Endless politicking, a democracy downgrade, a priest's murder, and now, airplanes that fail to meet minimum international safety standards. All bad news.
Unfortunately, they are typical daily fare for the Filipino newsreader. They are but a few examples of headlines that greet us when we open the papers first thing in the morning. We take them with us as we go through our day. They become the topics of conversation at home, at work, in schools, over drinks, over meals, in parties, etc.
How many times does the President have to be impeached? How often do we need to replace our Congressional leadership? How often do we need to rewrite our Constitution? How often do we need to debate on what system of government is right for us? Whose unfortunate turn is it to be our politicians' latest target of character assassination, a process they hide so well under the mantle of a Congressional sub-committee hearing?
When will the obsession with the superficial ("palabas") end and when will single-minded focus on tackling substantive issues begin? When will Congress finally have the sense of urgency to really act and pass not just laws but meaningful reforms?
The issues are all around us, too many to enumerate. Low quality of public school education, half-baked agrarian reforms, underpaid government employees, endemic political and bureaucratic corruption, government waste, high rates of unemployment and underemployment, unsolved politically motivated murders, electoral fraud and violence, tax evasion, a justice system susceptible to manipulation by the rich and powerful, a poorly equipped military. One could go on and on.
But we trudge along in the face of them all. We try to go on with our lives even when the results of failed governance are all around us. We try to move along even if our questions go unanswered, our pleas remain unheard, our taxes unwisely spent, and our rights get violated. We try.
But as a citizen, I also yearn for closure; closure on issues that have bedevilled my country for generations. I ask for neither a tax break nor a dole out. All I ask for is an environment that would offer me and my countrymen hope and opportunity. I long to see conditions improve to the point that families would no longer have to spend a good part of their lives hundreds or thousands of miles apart just to realize their dreams.
That would be the type of news I'd love to take with me.
8 responses:
let me outta here!
i wish.
in the meantime, back to the mundane. :)
Hang in there, Mari. 5x You'll make it.
Have you noticed that countries that were colonized by Spain ended up in the nuthouse? Think Banana Republic. While those colonized by the Brits ended up prospering. Think HK, Singapore and India.
Tsk! Makaalis na nga dito!
what else is new ? A year after a president is elected, everybody wants to kick him out !
Two things I see of here -
a. way too high expectations of the president. everyone thinks the president can put food on their table
b. too many balimbings who expected to get a big piece in the corruption but couldn't get any so they bitch everyday
Rudy,
The Spanish attitude towards its colonies was more exploitative, relatively speaking, than the British. Plus, the Spanish friars, in the colonies were religious extremists too; very abusive and beyond the control of Madrid. People were kept poor and ignorant while all the wealth were invested in foreign banks. The Filipino Catholic Church still has that mentality in one form or another, sad to say.
The British, on the other hand, had a more secular approach. It promoted trade and mercantilism between the Mother Country and its colonies.
BW,
I agree. People seem to think that the President has the power to go against the tide of market forces. The President, with the help of a functioning Congress, could only make sure that safety nets are put in place to cushion the market's impact on the lives of the people. Other than that, the laws of supply and demand in an open economy are really beyond the control of any President.
As for the balimbings, we are still paying the price for a multi-party system that was put in place by the 1986 Constitution. We already had Balimbingism (turncoatism) under the two-party system in the pre-martial law days. The multi-party system just made it worse. Things just got worse now because no single party commands a majority in Congress. It has become much more difficult for any President to pass laws if his/her party commands only a plurality of the seats in one or both Chambers. Sure, his/her party could coalesce with other parties but then, that's where the "watering down" process of good proposals take place. Sad.
many filipinos have this mentality that the government is the answer to all their problems, specially financial woes. the gov't may be accountable for some things, but not to everything. and when I start complaining myself, I am reminded by this statement:
we may not always get what we want, but we always get what we deserve.
Spot on, Monaco. We share the blame for some of the problems. Just an example: many complain of the utter lack of some government services and yet, those same people refuse to pay the appropriate amount of tax on their income. Oh well.
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