When the New Year approaches, most people start to think about their New Year’s resolutions. But the way things have been this past year, I think it would be fitting to start to think about what our prayers and wishes are for the New Year. 2020 has been an awful year. Almost everyone on the planet has gone through something bad, whether It’s health related, work related, finance related, psychological related, it has been one big huge mess. So this year I have a wish list because, let’s face it, unless every resolution that you make involves only “stay home” activities, it’s not really a resolution is it?

Clearly the first and most obvious wish list is for this Covid nonsense to disappear soon. I think we’ve all had enough of wearing masks, gloves, social distancing and sanitising every surface both before and after use. It’s hard to talk to people and doubly hard to breath. I read something hilarious the other day. According to the CDC, the Centres for Disease Control, in America the top Global Health story of 2020 was mosquitoes! No way! Since when? Not one news channel talked about mosquitoes being a global health risk. The only thing that was, and is, being covered is Covid. Moreover, according to many sceptics, Covid seems to have cured the common cold, the flu and pneumonia since no one has been able to find the 2020 Global statistics specific to them.

My next wish list follows on from the first in that lockdowns become a thing of the past. Frankly, the word ‘lockdown’ is often, and rightly so, associated with prisons where every night, at a fixed time prisoners go on a lockdown. Christmas was ruined for many, as have birthdays, holidays, weddings and general family gathering just so there are no transmissions from asymptomatic carriers. Lockdowns have wreaked havoc in families’ relationships. There’ve been arguments, lack of privacy, violence, illnesses, a significant increase in domestic violence and even murders, and all because there’s nowhere for people to get a break from one another.

My third wish list is for people to stop being afraid of one another and to start behaving normally and, for starters, that means not looking at their fellow human beings like they are lepers. Everyone is looking at everyone else as though they are Covid carriers. My sincere wish is that life returns to normal and to no longer have to think about a new normal, which is not normal.

The fourth wish list for us to be free to travel without having to go through the hassle of taking Covid tests and wondering whether or not we’re in the clear. I want us to be able to go where we want and when we want without tests and potential quarantines or self-isolations. My wish is for countries to open up their borders to travellers from all over the world so their economies can begin to flourish and unemployment begins to fall. My wish is that shops and restaurants, that were boarded up through lack of business because of the fear of Covid, begin operating once more and that there are no more restrictions on numbers permissible.

My final wish list is for the number of scammers to diminish rapidly. We’ve had all sorts of scammers for years but the numbers increased considerably in 2020. Covid has made scammers more brazen; they are preying on people who are forced to do their business using technology, something they otherwise would not do. Just earlier this week I turned my phone on one morning to find a scammer trying to trick me into sending him a WhatsApp registration code for my mobile number. For the most part, the text message appeared to be from a legitimate WhatsApp source except for an unusual hashtag. These scammers are so desperate to take our money that they will resort to any means to do so.

My message to scammers: stop. It’s getting old and, more importantly, we are on the alert so you need to watch your backs. You may have developed new techniques for scamming the weak and vulnerable, especially the elderly and the tech illiterate, but my wish is that the authorities develop new and effect techniques to find you and bring you to justice.

Queen Elizabeth bemoaned that 1992 was an Annus Horriblis for her family. I recall that, in that year, Windsor Castle went up in smoke and one of her children divorced. 2020 was truly an Annus Horriblis for all of us.