Looking back at the year bygone

Reflecting on the failures and shockers of the year gone by and hoping that the New Year is full of possibilities, a majority of the global press focused on the theme of geopolitics in their annual editorials. “Our argument that Mr. Trump was unfit to be president was based less on differences with his political views, as far as they could be discerned, than with the threat we feared he posed to democratic norms and civility: his celebration of violence at rallies, his scapegoating of entire religions and nationalities, his trading in lies and personal insults. We saw those — and continue to see them — as a challenge to a democratic system that has held the country together since the Civil War,” The Washington Post said in its New Year’s editorial.

Keeping up with the leitmotif of soul-searching, the New York Times editorialised, “It was bad. But to avoid the poles of despair and denial, it would help to have a frame of mind, a perspective with which to consider the year gone by. And with it, a sober but bracing way to meet the headwinds and miseries that await in 2017. It could be this: a recognition of the power of unity, of drawing close, and of speaking out. Of the strength that solidarity wielded in 2016, over and over. The most powerless of economic players, low-wage workers, kept pressing for a $15 minimum wage. Rallies across the country in November invigorated the cause, which is succeeding against long odds. More than two dozen states and localities have raised minimum wages as the movement has gone mainstream.The most frequent targets of the dehumanising rhetoric of the Trump campaign — immigrants and refugees — found welcome in many communities. Families opened their homes to displaced Syrians. Churches gave sanctuary to unauthorised immigrants. Governors and mayors, teachers and lawyers, faith leaders and congregations vowed to resist any efforts to demonise the foreign-born.

The Independent sought to crystal-gaze 2017 in view of the happenings of the year bygone: “As we look forward to 2017, the next year will be dominated by the changes set in train in 2016. In Britain, whatever the decision of the Supreme Court in January, the Article 50 procedure for leaving the European Union is almost certain to be triggered by the end of March – hence the focus in the Prime Minister’s New Year message, speaking of what her priorities will be “when I sit around the negotiating table in Europe this year”. Those negotiations are going to absorb the greater part of the Government’s energy and attention over the coming 12 to 24 months.”

“Taken together, 2016 exemplified the social tensions building up in society. To address these in 2017, the country’s political leadership needs to come together to boost the economy and give more space to youth. Playing caste games and pushing Hindutva for short-term electoral gains can easily backfire and turn India’s demographic dividend into a demographic nightmare. It’s time to cast aside the politics of the past and make accommodation and genuine development the key political agenda,” the Times of India wrote in a year-end editorial.

The Saudi Gazette took a look at the role played by Saudi Arabia as a stabilising force in the region. “The start of this new year coincides with the second anniversary of the ascension to the throne of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman. While the joint occasions are coincidental, their timings could not be more crucial. As many countries in the Middle East are literally falling apart at the seams, and as several Western capitals are expecting a year fraught with political and economic uncertainty, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia enjoys a large degree of unparalleled stability and security, due mainly to leadership which recognises, in this sea of regional and global upheaval, how to realise both in equal measure.,” the paper said.