IT is a remarkable achievement of our species that the world is open to us now in ways that were unthinkable in the past. We can now navigate through entire nations in almost no time at all. The furthest corners of our continents are nearer than ever before, and the way in which we universally share information and ideas now is exceptional.

But as a flip side to our advancements, our challenges, too, have grown – and as a species living on a single planet with limited resources, we must recognise that many of these new problems and issues are, just like the interconnected civilisations we have built, outwith the ken of single nations.

In much utopian and futurist writing, there is often a general trend towards worlds that have eschewed borders, or increasingly view them as being less and less relevant to progress as a species, arbitrary lines on maps that hinder global advancements. A future without borders is an ideal; a recognition of the limitations that come with defining ourselves solely by our walls. This decade will, I believe, be defined by the ways in which borders limit our thinking and our ability to act for the greater good of our planet and ourselves.

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After all, we live in a time when historic events have repeatedly shown us how little borders protect us from truly existential threats. The coronavirus pandemic and global warming are both examples of historic milestones that have no interest in our maps and land disputes, and neither can be fixed with a “got mine” attitude.

You can bung as many empty Hogmanay bottles into the recycling as you want, but it won’t mean a thing while Jair Bolsonaro continues burning down the Amazon rainforest, crushing the lungs of our planet. Climate change doesn’t stop at the border and only a united response alongside a radical re-evaluation of the global economic systems that drive ecological disaster can limit its destruction.

The pandemic, too, is often being treated like a local problem when in fact it requires a far greater response. I won’t lie that while receiving my booster jab before Christmas I was painfully aware that, while I had the luxury of being triple vaccinated against Covid-19, huge swathes of the planet had been left behind, in part because of how western countries have hoarded vaccines to look after their own.

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As with climate change, acting like we can naively stockpile our way out of the pandemic is not only downright immoral but also entirely ineffective. The latest Omicron strain of the coronavirus, the most dominant strain in the UK, likely started in an area where vaccination rates are so low specifically because of the west’s neo-colonial attitude to vaccine manufacturing, both in the manner by which Europe has diverted vaccines out of other countries whose needs are higher than our own, and in the ongoing fight over vaccine patents.

Millions of Africans remain unvaccinated. Of the billions of vaccines that have been manufactured and distributed globally, more than 80% have gone to the richest G20 countries.

If we don’t tackle the coronavirus pandemic as a united planet, we will fail on this front again and again. How many more variants will spread rapidly around the globe as a direct consequence of the lack of access to medicine and equipment in countries with spiralling infection rates?

The longer the west continues to hoard vaccines, medicine and patents, the longer our collective trauma will continue and the more people will die unnecessarily.

There is no moral justification for prioritising profits over bringing the pandemic to as swift an end as possible. Even from a purely selfish perspective, for as long as the virus runs rampant in other nations we are under constant threat of new variants reaching our shores and knocking us back into restrictions as Omicron has done so.

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As we step forward in 2022, I particularly hope our leaders will keep in mind the lessons and messages that we eternally return to in these dark months, when we share a message of shared humanity and hope for the year ahead.

For the message of Auld Lang Syne is to give a hand and receive one in return. It’s something I was reflecting on a lot as 2021 came to an end. We’ve all been through a dark period, and undeniably it has been a difficult few years. Only in the spirit of fraternity and collectivism will we be able to take on this new year with real hope and to address the unprecedented challenges that we face as a species. As a species, it’s time we all moved forward and tak a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.