Sharing the good

The stories we tell each other about 2016, of death, disaster and doom, have led to the greetings for 2017 to be about hoping for better. Well yes, and so we should, but do please read this from John Simpson, the BBC World Affairs Editor, who has seen more than most of us, marking his 50 years reporting with the BBC:

There's been a dramatic decline in wars fought between states. Civil wars increased in number after 1989, but have declined ever since. In the 1950s, wars caused almost 250 deaths per million people; now the figure is fewer than 10 per million.

High-intensity conflicts have more than halved since the end of the Cold War. Freedom has greatly increased. There are nearly a hundred democracies today, compared with fewer than 40 in 1966. Dictatorships, getting on for 90 in 1966, are now down to 20. Gross dictators like Saddam Hussein and Col Gaddafi, whom I once specialised in interviewing, have mostly vanished.

Terrorism has surged recently, but it is still below the heights it reached between 1970 and 1990. By a great many measurements, human beings run their affairs better now than they did 50 years ago.

More on the BBC website

May 2017 bring a reduction in conflict and may the good things be shared.



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