Why you had a bad year

In a matter of days we will once again indulge ourselves on food, alcohol and fireworks. We celebrate life, new beginnings and traditions. Many will look back to the year gone by with melancholy relief, thankful to have survived or mournful because the year closes carrying with it a loved one.

The New Year will always bring some measure of anxiety as well as renewed hope for better times.

I choose the latter as we all should. But not better times based on a wish for good fortune, or the amount of fireworks we explode to scare hungry ghosts or evil spirits out of our lives.

The only hungry ghosts and evil spirits that are in your life are those you’ve allowed to take residence, never bothered to kick out and keep out, or the one’s you actually invited in by opening portals you had no business touching.

I hope for a better year not based on how a dozen mirrors are placed in front of the house, or the easterly location of my kitchen. China is China because of a billion hard working citizens and not the amount of glass factories they have.

From last count, I still know of "Chinese stores" in Binondo and Banawe that went bankrupt. No amount of Feng Shui saved them from kidnapping, smuggling and extortion.

It would be just as interesting to rerun tapes and interviews of so-called horoscope experts, both east and west, so they could explain away the toll in human tragedy while many brokers made a killing in the Stock Market and elsewhere.

Before you begin the year, If you’re Catholic, Christian, Iglesia, or Islamic in your religious persuasion, you might want to research how or what your particular GOD actually feels about Astrology, Feng Shui, or Horoscope.

Chances are your God does not approve of competition. So if it’s been a bad year and your currently asking why, you now have one possibility….THE POSSIBILITY THAT YOU PISSED OFF YOUR GOD.

The sad and tragically funny thing about New Years is the fact that Media without exception habitually starts off the year by focusing on fortune tellers, Feng Shui experts, astrologers, and the likes.

Funny how many people go around saying they don’t believe in organized religion but allow themselves to be sucked in by trend setters acting like business managers for witch doctors.

A celebrity Broadcaster once called me a cosmic kill joy for not agreeing to use the topic for the New Year. At least I know I didn’t contribute to the cosmic kill rate of a very angry GOD.

While you’re busy doing "the year in review", why not do a self inflicted corruption index?

A what you say? ...just ask yourself how much corruption actually occurs in your life.

Do you pay the correct amount of taxes? Do you pay fixers to fix something that’s illegal? Do you give commissions to people as a form of bribe or do you tolerate buyers, drivers or managers who actually ask you to give them a "commission" which is really a Kickback!

A latero or automotive body man told me how he chose to discontinue working for a certain big shot because one of the supervisors always asked for a 5 to 10 percent commission. The latero did all the work while the company maggot took most of the earnings.

Do you corrupt the lives of the people who work for you or with you by introducing them to work practices or office activities that corrupt their integrity or morality? Do you have lazy workers because they get paid peanuts and the only motivation they receive from you are verbal abuse and threats?

Do you wear clothes with signature labels but pay your maids and helpers below the legally mandated wages? Don’t go looking for favors if you are the poster boy for "A curse on legs".

I don’t mean to close the year with a "Sermon in the Star" but a friend who owns several major businesses went out of his way to ask why his businesses hardly made any profit and most of 2006 was a struggle.

Rather than commiserate with him I looked him in the eye and asked him something I already knew, Are you screwing around? His reaction was a "speedy" that has no connection to business?

During the Asian crisis people could hardly believe that the amount of time an executive spent at the golf course would actually spell the degree of losses and difficulty of recovery at the office.

In the age of heretics and hypocrites, it was all just fine to screw around, business was not as tough and even when they were broke, some hacienderos simply covered up their bankruptcy with more Queridas and bank loans. In the end they blame the next generation for losing a fortune they already sold to the devil.

Most people associate screwing around as nothing more than marital indiscretion or infidelity.

In terms of having a bad year, have you ever thought of screwing around as a breach of contract? A contract you made not only with your wife but also with your GM (God all Mighty). The contract was for you to partner with your bride while God gave you the kids, the house and all the support.

My friend’s mouth ran dry when I asked, as a result of your violation of contract did it occur to you that all commitments are cancelled and as a result your wife, your kids, your workers suffer because YOU Mr Man in-charge broke the contract?

These are things we don’t usually think of, things like do we work just for our benefit or are we not suppose to have a social impact or be a blessing to others?

I use to wonder why those we normally refer to as Bad boys, Bad news, or plain evil get to have lots of money, lots of favor in spite of?

Look closely folks, many hoodlums I’ve known and studied don’t hold on to wealth like leeches, they share their wealth giving life to the saying "stealing from the rich and giving to the poor."

They share and keep their hands open and receive more. I don’t justify their lifestyle or their wealth. But there is something about being generous.

And speaking of generosity… are you generous in giving praise, in giving honor where honor is due? Does your existence on planet earth give justification to the creation of man? Or as one nasty lady put it… are you a waste of space?

You shouldn’t be. If you are nothing more than an ordinary human being, then be a human being who gives honor to its creator. Be the best in honoring and giving the glory to God.

2007: It will be a GOOD, GODLY, & GLORIOUS YEAR.