It is the time of the year when predictions of all shapes and sizes, progressive or apocalyptic and utterly trash, will be revealed by everyone with any ostensibly prophetic calling. Armed with silly cards or radiant white sperma candles, or swanky mall-grade crystal ball, your yearly Juan and Juana and some dude with monosyllabic last names will confide, with pay of course, how they foresee the future. You see, we have predilections for predictions and other forms of futurescape prognostication.
There’ll be prominent deaths for sure. There’ll be lots of showbiz couple break-ups, inevitable. There’ll be controversies, as usual. And there’ll be plenty of lucky charms that can be bought that will surely be financially charming to investors of these charms.
Forget the mathematical probability of these predictions becoming reality (hey, it’s high time someone make a universally acceptable statistical treatment of these prediction so that we can at least narrow down the probability scale leading towards fool-proof divination, or we can bet the odds in favor for the real deal future-reader or against some con prophet), the idea is, January, or the days leading to traditional Chinese New Year will be the gateway as to how the whole year will take shape. Or so it seems.
This predilection for prediction commodity would never take root if not for us, the usual spectator. We buy and value them. We dedicate time listening and watching these enviable forecasters making a living being interviewed by some pretending-to-be-clueless TV host.
Pero huwag mangamba at mainggit. Everyone armed with internet and a social media account can be his own fortune teller. Everything that you need to factor in to predict the future can now be seen or watched in this (dis)information avenue which we call the internet.
Example, though unsolicited, here’s my prognosis for the days to come:
As sure as getting a bit older, forget being wiser, the coming days will be another political carnival. Easy. There’s this huge possiblity that the national elections will be postponed by some politicians whose probabilities of loss at the polls are higher than Mt. Apo. In short, they need to postpone the inevitable loss. Pero alam na ninyo nang lahat ito. Hindi na halos hula. That’s really my point.
Kung may alam ka sa nangyayari ngayon, walang dahilan para mabigla at mamangha ka pa sa mangyayari pa lamang.
Another thing: Earth getting warmer. Calamities, natural or man-initiated, will be fiercer. Hindi na kailangan ng panghuhula na may magaganap na kalamidad, lindol man o bagyo o baha. Alam ninyo na rin ito dahil sa issue ng global warming which some petty global politicos ignored.
As for some preventable calamities, marami pa ring mamamatay dahil sa kapabayaan pa rin ng mga namumuno. May mga namatay sa sunog dahil may nagpabaya. Sadly, and this I guess is beyond the reach of any fortune teller, walang mapaparusahan. Walang signal pagdating sa panghuhula kung sino ang mananagot.
Dahil sa bansang gaya nating punong-puno ng disgrasya, walang mapaparusahan at mananagot ng kasalanan. It is as easy as that.
Depending on the treatment and framing of news and information and the noble motto of the Philippine National Police, “To Serve and Putok, este, Protect,” crimes will continue to surge. Krimen man iyan na ginagawa ng kriminal o krimen na ginawa ng pulis in the line of duty, as Dear Bato stated, basta may biktima at pananamantala, may krimen at kriminal.
Hindi nawawala ang pagiging krimen sa pamamagitan lamang ng pagtawag na hindi ito krimen ng pinuno ng ahensyang dapat pumipigil sa kriminalidad. The only prophetic thing to do is to foresee that Bato will no longer be the thespian crying leader of a supposed professional organization in the first quarter of this year.
This, I need to have proven wrong: Vice Ganda will continue to lord over the box office unless we educate the watching public against the perils of watching too many recycled comedic flicks in the guise of “pinag-isipan, pinaghirapan po namin ang pelikulang siguradong mag-e-enjoy ang buo ninyong pamilya amin na ang pera ninyo.”
Together with his film outfit and hair color manufacturer, they will continue to pocket the bulk of the film “festival” revenue.
In the national sports scene, there’ll be prospects. That, while we forget how to take advantage of grassroots talents, we broaden our horizon in finding our Fil-Am, Fil-Aussie, Fil-European, Fil-African, Fil-United Nations prospects to play under our banner.
Well, yes, they are Filipino nonetheless, but we need to dig deeper into our proverbial ground to find some homegrown potentials. Kailangan lang muling ayusin ang pulitika sa loob ng sports institution sa bansa. Otherwise, we can always take pride on our mediocre performance. As always.
Wars will continue to threaten our volatile environment. Not with world leaders who act sub-par in terms of their diplomatic skill set. Those were the days that the diplomatic premium was mightily put on asserting peace everywhere. But times a-changing. The Simpsons creator, Matt Groening, may not even be proud of his coming to fruition apocalyptic vision of making Trump the leader of the free world some years back.
But with this creeping deluvio universal working its way through our senses, I guess the world will not yet end. Even with cacophony of tragedies lurking; equally tragic election of leaders that understanding them would put a psychologists armed with PhDs to shame; with the swelling greed to accumulate wealth even of the cryptic coin kind; the world, hopefully, will make a decent stand to survive.
The end of the world will be stalled even with two warring toddlers with a predilection for nuclear warhead buttons as toys commit to child-play version of the armageddon. Even just for another year. So that we can all practice our inner gift to survive and make another round of failed predictions. Or, unless I am proven wrong, but how will we ever know I was?
