Look back and look forward with Johann Hari and an archbishop

Johann Hari, a columnist on the Independent, looks on 2009 as a dark year now drawing to a close.  He suggests that we give ourselves hope by looking at the people who have been inspirational during 2009 and gives his list.. Another hopeful thought is that these people are unlikely to stop doing good work when 2009 ends and 2010 starts, although it is a bit more difficult if you are detained in a re-education camp in China.

The archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, gives a message that looks back over the decade as the new year begins.  He notes that serious problems facing the world, such as terrorism, war, natural disaster and financial collapse, do not stop at national boundaries.  He talks of the greatest of all boundaries, that between rich and poor.  He asks us to keep our hope and not to lower our expectations, to continue to press for and work for a better future.  He endorses the Millennium Development Goals, eight key goals for tackling poverty and disease.