Folks, what a nightmare 2022 was? Like one of my friends would say, “We certainly got the heck of 2022”- with so many uncertainties everywhere… the economies crashing on our budget with inflation like never before, rising food prices leaving many with much less to eat, high cost of fuel driving prices of nearly everything from transportation to groceries putting undue pressure on singles and hardworking families like yours. You know what? All of this happened when the world’s population turned 8 billion. That is 1 billion more mouths to feed in the midst of the worst hunger crisis, 1 billion more pressure on a worsening global climate crisis, 1 billion more strain on a weakening global economy and job market, and 1 billion more pressure on a crashing global health system. It has not been easy indeed.
But let’s take a deeper look at some of the painful highlights of the year on families and communities.
WFP reports that “A staggering 50 million people in 45 countries are just one step from famine,” while more than 800 million people went hungry in 2022. That is almost 1 billion people, the same number by which the world’s population increased; and this is caused largely by the high fuel and food prices, increasing poverty; and worsening global conflicts and climate conditions.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations statistics show global food prices reaching alarming proportion with devastating effects on households and families. Remember that all this is just after the impact of the 2020 COVID-19 sting which caused extreme poverty to increase for the first time in nearly 100 years reversing the gains the world had made.
As if this is not enough folks; the worst part of it all is the stark increase in global conflicts around the world
The world is witnessing a plague of conflicts doubling in 11 years to about 175 state-based, non-state and one-sided. Doesn’t this seem a little like a melodrama when the stakes are so high here?
And as if all this is still not enough, while the world made some bold moves, the level of human activities exhibiting the global climate crisis is still too high and more actions are needed to reduce the level of vulnerabilities.
By now its safe to say, “Oh God, what a year 2022 was?” I get that choking feeling of the loss of breath you might experience when it all just feels a little too much. I feel the same. It seemed there was no way to turn… just chaos everywhere. This 8 minutes video from “The New Humanitarian” gave a summary of 2022 in review: 2022- Year in Perspective. I encourage you to take a moment and watch the video if you can.
In the midst of all this craziness, by now, I thought I would have had better news for 2023. But experts are predicting that the madness continues in 2013, it would seem.
Building on the trends of 2022 and overlooking 2023, the predictions are beginning with “The usual odds” … the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts a likely global recession for 2023 and that 2023 will be more difficult than 2022… a slowdown in the global economy. Watch this short 2 minutes video from the IMF: IMF predictions for 2023.
But what does this all mean for families like ours- this means, slow businesses, increasing job loss (note that large tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, etc. have already started cutting jobs for the 1,000s in January 2023 already), decreasing household income, shortage of essential goods and services, increase prices and the state of chaos ensues… Wow! This is too much, especially after what we have just seen in 2022. It simply means, the world will still experience “Business as usual” in 2023.
However the predictions; if you are a small business or a family consumer, there might just be a way out for you if you adopt these 5 key actions based on experience and evidence:
Download Hobyclean apps: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Appleton+Group+LLC
By: GHA; aka. “The Stuttering CEO”
CEO & Chief Design Officer – HobyClean
“…with COVID-19, except an online, on demand laundry technology solution is introduced that disrupts and revolutionizes the current laundry practice and that transitions the traditional laundry sector from “Bricks to Click” , women shall still remain largely trapped in the seemingly relegated, oppressive, invisible, repetitive, exhausting, unproductive, uncreative and largely unpaid world of household chores […]
Key steps to washing whites: Wondering how to remove stains from white clothes? Remember these steps: Wash your whites with a quality detergent, on as hot a wash as safe for the fabric. If marks remain, try a natural stain remover like baking soda or white vinegar. For plain fabrics, try bleaching the marks with […]