The year to come

I don’t know why the Sound of Music should be playing on Christmas Day, but there it
is on Star Movies. What with it being the ultimate au pair fantasy movie, there’s nothing particularly Christmas-y about it, after all. But then again, with a step-mom that breaks into song at the drop of a hat, I suppose Christmas would be like a year-round condition.

And speaking of Christmas … I think every kid on the block must’ve come knocking on our door today. I swear. I got to bed at around 7:30 this morning, after having worked on setting this new blog up from 4:00 am onwards, and I had been hoping to get some sort of sleep during the day. Unfortunately, the little buggers started showing up as early as 8:00 am. Kinda like office hours, y’know?

Most of them were pleasant enough – by which I mean they were sheepish enough not to act like they were entitled to Christmas dole outs. There were a few nasty ones though; kids who pretty much demanded that they get something.Ah well. Christmas is about charity, eh? As Papa Ratzi said, Deus Caritas Est.

But now that’s done with. I don’t imagine there’ll be much more coming tomorrow. Which means that its time to start thinking about the year to come.

2008.

The big news in January will be the marathon Bicam sessions to pass the frickin’ 2008 budget. If they don’t hold sessions, then the big news will be the fact that, yet again, we will be operating on a re-enacted budget. It’s a safe bet that GMA will be blamed for this, and accusations will fly fast and furious that a re-enacted budget will be used to strengthen GMA’s hold on power – mainly by laying the groundwork for a 2010 victory for the President’s allies.

The Comelec will be eager for a re-enacted budget because it will get them off the hook from having to automate the 2008 ARMM elections. The CICT-led Comelec Advisory Council won’t mind either. If anyone is against automation in 2008, it’s the Advisory Council. The CICT guy leading it, for one thing, went off abroad soon after making the boast that he was keen on automation. Boy, he was so keen on it that he didn’t even stay to do any work on making it happen.

Still on the Comelec, everyone (my cousins included) is waiting for registration to start up again in January. And, of course, the teachers are still waiting to get paid.

I’m also waiting to see whether San Miguel Corp will contest the President’s decision to give the Sumilao farmers what they’re asking for. A few days ago, a few Bishops intimated that they would exercise some … moral suasion … to convince SMCI not to challenge the President’s ruling. Kinda naive, if you ask me. But also a lot arrogant.

Another journalist was killed in Davao today (or yesterday I think). I bet that news will spill over at least into the first week of January. But it’s likely to be drowned out by the endless reports of firecracker deaths.Speaking of which, here are a few photos posted waaay early in hopes that they’ll discourage whoever reads this from even buying the damned things. But since even I can’t look at these bloody (literally!) pictures without losing my lunch, just click on the things to see the real image.

Ew.

I think that about sums it up for January. Or at least that’s as far into the future as my old optichron allows me to see. Got a new one for Christmas, actually. It comes with parallel projection capabilities, but the user’s manual is about as thick as a phonebook, so I haven’t gotten around to playing with it yet.

Filed under: musings, 2008, Christmas, Comelec, elections, extrajudicial killing, firecracker injuries, firecrackers, journalists, Philippines, predictions, registration, Sound of Music