‘Year of cleaning’
I was walking back to work after having dinner with a friend when we passed by a television set along the hallway. It was airing a local report enumerating the number of Zika cases in the country.
It was another bad news piling atop many other sad news: the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand; the ongoing conflict in Aleppo, Syria; rape being blamed on party culture; and the massacre of Kidapawan farmers.
BBC: Syria conflict: What’s happening in Aleppo?
Buzzfeed News: The powerful letter the Stanford victim read aloud to her attacker
“Grabe ang 2016, ano,” I remarked.
My friend agreed. He told me it seemed to him that 2016 is a “year of cleaning”. Given my friend’s piety in any matter concerning religion, I knew he had some point in claiming that.
Biblically speaking, tragedies and calamities happen as God’s way of “cleaning” the sins of humanity. There is that popular Genesis narrative of the great flood, whereby Noah, his family, and pairs of all species of animals were saved from the corruption of people. There’s also a story about that gruesome night in Egypt when all firstborns were killed, except those belonging to households with blood by the door indicating that they’re Israelites, the chosen people.
This year saw the demise of dozens of public and celebrated personalities, some of whom are David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Harper Lee, Muhammad Ali, Christina Grimmie, John McLaughlin, Leonard Cohen, Fidel Castro, George Michael, and more recently, Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds.
But then 2016 also saw the election of Rodrigo Duterte to the seat of presidency in the Philippine republic, and Donald Trump as his US counterpart. The former, with his war against illegal drugs, has killed thousands just in his first 100 days. The latter, meanwhile, vows to clean the United States off immigrants, under his deceiving agenda of “putting America first”.
New York Times: How countries like the Philippines fall into vigilante violence
New York Times: Chilling tale in Duterte’s drug war: Father and son killed in police custody
The Japan Times: Duterte’s threat to democracy
Rappler: The drug war: Danica, my Danica (Related: Check out Patricia Evangelista’s other stories)
The Atlantic: The widows of Duterte’s drug war
The New Yorker: When a populist demagogue takes power
The New Yorker: An American tragedy
New York Times: Donald Trump’s New York Times interview: Full transcript
I don’t know, but if 2016 is, indeed, a year of cleaning, it’s happening in stark contrast with our biblical references.
Today, it’s the innocent ones, the collateral damages, being killed to save them from the brutal greed for power that pervades society. •
It was another bad news piling atop many other sad news: the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand; the ongoing conflict in Aleppo, Syria; rape being blamed on party culture; and the massacre of Kidapawan farmers.
BBC: Syria conflict: What’s happening in Aleppo?
Buzzfeed News: The powerful letter the Stanford victim read aloud to her attacker
“Grabe ang 2016, ano,” I remarked.
My friend agreed. He told me it seemed to him that 2016 is a “year of cleaning”. Given my friend’s piety in any matter concerning religion, I knew he had some point in claiming that.
Biblically speaking, tragedies and calamities happen as God’s way of “cleaning” the sins of humanity. There is that popular Genesis narrative of the great flood, whereby Noah, his family, and pairs of all species of animals were saved from the corruption of people. There’s also a story about that gruesome night in Egypt when all firstborns were killed, except those belonging to households with blood by the door indicating that they’re Israelites, the chosen people.
This year saw the demise of dozens of public and celebrated personalities, some of whom are David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Harper Lee, Muhammad Ali, Christina Grimmie, John McLaughlin, Leonard Cohen, Fidel Castro, George Michael, and more recently, Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds.
But then 2016 also saw the election of Rodrigo Duterte to the seat of presidency in the Philippine republic, and Donald Trump as his US counterpart. The former, with his war against illegal drugs, has killed thousands just in his first 100 days. The latter, meanwhile, vows to clean the United States off immigrants, under his deceiving agenda of “putting America first”.
New York Times: How countries like the Philippines fall into vigilante violence
When people begin to see the justice system as thoroughly corrupt and broken, they feel unprotected from crime. That sense of threat makes them willing to support vigilante violence, which feels like the best option for restoring order and protecting their personal safety.New York Times: ‘They are slaughtering us like animals’ (Related podcast: 41 Murder Scenes. 57 Bodies. 35 Days in Manila. A Photographer’s Perspective.)
New York Times: Chilling tale in Duterte’s drug war: Father and son killed in police custody
The Japan Times: Duterte’s threat to democracy
Rappler: The drug war: Danica, my Danica (Related: Check out Patricia Evangelista’s other stories)
The Atlantic: The widows of Duterte’s drug war
The New Yorker: When a populist demagogue takes power
The New Yorker: An American tragedy
New York Times: Donald Trump’s New York Times interview: Full transcript
I don’t know, but if 2016 is, indeed, a year of cleaning, it’s happening in stark contrast with our biblical references.
Today, it’s the innocent ones, the collateral damages, being killed to save them from the brutal greed for power that pervades society. •