Ring out the Old

Last time I spent the eve of the New Year in the Philippines was in 1988. Now, with my two older daughters, we watched the city become shrouded in the gray fog of gunpowder. You see tonight is our equivalent of the Fourth of July. To scare off the evil and unlucky spirits, we detonate illegal firecrackers way before and way after the stroke of midnight. Millions of dollars worth of pyrotechnics go up in smoke on this night.

Despite all the corruption and pollution and overcrowding and murders and kidnapping we become a hopeful nation during the dying minutes of the year.