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Internet Feng Shui sees this the ‘correcting’ year of 2013, so we start as guide with the wise words of Confucious, “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.”

Some quarters considered the administrative order banning firecrackers in the city during the recent holidays, a waste of time, some even snickered and predicted its failure. It may seem so, given the wider conditions when this order was released. But in need of a beginning, it is about time for such a ban to be defined and enforced to encompass the objectives of accident prevention, public safety and preserving a healthy environment in the City.

Especially now, when the density of the population and the over-development in the city no longer allows the safety of ample space between the exploding danger and the amused audience, bystander or otherwise. Even for an organized and centralized pyrotechnics show sponsored and marshaled by the city will need space to safely conduct such for an audience of almost a million – based on the approximate count of visitors in the city this recent long weekend up to new year’s day.

In a press briefing Thursday, the DOH and Baguio’s Finest announced an increase of victims, even if it was just a notch higher than the last year it still describes the danger in the number of wounded and maimed victims. The Cordillera reported 46 victims of blast burns, five for eye injuries, two kids lost a hand each, and one killed from a stray bullet. Most of the firecracker blast victims were aged six to 12 years old; 46 males, and eight females.

All explosives are dangerous. The regional health officer advised it best to ban not only firecrackers but all kinds of pyrotechnics “to remove the bane of yearly injuries”. But dousing man’s addictive fascination for fire especially pyrotechnics, and the frightened adrenalin rush gained from deafening firecracker blasts, is actually a tall order. So is the health officer’s advise that local governments should not only announce bans but also strictly enforce them.

An earnest and well supported and sustained education and information campaign on these commercial explosives: on the dangers, on handling precautions, safety measures, first aid, the law banning its use and its effect on health and the environment, etc. shall effectively make a reality of that tall order, sustain it and make everyone feel and know how important it is to protect life, limb and property from the caprice of burning some pyrotechnics on new year or at anytime of the year.

With the “correcting” year of the Water Snake slithering in, there is the whole year to strengthen that administrative order to put away those dangerous firecrackers and fireworks from harming the City and its constituents. # nordis.net