01.08.09 kulturnatib

Prediction
Fortune, like luck, can be either good or bad. A credible fortune teller will reveal both. Maybe not in equal doses, although depending on the inquirer's disposition, either one could be taken to weigh heavier than the other.

This teller could then be expensive. Or, entirely free. And even fun, in cases where the fortune predicted is neither about one's self, family, someone close or someone in the immediate neighborhood.

That was what we -- myself with my wife's family – were after most while counting down the minutes towards the just ushered in new year.

Fun, yes but without the frivolity. Serious fun, if that doesn't sound oxymoronic.

Proof of this are the printed forms that were passed around for us to fill up with our predictions. In the end though, one person became the involuntary secretary, who wrote down the predictions as they were contributed, questioned or agreed with.

At first it was a free for all with no apparent rhymn nor particular reason, except that, as expected, they hewed close to the interests or current preoccupations of the contributors; The father about provincial and national politics, the brothers about technology, etc.

Fun as it was, I wasn't really into it. First, I was occupied with the computer, finishing a collaborative gift for our friends. This was an extension of the DIY (do-it-yourself) Christmas gift exchange we initiated for the immediate family under the banner, “Joyeuses Faites.” And part of our general desire for this year to buy less, by more.

This banner was a play on the usual holiday greetings here, which is, Joyeuses Fetes. Or, Happy Holidays. With our banner, it means, literally, Happy Makings or, as we preferred, Happy Creatings.

Second, as the immediately preceding paragraphs might have clued some of you in, the proceedings were done almost entirely in French. Quebecois French to be exact. Exactly the language that, despite recent formal schooling – interrupted though, I still manage to only stumble through.

Despite this, I did manage to chime in every now and then, predicting, for example, that the Chinese would beat everybody else at mass-producing the first pluggable electric compact car. Whether this was going to be a good car wasn't part of the prediction.

But, it wasn't until I was asked pointblank that I started thinking hard. The question: Any predictions for the Philippines?

My answer after a few minutes: There will be more public demonstrations against the government especially its plans to ram through constitutional change in preparation for keeping GMA in power beyond 2010.

Philippine politics is not an immediately familiar subject here. But the martial law period is sufficiently known that it is can be recognized that a similar situation is approaching where a president for entirely selfish reasons will tinker with the constitution in order to legitimize moves to extend the hold on power.

This president is not even legitimately elected to begin with. This is the biggest scandal that the Filipinos will now finally realize as the most persuasive reason against charter change and to once again convene the parliament of the streets.

My most recent readings of my favorite columnists seem to bear this out. As 2010 draws closer the machinations of Malacanang are also revving up which are only getting all to obvious to the most ordinary, uninterested, unpoliticized Filipino.

From where I am this prediction seems too far out in time and space. But soon I shall be closer and shall have a better view of this prediction becoming history.