Quick, what happened this year? Off to top of my head and still causing me sleepless nights is Mr. Trillanes. Media rules! Who covers the excesses of media? The watchman. And then the string of scandals with ZTE at the pinnacle. De Venecia, Abalos, De Venecia sound like a slogan. Zoom back to the hostage for education drama. This year of course was national elections with GO and all the turncoats, the wins of Gov. Grace Padaca and Father Panlilio and the losses of Pacquiao, Goma and Montano. Pacquiao won elsewhere and faced a case for child support. The barangay elections bloodied and the SK elections corrupted. Truly, to say it was an eventful year is to understate the obvious.

Strong peso, stronger peso, strongest peso. Who would have thought? Now we can say to our grandchildren that in our days, we witnessed the rise of the peso 20% year on year. High electricity, higher water, highest oil prices. Nothing new in this regard with monopolies and cartels running the economy.  

Do we tend towards the negative? It is our nature to spot the difference and recall the difficulties instead of cherishing the normal and commemorate the joys. We are a Christian nation without a collective measure of gratitude for our little blessings. 

2007 is possibly the year when we balance the budget again. It has been such a long time. For all the minus ratings of the President, businessmen never had it so good since the boom years of Ramos with the real estate frenzy, record remittances and the increasing contribution of call centers and business process outsourcing. Our highest growth rates in decades we don’t believe. And because of the historically low interest rates, a series of business scams anchored on the trading of currencies, of commodities and of anything reputed to earn triple the bank rates fed our greed. 

I love Chairman Fernando and his engineering approach to the woes of the metropolis and his dogged determination to make sense out of chaos. Unfortunately, the MMDA lost a key court case that would have relocated haphazard bus terminals out of the capital like what other great cities have. Wake up lady justice and take public transportation. Please just don’t use the color of drab pink anymore. It really hurts my eyes and makes our dear Manila a drag city in shades of gray and pink. 

Climate change is here. The year when drought hit us during our rainy season, strange rains in the dry, super typhoons threatening, hitting and receding, and quirky December weather. The island states are the first ones to suffer given the vulnerability of our shorelines and our ecosystems to father nature and our excesses. Stop asking for more SM plastic bags. 

How can we not mention the pardon and conviction (in this order) of Erap after six years of trial? And the twin blasts of Glorietta and Batasan like double shots of 100% alcohol amaretto? 

But enough of tragedy. 2007 was the summer I learned bartending and the art of conversation without saying anything; the spring I discovered Paris and its suburbs; the autumn of editing of set of articles for book publication; the winter of love lost and shaken vocation. 

Merry Christmas friends and readers alike. Only the dawn masses make this season Christ-like. The endless parties are simply Filipino, the gift-giving part of our annual ritual. Looking forward to the break, a vacation and a respite assuming one was productively engaged the whole year through. People giving birth and people dying, places to see and places to leave, things to buy and to give away – everything is a blur as the year draws to a close. It is always this way. Hard to remember; easy to forget. The young carefree and the old old. We continue to try to look back, to take stock and to prepare for the year to come. 

Quick, what else happened this year?