New Year, fresh start

Reading the news these days is like staring at a doomsday scenario. As though the devastation brought by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng weren’t enough, Philvolcs says that Mayon volcano is likely to erupt within the week. On the political front, it looks like Filipinos are still going to vote based on personalities. If those darned surveys are to be believed, totally undeserving presidential candidates seem to be gaining more ground as election day draws near. Natural and political disasters – not exactly good news with which to end the year, is it?

The good news is that Filipinos can be really superstitious. And, believe me, it sounds strange especially for me to type that last sentence. I’m the last person who would encourage superstitious attitude but, in this case, it seems to be the only glimmer of hope. In our culture, we like to see the end of the year as the end of a lot of things – the end of a string of misfortunes and a chance to get things straight with the start of the new year. I can only hope that we’re ready to leave the bad thoughts and bad attitudes behind and look forward to a fresh start.

It’s not as though we can stop natural disasters from happening. Typhoons, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions will happen no matter how much people pray. There simply is no relation between faith in whatever god you choose to believe in and the natural upheavals that the earth goes through periodically. What we can leave behind and get rid off totally is the attitude that there is simply nothing that we can do to help ourselves because calamities and suffering are part of the will of god which we simply must meekly accept.

A couple of days ago, we drove home to Antipolo via the Manggahan floodway. From a bridge, there was a panoramic view of the Pasig River – both sides still lined with shanties. And I wondered what happened with the pronouncements of Presidential candidate Gilbert Teodoro who, at the height of the Ondoy disaster, declared on national television that the shanties along Pasig River were not only illegal, there were dangerous as well. Well said but what has been done about them? It’s been several months since Ondoy and they are still there.

The word “helplessness” takes on more than one dimension in the context of the Pasig River shanties. We have people thinking that it is their fate to be displaced by every typhoon because there is no other place for them but the banks of the Pasig River. And we have a government that feels helpless to relocate these residents because many of those with the power to remove them are actually courting them for votes and are simply too afraid of antagonizing them. The obvious truth, of course, is that they all have choices that they refuse to consider because the best choices are too inconvenient.

In the case of the Pasig River residents, it is too inconvenient to move because, most times, proposed relocation sites offer no employment opportunities. One resident said it perfectly on TV – if they are forcibly relocated, they would simply go back to their old homes beside the river because that is where they find opportunities for livelihood. What those opportunities are, he did not mention.

In the case of the government and its officials, it is too inconvenient to relocate urban poor settlers when the elections are but a few months away. Why risk their ire when they can deliver millions of votes? For those who aren’t candidates and who don’t give a damn about votes, it is easier to simply move the entire urban poor communities and get rid of the eyesore and let them fend for themselves in their new location. To their mind, their responsibility ends with the relocation – providing employment and livelihood fall under some other agency’s domain.

Bad habits and bad attitudes die hard, as they say. And this feeling of helplessness, this attitude that it is someone else’s responsibility to provide us with opportunities to better ourselves, is something that is found across social classes and political color. Instead of learning news skills to get a better job or a embark on a new livelihood, Pedro will rely on his uncle, an elected government official, to intercede and find a place for him in the bureaucracy.

Will the new year encourage people to leave behind all the bad habits and attitudes, and adopt new perspectives and lifestyles? Nine out of every ten people I know believe in the power of new year resolutions although most resolutions are limited to what are considered to be “doable” things – those within the control of the person making the resolution.

But what is “doable” is subjective. Its definition can be narrowed or widened depending on a person’s attitude and how much he believes in his own power to change his situation. The term “political will” comes to mind but it’s a term that has come to sound so empty after being mouthed and corrupted by politicians. Personal resolve sounds like a better term. If you believe you can, you will succeed.

What is your new year’s resolution? Something as simple as losing five pounds or something as grand as becoming self employed and no longer a slave to this too unpredictable labor market? One is doable and one is not? Only in your mind. Change your attitude and you’ll realize that both are doable. It all depends on how much you believe you can.

Happy holidays to everyone.