Year of the Earth Dog
Happy New Year! It only seemed like yesterday when we were greeting 2017. Where did time go? Why does it feel like we’re on a hypersonic jet plane blown throughout by a tailwind hurtling toward the unknown?
2017 was a year of turmoil on the planet. Terrorism and syndicated crimes like plunder, drugs and smuggling of all kinds brought widespread grief, death and destruction. We were not spared. Marawi went the way of Mosul, Aleppo, and Raqqa where the Daesh ran amuck in Iraq and Syria. But it also revealed the heroism of our soldiers and citizens who came together to liberate a city, save lives, and lift our shattered spirit.
The NPA rampaged in all three island groups prompting the cancellation of peace talks and its being labeled a terror group. They ambushed, raided, extorted, assassinated and burned brutally and carelessly, not unlike rogue uniformed personnel who did the same for money, protected by criminal organizations operating within and outside the government. Drug syndicates continued to pose a clear and present danger to the nation’s safety and security.
Two regional superpowers — Iran and Saudi Arabia — are going head-to-head across the Middle East. e.g, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Two other regional superpowers — Russia and China — oppose their containment by the US prompted by their expansionist thrusts in the Ukraine and in the Indo-Pacific theater. Iran and North Korea are their surrogate states with nuclear capabilities. It appears headed for a hot conflict that could go nuclear. Bad for our OFWs, economy, and national security.
Natural calamities — fire, rain, wind, slides, quakes — were unusually vicious. Global warming and climate change, aggravated by human irresponsibility, spawned widespread death and destruction as well. Politics, governance and social behavior in the West, as here, continue to slide down a slippery slope. Global poverty and deprivation is at an all-time high, as countries spend and invest on wrong priorities. Social conflicts are anticipated to rise and spread.
Over here, was there a let-up in wrongdoing in response to presidential calls for restraint and reform? Was there sufficient punitive action to demonstrate political will? Is the government aligned on national security? There are silver linings though. The economy’s doing great; the stock market’s at a new high; and misdeeds are being dealt with lifting hopes for justice at last. But will there be closure? No closure, no peace.
All those seem to be setting the stage for 2018. What does the Year of the Earth Dog have in store for us Filipinos here and around the world? Are we being primed for something better or for worse this year? My instincts tell me things will worsen before life gets better. It’s time to pray, play safe and prepare for the worst while working for better outcomes. It brings to mind Ecclesiastes 3:1-22.
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to
speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil — this is the gift of God.
I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him. Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account. And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment—wickedness was there. in the place of justice—wickedness was there.
I said to myself, ‘God will bring into judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed.’
I also said to myself, ‘As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.’ Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.
Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?”
In 2018, I wish that we: rise above adversity to live, laugh and love every day as if it was our last; look out for each other in facing risks, emergencies and crises; we become better Filipinos for a better Philippines; love Mother Earth because she’s our only home. May God’s peace and mercy be upon us all.