On New Year’s Day, my wife and I drove to my cousin’s home in Southampton and on the way — just West of the entrance to Tom Wadson’s farm — we were held up by a police traffic control situation.

We thought it involved a vehicle accident, but there was a sheet covering an object in the road. For a split second one shuddered to consider that it was covering a human body, before the realisation set in that the body was that of a dog, or some other animal.

That said, I noticed that in those circumstances, there was a sense of reverence in the air as vehicles awaited instructions from officers to proceed. When you consider the sense of reverence for the single dog, accidentally killed on the road in Southampton, with the more than 30,000 people brutally killed in Gaza — almost half of them being children — one is left aghast.

Add to this the fact that the Israeli Government continued to block basic aid which had been sent by many agencies — in the face of the pending starvation of thousands. The UN General Secretary visited the Gaza border recently to dramatise this reality.

This week, the UN Security Council, at long last, was able to take a step in the right direction. This is the first time that the US decided not to veto a vote for a ceasefire. Interestingly the resolution was supported by all the member countries of the Security Council — solidly — even the UK.

Kudos to the UK for at least this step, in the face of such obvious inhumanity. Of course, this has come as the result of the sustained campaigning on the streets and within communities, pressed by those people of conscience.

This step is a key shift. Bermudians of conscience will be relieved, but know that there is some way to go, according to those closest to the situation. Let’s continue to do whatever we can to sustain a sense of reverence for all.