Called Angel Number -- one that acts as a guardian angel, 2020 symbolises faith and trust in relationships. By extension the number is also significant for love and compassion. So the year 2020 should in, numerical terms, herald a rosier time than the year before. Numerology apart, this New Year is born out of a most restive time on a number of accounts. In human civilisation at the 1close of a periodic cycle, there appears a set of contrary new ideas to begin a fresh journey. The year that has just taken leave was not particularly remarkable for advancing the cause of the humanity. If the New Year generates hopes of a turnaround on the basis of faith and trust instead of misgivings and conflicts between and among individuals and nations; an understanding of and deeper feelings for fellow human beings instead of general antagonism, the world will be a far better place to live in.
True, each New Year is a time for renewal of hopes and aspirations both for individuals and the mankind. Not all years fulfil the dreams that human beings harbour individually or collectively. After a year marked by political and trade volatility on the international front, renewal of arms race with the scrapping of treaties that put a cap on such a race during the cold war, natural calamities of unprecedented forms and order, even the most optimist will feel shy of painting a rosy picture for the planet in 2020. But to go by the cyclic order and the tireless efforts of some dedicated leaders -both old and young -hopes for a brighter prospect for the humanity may not be misplaced. Political upheavals from Hong Kong to Venezuela to India to Sudan and Afghanistan have exposed the unceasing struggle between ruling conservatism bordering on authoritarianism and the eternal quest for liberalism. Arms race has been taking a more acerbic but less publicised shape. Trade wars reached a new crescendo.
It is against such a backdrop, the world community welcomes the year 2020 with a sense of trepidation and much optimism; because hopes are eternal in human bosom. One natural phenomenon has, however, surprised nations the world over. Like many parts of the planet, Bangladesh has been experiencing chilly weather like it had been decades before. Now the prayer would be, it may not herald extreme weather in the summer as well. The uncontrollable Amazon forest fire and that of Australia have proved helplessness of even modern technologies before such natural calamities.
As for Bangladesh, it too was ravaged by a cyclonic storm in November last but it spared the country of a far greater devastation as was apprehended. The country's journey has been more or less smooth despite some limited internal convulsions and aberrations of values and norms on the social front. Governance still leaves much to be desired and yet its image has risen globally because of its humanitarian help and support for more than a million Rohingya people. Internally it has bled for quite a few mindless acts by some quarters despite its sterling performance on the economic front. Hopefully, the country will learn lessons from some of its blunders and build on its positives it in the New Year but still it has a long way to go before it emerges as a cherished land to live in. The challenge is to create an enlightened society free of exploitation, ignorance and violence. Let the year 2020 usher in an environment for pooling the required energy and impetus to start the process of building such a society. Happy New Year to all.