If wishes were horses, goes the old Scottish proverb, then beggars would ride. The inherent cynicism of the adage notwithstanding, human beings remain wishful creatures at heart and the New Year is considered to be a perfect occasion to make new wishes or renew old resolutions. Apparently, 60 per cent of adults around the world believe that the dawn of a mint-new year is a propitious time for making wishes. Yet — depressingly — honouring these resolutions is a different matter altogether. Global data suggest that 80 per cent of the New Year resolutions are to be found in metaphorical trash bins by the second week of February. Even though mankind has the morality and the means to fulfil only 8 per cent of these pledges, the pitiful success rate cannot take away anything from the importance of New Year resolutions. That is because they represent a residual altruism in cultures that needs to be recognized and nurtured.

The nurturing is especially important given the nature of the year that has ended. In the annals of modern history, 2020 will undoubtedly be remembered as annus horribilis. The year that was remains a testament to disasters. An invisible virus claimed almost two million lives globally. Nations suffered as much as their citizens with the pandemic and mitigatory responses — prolonged periods of lockdown were a common strategy — devastating economies. A joint statement by the World Health Organization and several other global bodies issued in October last year predicted, among other things, that millions of people were at risk of sliding into extreme poverty; the figure of undernourished people was expected to touch 132 million; and nearly half of the world’s 3.3 billion workforce were threatened with unemployment. India, meanwhile, demonstrated that it was vulnerable to a different kind of contagion. An elected government not only proved to be markedly incompetent in addressing the sufferings of migrant workers but was also complicit in the vilification of a minority community as a willing carrier of the disease. Vaccines have turned despair to hope but the virus, or another pandemic, cannot be wished away. This makes it important for the world to wish for the resurrection of empathy and kindness this New Year. These vanishing human traits could prove to be the vaccine that is needed to vanquish the germs of hate and discrimination that plague the global body politic.