• Home
• /
• Opinion

New Year, with hope

SPIRITED cheers greeted the ringing in of another New Year, as a season of hope and new aspirations exploded in a heady brew of mirth and joy across the world yesterday.

It was indeed a time to forget the hard realities of life and drum up the mood for a better tomorrow. And the mood was upbeat almost everywhere, despite the security scare that had a marginal effect on the celebrations. The festivities in the United States, that took place amid unprecedented security cover, were marked by the main event at New York's Times Square, where an estimated one million people sang and cheered in the New Year. In Britain, 100,000 revellers flocked into central London to hear Big Ben ushering in the New Year and watch a spectacular fireworks show. Half a million people gathered in Berlin braving chill to sing in the new year. And, marking the occasion in a different way, thousands of activists demonstrated on the streets of Hong Kong to demand greater democracy. There were some blood-letting too, isolated cases, in the hotspots of Iraq and Indonesia, and a fireworks mishap in the Philippines, resulting in loss of many lives. But, by and large, it was peace at its best, and a good start to another long haul.

What preceded was a turbulent year, especially for this region, with the war in Iraq and continuing incidents in the Middle East causing untold miseries to people. The New Year must be different. It is not war alone that can settle outstanding issues in a civilised world. Dialogue and persuasion have their role and peaceful solutions should be given more of a chance. The Middle East scenario calls for urgent measures to end the 50-year-old conflict in a way that normalcy is restored to the region and the Palestinians' sufferings ended once and for all. Kashmir is still smouldering, with periodic gunshots, and peace in the subcontinent is elusive. However, recent signs are that both India and Pakistan are seeing reason and making earnest efforts to restore normal relations. The hopes raised last year about an end to the violence in Sri Lanka's Tamil dominated areas were dimmed by an ongoing feud between the country's President and Prime Minister, but let the New Year give the nation the strength to overcome the problem in a spirit of mutual reconciliation. Let us hope the New Year would be less controversial, discourage conflicts, encourage reconciliation and promote the spirit of peaceful co-existence, both between nations and between peoples of different races and creeds. It is in a spirit of unity and in a spirit of sharing that we shall progress to a better tomorrow.