More Problems, Fewer Solutions
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) wishes a stable, peaceful, joyful and healthy New Year for all of its members, supporters, staff, volunteers, and friends in the Horn of Africa Countries and elsewhere.
Leaving behind the old year and welcoming the new one always comes with a hope for more accomplishment, success, changes or improvements and a resultant better life. It is also becoming customary that the setting in of a New Year is the time when cleansings of the previous year are carried out and resolutions are made for the New Year usually with stronger and renewed commitments and determinations both at individual and collective levels. Making resolutions and commitments might be easy; but difficult for most of us to follow through. And this could be for various personal and/or communal reasons. Besides, it is very important to remember during such times that not all equally celebrate and enjoy holidays. Some of the world peoples don’t even celebrate them at all due to circumstances in which they are. Let’s consider those who are away from their homes in refugee or some sort of concentration camps, or those who are along the roads attempting to cross borders into other territories fleeing persecution and other forms of miseries, and those who were caught in or between unnecessary wars. According to a statistics released by the IOM in 2011, currently, there are estimated 214 million international migrants worldwide. This number includes very vulnerable migrants with no shelters, food, closing, and other basic necessities. There are also deadly natural disasters, like the one we currently see in Philippine. Peoples in such situations are in the middle of darkness, and see little bright future in the New Year; mainly because most aspects of their lives are out of their control. More saddening and frustrating is that those kinds of human experiences are multiplying from time to time instead of reducing.
Even in normal circumstances, the majority of the world peoples are leading miserable lives characterized by extra-judicial imprisonments, tortures, killings, poverty with all its components, etc., all of which are results of from injustices, inequalities, abuses, unfairness, etc, which in turn originate from dictatorship, arrogance, corporate greed, mal-administrations, and the like with the underlying goal of maintaining grip on power. According to a recent report by The Hunger Project Organization, today, more than hundred thousand million (100,000 million) people in the world suffer from acute hunger (Asia 578 million, Sub Saharan Africa 239 million, Latin America and the Caribbean 53 million, Near East and north Africa 37 million, 19 million in developed countries). Of this total figure, more than 15 million people die of hunger every year, 35,000 people every 24hrs, and 24 people (out of this 18 are children under age 5) die of hunger every minuets.
So, it would be a part of our collective responsibility to take into considerations those global humanitarian issues while making resolutions and commitments in our preparations to welcome the New Year. One of the big lessons learnt from the ending year of 2011 is that ordinary citizens in different parts of the world, in northern Africa and the Middle East in particular, rose up against dictatorial regimes with determinations, and achieved fundamental changes. But, that was very little of the enormous challenges that the world societies have faced; and, we still have a lot to do in regards to fighting injustices in order to make our world a better place for everyone to live in. Accordingly, as global citizens, we need to renew our commitments to be and remain part of global campaigns for social, economic, and political justice and equality.
We wish everyone a safe, stable, joyous, and prosperous New Year!
HRLHA is a non-profit and non-political organization (with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Special Consultative Status) that attempts to challenge abuses of fundamental rights of the peoples of various nations and nationalities in the Horn of Africa. It is aimed at defending basic human rights including freedoms of thought, expression, movement and organization. It is also aimed at raising the awareness of individuals about their own basic human rights and that of others. It has intended to work on the observances as well as due processes of law. It promotes the growth and development of free and vigorous civil societies.
“We fight for Human Rights!”
Garoma Wakessa – Executive Director
December 31, 2011
