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Sydney gets New Year started, but Gaza spoils party
2008-12-31
SYDNEY (AFP) - New Year celebrations kicked off in lavish style in Australia Thursday -- but the Gaza conflict, memories of Mumbai and global economic downturn left partygoers elsewhere feeling flat as 2009 crept steadily westwards. Indeed, 2009 greeted Thailand with tragedy, when a fire ripped through a Bangkok nightclub early Thursday, killing at least 54 New Year revellers, a local administration official said. Up to 1.5 million Australians and tourists converged on the site surrounding Sydney's world-famous Opera House for the city's biggest-ever -- and multi-million-dollar -- fireworks display. Sydney was the first major world city to see in the New Year, although New Zealand also staged a dramatic fireworks display from Auckland's Sky Tower two hours earlier and 2009 officially kicked in on Kiritimati, or Christmas Island, in the Pacific Ocean, at 1000 GMT. Not everyone was in the mood -- with India set for a subdued New Year's Eve and several Arab states cancelling planned celebrations in solidarity with Palestinians in the Islamist-run Gaza Strip who suffered a fifth straight day of Israeli bombardment on Wednesday. Egypt, Jordan, Dubai and Syria all cancelled festivities including concerts by renowned Arab singers, with Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum giving the order "as a sign of solidarity with the brotherly Palestinian people...," his office said. Morocco even cancelled state television broadcasts, judging the mood inappropriate, according to Rabat's information minister. Tight security was planned in Mumbai, which is still coming to terms with the trauma of the November terror attacks that left 172 people dead. Police were keeping an especially close watch on traditional boat parties along Mumbai's famed waterfront. Some of the militants who took part in the November attacks slipped into Mumbai from the sea, and joint police commissioner K.L. Prasad said partygoers on boats would not be allowed to return to shore once celebrations had begun. "It may create a sense of fear among the crowd if they see somebody alighting from the boat," Prasad said. The resort state of Goa has banned its famous beach parties -- a huge draw for foreign tourists -- and extra paramilitary troops have been deployed to ensure security. A sombre note will also be sounded in neighbouring Pakistan as December 31 falls on the second day of the Muslim mourning month of Muharram, which marks the death of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson in the seventh century. "There are no New Year's functions at the hotel due to Muharram," said Jamil Khawar, a spokesman for the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, which reopened at the weekend, three months after it was gutted in a suicide truck bombing. In the southern port of Karachi, luxury hotels are not planning events due to Muharram but people were expected to gather on the city's Arabian Sea beaches to ring in 2009 -- with hundreds of paramilitary police on watch. Apart from the carnage wrought by militant violence, the global financial meltdown has also dampened spirits. In Tokyo, laid off workers are camping out in the city's Hibiya Park during the holidays after companies -- including leading carmakers -- cut tens of thousands of jobs. Japan's Emperor Akihito in his New Year message called on the nation to unite in fighting its recession, saying it "grieves my heart that many people have been left in difficult conditions." "This year ended with the realisation of a growing economic and social crisis which from now on affects the entire world: a crisis which calls for more restraint and solidarity to help those people and families who have got into serious difficulties," said Pope Benedict XVI in his traditional end-of-year message. In Hong Kong, the Times Square shopping mall said it had prepared "cheering sticks" printed with phrases of blessings in Chinese characters for its countdown event, such as "everyone's got a job" and "a blooming stock market." China's main festivities will come later in the month with a week-long holiday for the traditional Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations. In the Philippines the authorities were bracing themselves for traditional New Year's Eve festivities marked by gunfire and firecrackers. Hospitals are on alert for injuries while the police and military are being warned against firing their guns into the air. As the celebrations moved towards Middle Eastern and European time zones, Italian men were waiting to see if a group of Naples women would carry out their threat to refuse them sex if they insisted on playing with fireworks at midnight... Special meals, however, were served up to hundreds of would-be migrants stuck in cold weather in the French port of Calais, hoping to begin a new, more prosperous life in Britain.
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