Peace and prosperity

The bad thing about every New Year celebration are the annual casualties that have become an integral part of every New Year celebration. We are, of course referring to the firecracker victims. The good news is that according to police reports, there were less casualties in the New Year’s Eve revelry than in 2004. Only one person was killed by stray bullets this time compared with the half a dozen slain in the previous New Year. As for the injured, it declared from 981 in 2004 to 414 in 2005. That is a drop of 57 percent. The number of indiscriminate firings also went down by 36 percent, from 41 instances in 2004 to only 26 in 2005.

Another good news is that the number of fires instigated by the use of firecrackers also dropped from 31 to 29. The worst news was that a 10-year old boy was one of those injured by firecrackers to welcome the coming year. He simply got hit by a stray firecracker in – of all places – the eye. We hope it is not a permanent injury. Another victim was an 82-year old man. This clearly shows that the indiscriminate use of firecrackers is dangerous to all, meaning including those who have no dealings with firecrackers.

In Quezon City, a 23-year old man had to have doctors re-attach a finger that had been blown off by an exploding firecracker he was holding. As we said in a previous article, before the war, all firecrackers sold for the New Year celebration could safely be exploded between one’s two fingers. Now, the 23-year old victim said he would never again explode a firecracker. Hindsight is the lowest form of intelligence. It would be unrealistic to totally ban the use of firecrackers during New Year. But surely the authorities could implement measures that would make it like before the war, meaning only safe firecrackers would be allowed.

We are very glad that there were fewer fatal casualties from indiscriminate firing of guns and misuse of firecrackers in our last New Year celebration. But we still dream of the year when there will never be casualties. As far as we are concerned, deaths from irresponsible firing of guns and the use of miniature bombs that pass as firecrackers are turning our annual New Year’s celebration into a human sacrifice commemoration. Let us aspire for a no-casualty New Year’s celebration. Why not substitute a noise barrage for firecrackers? A noise barrage is part of our great tradition. It was the culmination of the first election that defied the Marcos administration.

We wish all a peaceful and prosperous New Year!