The first half of 2024 bid us farewell a few days ago. If I could, I would have thrown seven stones behind it, as Libyans used to do after intolerable guests left their homes, in the hope that they would never return. Now, our world is beginning to tread towards the second half.
The year 2024 has not brought us what we love or hate. That is the truth. Upon its arrival, it found that the previous years had left it a series of crises and wars. We were already aware of this, and may God save us from the surprises that await.
As with the first, the second and final half of this year will witness significant changes in two major countries: France and Britain. This week, specifically next Friday, Britain will welcome a new government, as Keir Starmer’s Labour Party will surely win the elections. I am not really sure if we should rejoice at this change or not. What can Starmer and the Labour Party do to address all of the problems and crises, accumulated under their predecessors, awaiting them? Nonetheless, it is a change. There is a Libyan proverb that asserts that "changing saddles brings comfort." However, the question is: comfort for whom exactly?
France is also preparing for a change, but no one can bet that it will be positive. What had been a far-fetched prospect just a few years ago is not becoming likely. The change being anticipated will not result from a military coup that sees tanks and armored vehicles roaming France’s streets and squares. It will happen peacefully, with the consent and support of the French people. They are the ones who will cast their votes in the second round of the parliamentary elections next Sunday and decide who takes the reins of the next government. However, the fact remains that they will hand the administration of their country to a woman campaigning under a political banner they are not unfamiliar with. She is demanding the adoption and implementation of policies they once despised. Marine Le Pen is not an obscure figure. The French people are well aware of her and her father’s political history. He founded the far-right National Front party, which she renamed the National Rally in 2011 after implementing the cosmetic changes needed to grant it an acceptable humane facade.
On another level, and on the other side of the Atlantic, the nations, peoples, and states of the world understood that the current US President and Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, will leave the White House. June had not ended before we all understood that he would be replaced by the former president and Republican candidate, Donald Trump. This became clear last Thursday, during the live broadcast of their first debate in Atlanta, where the Republican candidate managed to humiliate his opponent and win the debate by technical knockout.
Trump was not particularly convincing in the debate, not that we expected him to be. Indeed, he has not changed one bit. However, clearly burdened by the weight of the eighty years behind him, his opponent could not keep up with him in the ring, meaning that we will see a second Trump term. That is, the second half of the year will be no less grim than the first.
Moreover, Trump’s return to the White House is bad news for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the leadership of NATO, and the leaders of the European Union. At the same time, it is good news in other countries and capitals, like Moscow, for example.
I cannot pinpoint the ramifications that these changes will have on the genocidal war in Gaza that Israel is waging against the Palestinians. It is likely that the Israeli Prime Minister and his right-wing coalition will not grieve over the departure of the current US President.
Regarding the ongoing conflict in Sudan- where famine, displacement, and migration are the dominant concerns of the officials running international relief organizations and human rights organizations- the political screen seems blurred. Despite Sudan's geographical significance and its natural resources, the tragedies of this war, which has been raging for over a year, have remained off the radar of major state actors, who are preoccupied with their elections at home. The war has not shrunk in scale. Instead, it is expanding daily. The number of casualties, migrants, and displaced persons continues to rise. Yet, there seems to be no end in sight for the humanitarian suffering, nor an end to the war between Sudan’s generals.
Meanwhile, the UEFA Euro 2024 football tournament in Germany captivates the world's people and nations. The Olympics will follow immediately after it ends. Thus, the hungry, sick, displaced, and migrant children of Sudan must wait, if they can.
