What is new in 2024

Happy New Year. It is 2024 and yet another opportunity to start afresh; as individuals, families, companies, governments and countries. What is a country but a collective ecosystem? A dent in one place is felt in another.

The deeper the dent the more complicated the repair. 

To repair a dented car is a considerable challenge. To repair a damaged human takes possibly thousand percent that effort. No one has quantified this so we spend more energy on valuing the repair of cars than humans.

Cars can be picked up and dumped in a dumpster and the dent hammered out.

Can this be done with the human heart?

Can we go with a pair of pliers and instantly uproot the cause of why a human would have corroded its potential into criminality?

Is the answer to crime a sensational circus like showmanship of grabbing up whoever looks dodgy? Unkempt teenagers experimenting with the terror of facing a future devoid of opportunity may be the first casualty of such populist purported displays of wiping out crime. Of course it may have its temporary illusions; families petrified of their children being mired into vices of the underworld may breathe a sigh of relief thinking the wheels of justice are being propelled on, despite the taxation that coils around the human spirit so tightly.

But let us delve beneath to contemplate on the barren gaps in this understanding. A human life is a precious and fertile wonder. Buddhism especially holds human life as a scarce and hard won opportunity within the samsaric sojourn. So having been granted such an immeasurably karmic chance should not those who put in place the landscape for social pruning be mindful of the wilderness humans could get entangled in if terrors such as poverty and inequality are allowed to be fed and fattened into monsters of despair and addiction? Should not the national consciousness be on the query why a majority of those apprehended in euphoric bouts of ‘crime cleansing’ are youth who hail from families who can barely afford a meal a day? Hence is not inequality and poverty the root of this crime? Should not this be what we should prioritise in addressing in 2024 if we are serious about setting a credible foundation for a just and noble society?