Some people are saying 2016 was a horrible year. In the Philippines, they base this on Rodrigo Duterte being elected and the remains (or so it seems) of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. On the world scene, Donald Trump was elected U.S. president, a mass shooting happened at a nightclub, and Britain voted to leave the European Union. Perhaps what really depressed most people was the number of famous people who died this year, ranging from David Bowie, to Prince, to Fidel Castro, to George Michael, to Carrie Fisher, to the gorilla Harambe. I keep hearing people say 2016 is the most horrible year to date.
Really, is 2016 so horrible?
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Worse things happened in other years. There’s 9/11, Rwanda Massacre, the Holocaust of the World War 2 era, various massacres here and there, the Black Plague and more. I find declaring a certain year as terrible something that is mostly subjective. Of course, the basis would usually be one’s own life. For me 2005 was horrible because of certain events in work and family. But after that, one begins to accept that things don’t run smoothly as one wants in life, so we learn to adjust and keep running no matter how things go.
There would be people who hate it when others wouldn’t feel the same way as them, such as others don’t feel 2016 is a terrible year. And there are others who don’t feel angered at the Marcos burial or Trump becoming president. These will be accused of being apathetic or fence-sitting. The basis of such is believing that being angered at these things means you “care about the world.”
Oh, really? I doubt.
It’s easy to pretend to care about something. Perhaps what’s in the mind of some of them, such as those making the witty protest signs at the Marcos burial, is that they “look good” by protesting that way. “I’m not like those Dutertetards,” is probably their thought. In the end, it becomes all about themselves, and little about the cause they claim to support.
I may be told that the reason I say this is because of apathy. No. It’s good old common sense.
We all need to stop taking ourselves so seriously and just live on. I was never a person who stops by to smell the roses, because sometimes, this can downgrade into to smelling the street poop. You get so attuned to detecting sensations that you might even pick up the wrong ones. Your attention tends to be seized by anything that sparks your emotions, that when you pick up the negative cues, you get dragged into the roller coaster ride that could later send you spiraling into depression, anger or disappointment.
Detachment is often necessary to prevent ourselves being dragged down.
Some would say, if you look at only your life for judging the year, you’re a selfish, apathetic asshole. Still wrong. You can only look at your life because that’s the only thing you have control over. Not others’ lives or the world. That said, some people may have personally experienced 2016 as a bad year, then that’s valid. I hope things do become better for them.
2016 has been a year like any other. It’s got ups and downs. 2017 or succeeding years won’t be different. It’s our mindsets that need to be different.
Happy New Year to all!
I believe, as my cohorts here do, that what Filipinos embrace as their culture is what actually pulls the country down. And those who seem to be anti-dictators, who may also believe themselves to be “heroes,” are the real dictators.
People are such drama queens. That most of those who died these year seem to belong to the same age bracket only means that there really should be no surprise. It’s just that celebrities make a lot more noise in terms of that natural progression in life. As for those whining about the Duterte and Trump win being the start of the apocalypse, you people need to get yourselves laid and move out of your mom’s basement. There’s nothing new about the circumstances surrounding these two characters’ wins. If there’s one thing that’s worse here, is the hypocrisy and the sissy sentimentality of these supposed “humanist” idiots.
Yes nice. Go explain your point of view to the family of people who have been killed without being judged… wish that 2017 bring that reality to your world and we will see where you stand, moron
Like that sort of thing only happened in 2016. It has been going on forever in the Philippines, buddy. That you’re only noticing it now because you hate the incumbent president is, well, not only hypocritical but also moronic of you as well.
As expected, a comment where the emotions have rendered the brain inert.
Or perhaps, should I say, and to you too?
Yeah right and ejk only happened in 2016? Don’t be such a drama queen egomaniac.
No thanks, snowflake.
We say goodbye, to the Year 2016…we welcome the Year 2017 ! I wish everybody a Happy New Year…
If you are a pessimist, you look at the 2016 glass…Half empty. If you are on optimist…you look , at the 2016 glass, Half full…
It depends on your viewpoint…
The 2016 was the Year, Pres. Rodrigo Duterte, was elected President of the Philippines.
It was also the Year, when, the so called , “Cory’s Magic”, in election, was exposed, to be nothing more than : SMARTMAGIC and HOCUS PCOS. It was outright cheating, that elected the Fake Vice President: Leni “the Bobo” Rob redo…
The year 2016 was the year of surprises. Pres. Elect Donald Trump, will become the 45th President of the U.S.
Hilary Clinton , the U.S. polls winner, was defeated.
Allepo, Syria fell to the forces of Pres. Bashar Al Assad, with the help of Russian Air power…
Scarborough Shoal , the islands sold by Aquino and Trillanes, was made into a Chinese Military Base…
Obama, who legislated rules and laws, by Executive Orders, bypassing, the U.S. Congress and Senate…will leave the White House without any legacy.
Pres. Donald Trump, will revoke all Obama’s Executive Orders, by a stroke of his pen…
We have advanced much in the field of Science and Technology…I cannot point out the advances, because, they are too many !
Filipinos continue to become the world’s servants, by being OFWs.
We are hoping for a better Philippines, and a better form of government by 2017.
Scrap the Cory Aquino’s Constitution ! Remove all traces of the Aquinos. They are narcissists !
well, speaking of constitutional change, I would like to post a link here regarding on President Duterte’s plan on changing it from the “bulok” 1987 Constitution into a Federal type of Constitution but we need to plan it carefully before this thing will become a reality or else a deja vu from hell:
http://getrealphilippines.com/2016/12/questions-must-asked-talk-federalism-philippines-starts/
I just remember something with this, Hyden. A few days ago I saw this 2017 KIA sports car as front cover of popular car magazine. About two decades ago, my computer teacher was driving a KIA. It was a small red car, cute, mukhang pang-beginner driving lesson. Looking at KIA models now… I can’t help but scratch my head remembering our pambansang sasakyan for more than half a century now – jeepney.
2017 would be a good year, another year, to open the mind of Filipino youth (and adults) on how to achieve real progress.
Who said 2016 was a horrible year? Is it the national sentiment or the observation of the general population, of the majority of Filipinos, of the local media, of an independent scientific survey commissioned by one without an agenda?
ChinoF should mention in his article his source. He should name names, right? or he is just overreacting to a news item or an article ?
The year 2016 was not good to YellowTards…
It was the year, the Bitch, Leila de Lima’s sex video came out; showing , she was copulating with her lover: Ronnie Dayan , in a “dog position”…Leila de Lima’s other lovers were silent. Sec. Aguirre is still on trail, to find their sex videos…
Shabu Drug Lords, from the Aquino/Mar Roxas/Leila de Lima drug cartel, was exposed.
It was the year of investigations…the year, where we were drowning with Shabu Drug proliferations…up to the Barangay level !
To be continued in 2017 !
2016 WAS A GREAT YEAR, anyone that is still alive should know it.For the simple fact tat they are not dead. any year lived through is a GREAT YEAR !
IMHO as long as humanity doesn’t repeat WWII or something similar/worst happens, it is a good year.
If World War III happens, humanity will be erased. There will be no living survivors….
With thousands of nuclear bombs, at disposal by nuclear powers. We will be all incinerated within seconds. It will be our end. This Planet Earth will be uninhabitable for many many years, by any living thing…
Pray for Peace this 2017…for the sake of humanity !
The body is wise, the confusion is from the mind.
The residents of Bagong Silang Caloocan before DU30 used to call their place a no man’s land at night where taxi drivers were too terrified to get passengers bound to that area.
With the assassination of the barangay captain and other known local thugs rumored to be involved in the illegal drug trade, change has really come. So with the Muslim area in Culiat Quezon City where even the bravest cop before DU30 were too terrified to enforce the law.
I wonder if change has come to the drug lords in Pasig. Maybe not yet. 🙂
And I wonder, if Juan Ponce Enrile will die first this year than President Duterte then 2017 will be a great year for us & our country! That old crook should die immediately & he’s bringing curse to our land & to our Filipino people for many years since 1972.
@mrericx Even the Devil called Enrile has a value to the eclectic. Life is not all about black and white.
Without a terrified Enrile in the early afternoon of February 22, 1986, there would not have been an iconic EDSA86.
We have a flawed legal and justice system that all we can throw to Enrile for his alleged misdeeds are empty threats and accusations which can never be proven in our courts of law.
If you do not have the money to hire a lawyer to prosecute Enrile in our courts, not unfounded or unmentioned or imagined accusation in public, you are obviously just masturbating.
Kung iyan ang trip mo, cge enjoy ka na lang. lol