Goodbye 2014 - A Year of Good and Bad Times

 

In just a few hours we will bid goodbye for the year 2014. Personally, this year is a good year for me and my family. In terms of health, I thank God for the excellent condition of our mother who had just celebrated her 73rd birthday. I wish her to be more healthy for the coming years. With regards to my brothers and sisters, nephews, nieces, and relatives, everybody seems to be in a very good shape because even one of them was never hospitalized or got sick for the rest of the year. I thank God for his blessings, we were able to survived the challenges and trials of our life.

As a frequent traveller and flyer, the year for the airline industry seems to be a bad year. Last March, Malaysian Airlines flight MH870 with 239 passengers and crew disappeared on its way to China and was never been found since then. Until now it remains a mystery. For the month of July, another Malaysian Airline flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine killing all 298 all aboard with mostly Dutch passengers. Two Filipinos was on board and killed.  On the same month of July, Air Algerie flight 5017 crashed and went down in Mali, killing 116 people on board enroute from Burkina Faso to Algeria. The cause of the crash was not clear, but the plane changes its path due to bad weather. Three days before the end of year 2014, on December 28, Air Asia flight QZ8501 disappeared over the Java sea while flying from Indonesia to Singapore. There are 162 passengers and crew on board and it is presumed that all have been killed. As of this writing, seven bodies have now been recovered from the waters off Indonesian Borneo.

Locally, the Philippines was not spared of disasters from natural calamities.  There was typhoon Ruby that hits Eastern Samar on December 06 and left 18 people dead with a total damages of more than 5 billion pesos both for infrastructure and agriculture. Last July, typhoon Glenda battered Bicol and Southern Tagalog region and considered as one of the most powerful storm to hit the Philippines this year. It left 106 people dead and a staggering damages of 38 billion pesos both for infrastructure and agriculture.

Indeed, 2014 brings us the good and bad times. But still, we were able to rise from these challenges and trials.  I hope and pray that the new year of 2015 will bring prosperity and blessings to us.