In some parts of the Western Church, the Wednesday before Easter is referred to as Spy Wednesday, the day when the apostle Judas Iscariot conspired with the Sanhedrin to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver coins.

Today is also a good day to ask ourselves whether we in any way, known or unknown to us, have betrayed our fellowmen and ourselves included. It is so easy to channel or project our sense of dissatisfaction, and most of the time, even our anger, to our leaders and officials with unmoderated greed. But this week, the holiest of the year’s 52 weeks, let us also examine ourselves and look at what we have done or ought to but failed to do.

We might be surprised, even shamed by what we could see if we would really look the way we should. While no one argues that those leaders we abhor deserve the public antipathy, resentment, bitterness, dislike and umbrage and all their other synonyms that at present go their way, we the ordinary citizens might not go unscathed from the judgment of our children and their children’s children.

When the time for final accounting comes, the young people of tomorrow would pose these questions to us: What have we done, if we cared at all, to ensure them a future that is safe and free from lies and their corrupting ways? Why did we allow a darkest of dark to descend upon their world? Why have we left them a world bereft of hope and devoid of even the tiniest semblance of a moral compass?

In our inaction, darkness engulfs us fully. In our silence, lies become an omnipresent sound.

Each of us deserves a spot in that line of self-flagellants somewhere in Pampanga.

High-definition screen and 5.1-channel audio system normally go together in the latest generation of home theater systems. Today, consumers with money to burn and who desire the latest in video display and sound systems wont be caught with anything less.

This might have been Acer Inc.’s reason for developing its Gemstone blue line of laptops, whose top model comes with a screen carrying a resolution equal to those of high-end HDTV products out in the market. With a ,999 price tag, the Taiwanese laptop’s display system has 1,920 pixels by 1,080 pixels, a 5.1-channel audio system with six speakers, and a Blu-ray disc drive built in.

Now, people who are driven nuts by just any other PowerPoint presentation will at least hear and see those inane images, graphics and accompanying music in cinematic quality.

Karma sure has an uncanny way of balancing things, maintaining the equilibrium.

A study conducted in Netherlands has revealed that a security card technology used in millions of swipe technology-based access systems may not be as safe and secure as their proponents tout it to be. According to an Associated Press report, results of the study showed that the Mifare technology developed and licensed by NXP Semiconductors is easily hacked.

NXP Semiconductors, meanwhile, is studying the results of the study. Security systems experts on the other hand are having sleepless nights, while certain naughty individuals are having a hard time keeping that smile off their faces.

May we all have a truly meaningful Holy Week. May we all find the true meaning of the Lenten season. Beyond fasting and abstinence, despite the noise and merriment that now characterize Holy Week on these islands, may we never forget that God out of His greatest and deepest love for us chose to become human, suffer from the most hideous acts that humans could contrive and die in a manner designed for the worst and most despicable of criminals.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.