Columnist Khalid Aziz gives his views on the last and the next year

Let’s start by looking back. We started last year with the ongoing war (sorry, “Special Military Operation”) waged by Putin on Ukraine. “I don’t need a ride, I need weapons,” said Ukraine’s brave Volodymyr Zelenskyy on being offered safe passage out of Kyiv.

He got his weapons but, cruelly, not enough. As the New Year approached Zelenskyy was not just running out of weapons but of able-bodied men. Britain is doing its bit, particularly by training Ukrainian recruits in the arts of war.

“They’ve run out of young men. We’re now getting chaps in their fifties,” the British officer in charge of proceedings on Salisbury Plain told me, “It really is a Dad’s Army.”

Meanwhile, Putin sacrifices hundreds of thousands of Russia’s youth, untroubled by any discernible democratic opposition. Across the pond, the ever-wise Donald Trump, never one to miss a political opportunity, is in his pomp. “I can end the Ukrainian war in 24 hours.” Just another deal - echoing his highly successful meeting with the North Korean dictator. How’s that going?

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I wonder how Trump would deal with the Israel-Palestine debacle. The outrageous massacres and kidnappings on October 7 by Hamas, were apparently backed by the ungodly Iranian mullahs worried about Israel doing business with the rest of the Muslim world. Netanyahu fell into their trap. Apart from understandable revenge, what has Israel’s retaliation really achieved? World pariah status, and doorstep enemies for generations to come. 

In both these egregious examples, blind ideology and naked power drives the actions of leaderships untrammelled by any belief that being in power comes with responsibilities towards all the people – not just those who voted you in.

If indeed your electoral system allowed realistic chance of someone else being voted in. Putin, having plundered post-perestroika USSR, courtesy of his corrupt oligarchs, is feeding his desperate countrymen the promise of restoring “Greater Russia,” whatever that is.

Underpinning all the political action are the sentinels of what our King described in his Christmas message as, “The Abrahamic religions.” Sadly, there’s not much to choose between Bishop Kirill in Moscow, various assorted Rabbis in Jerusalem or the Mullahs of Tehran (yes, Islam is an Abrahamic religion). They have all lent their weight to those in power. 

The King urged us to remember the words of Jesus, “Do unto others as you would have done unto you.” The Christians of Russia, believing Him to be the Son of God shouldn’t have a problem with that. Muslims revere Hazrat Isa (Jesus) as a prophet so those words shouldn’t be difficult for them either. Jesus was a Jew, although to his contemporary Rabbis, a troublesome one, who rather than heed the words of their own Torah, centuries more ancient than what was to become the Bible or the Quran, condemned him.

So, with the dawn of 2024, what to do? Well, there’s a progression from individual, to family, to society. So, it starts with ourselves. After all, we have dominion over what we do. We have to take responsibility. We should speak out against injustice, but with gentleness. All the Abrahamic books exhort us to do this, as do other belief systems. Even those who profess no belief usually accept that there are some universal principles without which we couldn’t function as a society, indeed as a world. 

Talking of the world, a hundred thousand attendees at COP28 didn’t seem to achieve that much, except increase their individual carbon footprints. Better luck in 2024? We’ll see. 
It does look grim, but the human condition is essentially optimistic. We can, and must, do what we can - at any level. As Churchill said “KBO”. 

Happy New Year!