hope

'The Economist' Christmas Edition opens with an article on 'The redistribution of hope'. To quote a few lines:

Hope is one of the most overused words in public life, up there with change. For the past 400 years the West has enjoyed a comparative advantage over the rest of the world when it comes to optimism. The Founding Fathers of the United States offered citizens not just life and liberty but also the pursuit of happiness... Now hope is on the move. According to Pew Research Centre, some 87% of Chinese, 50% of Brazilians and 45% of Indians think their country is going in the right direction, whereas 31% of Britons, 30% of Americans and 26% of the French do.

The articles compares China and India's economies that are growing at 10% and 9% respectively with America and Europe's 3% and 2% growth rates. It points out that the US is struggling to come to terms with a 10% unemployment rate, while Spain faces a 41% youth unemployment rate.

So hope is supposed to be on the move. Is it coming to my city or shrinking away? I say neither. Hope is here because God is here. God is working through men, women and children. God is working with children, women and men. Hope is here because God is. Simple.

This year I will use words like hope. Change. Transformation. Love. Freedom. I don't care if these words are out of fashion. Hope is here in Poipet and I want to write about it. Hope isn't the exclusive domain of households with two parents, running water and electricity. Hope isn't just for the generation to come. Hope is for now. Hope is here because God is here. For this same reason hope is also in the US, Europe and Australia. It hasn't disappeared. We just don't always see it when our focus is narrowed to economic statistics.