Annus horribilis, big time

No, I’m not referring to any horrible assh*le, although we’ve had quite a number hogging the headlines throughout the year.

But 2013 certainly was no annus mirabilis, or “wonderful year,” the more traditional term of usage when reflecting on a calendar year just past, until Queen Elizabeth II popularized the more recent coinage of grimace.

That was in Nov. 24, 1992, on the 40th anniversary of her queendom. She described the closing year thus:

“1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an Annus Horribilis.”

Among the unwelcome events that drew royal chagrin that year were the announcement in March of the separation of her second son, the Duke of York, from his wife the Duchess, followed by tabloid photos of the topless Duchess being kissed on her feet by a male friend; the divorce in April between her daughter, the Princess Royal, and her husband; the publication in June of Diana, Her True Story, a tell-all book by the Princess of Wales; and in November, Windsor Castle catching fire. 

In December of 2004, then United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan revived the phrase when he announced at a press-con: “There’s no doubt that this has been a particularly difficult year, and I am relieved that this annus horribilis is coming to an end.”

This statement, alluding to allegations of corruption regarding the UN’s Oil-for-Food Program in Iraq, ironically preceded the worst natural disaster of the year, the Indian Ocean tsunami on Dec. 26. 

Spanish royals experienced a family tragedy and various controversies in 2007, so that the Spanish press described the year as King Juan Carlos 1’s horrible one, his annus horribilis.

It certainly looks like it’s been our turn this year. I refer to both our country and our national leadership. Marital relations may not have figured in this unlucky year of 2013; if they had, it would have been celebrated as a highly entertaining annus tsismis.

Several incidences were certainly man-made, however, such as the terrible headliner that was l’affaire Napoles, which spawned other political controversies that appear to have hurt the President, or at least gave the opposition ample opportunity to decry the fallacy of his “daang matuwid.”

Then, too, the knee-jerk herd that roams oh so freely around the peaks and troughs of social media had its bandwagon heyday over the pork barrel issue. Tragic was the suspension of disbelief, let alone skepticism. In their place rolled the beehive of gullibility and indiscriminate acceptance of whatever came out initially, by way of allegation, impassioned opinion, meme, why, even satire. 

In fact this witchhunt continues, in many variations, leading to a circus of spinmeister delights. Countermoves in terms of dirty tricks and inelegant blackprop become the order of the day. Contending legions of text blasters work their thumbs deep into the night, exposing this and that.

Your turn to curtsey, my turn to bow. That has been our politics, and that has been the crossover of political opinionating.

Again, those of us who reserve the right of discernment only after careful if not thorough review of complex issues — such as the ones involving the so-called pork barrel, as differentiated from the pork barrel scam, thence the PDAF and the DAP — can lay claim to some degree of objectivity.

Some degree, I must stress, for everyone’s subject to bias. Believers in P-Noy will retain their faith, even at risk of being labeled as incredibly steadfast parts of the so-called Yellow Army. The more objective can acknowledge however that indeed some missteps may have been committed, or certain steps not taken on time.  

Senators are implicated and charged, and for a while there, the shining light of hope seems to appear from the end of the long tunnel of justice. But the situation is quickly turned topsy-turvy, so that again we despair over our lot.

Senators argue ad hominen against one another, and we are all titillated even as we shake our heads and curse right back: A pox on both houses!

Yet another man-made tragedy occurs when a “KSP (Kulang sa Pansin)” in the person of Nur Misuari foolishly decides to undertake a misadventure that causes deaths and destruction in our beloved Zamboanga.

Worse, the natural world takes over from human infirmities, and completes a triple whammy. After serial typhoons in the South, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake makes us weep over the fate of our beloved Bohol and Cebu.

And as if that were not enough, the worst storm ever to be generated in what’s increasingly become a crazy planet weather-wise renders unimaginable devastation. 

But the upside of experiencing horror is the realization that like a hammer hitting one’s head, it can only stop. The horrible and the horrid can only stay so long. And the next cycle would have to be deliverance, for starters. 

What we learn is that our friends all over the world can care magnificently, and that we ourselves can take the opportunity to become heroes. Over and above the silly politics that betrays our pettiness, there is enough of the infinite sky for the generous good in everyone. And there is the gallant show of courage and unvanquished spirit in having a giant star lantern rise in Tacloban in time for Christmas.

Is it too much of cock-eyed optimism to believe that things will soon turn better, or to see a glass as still somewhat full even if it’s been nearly emptied?

True, as esteemed writer Ninotchka Rosca writes in New York, resiliency may be over-abused as an honorific we keep claiming for ourselves. And yet we do spring back into shape soon enough, recoil from ill fortune with the recognition that the commonsensical way is to pick ourselves up again and endeavor to meet up with a wonderful year next time out.

As for our President, while it is certain that his acceptance ratings will reflect a significant fall from the grace of trust that blessed him for three years, believers may yet jubilate that his annus horribilis occurred soon after mid-term, so that he has all the opportunity to bounce back, given an appreciation of the hard lessons of the past few months.

Would that our country also benefit from having been plunged into the depths of vulnerability and disgust over natural disasters, as well as human samples of calamitous behavior. 

We can wait till 2014 unfolds. Yet with recent events — a bus careening off the Skyway, the Martilyo Gang striking at a mall, a mayor assassinated outside an airport terminal — fat chance it seems that we can ever get

to that level of annus mirabilis that we pine for.

With caps and dark glasses now banned in malls, instead of jewelry stores with no adequate security, we still seem to be in the grip of annus imbecilus.