Loss, no gain

After the subprime debacle in the U.S. that deeply affected U.K. and Germany, came the great American recession that is making Pres. Obama the helpless target of critics left and right. At its tracks followed the Greek debt crisis, with the entire Eurozone trailing with debt issues that it could not resolve in the short term.

Coming next, an Asian country dear to the Philippines (racial similitude), will totally crash around 2017.  That is if the Carrington event NASA predicted in 1963 to happen in 2012 and amended their forecast to 2013, does not happen and overtake that crisis of immense magnitude.

China is not about to give up its bullish growth trend in 2012, but even it too will be affected by world economic shortfalls next year. With Japan and the rest of Asia taking much of the brunt.

The predicted fall of our Asian neighbor is already happening, has been happening and right before our very eyes. Nobody cares to notice.

Perhaps, if you ask Filipinos now living in that place or those back here at home whose relatives have been mercilessly killed, maimed or victimized in one form or another by our neighbor state’s nationals or their transients, without any justice being served against the perpetrators, the instant reaction would be relief.

On the local front, the prognosis is not very bright. It will be a very difficult year, in the economic area for the Philippines. The government is not going to spend money for governance’s sake for reasons that it alone wants to be privy to. Its managers will have to compete with the needs of the taxpayers and contractors, service providers yet there will be very little to partake on.

The promises of funds to the government from outside sources must be actualized and move beyond the pledging sessions. Or they might as well have been mere campaign sloganeering for individuals who have absolutely no stake nor compassion for the country or concern for our collective welfare.

What then becomes of businesses that have suffered enormous losses in this year and in previous years that should have been behind us long ago?

Philippine Air Lines – PAL, for instance, might find it difficult to recover. While it is foolhardy to suggest that the country’s flag carrier file for bankruptcy, PAL will wind up as a basket case.

The hostile treatment by the Partido Manggagawa, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, Sanlakas sectoral party, Akbayan sectoral party, Alliance of Philippine Labor, Philippine Air Lines Employees’ Association, Flight Attendants and Stewards Association and many other quarters like Atty. Christian Monsod and Mrs. Winnie Monsod along with their ilk, that seek to drive a knife at Mr. Lucio Tan’s gut will compound matters further.

The PM, BMP, SANLAKAS, ALP, PALEA, FASAP crusade vs. PAL I can understand. But AKBAYAN, the Monsod couple, the silent group that are fighting PAL leaves me completely puzzled. What is in it for them?

Loss of face in the international aviation community after the last strike, the thousands of seat mile back logs of the airline and the continuing legal battle from inferior courts, the Department of Labor and Employment, the National Labor Relations Commission and other fora will greatly diminish the focus and resources of the company.

Our elders used to say, if you don’t succeed at the beginning, try and try again. If you don’t gamble, you do not win.

In all our cases, not to lose will be a miracle. So we lose anyhow and that is a foregone scenario. Yet no gain will come of it. All we have to do is brace ourselves for the impact and face the music.

Unless you have several millions or billions of dollars in your bank account.