Batuhan: Major hurt

Saturday, February 4, 2012

A LOT of big things appear to be in store for us in 2012. It is, after all, The Year of the Dragon, and this is always known to be a period of major change.

For starters, the world is supposed to end this year. That is, if the Mayan calendar is to be believed. In fact, major catastrophes have been predicted to happen soon, as depicted in the movie of the same title.

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

Well, if the world did end soon, then we would not have so much to write about anymore, would we? End. Tapos. Fini. Finito. Am Ende. The End.

It is not difficult to draw inferences about the end of the world being near, if you are one of those who are inclined to believe in this sort of thing. For starters, the world really seems to be experiencing a bit more of its share of catastrophic natural events these days. And we in the Philippines were ourselves witnesses to this last year.

Who would have imagined, for example, that the normally tranquil land of Mindanao would get hit by a typhoon so devastatingly deadly, one would have thought the map of the Philippines were flipped upside down, and the island was in the North?

And yet, it happened.

In the dead of night—as people were lying on their beds— raging torrents of floodwaters came, and swept people to their deaths. Reminiscent more of the tsunamis that hit Indonesia and wiped out almost the entire island of Aceh, and Japan—which almost paralyzed its nuclear energy program—the flood could not have come as more of a surprise to those who were victimized by it.

A bit further offshore, Japan experienced what must be its worst ever tragedy, natural or man-made, since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Reducing town after coastal town into unrecognizable rubble, to its victims it must have likewise felt as if the end of the world was nigh.

Terrible though the consequences of these tragedies may have been, and end-of-the-word scenarios they may seem to suggest, I would say that perhaps it will not be in the natural realm, but in the economic and financial, where the world will see its most significant changes.

No, I am not suggesting world-ending scenarios by any means. The world will go on living, even if the entire Wall Street, City of London, and all the major and minor financial centers were wiped out in one Armageddon-like conflagration. This is how resilient the human race has proven to be. We are not, after all, dinosaurs—both in the real and metaphorical sense.

For certain, though, any more shocks to the financial system than it has already suffered will be devastating to our ways of life. Especially to those who have been used to the heady days of easy money and credit profligacy.

But sometimes, the pain has to get so intense, for the affliction to be completely healed. Wars, for example, go through their climactic phase, before peace reigns once more. The Battle for Berlin, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Gettysburg—all these suggest that pain has to come, before order can reign once more.

And so, expect no tidal waves of gargantuan proportions to consume us anytime soon.

Nor volcanoes to explode and wipe us all to smithereens. But beware—it is going to hurt a lot where it matters most. In our pocketbooks.

(http://asbb-foreignexchange.blogspot.com & http://twitter.com/asbbatuhan)