Here We Go Again
BAD news from the homeland. It's another mass disaster. A few weeks ago, it was news about the stampede over a million-peso game show. More than 60 dead. Most of them poor people hoping for a chance to win millions of pesos. This time it's a mudslide in Leyte. Around 1,500 remain missing. Two hundred children and a number of adults confirmed dead.
Why am I not surprised. I covered the disaster beat for a few years when I was a reporter for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. I remember covering a story near Legaspi City that was quite similar. Sudden flash flood. Mudslide buries villages. Politicians issue statements. Practice their "indignant look" for the TV cameras. Investigations are ordered. Then all is forgotten till the next sensational story or the next mass disaster.
All this makes me think of Filipino-Americans I've met here in the US who seem jaded, pesimistic and unforgivably disillusioned about the Philippines. And I used to wonder how they came to that. I somewhat understand how they feel now. At best, I know they don't hate Inang Bayan. (How is that even possible?) But I know that they hate and are utterly disappointed at how graft and corruption has hindered the Philippine's progress and has forced families to live apart (because some choose to work overseas).
I feel this anger because I was a faithful taxpayer. Every year I looked at my income tax return and blood would drain from my head at the thought of my hard-earned pesos being spent by some politician's son on a cappuccino at StarBucks Legaspi Village. Hay nako, sino ba naman ang hindi iinit ng ulo sa ganon?
Money that should have gone to schools and to health care and to development projects for the poor just becomes pork barrel. They way I see it--and I know this sounds harsh-but each government official or employee who has ever taken or solicited a bribe has had a hand in the deaths in Leyte, in Pasig, and wherever else there is death-by-poverty.
I know it sounds like convenient finger-pointing. But hey, I spent my idealistic youth helping to make things better--until I felt burnt out. Time to rest and recharge my batteries.
What is it that stewardesses say in case of an emergency landing? Put the oxygen mask on yourself before helping the person next to you. Otherwise, you could both possibly die.
Ah basta, tangina ninyong mga pulitikong walang silbi! Sana nga may impiyerno.
Why am I not surprised. I covered the disaster beat for a few years when I was a reporter for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. I remember covering a story near Legaspi City that was quite similar. Sudden flash flood. Mudslide buries villages. Politicians issue statements. Practice their "indignant look" for the TV cameras. Investigations are ordered. Then all is forgotten till the next sensational story or the next mass disaster.
All this makes me think of Filipino-Americans I've met here in the US who seem jaded, pesimistic and unforgivably disillusioned about the Philippines. And I used to wonder how they came to that. I somewhat understand how they feel now. At best, I know they don't hate Inang Bayan. (How is that even possible?) But I know that they hate and are utterly disappointed at how graft and corruption has hindered the Philippine's progress and has forced families to live apart (because some choose to work overseas).
I feel this anger because I was a faithful taxpayer. Every year I looked at my income tax return and blood would drain from my head at the thought of my hard-earned pesos being spent by some politician's son on a cappuccino at StarBucks Legaspi Village. Hay nako, sino ba naman ang hindi iinit ng ulo sa ganon?
Money that should have gone to schools and to health care and to development projects for the poor just becomes pork barrel. They way I see it--and I know this sounds harsh-but each government official or employee who has ever taken or solicited a bribe has had a hand in the deaths in Leyte, in Pasig, and wherever else there is death-by-poverty.
I know it sounds like convenient finger-pointing. But hey, I spent my idealistic youth helping to make things better--until I felt burnt out. Time to rest and recharge my batteries.
What is it that stewardesses say in case of an emergency landing? Put the oxygen mask on yourself before helping the person next to you. Otherwise, you could both possibly die.
Ah basta, tangina ninyong mga pulitikong walang silbi! Sana nga may impiyerno.
posted by Natasha Vizcarra at 9:36 PM
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