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Wednesday, January 2, 2008

2007 to 2008- And Nothing Has Changed

So, another turbulent and tragedy-filled year has passed: from multiple school massacres to massive arson-induced fires in this country, and an assassination, violence and riots around the rest of the world. And though January 1st is really just another day, it's symbolic of many things to many people. An opportunity to implement change, make resolutions. Out with the old, in with the new. When I lived in Quito, Ecuador, on New Year's eve they would have huge street parties where effigies representing the old year were burned. A purging of the old to make way for the new, so to speak.

One always harbours the hope that, with the advent of a new year, things might somehow miraculously change, that people might aspire to reach for the light rather than cling to the darkness, but our sad little world still remains an irreparable mess. 2008 was greeted not with hope and goodwill, but more death and destruction. Further violence erupted in Kenya, where a mob set fire to a church, on Tuesday, killing at least 50 people. In Baghdad, a suicide bomber murdered 30 people when he blew himself up inside the home of people mourning a man who 3 days earlier, had been killed by a car bomb. Imagine targeting a group of people already mourning a death. How despicable and evil is that?!

I'm not sure what the rest of the year will bring, but if the first few days is any indication, it does not bode well. Keep those prayers going, because we're going to need it. We're in for a rocky road ahead.

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