Not really the ideal time to be writing about hope as we glide towards Christmas and the end of another year on the relentlessly gaudy and desperate roller coaster we amusingly call life. Admittedly, my current worldview is somewhat clouded by my increasingly annoying habit of searching for stories which seek to provide the merest hint of truth in them, a search which has become almost impossible in the post-truth, disinformation morass which passes for the media these days.

There have been occasions recently when stories appear which seem to be so callous, so cruel and so mediaeval that you are forced to suspend all of your rational faculties to even begin to imagine that human beings could be involved in their perpetration. 

Regular readers will know that this column has previously commented on conflict and humanitarian catastrophes in places such as Yemen, Afghanistan and Palestine. And while these disasters continue to unfold at pace, they are merely the tip of a global, bloodied iceberg which is becoming more crimson by the day.

So far this year, it is estimated that one in seven people in the world have been involved in some form of major conflict and that there has been a 15% increase in political violence over the same period. One in seven people. It’s almost too fantastic to be true. Just think about it, by current population estimates, that means that in this year alone, 1.17 billion people on the little blue dot that we call home have woken up and been exposed to some form of traumatic conflict. In Palestine alone, 87% of the Palestinian population have been exposed to such conflict.

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) website collects information on the dates, actors, locations, fatalities, and types of all reported political violence and protest events around the world. ACLED assesses every country and territory in the world according to four indicators - deadliness, danger to the civilian population, geographic diffusion and armed group fragmentation.

In its latest assessment, ACLED concludes that the top fifty ranked countries and territories are experiencing extreme, high or turbulent levels of conflict. And you will not be surprised to find that currently, Palestine is the most dangerous and violent place in the world. I won’t list all of the top fifty countries in the index, but along with Palestine, there are a number of other countries which by anyone’s reading, are teetering on the precipice of outright carnage, bringing with it the prospect of famine, disease and/or terror. These include Sudan, Nigeria, Syria, Chad, Yemen, Mexico, Columbia, and Haiti.

When you have finally tried to make any kind of sense of the numbers involved (an impossible task, trust me, I’ve tried), you might also take a minute to consider what these levels of conflict actually mean on a daily basis for all of the innocent victims who are caught up in the quasi-religious and egomaniacal turmoil being visited upon them by evil old men who are hellbent on nothing more than making sure that their particular death cult makes it to the pearly gates at the front of the queue. Systematic rape, torture, murder, slavery, extra-judicial killings, starvation, dehydration, and disease.

Every day. One in seven people, including millions of children. Every day.

In the midst of all this desperation we would ordinarily look to our more civilised political institutions to do whatever was in their gift in order to mitigate and hope beyond hope that they can end some of the unimaginable carnage being wrought on our brothers and sisters in the global community.

The United Nations? Despite issuing hundreds of resolutions aimed at reducing conflict around the world, the UN has been completely ignored at every turn by those countries who continue to terrorise and destroy other human beings with the complicit backing of so-called allies, and therefore seems utterly powerless to engender any moves towards peace. Powerful western governments also regularly issue mealy-mouthed statements condemning atrocities, while at the same time arming the very people carrying them out.

For example, the UK, the United States, France and Germany are all more than guilty for arming Israel while it continues its murderous rampage in Palestine. They have also contributed heavily to the Saudi regime’s continual bombardment of the people of Yemen for decades, resulting in over half of the population not knowing if they will eat from one day to the next. That’s 17 million people if numbers are still important to you.

So is there any hope?

Don’t expect it from the UK government. Don’t imagine that the next American president will come to the rescue whoever they are. Don’t expect Netanyahu, bin Salman, or Putin to have a collective Damascene conversion any time soon.

Do take to the streets when you can. Do seek out those charities at home and abroad working tirelessly against all the odds to alleviate suffering and effect change.

Check out the Trussell Trust, Medecins Sans Frontieres, the Amos Trust and UNICEF.

And do, please, keep hoping. ■