World Welcomes 2012 With Hope for Brighter Future
The world despite its diversity came together expressing hope for a brighter future when the date changed from Dec. 31, 2011 to Jan. 1, 2012.
In New York City, crowds gathered around Times Square as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Lady Gaga counted down to midnight, and the traditional ball carrying 30,000 lights slid down a high pole.
In Europe, which is struggling with a debt crisis, hundreds of thousands gathered to watch fireworks over the River Thames to celebrate the New Year with hopes for recovery.
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“What is happening in the world announces that 2012 will be a year full of risks but also full of possibilities,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a televised message to his nation.
In Japan, people floated helium balloons with their hopes for the New Year written on them at Tokyo Tower in the capital city. Japan is recovering from the devastating earthquake and tsunami in the north-east in 2011.
Thousands of miles away in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, people marked New Year’s Eve in Tahrir Square with both moderate Muslims and Coptic Christians singing songs and psalms even as the military remained alert amid threats of attacks on churches, according to local daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. The mother of protester Khaled Saeed, who was tortured to death by police officers in 2010, was among the thousands who had gathered. She said she would participate in the celebrations planned for the anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, voicing hope that the goals of the revolution would be achieved.
In Nigeria, a country split between a largely Christian south and Muslim north, President Goodluck Jonathan admitted that 2011 witnessed “continuing national security challenges, the most worrisome being the spate of mindless terrorist attacks that have claimed the lives of many of our people.” But he promised that “my administration will neither be distracted nor deterred from the effective implementation of its agenda for national growth and development by present challenges.”
After a series of blasts killed at least 42 people in churches near the capital Abuja on Christmas day, a blast occurred in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri on Dec. 31, killing about four people. President Jonathan declared a state of emergency in areas affected by the Islamist group Boko Haram.
In the Philippines, firecrackers and gunfire injured nearly 500 people on New Year’s Eve, according to that country’s health ministry. Firecrackers left dark smog in the sky leading to the cancelation of flights. This predominantly Catholic southeast Asian nation witnessed a tropical storm, Washi, killing hundreds across southern parts in mid-December.
In North Korea, one of the world’s worst violators of human rights, authorities issued a New Year message urging support for Kim Jong-un after the recent death of his father and country’s former leader Kim Jong-il. “The whole party, the entire army and all the people should possess a firm conviction that they will become human bulwarks and human shields in defending Kim Jong-un unto death,” it said.
