The war in Ukraine has raged on for months. Photo / AP
The war in Ukraine has raged on for months. Photo / AP
The old refrain was that the current generation of young Kiwis was being raised soft.
They haven't fought in any wars, they've been mollycoddled with their participation medals and they haven't faced any struggles.
There was once perhaps some truth to these claims, given the current generation arguably lived through the most settled economic and geopolitical period in history.
But the major news events of 2022 have shown how that stability has been rocked to its core across economics, geopolitics and health issues.
In early February, it seemed New Zealand was slowly coming to terms with the pandemic. The border rules had been loosened, allowing Kiwis to return home for the first time in years. But that steady progression to normality was halted in its tracks by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who invaded Ukraine. Since then we've seen 100,000 causalities, food shortages, volatile oil prices and no indication of when the chaos might end.
The thing is that this event doesn't exist in isolation. It also serves as a warning that the West needs to be careful in what it allows other autocrats to get away with. Years of making concessions to Putin's geopolitical aggression emboldened him to the point where he thought he could invade Ukraine without any retribution.
You simply can't look at Putin's current actions, without casting a nervous eye across to China's intentions for Taiwan.
By the time we rolled into April, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report warning that we only had three years left to reverse greenhouse gas emissions to avoid climate chaos in the coming decades.
A series of wild weather events have since followed, drenching New Zealand and driving home the point that the climate is changing – whether we are ready for it or not.
Wild weather has rocked New Zealand. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Along with geopolitical uncertainty, the impact of climate change is something the current generation – and their children – will need to contend with in the coming decade. It might pay to keep an eye on those insurance premiums. They only look set to go one way.
Economic strife
This year's $6 billion Budget package offered a glimpse of where New Zealand could move beyond Covid.
But economic strain since that initial announcement has weighed heavily on the country as the rising cost of living makes everything more expensive. Alongside this, we've seen a major backlash to many of the Government's landmark policies – raising questions about whether we're moving in the right direction at all.
Add to this the uncertainty of ongoing inflation, rising interest rates, a labour shortage and enormous household debt – and today's generation faces a tough economic road ahead.
Crime town
Crime has been a topic difficult to avoid in recent months. In June, 192 gun incidents were reported across Auckland. Gangs were fighting in the streets.
Data shows ram raids have increased 518 per cent so far this year. And we've also seen a spate of random stabbings.
The once-safe suburban streets of New Zealand now have some questioning whether the country has lost control.
These issues are, of course, not limited to Aotearoa, with an uptick in violent incidents also being reported abroad.
But the bigger question now is how much longer this can continue and what we can do to fix it.
Living (and dying) with Covid
This year marked the moment when people became numbers. With Covid-19 now firmly bedded into the community, we report a slew of deaths on a daily basis.
While each of those numbers is a tragedy for the immediate family, the public response has become numb to a constant stream of statistics.
This is a stark departure from the early days of the pandemic when even a single death was viewed as too much.
The reality now is that new variants could pop up at any time, meaning that we'll have to continue dealing with the death that comes with living with Covid-19.
This ultimately will be another burden carried by today's generation.
Listen to the full 100th edition of The Front Page with Damien Venuto to hear Simon Wilson and Heather du Plessis-Allan clash on these big talking points.
• The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am.
