Achievements Made In 2022

Positive and negative things usually go hand in hand. Unfortunately, human tendency is to see the negative aspects of life more, resulting in rise in a negative attitude to things. As the digital age is advancing, the flow of information is not limited only to the traditional media such as newspapers, radios and TVs. The news is at the fingertips for those who have access to digital networks. The social media has become a very powerful source of sharing of news and information both on the personal, professional and other levels of life.  But human mindset has become such that people are very quick in sharing negative news rather than positive one. Let us review in this episode a few of the positive aspects of 2022 in Nepal and outside.

The most remarkable event in 2022 is the second successful elections to federal, provincial and local level held after Nepal became a Federal Democratic Republic. The costs in advertisements and fanfare decreased somewhat in the last election year. Fresh new faces dared to contest the elections, and some of them emerged victorious and are a new force in Nepal’s political history. These are positive news, and now Nepal’s government has a mixture of old and new faces, which means that experience and new skills and education can combine together for the development of the nation. 

Major projects 

During 2022, three major development projects were progressed:  parliamentary endorsement of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which is an American grant for the development of transmission lines and road improvements; conceptualisation of the Detailed Feasibility Report (DPR) of the Raxaul-Kathmandu Railway line by the Indian government and the conceptualisation of DPR of the Kerung-Kathmandu railway line by the Chinese government. These three projects will facilitate the road connectivity with the two big neighbours and the export of electricity to India. The commitments for environmental protection are taken in all three projects.

 After the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, these projects will generate employment opportunities to the local population and will speed up the development of the country. The positive side of these three major development activities will result in the balancing the geopolitics of Nepal and its relationships with these giant friendly nations. Due to Nepal’s geographical positioning, there have been individual interests of our friendly countries in their involvement here. 

On the global scale, life has started to become normal since 2022 after the crippling impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is in itself a point to rejoice. There has been great advancement in the development of vaccines against COVID-19 which was accelerated far more as compared to development of other vaccines in the past for other diseases. There were advancements in medicine in other fields, too. According to Euronews, in February of 2022, a ground-breaking spinal implant was developed which has become key to helping paralysed patients walk, cycle and even swim. The same report mentions that a team of researchers in USA claim that they have potentially cured HIV in a woman, which would make her the first female to be cured of the virus. 

Euronews reports that in March of 2022 a milestone was achieved in women’s football history as more than 91,000 attendances broke the record for a woman’s club match when Barcelona played Real Madrid at Camp Nou Stadium, which is the first-time women’s team has played on the iconic pitch in front of a crowd. 

In Nepal we feel that menstrual related issues are difficult for our girls here whereas in western countries there is no problem. Euronews reports that in August of 2022 Scotland became the first country to make products related to menstrual periods free. At that time one in 10 girls in the United Kingdom was unable to afford sanitary towels and tampons. In September of 2022 a latest technology from the Ocean Clean-up, a Dutch project was developed to clean up the floating plastic from the oceans. This is expected to have the potential to remove 90 per cent of the plastics by 2040.

Although wars are not good for anyone, it happens for various reasons. Putin’s war against Ukraine has led to a paradigm shift in the energy sector. The West wanted to separate itself from Russian gas thus started to ramp up renewables. The International Energy Agency says that Putin’s war was “historic turning point towards a cleaner future”. 

Increasing wild cats

Nepal has shown that the population of tigers has increased and the result that was shared in 2022 is that it has almost doubled. According to WWF, Nepal is to become the first country on earth to double its wild tiger population since 2010. According the report based on results from the country’s most recent tiger survey, there are now an estimated 235 wild tigers, nearly twice the number of tigers counted in 2009. Similar positive news is that Uttarakhand in India now has more than 100 snow leopards in its wilds. According to a most recent census there, the snow leopard population is now 121. 

There have been seismic shifts in energy, major advancements in the medical sectors, increase in rare animal population and most importantly the digital media has become a platform where people enjoying each other’s companies can be shared to create a ripple effect of spreading the joy. Let us start sharing and creating more positive news and views in 2023. Happy new year to all readers. 

(Sharma is a journalist and women rights advocate namrata1964@yahoo.com Twitter handle: NamrataSharmaP