2011 Revisited

Over the last couple of days, news agencies in every part of the world came up with their own recap of 2011 the best fashion moments, the worst dressed, the most influential people, the worst natural disasters, the best technological breakthroughs… The list goes on and on. And of course, the political analysts will put in their two cents’ worth of whatever it is they think are the events that will change the world: the Arab Spring, the deaths of Osama bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi and Kim Jong-il, the Euro collapse, the US pullout from Iraq. And in the Philippines, all those Senate hearings about corruption and politicking and the blame game on the Sendong tragedy.

Last year was a very strange year on a local and global scale, I think. I can’t remember any other year that was as eventful. Or maybe, I was just more informed this year, maybe I just cared more. And so I am glad for these yearend reflections. I think looking back allows us to chart our course for the next year with hopefully fewer mistakes and more successes. Sadly, however, if human history were any indication, we would find that we would probably make even more mistakes in the future. 

We live in a time when technology is at its peak, where our ancestors would have considered us gods for the gadgets that we hold and the games that we play. Information is a mouse click away and we can communicate with people across thousands of miles in less than five seconds. Everything is so fast. So smooth. We are living in an age that people long ago could only have dreamed about.

Last year, the two biggest headlines were technology and politics. And often times, these two intersected. Facebook messages inspired the citizens in Arab countries to unite and to overthrow their governments. Some of them were successful and some are still battling it out. I was amazed at how technology could bring a revolution about but when I saw the bloodied corpse of Libyan dictator Gaddafi displayed for all the world to see, I felt sick to my stomach. He may have been a dictator but he still deserved respect. Killing him did not bring back all those he was accused of murdering.

Genetic engineering advanced at a rate no one could have expected. Goodness knows how much genetically engineered food we consumed this past year without knowing it, and yet millions of people are still starving. The tablet boomed into the market and suddenly everyone needed to have an Ipad or some version of it. If you wanted to be “in” you had to be wired, connected, online, logged on. And so that’s how the world got connected. And where people went, pornography followed and created its own pornography web address. And then scientists made even more advancements in nanotechnology—concentrating on manipulating matter in an atomic or molecular scale. We no longer focused our attention on the world “out there” but in the world within. But even so, millions of babies were aborted the world over in the name of “choice” because they were too small and too undeveloped to be considered humans.

And so I look at the year that was, and I am sad. Of course, there were good times. Of course, there were stories of heroism and of courage but all in all, it was still a difficult year. I see now: we are more advanced but we’re not necessarily better. We’re connected but not united. We’re looking ahead but not necessarily moving forward. We know more, but we’re not necessarily kinder, more generous, more compassionate.

Because, I think, we’re looking at the wrong direction. We’ve got our priorities all tangled up. We’ve lost track of who we are and what we’re called to be. The answer to becoming a better generation and a more compassionate society does not lie in technology. I’m not saying it’s wrong. I love technology. I just think the world needs to realize that although technology can change the world, we still need God to transform it.

Whether we like it or not, whether some people believe it or not, we need God. We need to put Him back in the center of our lives. Now, more than ever, we need Him in our politics, we need Him in our technology and science, we need Him in our environment, we need Him in our art and entertainment, we need Him in our fashion, we need Him in our education, we need Him in our families, we need Him in our workplaces and we need Him in our relationships.

And so that is my prayer for the world. I pray that everyone will be blessed in all aspects of their lives and that this year, 2012 A.D., will truly be an “Anno Domini”—a year of our Lord. A Happy and Blessed New Year to everyone!