AT this moment, the whole world is looking for men of action, decisiveness, and imagination to combat the negative economic and political predictions for 2009 as the global recession reaches its peak of impact next year.

Be that as it may, it is fascinating, sad, and exasperating to discern how people and leaders handle and play out events and places in the midst of crises.

For example, in the last two weeks, one scenario, as viewed from a beachfront café, shows literally hundreds of bikini-clad teenage schoolgirls and topless teenage machos on a high-school semestral break all over Australia converging in the endless stretches of golden sand in Australia’s Gold Coast where sun-seekers parade themselves in careless abandon as if they were immuned from their parents’ financial worries and the violence and turmoils across the seas.

While oogling the endless waves of Aussie sun-worshippers, the television monitor in the café is also running continuous commentaries on the terrorist attacks, hostage taking, and carnage at the five-star Oberoi Hotel and Taj Mahal Hotel, respectively, and the killing of a Jewish rabbi and his spouse at the Jewish Nariman House Center which shocked a world already sated with violence and bloodshed.

To add to the gory mess, the blockade of the two Bangkok international airports by protesters demanding the Prime Minister’s resignation, which he did, and who is Thaksin Shinawatra’s brother-in-law, stranded hundreds of tourists inside the terminals while another passenger aircraft mysteriously crashed somewhere in Europe.

In the meantime, back home, one’s increasing unhappiness is not relieved with the local televisions’ perpetual litany of street crimes, scams, human rights violations, and the insistence of politicians in accusing Agriculture Undersecretary Joc-Joc Bolante for lying by the latter’s own version of the truth which led to his rearrest.

It is a comedy of errors, and tragic for the nation facing poverty and economic hardship.

On the other hand, the American people have settled down to accepting their first black President, and relieved that President George W. Bush will finally be gone after Christmas.

Thus, different folks, different scenarios. From where the sun shines brightly and the citizens have yet, especially the young, to feel the full force of the economic recession to violence-prone countries, such as, and from, Afghanistan to the Kashmir conflict between Pakistan and India; the continuing strife along the Gaza strip between Palestine and Israel; to Thailand’s ethnic problem with its southern Muslim minorities; to Mindanao’s festering insurrection of a Muslim minority; to Russia’s border problems with Georgia and Checknya with underlying geopolitical implications of oil and gas; and in several areas of conflict, including Tibet, North Korea, and Iran, idyllic shangri-las seem difficult to find during these troubled times.

When all is said and done, it is depressing that violence and killings tend to monopolize international television news networks, including the Philippines, instead of positive news to hearten the peoples of the world during the Yuletide season.

It goes without saying that so much focus, acrimony, suspicion, speculation, and trial by publicity over the Joc-Joc Bolante caper, and the endless debates on Constitutional changes are depriving the Filipino people of their priorities, such as security, job generation, stable prices, education, shelter, and healthcare.

The interminable issues of Cha-cha and the inquisition of Mr. Joc-Joc Bolante are a disservice to the nation.

You be the judge. (For comments and views, please e-mail: chaff_fromthegrain@yahoo.com.ph)