Spark clog

Netnet Camomot . 

IT’S the last week of January. Kumusta na ang New Year’s resolutions? How many pounds have you lost? Have you said goodbye to toxic friends? Have you finished KonMari-ing your things, so that each item inside your house now sparks joy?

Resolutions, like promises, are made to be broken. And there will be many promises to be broken once the campaign season for Election 2019 begins, with political candidates doing anything and everything to win, from kisses for babies to chocolate kisses, from shaking your hand to shaking their booty onstage, from T-shirts to fans to baller bands.

This is the best time to start a printing business. But if you’ve had it with starting anything in Pinas, no thanks to red tape and all that jazz, then vote wisely in May and grab the chance to say goodbye to toxic politicians who don’t spark joy. Yes, you can apply the KonMari method on political candidates, too—if they don’t spark joy, Bye!

Marie Kondo’s way of saying goodbye to things is gentler: tell that item, “Thank you for giving me joy when I bought you,” “Thank you for teaching me what doesn’t suit me,” or “Thank you for pretending to be a friend even if you’re not—good riddance!” Hehe, that last one is mine.

After thanking the item, Kondo advised, “let it go.”

Nothing beats a year-end like December as the best month to let go since by January, you can’t simply let go of the business permit renewal.

January is the time to stay home and relax on holidays and weekends unless you have a home office where work is 24/7 while KonMari-ing files and documents. Imagine Kondo telling you this: Hold the 2019 business permit billing in your hands, as close to your heart as possible. Does it spark joy?

That billing has the annual building inspection fee, manager’s fee, business registration plate, community tax, garbage fee, certification fee, mayor’s permit fee, occupation permit fee, certification fee and, of course, the basic tax. Add all that and it’s ka-ching! You may have to stop buying groceries for a year. Whew. Rely on Pinoy resilience to help you survive, be like the largest universal bank—find ways.

Taxes should always be the top priority in the hierarchy of payments otherwise the government will shut down. And only US President Donald Trump seems bent in continuing a government shutdown.

There was a time when having a US visa was the Pinoy’s ultimate dream. 9/11 somehow tempered that dream as the US became stricter with visa requirements and port-of-entry rules. This year, it has even decided to stop issuing H-2A/H-2B work visas for the Pinoy until Jan. 18, 2020. There are other countries that do welcome the Pinoy, giving him more alternatives to choose from.

Working in Pinas remains the best choice, though, for the Pinoy who prefers to stay home.

As for the Pinoy who works abroad, may he be guided by this: “Wherever you go, there you are.”

The home that sparks joy is the perfect place to live in. It’s where anyone can better appreciate the blessings that come his way, making him feel always contented, which is the attitude that a political candidate wants in a potential voter. The contented voter doesn’t wish for more as he always looks at the bright side of life. In other words, easier to please.

An honest politician is said to be an oxymoron, and even the contented voter will suspect something’s amiss each time he sees a politician clad in expensive clothes and accessories: How and why can he afford that, where’s the money coming from, hmmm, “we can’t build our dreams / On suspicious minds.”

A public servant should live a simple life if he wants his commissions to remain unknown. Which can be a real pain in the a** for him: he can now afford but he can’t buy and flaunt. Tsk tsk. So, he buys and flaunts and wishes the voter is not familiar with brands.

Being a public servant means he’s tasked to serve the public and not his own pocket, family and friends. If only the true essence of public service is not lost in translation, then, Pinas will surely become a superpower like the US.

But the US is also having its own woes, with the government shutdown prompting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to cancel Trump’s State of the Union address at the House chamber.

In a television interview, Lara Trump, the wife of Trump’s son Eric, commented on the government shutdown: “Listen, it’s not fair to you and we all get that but this is so much bigger than any one person. It is a little bit of pain but it’s going to be for the future of our country.”

Is “a little bit of pain” the same as a pain in the a**? Well, both definitely don’t spark joy.