Good-bye to an eventful 2011, new year will be full of challenges

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Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury
As the world bids adieu to 2011, the new year dawns today amid both promises of a better global future and tougher challenges, in order to fulfill the cherished hopes of the seven billion inhabitants of our planet.
The time that lies ahead is one of hope, on one hand, and is strewn with myriad crises, on the other. Nonetheless, the expectation is that the year, 2012, will bring greater stability and tranquility and help avoid instability and disasters, even though pious hopes are often belied by harsh realities.
The year, 2011, has been quite eventful and tumultuous in the international arena -- only seldom a calendar year is characterised by occurrences of such magnitude. Of course, every year had its own dynamics, in terms of assessment of developments and incidents, both nationally and beyond.
But the year that we have just bade "adieu", is particularly significant because of its rarity, when judged by the sequence of events that have taken place in one single calendar year.
A number of remarkable and earth-shattering happenings in 2011 took the people across the globe by both awe and surprise. The fall-outs from all these remarkable developments will definitely have an impact in the international affairs in 2012.
The international scene was radiant by the "Arab Spring", promising democratic and economic reforms in the Middle East and North Africa(MENA). It took a sound shape early this year following the signs of uprising in Tunisia in the dying days of 2010. The flame that was ignited from a small town of Tunisia, sparked by the self-immolation of an educated unemployed youth, spread like a wild fire in the entire MENA. It engulfed the region into a popular movement that was hitherto unfamiliar to the autocratic rulers.
The wave of the "Arab Spring" swept away longtime rulers -- Zainul Abedin Ben Ali of Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. While the first two were toppled from power between whom one was already sentenced to long prison-terms through a trial in absentia and the other facing trial at home, Gaddafi was removed from power and also killed by the events.
At the moment, several other rulers like Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen and the King of Bahrain are holding onto power on a difficult ground with the former agreeing to quit and the latter seeking to remain firm in the saddle. President Bashar Al-Asad of Syria is desperately trying to cling to power, resorting to repression and even massacre to save his position.
Undeniably, the "Arab Spring" is the most splendid development in the global affairs in 2011. It has encompassed several nations although the developments are not totally without debates and ambiguities since external interest and strategy are also inextricably associated in some cases.
The incident that took the world by surprise and also provided a great degree of relief during the by-gone year was the killing of the Al-Queda leader Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan in early May last by the American commandoes. This ended their long quest for the fugitive Laden, whom the US considered "world's number one terrorist". It has been a great achievement for the Obama administration since Laden remained elusive for ten years after the sensational terrorism in the United States which blamed the Saudi-born billionaire for the terrorist acts in the American land. However, the sequence of his death remains shrouded in a mystery to some degree, with varying accounts of circumstances about it.
Several other happenings made the year 2011 quite eventful -- unlike many other preceding ones. All these include Palestinian bid for the membership of the United Nations, increase in the intensity of the Afghan war, tensions in the Korean peninsula, hand-over of power in Cuba by communist legend Fidel Castro to his brother, withdrawal of the American troops from Iraq and finally, the death of north Korean leader Kim Ul Jong and his son taking over the new leadership. The global picture provides ample reasons for lingering of much-talked about issues because of all these and some other problems.
At the same, some meaningful and productive developments have also taken place. Those include bigger interactions to face the critical problem of global climate change, enhancing international efforts for tackling such crucially important problems like poverty, health and education although related programmes have fallen much short of the requirement, meetings at international and regional levels like the south Asian summit in the Maldives for increased cooperation and last but not the least, the pledges all round for unremitting efforts for a happier and healthier society.
The new year will certainly feel that heat of the international flash-points that have deepened in their magnitude. At the same time, pressures will mount for their resolutions. Also by the same token, the imperative for a better world -- politically and economically -- will unquestionably haunt the world in the new year with the mankind encountering the daunting task for making the universe more safe for living and more conducive for survival. (E-mail: zaglulbss@yahoo.com)