When it succeeds twelve months of such man-made tragedy, topped off with the final horror of the Asian tsunami, it is easy to wish fervently that this new year of 2005 will be a happy one. The world needs some joy, and 2004 gave it precious little about which to smile.
Last year was remarkable for the way in which time and again, when it hardly seemed possible, things actually got worse. Typical was Africa’s Maghreb region where the year began with a UN appeal for $9 million to exterminate newly active locust breeding grounds. The money was never given and the insects bred into a plague which has already cost $100 million and threatens to continue to wreck North African agriculture for years to come.
The disaster in Darfur seemed bad enough when vengeful the Janjaweed militia combated insurgency with ethnic cleansing and murder. Khartoum’s inability or unwillingness to grasp the problem led to an upsurge of violence and suffering and a catastrophe of genocidal proportions. Yet the new year begins with hope because yesterday two years of talks with southern rebels ended in a peace deal. Now maybe the same can happen in Darfur.
Lack of planning and understanding also stymied so much of what the Washington hoped it would achieve in Iraq. As the lies about WMD were exposed, Bush and Blair shifted ground and spoke of the ruthless Baathist regime they had destroyed. Then came news of the Abu Ghraib abuses and Iraqis rightly asked themselves if there was much difference between the old and new regimes. With each month the violence has deepened and with it the despair of ordinary Iraqis. Yet the interim government was agreed and elections are scheduled to go ahead on Jan. 30.
In Palestine, there are fresh hopes for peace because in eight days’ time Palestinians will have chosen a new president. With a powerful enough electoral mandate the new leader may break fresh negotiating ground with a newly formed coalition between Ariel Sharon’s Likud and Labour’s Shimon Peres. Everything however will depend on how much pressure President George W. Bush will place on his troublesome Zionist friends to quit prolonging the conflict and confusion and reach a just settlement.
As a second-term president whose mark on history has so far been no better than a smudged blot, George Bush may refocus on domestic issues, getting the troops back home as quickly as he decently can. Precipitate US disengagement will however leave the region less stable than before Saddam’s ouster. It must be hoped that Washington will realize that it must take its knocks, learn its lessons and try and produce a Middle East policy that is not focused on the narrow self-interest of US big business and the Zionist lobby.
In many ways though all the horrors of 2004 are dwarfed by the tragedy of Sunday’s tsunami. Yet even in this catastrophe are seeds of hope. As the world hurries to do whatever it can to help the millions of victims, it is displaying the compassion and love which, if applied elsewhere, could actually make 2005 a happy new year.
