TIME, SPACE & PEOPLE: There is substantially nothing new with the year 2008 which begins today.

Except for its designated numbering -- 2008 -- this year will have the same 365.25 days, more or less, and the same 12 months with the same names from January through December, as the other years before and after it.

The passing years are part of an unbroken time continuum that remains unchanged through eternity.

The passage of time, like the flashing by of kilometer posts on the highway, is not change in itself. Time-cum-space is just the master framework within which we people exist, move and change.

The change, if any, is in the objects -- including us people -- moving in that time-space framework.

The newness that we talk about at this time is not really in the year, not in the quantity of time that passes beyond recall -- but in the quality of the life we lead in the limited time allotted to each of us.

The year 2008 will be truly a new (presumably better) year only if we renew ourselves.

* * *

ACTION LIST: With one eye on the year just starting, we look back and take stock of things that had caught our attention by their sheer repugnance (listed at random):

Government failure to feed and educate all children of school age. Cut pork barrel and commissions, luxurious spending, junkets, ghost payrolls/projects -- and government will have enough funds for this basic duty.

Recurring lack of classrooms and textbooks in public schools. This simple counting problem can be anticipated, quantified and solved in advance, but it crops up every opening of the school year.

Slow creation of jobs, livelihood opportunities, and the improvement of the quality of life, while government trots out glowing economic statistics that the poor and the unemployed cannot understand, much less eat.

Legislative investigations that distract Congress from its true function, insult resource persons, and then just fade away without producing relevant legislation. Much of that work actually belongs to prosecutory and judicial agencies, not to Congress.

Senators firing away at Malacanang without offering hard evidence or giving much thought to it as long as they grab media mileage in aid of presidential ambition.

The refusal of Congress to obey a 20-year-old mandate of the Constitution to outlaw political dynasties. Elective offices are passed on like family heirloom. Spouses and children take over from politicians who have to step aside when overtaken by term limits.

Juicy contracts being farmed out by fat operators in or near Malacanang via either under-the-table negotiations or rigged biddings. When will this feeding frenzy end? Kahit mga linta bumibitaw kapag busog na!

The Executive’s probing attacks on civil rights in the guise of fighting terrorism. Such tactics will never work.

The physical elimination -- murder to be precise -- of pesky journalists, vociferous critics, radical workers and political rivals. Your heart will break seeing mothers going around, like Sisa, looking for their missing children.

The sale of TROs (temporary restraining orders) by robbers/salesmen in judicial robes. When two moneyed parties clash, the price goes up.

Justices and judges who allow a paying party-litigant to ghost-write the draft of a decision, or who render a decision even before reading the summarizing memo of one party who is unaware that the case had been sold.

Syndicates who grab vast real property by having judges in cahoots with them issue decrees for the titling of the land in their names.

Squatters who put up instant shanties on vacant lots, organize into barangays and demand relocation and other payments to leave -- all that under the protection of politicians courting their votes.

The plunderous looting of sequestered companies by nominees of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, with part of the loot being shared with their patrons upstairs. There is proof galore of this, but Malacanang allows it. Why?

The resistance to the mandated privatization of National Power Corp. assets by a cabal cashing in on the importation of fuel, the sale of generating assets and the manipulation of the price of electricity. Ma-electrocute sana kayo!

The conversion of protest marches and power-grabs into money-making operations. This thriving business is literally part of the underground economy.

The holding of farcical elections whose dubious results are used to validate the continued tenure of corrupt and incompetent officials. Talking of competence, there should be mental and aptitude tests -- and a performance bond --for all candidates.

The corruption of kabataan and barangay polls in the mold of “big league” elections where money and firepower determine the results. The youth get early training and apprenticeship in the corrupt ways of their elders.

The adding on of the cost of graft on public projects and contracts, resulting in exorbitant utility rates, retail prices and cost of service. The stink is so strong that even foreign watchers, including the World Bank, have taken notice.

The allocation and pocketing of pork barrel should stop or at least be rationalized and monitored. Btw, is there still a Commission on Audit?

Motorized VIPs, real or imagined, who zigzag through traffic escorted by bodyguards and motorcycle cops who bully other motorists off their path. And to think that their vehicles, fuel, drivers and escorts are paid for by taxpayers.

* * *

APPEAL: This random listing is by no means complete. Will President Gloria Arroyo and other big-heads having a grand time in office please do something about these problems?

Or are we hopeless as a nation?

* * *