We must bid adieu to yet another year. 2011 is approaching its fateful conclusion, and we will soon welcome 2012 with all of its unforeseeable glory. Although it appears that we have little control over what will be manifested in the year ahead, we need to bring in the year with hope, lacking inhibitions. We should be cognizant of the past but ready to take on the future. With a new beginning quickly approaching, we would do well to recall the moments that led up to this point, the decisions that determined how the world now functions and how we will engage with all that remains palpable to us.
It seems as though every year has become more fleeting than its predecessor, and with the end of 2011 drawing rapidly nearer, this year has proven itself to be no different. We are living during a period that has been rife with political adversities, environmental disasters and economic devastations. We have been bombarded by images of confusion, calamity and turbulence, with little, if any, signs of sheer stability. While our minds don't immediately associate prosperity with the multitude of revolutions and uprisings occurring throughout the world, they are obvious indications that diverse societies are changing, people are transforming their individual perspectives and our sense of understanding is altering too, perhaps for the better.
The beginnings of the Arab Spring ignited a potent change — one that not only undermined the oppressive regimes of brutal dictators, but also laid the foundation for protests throughout the world. The expectations we set for our governments have ostensibly been altered forever and individual political systems, whether autocratic, democratic, socialist or communist, are irrelevant. We have viewed a dramatic alteration in how much people are willing to tolerate and how far people will go to obtain a more just tomorrow.
Protesters from Tahrir Square to Syntagma Square to Zuccotti Park, in challenging the status quo, have been the loudest and most pivotal voices of 2011. They have fought valiantly for the most basic human rights, for the mere opportunity to carry out their lives simply and without fear of an unsure future. Activists and crusaders have joined in solidarity, echoing their grievances and demanding that their lives no longer remain determined by government and military rulers. Some have given up their lives for the possibility of seeing even a modicum of their heroic efforts prevail against systems that have long been mired in corruption, torture and injustice.
It is true that we have lived through a year of uncertainty and unprecedented destruction — a nuclear power plant explosion, tsunamis and hurricanes. 2011 has seen its share of dire circumstances, but the revolutions that have taken place on an international scale should not be seen as part of any tragedy. We owe it to the youth in every corner of the world challenging complacency, to the 84-year-old woman who was pepper sprayed in Seattle and to the prospect of a prosperous future to internalize and understand these movements as the heart of a global transformation that is unequivocally necessary. We have the ability to bring in the new year with a fresh outlook if we have faith that the future, regardless of inevitable obstacles, is full of hope. Protesters throughout the world have substantiated that potential and made hope all the more palpable.
