The year ahead

The feminisation of the world will be one of the top stories in 2018

Esther Vera
4 min
Any a la vista

ARA’s Editor-in-chiefNot everything is yet to be completed —or feasible—, but perhaps life is only worth living as if it were so. We break out the New Year with a massive reality check, courtesy of 2017. We are somewhat wiser, but also somewhat older, and are faced with the task of striking a balance between future and past, between the lessons we should have learnt and the lessons coming up. 2018 will be an enthralling year and we meant to reflect that in our New Year’s issue. We are confronted by many challenges and it will be up to us to turn them into opportunities for building a better future.

Where are you headed, Spain?

We will need to strive to build a better country, and we will only manage that if we have learnt the lessons from 2017. It is hard to reconcile the permanent strain with the sort of long-term decisions that any society needs to make in order to move forward strategically. Catalonia needs a long parliamentary term and a sound government that facilitates the accomplishment of the main objectives for the coming years: to broaden the support base of the pro-sovereignty, pro-independence bloc and to cut back the poison ivy of sectarian divide. Ciudadanos and what is left of the Partido Popular are dead set on smearing the independence movement by portraying it as if it were a selfish pursuit by some purists with identical birthplace, language and aspirations. Their scare tactics, aimed at second-generation Catalans, have succeeded and they are as contemptible as they are effective. The main goal for 2018 must be to broaden the support base of the pro-independence bloc and that will only be possible by respecting diversity and ideas, as well as persuading people that the sole objective is to have a better country for everyone.

Meanwhile, courts of law in Spain have taken over from the PP government and it seems that Catalan independence leaders won’t see their penalties lifted. They are putting together their case and we are beginning to see how political ideas are blatantly persecuted. It is a case against prisoners of conscience who sought to exercise their political rights peacefully. Ciudadanos’ rising star has rattled the circles of power in Madrid and Albert Rivera’s party enjoys a great deal of support within the business community and private news outlets. One of these days we will see the Ciudadanos leader don Adolfo Suárez’s double-breasted blue blazer —the picture-perfect former Francoist official turned democratic PM— to roll out the new redux Spain of autonomous regions, and his message will be presented as a rejuvenated alternative to Aznar’s Partido Popular.

The 2018 equation should address the precariously positive economic outlook. After a cruel recession, economic growth levelled off at over 3 per cent between 2015 and 2017. But uncertainty lingers in Catalonia and this will have consequences on its economy and Spain’s, as both are tightly entwined. Exports have been driven by a cheap euro and the economy has been boosted by zero interest rates and affordable oil prices. However, when the European Central Bank stops buying Spanish bonds —a shot in the arm of sorts— borrowing may become increasingly expensive. Mario Draghi —bless him!— was the great benefactor of the Spanish economy during the recession, but the stimulus package will come to an end and the economy will need to be in good shape in order to adapt. On this point, the challenges facing the Catalan economy are the same ones which the successive Spanish governments have always put off irresponsibly: reforming the foundations of the public pension system and sorting out Spain’s regional funding, as well as the labour market, so as to become more competitive and boost wages.

Europe, where are you?

The Europe of states is going through the motions thanks to the eleventh-hour reforms brought in during the recession, but it lacks the internal drive to renew itself and a fresh leadership —if you exclude Macron, the French star, and above all Angela Merkel, whose travails at home are hindering her role in Europe—. 2018 will be the year of the Brexit talks and the EU’s new face. We shall see whether Europe can hold on to its values or, rather, it ages and withers away.

Still, the most important issue in the international arena is that the world will remain in the grip of an-alpha-betic male. Donal Trump’s simplistic discourse, filled with phoney patriotic pride aimed at the white blue-collar workers dispossessed by the recession and disenfranchised by a borderless world, will remain as erratic, whimsical, childish and immature as has been described by those who have worked under him. An alpha male in a world where many women everywhere have decided that they are ready to command respect. They have stopped asking permission and have stopped feigning surprise while listening to men going on about what they already know or even excel at.

The feminisation of the world will be one of the top stories in 2018. Women in Hollywood walked barefoot on red carpet wearing trousers and now they have denounced the sexual predators who think they have a right over them. Also key will be their role in the changes which Saudi Arabia and Iran are going through. The latest revolt in Iran began when two hundred chador-clad women protested rising food costs, the price of eggs to be precise. This year we should keep an eye on Iran, Korea, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Also on the US and our European neighbours. Here we will need to keep up the fight for ideas with rationality and a long-term strategy.

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