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LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 6 January 2008 Issue

What does a new year mean? Is it a time for change, for optimism? Or is it just a matter of tradition, of celebrations, much ado about nothing? 

Here is an interesting insight from the blog entry of James Soriano, the author’s son and a senior high school student who leads his batch student government in Ateneo: 

Is the New Year really a new lease on life?

Because if it isn’t, then it would be totally meaningless to celebrate it, right? New Year is a time for new beginnings! Let’s drive away the demons by making so much noise it will make their ears bleed (although I’m not sure that makes them ‘go away’). That’s what we tell ourselves – and it’s good, because it makes us happy.

Yet when you think about it, the New Year is just another day. Another day that is the start of the same old things, and the same old life, dealing with the same old problems. I sound so disillusioned, but I don’t mean to; I mean, really – what changes, tangibly? Mindset? Yeah, maybe that’s good, but then again I know very few people who live up to their resolutions to begin with. Soon enough, we’re all back into the same mold and the same mindsets.

It’s not easy, after all, to really really start over. Admittedly life’s more complicated now (which means I must be getting older), and it’s not as easy as it was, when you were a kid and you could just make dreams and decide to live them out – no. We live in a world that constrains us to realities – like love, family, and friends – and that means you have to make sacrifices. Which is a pretty pessimistic way of putting the good things in your life. Or what are supposed to be anyway.

So it’s funny, this whole ’starting over’ thing. But that would mean that the reason for celebrating is nothing but a big, romantic joke. In a sense, maybe it’s just really like Kat put it: “the world pressuring you to pretend that your life is worth fixing.”

Which is sad, if it were true. But if it were true, and my life weren’t really worth fixing because it didn’t mean anything to begin with- then I figure the best thing to do is to use it for the good of other people. Whatever the hell that means. But I know it doesn’t have to be something as all-encompassing as living your life as Gandhi or Mother Teresa. But hey, whatever suits your fancy.

Thankfully, I really don’t believe that. I do believe that life has meaning. And in the end, everything, even the sacrifices that I make, they make my life more meaningful. And while good things – like love, family, and friends- aren’t good things through and through, what matters is that you invest in them and believe in them, because anything can really be a ‘good thing’. I know I’m thankful for them, and no matter how sad you are right now, I am of the opinion that you should be, too.

They say that part of celebrating the New Year is starting it off with the right footing – and part of that is being grounded on life’s complications and realities. To me, the new year, taking it face value, seems to be nothing more than another year of prolonged life-fixing. And the truth is, I will never really know for certain whether it all means anything or not. And well, it’s sort of useless to think about it, isn’t it?

But I do believe that it means something, if nothing else but for my own happiness.

And even if it isn’t, then I would be happy if I could make even one person’s life less of an inconvenience.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) – 30 December 2007 Issue

In a few days, the world will welcome the beginning of another year, 2008.

The year 2008 is a leap year in the Gregorian calendar decreed by Pope Gregory XIII on February 24, 1582. This calendar is the most widely used by everyone today.

There are other calendars in use by different cultures like the Islamic, the Hindu, the Japanese, the Buddhist, the Korean, the Ethiopian the Hebrew, and other calendars.

In the Chinese calendar, which is based on astronomy and ancient Chinese philosophy, the year 2008 begins on February 7 as the Year of the Rat. Since the number eight is supposedly considered lucky in numerology, there are expectations of good times for the year 2008.

The year 2008 will bear witness to some scheduled events of international dimension and significance.

The 60th General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2008 as the International Year of the Planet. The observance aims “to increase awareness of the importance of Earth sciences in achieving sustainable development and promoting local, national, regional and international action”. It intends to be the biggest international effort to promote earth sciences by raising at least twenty million US dollars to fund research and outreach programs.

Dubbed by Don Juan Antonio Samaranch, former president of the International Olympic Committee, as “the best in Olympic history”, China will host from August 8 to 24, 2008 the mother of all sports competition, the 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, amidst social, economic and environmental controversies.

On July 31, 2008, world billionaire, William Henry Gates III, or more popularly known as Bill Gates, will officially step down from assuming the day-to-day operations and management of Microsoft Corporation to devote a full time career in philanthropy, after more than three decades of pioneering and leading the company in the software industry, now with at least 63,000 employees in over 100 countries.

The elections for the 44th President of the United States will take place on November 4, 2008. The polls might usher the victory of a first woman or a first African-American chief executive of the most powerful nation in this planet.

Before the year 2008 comes to a close, it is expected that the Burj Dubai (”Dubai Tower”) would be completed. This skyscraper situated in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was built mainly by a South Korean company, Samsung, for a budget of US$4.1 billion and will be concededly the tallest man-made structure and building in the world.

In the next few days or weeks, soothsayers along with experts of various fields of human endeavor will surely come out with their respective forecasts or predictions of what would be in store for everyone in the year 2008. Some would paint a doomsday scenario while others a rosy picture, or maybe something in between.

At the end of the day, no one will be able to exactly foretell what the future holds?

The only question is – would 2008 a better year for the world and for each and every individual?

As usual people can only hope, although it would probably be much better if such hope is translated to expectations soonest.

As usual and obviously like many other people in this world, I will begin the year 2007 with a renewed hope that it would be a better year than 2006.

For a while I had this strange feeling of uncertainty as I was traversing apace the highway from Castillejos, Zambales all the way to Subic with my wife and my kids to rush my youngest son, Jimbo, to the hospital after having a bad head fall at 3 pm of December 31.  All we could hope was nothing serious would happen to him. I know that his situation was entirely in God’s hands. I even started to prepare myself to spend the midnight of New Year’s Day with him in the hospital.  Except for the occasional talk inside the car to keep Jimbo awake until we reach the hospital, I actually felt the unusual concern and anxiety from my wife Pam and his elder siblings, James and Bea.

Fortunately, the initial findings showed no cause for serious worries. But we were told to keep watch of Jimbo for the danger signs within the next 24 hours.  And this kept me more anxious because after going back to Castillejos, I know, as I was told by SBMA Dr. Asean R. Briones, that the nearest hospital where my son could have a CT-scan in case of an emergency is in Pampanga.  I could not wait for New Year’s day to come to pass without my son experiencing all those unwanted physical manifestations. The ticking of the clock for me was like waiting for a time bomb to break loose.

We had our media noche at 10 p.m. and sensing Jimbo’s improved condition went immediately to the Bay Walk Area of SBMA to watch the New Year’s countdown, the fireworks and the concert of the Flintstones.  As I gazed through the almost 30-minute display of fireworks, I could not help but thank God for the good graces I received in the year 2006.

The past year was not exactly what I expected it to be. There were several professional hitches, personal disappointments, and at least two close members of the family (my father and sister-in-law) went back to our Creator. But I must say that the year ended up as ‘good enough’.  Thanks to people like a client and dear friend, Eduardo R. (’Nonoy’) Lopingco, who put up some year-end surprises for me to catch up with some of my predicament.

Jimbo’s accident and full recovery at the close of the year was the exact representation of what my life had been in 2006. Now more than 24 hours had passed and I am almost certain that everything is alright with my son as he enters the first day of the year. In the same vein, I know that this coming year would definitely be a better year.

If there is one good thing about the New Year, it is the fact that it offers new hope to people who think that they live in a hopeless world.

PUBLISHED: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 31 December 2006 Issue

By midnight, the year 2006 will officially come to a close as another page in the annals of human history. And as a matter of tradition, belief, culture or habit, the beginning of the year 2007 will be greeted globally with a big bang amidst the usual merriments.

As a matter of mindset, the dawning of a New Year also provokes individuals to begin the year with pre-determined personal commitments so-called ‘New Year’s Resolutions’. These resolutions may vary from person to person based on individual needs, preferences or values. It could range from kicking an old habit to changing lifestyles or doing mundane things or pursuing old dreams or even embarking to work for nobler causes.

They say that the tradition of the New Year’s Resolution can be traced all the way back to 153 BC when the month of January, derived from the name a mythical king of ancient Rome, Janus, was placed at the beginning of the calendar.

In Roman mythology, Janus is considered as the god of gates, doors, doorway, entrances, beginnings and endings. The imagery of Janus as someone with two faces looking at opposite directions originally represented the sun and the moon. 

Later, the early Romans imagined Janus looking back at the year just passed and forward to the coming of a new year every time midnight struck on December 31. The Romans then began a tradition seeking forgiveness from their enemies and of exchanging gifts on New Year’s Eve by giving one another branches from sacred trees for good fortune. Later, nuts or coins imprinted with the god Janus became more common as a gift for the New Year. Janus then also became the symbol for resolutions.

In modern times, the significance of New Year’s resolutions is two-fold. Firstly, these commitments speak of a personal recognition or acceptance that something has to be done for the better no matter how significant or insignificant they are. And secondly, these resolutions offer a ray of hope that something can be done at the very least to improve a situation or start something new or different.

The only unfortunate thing about New Year’s Resolutions is that they oftentimes vanish into thin air as soon as the holiday season is over, or when everything goes back to normal, so to speak.

American writer Mark Twain once said: “New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”

Thus, there is a semblance of truth to the saying that ‘promises are made to be broken’ perhaps because it is now part of human nature. People have embraced the culture of making promises simply to please or appease either themselves or other people only to find out that broken promises ultimately result to greater displeasure or even exasperation.

But for all its worth, New Year’s Resolutions are per se a good ritual to keep and maintain for as long as they do not injure, harm or negatively affect others by offering false expectations and broken hopes. Then, never mind if these resolutions do not happen in a year. Maybe someday it will.

As Eric Zorn, columnist and blogger of Chicago Tribune, correctly observed: “Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle.”

Come to think of it, it is a worse situation when people no longer think about changing themselves or the circumstances around them for the better at least once a year. 

With God’s grace, may the year 2007 be a better and brighter year for everyone.