We Can Make This A Very Happy New Year.

Selamat Tahun Baru 2018.  Happy New Year 2018  folks.  

No matter what the weather, the gloom, doom or sadness, the end of the old year and the birth of the New Year at midnite of 31st December is an occasion for great celebration, joy and hope. 

I was analysing inside my otak why this is always the feeling.   The close of the old year gives us a sense of achievement. That we have survived through another year. If we have done well in the year, we celebrate exactly that. If we have done less well, we celebrate that we have endured. And we all look forward to another year – a new year. 

The old year is gone. It is a closing of accounts.  Whatever shortcomings and mistakes that were due to our oversight are gone. We can start fresh again. It is a new beginning. So there is hope. 

And we celebrate the availability of that hope. We celebrate life.   

There can be in reality,  physically and naturally a new year as well.  It all begins with the Sun. Our planet earth orbits around the Sun. Plus our planet rotates on its own axis. Plus, the axis of our planet’s rotation is tilted, about 23.5 degrees away from the perpendicular towards the Sun. (Ha ha this saves me the doubt of saying leaning towards or away from the Sun). 

It is that 23.5 degree tilt in the Earth’s axis of rotation that gives the Earth its seasons and hence a clear beginning and end for  a “new year”.  

The time of the sunrise and the sunset must be exactly the same on the same date every year and it must differ on every other date of the year. (Give or take  intercalation effects). Intercalation means when human beings adjust their own calendars (Chinese, Indian, Roman, Persian etc).  

Hence the shadow of a wooden pole stuck in the ground is never of exactly the same length at the same time (say 10am)  everyday of the year. This is because of the tilt of the earth’s axis.  

But at the same location the length of the shadow is (AND MUST BE) exactly the same at the same time of the same day every year. 

So depending on which civilisation you belong to, you can pick any day you want in the SOLAR YEAR and declare it your ‘New Year’s Day’.  So we have Chinese New Year, January 1st the Roman New Year, Tamil New Year etc.

January 1st is the Roman New Year because it dates back to Roman times. January is named after the Roman god Janus. Janus is depicted as a two faced god, one face looks back and the other looks  towards the future. Janus was depicted as the Roman god of beginnings. Hence the 1st day of January is a good beginning. But it was not until the 16th century that the modern European people really began celebrating January 1st  as  the New Year.

The psychology behind "celebrating"  the New Year is just a power of suggestion. January 1st is Roman, then Chinese New Year, Tamil New Year, Persian New Year etc. It is tied to the seasons, the harvest or some religious significance.  As far as the Sun is concerned, it is just another bright, sun-shiny day.  

In Malaysia we hope for the skies for this new year 2018.  Because the country is in the lowest pits that we have known. And if collectively we do not do something about it, it will only get worse.  

So our new year celebrations and the new year happiness lie in the high hopes that we have for this year. Because we have little good to look back on. 

Large segments of the society have already deteriorated  economically, socially and politically.  The bigger problem with our country is that this deterioration does not affect everyone to the same degree.  Race, religion, language and  culture still defines all of the above.   But it does pull down the entire nation.  The whole country is deteriorating.  

However  I am always optimistic because the change that we need to undertake to correct the situation is so simple.  First we must get rid of this band of bastards who are stealing the people blind.  The job is actually a very easy thing to do because they are such stupid and incompetent fools. 

And a simple mechanism is available for us to effect that change – the ballot box.  Just vote them out.  

There is a suggestion that in their desperation, the  thieves  will deny the public the chance to vote. Again a totally stupid idea. 

To achieve this, they will have to make the Civil Service, the Police and all the other security and legal services subservient to their evil plans.  Sadly we have already seen this happening but to a lesser extent.  The Civil Service, the Police and the other services are part of that deterioration that has already set in the country.  

Hoping for change in this “Happy New Year” the Police, the Armed Forces, the legal and judicial services should not be party to any attempt to ‘constitutionally’ or ‘legally’ cancel or postpone the upcoming general elections.

The public must also start talking about this threat more openly. We have to pre-empt the thieves and expose any evil plans they may be hatching to postpone or cancel the elections. 

How do we thwart this? Its very simple. Just talk about it. That is the first step. Share this concern among your family, friends, at work and among your social groups. Lets get the conversation going. 

It can indeed be a very Happy New Year folks. 

It is all up to us. 

The power really lies with us. 

You really do not know just how powerful you are.   

Happy New Year everyone.