“Happy New Year” – Abba

No more champagne
And the fireworks are through
Here we are, me and you
Feeling lost and feeling blue
It’s the end of the party
And the morning seems so grey
So unlike yesterday
Now’s the time for us to say…
Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbour is a friend
Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try
If we don’t we might as well lay down and die
You and I
Sometimes I see
How the brave new world arrives
And I see how it thrives
In the ashes of our lives
Oh yes, man is a fool
And he thinks he’ll be okay
Dragging on, feet of clay
Never knowing he’s astray
Keeps on going anyway…
Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbour is a friend
Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try
If we don’t we might as well lay down and die
You and I
Seems to me now
That the dreams we had before
Are all dead, nothing more
Than confetti on the floor
It’s the end of a decade
In another ten years time
Who can say what we’ll find
What lies waiting down the line
In the end of eighty-nine…
Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbour is a friend
Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try
If we don’t we might as well lay down and die
You and I

————————————————————————

I think that most of you must be wondering why this author has chosen a relatively sad song to write about, just as a New Day and a New Year dawns. We go about our lives and cheerily wishing each other – “A Happy and Prosperous New Year to you and yours;” “Here’s wishing you and yours a Fabulous New Year 2015” and so on and so forth. The good wishes that circulate around the world are endless and a mood of great cheer, contentment and happiness settles upon one and all, regardless of class, caste or creed. There is a great feeling of optimism – to the extent of being Utopian – there is a feeling of good faith all around that all is well with the world and that all will be well henceforth in the future years to come too. While it is all very well to be optimistic and idealistic, the few of us who wish each other well just like many others do, can’t help being realistic and pragmatic. From whichever angle you choose to view the situation, the answer that stares into one’s face is simply this – the fact remains that ALL IS NOT WELL WITH THE WORLD and it is not likely to be so in the near future unless we all make a concerted effort to make our world a better place to live in.

This is – for all intents and purposes – just another dawn; just another day and just another new year – like any other. Nothing concrete has changed for the better – there is still grave poverty, illiteracy and various forms of heinous crimes against humanity are still rampant in today’s day and age. Crimes can be committed against persons or property but all crimes are punishable by law. The crimes that are still rampant in contemporary times are assault, arson, battery, bribery, burglary, child abuse, child pornography, cyber crimes, conspiracies to overthrow governments, credit card fraud, disorderly conduct, domestic violence, drug cultivation, drug manufacturing, drug possession and drug trafficking, embezzlement, extortion, forgery, fraud, harassment, hate crimes, identity theft, insurance fraud, kidnapping, money laundering, murder, cruelty to human beings and animals, perjury, prostitution, rape and statutory rape, robbery, sexual assault, shop-lifting, solicitation, stalking, tax evasion, theft, pedophilia, necrophilia and various other forms of perversion, incest, vandalism, wire fraud, genocide, white collar crimes, vandalism, cyber bullying, ragging and terrorism are all thriving in today’s day and age. The question is what are we doing to better an already bad situation?

—————————————————————————–

35 Ways to Prevent Crime

Source: https://www.justgive.org/donations/prevent-crime.jsp

There are many ways you can take control and help prevent crime in your home, in your neighborhood, and at your local schools. It’s a matter of communication, commitment, and time.

Other Ways to Give » 35 Ways to Prevent Crime

Work with public agencies and other organizations — neighborhood-based or community-wide — on solving common problems.
Make sure that all the youth in the neighborhood have positive ways to spend their spare time, through organized recreation, tutoring programs, part-time work, and volunteer opportunities.
Set up a Neighborhood Watch or a community patrol, working with police. Make sure your streets and homes are well lighted.
Build a partnership with police, focused on solving problems instead of reacting to crises. Make it possible for neighbors to report suspicious activity or crimes without fear of retaliation.
Clean up the neighborhood! Involve everyone – teens, children, senior citizens. Litter, abandoned cars, and run-down buildings tell criminals that you don’t care about where you live or each other. Call the city public works department and ask for help in cleaning up.
Ask local officials to use new ways to get criminals out of your building or neighborhood. These include enforcing anti-noise laws, housing codes, health and fire codes, anti-nuisance laws, and drug-free clauses in rental leases.
Work with schools to establish drug-free, gun-free zones; work with recreation officials to do the same for parks.
Develop and share a phone list of local organizations that can provide counseling, job training, guidance, and other services that neighbors might need.
Report a crime if you witness it or something you suspect might be a crime. Agree to testify if needed.
Learn about hotlines, crisis centers, and other help available to victims of crime. Find out how you can help those who are touched by violence to recover as quickly and completely as possible.
Recognize that it’s already your problem if violence is about to erupt in your neighborhood.
Consider an event that lets children turn in weapons, especially those that might be mistaken for real firearms, in exchange for public thank-yous, donated non-violent toys, books, or coupons from local merchants.
Start a discussion of neighborhood views on weapons in the home, use of toy weapons by children in play, children and violent entertainment, and how arguments should be settled.
Learn your state and local laws on firearms. Insist that these laws be enforced vigorously but fairly. Support police, prosecutors, judges, and other local officials who enforce laws designed to prevent gun violence.
Emphasize prevention as the preferred way to deal with violence. Ask what schools, law enforcement agencies, public health agencies, libraries, workplaces, religious institutions, child protective agencies, and others are doing to prevent, not just react to, violence. What policies do they have to prevent weapons-related violence? How can they help the community?
Volunteer to mentor young people who need positive support from adults. Programs ranging from Big Brothers and Big Sisters to Adopt-a-School include mentoring as a central ingredient.
Talk with children in the neighborhood about what worries or scares them and about where and how they have felt threatened by violence. Interview teachers, school staff, crossing guards, and bus aides.
Promote public service advertising that offers anti-violence programs and services. Get several groups to cooperate in this effort. Include programs to help kids headed for trouble.
Protect domestic violence victims (and their children) through policies as well as laws that offer them prompt and meaningful response to calls for help and appropriate legal recourse.
Organize to help clean and repair the parks and to report suspicious and illegal activity to the police. Well-kept play equipment and organized activities can attract people back to the parks in large enough numbers to discourage illegal activities. Residents should insist that local government maintain parks, immediately repairing vandalism or other damage.
Adopt a school. Help students, faculty, and staff to promote a sense of community in the school and with the larger community through involvement in a wide range of programs and activities.
Urge adoption of anti-violence courses that help children learn ways to manage anger without using fists or weapons. Second Step, from The Committee for Children, Resolving Conflict Creatively, from Educators for Social Responsibility, and We Can Work It out!, created through Teens, Crime, and the Community, are only three of many such courses.
Join with school and law enforcement in creating and sustaining safe corridors for students traveling to and from school. Help with efforts to identify and eliminate neighborhood trouble spots.
Help students through such opportunities as job skills development, entrepreneurship opportunities, and internships.
Encourage employees to work with students in skills training, youth group leadership, mentoring, coaching, and similar one-to-one and small group activities. Make your facilities available for these activities when possible.
Provide anger management, stress relief, and conflict resolution training for your employees. They can help build an anti-violence climate at home, at school, and in the community. You might gain a more productive working environment, too!
Speak up in support of funding and effective implementation of programs and other resources that help schools develop an effective set of violence prevention strategies.
Offer your professional skills in educating students on costs and effects of violence in the community (including their school). Public health personnel, trauma specialists, defense and prosecuting attorneys, and judges are among those with important messages to deliver.
Help employees who are parents to meet with teachers by providing flexible hours or time off; encourage employee involvement in sponsoring or coaching students in school and after-school activities.
Develop an anti-violence competition, including speech, dance, painting, drawing, singing, instrumental music, acting, play-writing, and other creative arts. Get youth to help suggest prizes. Make it a community celebration.
Report crimes or suspicious activities to police immediately. Encourage employees and families to do the same.
Establish business policies that explicitly reject violent behavior by employees or others on the premises.
Report any crime immediately to school authorities or police.
Help to strengthen links between school services and the network of community services that can help students and families facing problems.
Enlist children from elementary grades to senior high in solving the violence problems in the school and community. Encourage them to teach violence prevention to younger children, reach out to educate peers, work with adults on community-wide problems, and identify and tackle community conditions that they are concerned about.

———————————————————————————————–

How to Reduce Crime in Your Neighborhood

Source: http://www.wikihow.com/Reduce-Crime-in-Your-Neighborhood

While we don’t like to talk about it – or even think about it – crime is on the increase in America, and throughout the world. The number of burglars, muggers, auto thieves, robbers, purse snatchers and other crimes is growing at an alarming rate. Now you, as a resident, working with neighbors can help reduce the crime rate.

Steps

Organize and/or join a neighborhood program in which you and your neighbors get together to learn how to protect yourselves, your family, your home and your property.Working together, you can get the criminals off your block and out of your area.

Stay in groups.There’s safety in numbers and power through working with a group. You’ll get to know your neighbors better, and working with them you can reduce crime, develop a more united community, provide an avenue of communications between police and citizens, establish on-going crime prevention techniques in your neighborhood, and renew citizen interest in community activity.

Use the “Citizens Safety Projects”.They are set up to help you do this. It is a joint effort between private citizens and local police. Such programs have been started all over the country. Maybe one already exists in your community. These organizations don’t require frequent meetings (once a month or so). They don’t ask anyone to take personal risks to prevent crime. They leave the responsibility for catching criminals where it belongs – with the police. This is not a “vigilante” group: These groups gather citizens together to learn crime prevention from local authorities. You cooperate with your neighbors to report suspicious activities in the neighborhood, to keep an eye on homes when the resident is away, and to keep everyone in the area mindful of the standard precautions for property and self that should always be taken. Criminals avoid neighborhoods where such groups exist.

Learn what you need to know.Through cooperation with local law enforcement agencies, some of the things you will learn – and all free – are:

What to do in an emergency.
How to best identify a suspicious person.
How to identify a vehicle being used in a suspected criminal activity.
Signs to watch out for before entering a house or apartment that may be in the process of being burglarized.
What to do in case of injury.
What to do about suspicious people loitering on your street.
How to identify stolen merchandise.
How to recognize auto theft in progress.
How to protect your house or apartment.
How to recognize a burglary in progress.
How to protect yourself and family – and much more.

All you have to do is contact your neighbors and arrange a date, place and time for the first meeting.Hold the meetings at your home or that of a neighbor. Try to plan a time that is convenient to most of your neighbors – preferably in the evening. Then, call your local police department. They will be happy to give your group informal lectures, free literature – and in many instances, window stickers and I.D. cards.

Remember, police officers can’t be everywhere.Your cooperation with them is for the benefit of you, your family, your neighbors and your neighborhood.

————————————————————————————-

What most people seem to forget is the very first thing that we can ALL do to better an already dreadful situation: we can all endeavour to become better individuals ourselves.

I have written extensively on this subject, since the inception of this blog – you would do very well in reading (and in re-reading) all the blogs, from the very beginning, for detailed information on how A BETTER TOMORROW can not only be made into a possibility, but it can be made into a reality – OUR REALITY.

It is easy, for us all, to blame the leaders and the politicians of a nation for failing to control the ever-inflating rise and frightening increase in the crime-rate, within any country worldwide. However, there is only so much that any one person can do. We cannot expect the world to change for us when we make little or no attempts at becoming better people ourselves. It is extreme arrogance, on our part, to expect the world to change for us – we need to take the initiative to be humble, modest and unassuming ourselves and we need to be the ones to change ourselves – from within – for the better first. Learn the Art of Benevolence, the Art of Forgiveness and the Art of Generosity of Spirit and you’ll be surprised, how soon, Peace of Mind and Joy are yours for the taking.

So, instead of making a lot of mundane resolutions in the New Year, the resolution that ought to be your Number 1 priority is on concentrating on becoming a better person yourself.

If each and every one of us were to make a concerted and determined effort in this regard, it would surprise you to know how we can make, in this way, the world a much better place to live in.