WE'VE all had to dig deep and stretch the plastic on Christmas spending - now comes New Year and those resolutions we aim to keep.

Most of us will confine our good intentions to the usual personal and family goals: better health, career progression, boosting our incomes and so on.

But perhaps we need to think a little deeper and further afield than our own back yards.

No-one is suggesting that we should stop enjoying ourselves in pursuit of some kind of saintly existence but perhaps it's time to question the aspirations inherent in our consumer-mad society.

While almost daily explosions kill and maim in Iraq, more than 100,000 people have now died in Asia where for many the prime New Year's resolution is simply to stay alive.

The images of stark suffering we have seen over the past few days should put all the problems we might think we have in a proper perspective.

Health and happiness are vital ingredients of life and as we extend best New Year wishes to all our readers it is a good time to consider if we can do anything, however small, to help the millions who are a lot less fortunate than we are - at home and abroad.