IT
WAS NEW YEAR’S EVE AGAIN-The countdown was chanted by the crowd. The clock will
continue to tick, the dates and years will continue to roll, a New Year will be
born. On this day of so many new beginnings, I can only offer one thought as
you go forth into this Brave New World - it is not the destination nor the
journey, but the company you keep. Let's not carry the wrongful baggage of 2016
onwards to the New Year; let's carry the rays of hope we still were left with
in this. The spring is around and sprouts will soon smell willow. Prayers- May
we get the challenges we need to enrich us far beyond our imagining. May we
shine the lights of our creativity and compassion needed so very much now, more
brightly than ever this year in everything that we do.
Year's
end is neither an end, nor a beginning, but continuity with all the wisdom that
experience can instill in us. We cross the imaginary line to enjoy or not-enjoy
the blossoms of the seeds we've already sown in our lives...with hope we flow
with the new sun...Each moment of genuine love is defiance of ordinary time - a
respite, an island that is more of a home to our soul than any rooms we may use
as a physical haven. The world is indeterminate, sometimes unyielding and often
thrilling. But it passes from view. We go on, wrapped in the island like a
blouse of infinite summer.....
For
the New Year, I hope everybody will reach out across racial, ethnic, social
class and economic inequality that divide us. But can we all resolve together
for self-change, to celebrate a new Nation with new resolutions? I pray that
while we welcome the New Year, we may become more open, more honest financially
and intellectually. Today around 50% of our infants and children are
malnourished, more than 35% of the youth is not having even schools that they
can attend, almost 18% of the female fetus are aborted, about 45% of the
children from the BPL families do not get to enjoy the childhood as they have
to work in odd places and get ill-treated. Let us keep our eyes open to see the
problems of education, poverty, malnutrition, pollution and hygiene so that we
use our every resource to solve these problems in our way by our efforts,
through our initiatives and with greater resolve to mitigate these curses as
quickly as possible.
Let
us hope that 2017 will bring better sense of environmental hazards. During the
winter season we often see many persons in villages as also in the urban places
sitting in the open together around a small bonfire to get some comfort from the
cold and chill. However, a very unhealthy practice has started creeping into
this otherwise cozy pastime these days of burning plastic scrap and polythene
bags and other similar materials in the bonfire. This results in emission of
very harmful gases that are carcinogenic and highly toxic as they inhale them
in high concentration due to proximity to the fire and open winds.
Maybe
it's not more New Year's resolutions we need, but more truth applied to the way
we live our lives every day of the year and everything should work out in 2017.
There are many such true statements, at individual, organization and governance
level, as there are in art and science. When "truth" is only personal
and can't be debated in relation to criteria that we agree on. We can only
claim as truth what we have defined as being true if we've shared it in public
and learned what others think about it. Even you were to have your own truth
that you accepted through your own subjective sense of things, shouldn't you
share it if you believe it's the truth?
Many
incent human lives were lost in cowardice act of terrorism, actions taken to
suppress terror groups. We lost several great artists and more importantly we
all probably lost friends and or family this last year. Maybe for you personally
it was the worst and if so I hope for better times for you this next year! But
People don't want to have this emotion deconstructed or analyzed. They just
want to share their grief and be incredulous and scream at the sky in the
company which in modern times, “Social Network” through face book, twitter etc.
We know there is not really a curse, what people are feeling about 2016 has
nothing to do with logic or magical thinking. It is just what we all feel when
cultural touchstones fall.
Some
of the worst part of 2016 was Kashmir Turmoil, Brexit, Syria, Yemen, refugee
crisis, terror attacks in different parts of the world including the one on New
Year's Eve in Turkey-List is endless. For Syrians it was possibly the worst
year in a very long time, but then it could have been worse if Russia had not
stopped IS. Now there is real hope in Syria as US backed rebels are relegated
and Syria gets control back.
The
year we just left behind showed the ruling class are losing control and are now
exposed in their desperate attempts to prevent truth being spoken and more
importantly believed. Election in America exposed for the joke they are and
that good candidates with popular support cannot make it in the main two
parties. The two party system is dead. The best part of 2016 was Bernie and the
amazing stand at Standing Rock.
Let
us hope 2017 brings peace, the Neoconservative war on terror for profit is
finally brought to an end, Trump makes friends with Russia, Europe's people
continue to question Brussels and the support of NATO, Peace prevails in war
torn nations, No terror attack happens, No one dies in hunger, Children are not
compelled to work and get chance to enjoy their childhood.
[MOUSUMI ROY]
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