NOT everyone believes that God exists but the unbelief does not affect the truth that He exists. Not
everyone also believes that he communicates messages – personally to those whom he chooses to reveal
himself and even to those who are a stranger to his divinity.
The Creator set all things in order. There is a reason for everything. One sows, one reaps and one feasts
on the harvest. Yet days come and days go and we are clueless with the motions of the One who set the
entire universe in order, simply content with the satisfaction of having our day’s fill and nothing more.
Each day, we labor meaninglessly for a day’s wage and some strive for little bit more. Our lives whether
big or small seems to be nothing but a pursuit for digits. Students are graded, sportsmen pursue better
statistics and more wins; employees, higher salaries and employers, balanced budgets and profits.
Yet this focus and obsession for digital happiness is a horse’s blinder. As ignorant as we are with what
happens on the side or even under the surface of sea, we do not appreciate the Divine’s writings on the
wall, his cryptic script on the walls of life. He doodles before our eyes yet we read not. The heavens
speak yet we do not hear.
This is my absurd case from this sports column.
In 1996, the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan won a NBA-best 72 games. In a regular season numbering 81
games, losing only ten (10) games was not an ordinary feat. By any metric, this is truly an extraordinary
feat for any team to achieve.
Many experts thought the Bulls’ record would be untouchable until the Warriors and Stephen Curry took the
NBA by storm after winning last year’s NBA championship. This year, Golden State scaled the world
basketball’s Mount Everest.
Untouchable, it was not.
No one could stop Curry’s “out of space” shots executed with outrageous regularity.
I mean you know and you see those amazing three (3) point shots from beyond the arc were swooshing the
hoops and falling like slam dunks. No one, not even Nike saw the Curry phenomenon coming.
Well, it’s now history. Though it’s been days since Golden State won their 73rd game by humbling the
Memphis, the news is as fresh and hot as the hot pandesal from your favorite baker. Stephen Curry broke
records himself and leading the Warriors, they broke Chicago’s 20-year old high mark.
Let me amuse you. When one speaks of a bull in the financial markets, it is a jargon signifying rising
prices and encouraging buying of shares.
Interestingly, on the year the Bulls won a record 72 games (1996), the SP500 was only at the levels of
614.42 around January which was about a 100 or so points from recent lows. Since then, the index has never
gone lower even with the infamous crash of 2008 which brought the world’s economies to its knees.
From 2008, the SP500 had rebounded and continued to rise to new heights. A bull market, this was. As of
this writing, the index stands at 2080.73 coinciding with a period when the Chicago Bulls established a
NBA record of 72 wins. As the Bulls’ legacy seemed secure, the bulls in Wall Street ruled the markets
except that this year Golden State bested the record.
Could it be that the bulls reigning in Wall Street give way to the rise of a new trend? If the Chicago
Bulls’ record of 72 wins was dislodged by the Golden State Warriors’ 73 wins, is it possible by the same
cryptic message, the share markets would end its bullishness and give way to gold? Many economists accept
that there is an inverse relationship between the movements in shares’ markets and gold prices.
In the financial realm, there are real time events that could justify the possibility.
First possible reason. The USA, the superpower is deep in debt to the world by about 20 trillion dollars
only! A good number of analysts have expressed the opinion that America’s major budget and trade deficits
can no longer be cured by unconscionable money creation at the printing presses of the US Federal Reserve.
Simply said, when the US needs to pay its bills and cover the difference between its expenses and income,
it cannot simply get a piece a paper and print dollars.
Second possible reason. A good number of first world countries such as Japan, Euro and Switzerland have
adapted a zero or negative rate policy. The central banks have made cheap money made available at the
tills because of the global economic malaise. The monetary policy of easing sounds good but it also means
that the increased supply of currency diminishes the purchasing power. The illusion of money as a measure
of riches will be seriously challenged by governments’ penchant to churn paper money at their central
banks.
There are many other possible reasons too numerous to mention yet the doodles are all over the wall. The
earth is shaking more frequently than it used to and the heavens are flashing signs yet our obsession for
digital happiness blinds us.
We cannot say God did not reach out. From within, he has spoken yet we paid him no heed. Through others,
you heard the gospel and you laughed. The blood moons came and you said this was pagan. And you are
saying, this article is nonsense.
Please do not say after this that our ignorance excuses us.
In all sincerity, the lawyers know and say – it will not.