If ever there was an example of humans rowing their metaphorical boats, “against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”, it is the annual celebration of the secular New Year.
For one brief shining moment before and after midnight on New Year’s Eve, the world’s problems-international, national and personal-seem illusory and/or capable of resolution by resolutions to do better! The weight will come off, interest rates will decline, peace will come to the Ukraine, Sudan and the Middle East, democracy will flourish in Syria, the diaspora of refugees will find permanent shelter et al.
At the start of the year when the calendar is fleetingly fresh, everything seems possible. Every sports fan believes that this could “be the year” when their team will win the Super Bowl, the FA Cup, the EPL, and NRL and/or AFL sporting premierships.
New Year’s celebrations are an orgy of optimism which is no bad thing; however, after the party comes the hangover and the world must once again think about how best to resolve its intractable dilemmas.
Politically, 2025, has always shaped as an ELONgated year. Before the Australian Open is decided, Americans will have witnessed the inauguration of Donald Trump for his second term of office. The incumbent President, Joe Biden, remains the oldest of America’s living Presidents. America lost its oldest living President when James Earl ‘Jimmy’ Carter died, aged 100, on 29th December 2024. Like President Hoover, Carter was lauded more for his post-Presidential endeavours than for his accomplishments in the Oval Office.
Carter may have not been born in the proverbial log cabin, but he came close. Raised on a humble peanut farm in the town of Plains, Georgia (2023 population of 552), Carter was elected in November 1976 to overcome the political malaise that enveloped his predecessor Presidents, Ford and Nixon, following the Watergate scandal.
He left office in January 1981, criticised for presiding over America’s decline in power and prestige. The Iranian revolution of 1979 led to the galling capture of American hostages in its embassy in Tehran. They remained captive for 444 days. Later in 1979 the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan underscored America’s neutered influence on world affairs. Add the crippling effects of stagflation and it is easy to understand America’s rejection of Carter in the 1980 Presidential election, notwithstanding his efforts to reduce strategic arms and create a framework for peace in the Middle East.
After America changes its Executive, 2025 will see elections in the not insignificant states of Canada, Germany and Australia. We may yet see another general election in France. Looking into the electoral crystal ball, it seems that Canada may be the only state that produces a decisive outcome.
Tragically, the world has not had to wait long in 2025 before being confronted by the fault lines of modern societies. Just before Christmas, shoppers at a German Christmas night market were killed by a car that was deliberately driven into the festive crowd. Today, the world was shocked by the deaths of at least fifteen people in New Orleans when a car was driven into people celebrating the arrival of New Year’s Day in the city’s famed party district of Bourbon Street. On the same day, a Tesla truck exploded outside a hotel in Las Vegas owned by the Trump family.
These events will facilitate an even greater focus on decisions taken by President-elect Trump and his merry ‘Musk men’ in the first hundred days of his second term of office. As much as Americans, especially those with contentious immigration standing, await his policy announcements, the rest of the world has much at stake in the directions Trump’s administration takes.
Trade and tariff wars will not be welcomed by most. Trump’s declarations on what is required for peace in the Ukraine and Middle-East will affect the strategic and economic confidence of the whole world. Not to forget the machinations of Trump’s Cabinet as they seek to implement their highly conservative agenda.
If art can imitate life, then it seems so can sport. The venue of this year’s Super Bowl match is the New Orleans Superdome.
Given recent events in New Orleans, the Superdome will no doubt host an even more exaggerated and patriotic display of the need for American security than expected. Let’s not forget that the Superdome was also a telling backdrop to the failure of America’s Federal and State governments to adequately protect and care for citizens left homeless by Cyclone Katrina in August, 2005.
Australians will no doubt be hoping that 2025 sees a reduction in cost of living pressures that have made payment of an average mortgage and weekly food bills and quarterly household charges, especially energy bills, a simultaneous equation that does not balance for far too many.
Those fortunate enough to be able to afford tickets to the finals of the Australian Open will naturally be wondering whom they might be seeing contest for this year’s titles. Victories by either Jannik Sinner or Iga Swiatek would be clouded by the continuing controversy about the integrity of their recent suspensions for drug use.
Despite this, it would be a brave pundit to predict that neither player will be in contention to play on the final weekend.
It is hard to see a female player other than defending champion Sabalenka, Swiatek or Coco Gauff claiming the title; however, no one has become rich supporting strongly favoured female players in recent Grand Slam events! This pattern has continued at the Brisbane International; of the eight quarter-finalists only two are seeded. One of the unseeded is Australia’s Kimberly Birrell who has nudged her way into the world’s top 100 ranked players.
In the Men’s contest, Australians will, as in recent years, focus on whether Alex De Minaur can display the power needed to claim a Men’s title for Australia for the first time since 1976. It seems unlikely, not that De Minaur will not be trying his hardest.
Nick Kyrgios, who dresses as a basketball player, but speaks about his mortality as a tennis player, will generate great interest from a media that surprisingly feed on his every word. However, Kyrgios’ first-round exit from the current Brisbane International was a reminder that rhetoric is not a substitute for either conditioning or match play competence. He was defeated by the promising French player, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, currently ranked 31 in the world. Born in Lyon and of DR Congolese descent, he has progressed to Brisbane’s quarter-finals, defeating last year’s US Open semi-finalist Frances Tiafoe.
If there is a player who has never lacked in conditioning and has confidence crafted from his unmatched achievements it is Novak Djokovic.
Does he have the ability, five months shy of his 38th birthday to claim the Grand Slam title he craves the most? Can he poetically add the final Grand Slam garnish of his career by winning a 25th Grand Slam singles title in 2025?
If he reaches this landmark, Novak will join Margaret Court as the winner of 11 Australian Opens as he moves one past her on the all-time Grand Slam singles’ winners list. Victory in Melbourne would also be his 100th career title, or 101 if he claims the Brisbane title.
In 2024, Djokovic only won one title, in his hometown of Belgrade. For Djokovic, 2024 will always be remembered as the year that he claimed the Olympic Gold Medal in singles.
In the twilight of his career, Djokovic is clearly playing for his legacy. Whether this is sufficient to master the energy of Sinner and Alcaraz et al is a tantalising question. The form guides from the 2024 Grand Slam tournaments suggest that Novak has a difficult task. Who would bet against him, however, if he made the final? After all, Djokovic has never lost a Grand Slam final in Australia.
As another new year begins, there seem to be more tantalising questions than ever swirling around us. Collectively, we hope that through our deeds we can master more than a fair share of them. We owe it to ourselves to make sure the odds are always in our favour. At least we can resolve to do that.
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Ps: Voltaire exhorted us to “look after our own garden.” Life is nothing, if not full of irony. England chose to send its human refuse to its new colony in the late eighteenth century for punishment and exile at the ends of the earth. Today, tens of thousands of English desperately seek to come to Australia to seek sunshine and prosperity. Those who can only come as young tourists congregate on Sydney’s Bronte Beach for Christmas Day celebrations. They would do well to remember Voltaire’s advice and clean up after themselves when in a public garden. Australia is not a dumping ground for English generated rubbish anymore!
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