I can’t remember a worse year than 2009. Every newsmonger has told me how bad it will be before it even started. The world economy has expired like an untied festive balloon. Environmental issues are threatening civilization. What can improve the status quo?

I spend most of my time in London, which is an infernally difficult city to survive in. Travel difficulties, housing costs, and population density are a few of the challenges that Londoners endure every day. But the pain is offset by the cultural and ethnic diversity, which makes this heaving metropolis one of the most fascinating cities on the planet.

It’s impossible not to revel in the bubbling caldron of racial variety that touches every Londoner’s daily life. True, I’m not black, or gay or a Muslim or any other oppressed minority. I don’t know prejudice and I have never experienced hatred. And in 2009, why should anyone else? Why is it not possible to see the world’s rainbow of colours and range of religions as a source of joy rather than a reason to go wild and get violent?

Finally Barack Obama has become the President of the world’s most important country. Unlike his predecessor, Mr Obama can speak in sentences and values détente more than detonation. But most interesting of all is that Mr Obama is a man of mixed race – neither white nor black – a man who can speak to everyone from a broader perspective than most of us.

We live in a world, fraught with problems. But if we could only work together, for the common good, there is nothing we couldn’t fix. All we need, as John Lennon and every religion in the world will tell you, is love.