — and must be baked on site.
The return of telephone booths
If you thought the “vinyl revival” was strange, what would you think of a telephone booth revival?
Telephone booths were the ultimate furniture on the American landscape. They offered refuge, connections and, for some superheroes, a place to change clothes. And they are back. But this time they don’t require pocket change (or even a card) – they are free.
At this point, they are only in Philadelphia, but there could be one in your neighborhood soon.
You can see details on NPR.
No more teachers, no more books – at least for women in Afghanistan
In a move to consolidate power, or at least its place in history, the Taliban in Afghanistan banned all higher education for women in both public and private universities. Female teachers at lower levels were told to go home “until further notice”. To seek education, or freedom in almost any area, women need to leave the country.
Women not welcome in the workplace
The Taliban later banned the employment of women by NGOs and other non-profit organizations in Afghanistan. In response, most organizations either have or will soon leave the country.
After promising full rights for women, the Taliban has assured women that they have all rights of employment and citizenship as long as they stay home, don’t speak and don’t show themselves in public.
Annus Horribilis
As I see people in shops and on the streets around town, I am struck by the toll the past year has taken on the faces and even postures and attitudes of most of those I see.
From COVID to weather to the convolutions of the economy to rising local crime and rampant political divisiveness and hostility, many of us have encountered sustained stress and dislocation to a degree few of us have ever seen before.
In short, there have probably never been so many of us so glad to see a year come to an end.
There is nothing magic, of course, about the closing of the calendar year, but in more ways than most of us could say, many of us are more ready than ever for a new year.
