USHERING THE NEW YEAR (2009)

In as well as we wish each other happy and prosperous new year, which is surely needed reflecting on 2008; we should no doubt in our reflections ask ourselves the question: what have we done as an individual for the world, for the people less fortunate than us, people who are in dire need of our attention, what have we done to address the problems facing world?. Well you can say the world’s problems are not your problems. You may be right, but in fact you are wrong for surely the world’s problems are your problems for you are who make the world. Then you may think or say: oh what we can do at individual levels may be too ‘petite’ looking at the immensity and the gravity of the problems facing the world now. Well ‘less you forget’ I remind you that most of the great things achieved in our history started with people or individuals like us. Those people must have dreamt and believed that they could achieve their dreams; refusing to be dogged by any limitation in power or ability they may have had as individuals. They dreamt, desired, believed and achieved. And so we can. All we need is what I called the ‘CAN DO SPIRIT’; the belief that there is nothing we can’t achieve when we put our minds to it and that in anything we do until we fail we shall never fail and that tomorrow is always a better day so even when we fail today, tomorrow we will prevail.

2008 is considered as the worst year in the recent times given the fact that during this year the world has experienced it worst financial crisis in the last decade or so with no country being spared. Millions of people lost their jobs, banks went bankrupt, markets went down as in the World Street in New York, prices went up etc. There are armed conflicts in some parts of the world, natural disasters wrecking havoc in other areas, innocent people being killed for no just cause and others being prosecuted for the right cause, others being denied of their inalienable rights because they look different or they believe differently. Diseases continue ravaging communities in certain parts of the world as thousands go to bed hungry. As individuals may not have been affected directly by these misfortunes but does that give us guarantee that the next victims would not be us, our families, friends etc. Or are we better of because we have not been affected directly? Once again we should reflect on what we have done for those unfortunate victims especially those of natural disasters? What are we doing or going to do to save us being victims in the near future or would do for those who would be affected if it happens even if we are not affected directly?

I think it is high time we start acting now as Chris Daughtry sings in his song; WHAT ABOUT NOW, and as Immortal Technique says in his song; YOU CAN NEVER TELL, and can never guarantee what happens in the next five minutes. It does matter what we do as individuals, our line of work, the part of the world we live or come from, the name by which we call God if we believe he exists, the different political ideologies and economic principles we believe in and subscribe to; what is important is that we are all human beings living in this ‘global village’ so what affects somebody in Canada can as well affect someone in Taiwan, so also what affects somebody in Greenland can affect someone in Madagascar. So it is time we all contribute in our small and humble ways to the peace and stability of the world. I don’t think there would be more we could wish for, for the new year. For peace and stability are born of the best things we wish for as human beings.

However, despite all the crisis, all the uncertainties and all the misfortunes; it was not all gloom, for there are events we would reminisce and have nostalgia about at individual, family, community, country, regional and the world level (there always is, no matter how hopeless our conditions would be) in 2008. These are what keep us going as human beings and give us hope for a better future thus the hope for a greater prosperity in 2009. And as Alistair Cooke said in his Letter from America after the September 11: America is down but now up to the ground, so though in 2008 the world has gone down but not down to the ground it would bounce back, back up from the ground. This is my belief and this is the belief I am going to enter the New Year with, hoping and believing in brighter days in the coming years.
So have a happy and prosperous new year, may it be the best of your years so far.