Archive for May 28th, 2009

Shame

Shame

Salus populi suprema lex esto: the good of the people is the highest law.

The wisdom of Cicero’s statement should have a clear echo in every office, agency, and branch of all governments.  This country is no exception; here, in fact, it should be a deafening roar.  The highest law is the call of the Senate.  Every Senator is a vanguard, a protector, and a warrior of the public interest.  This Government should be at the very front of the line to figure out ways and solutions to feed, educate, and mitigate the suffering of the many who are poor.

Today, it is at the very front of the line of questioning the morality of sex tapes, not to mention the technicalities of making one.  I write this condemnation in the spirit of shaming, something that I hope can be accomplished with the limitations of a blog entry.

Shame, ladies and gentlemen.  That emotion, that bout of conscience that the Senate should feel.  A rare commodity in shameless places.  Redundant, but true.

In a country where the first signs of dissent and expressions of discontent are often met with the wrath of a truncheon and the fury of a water cannon, the Senate chooses to investigate – in aid of legislation – the Hayden Kho-Katrina Halili sex tapes.  In a country where malnutrition, underemployment, and a lack of education are pressing problems, the Senate chooses to scandalize lawmaking by making a spectacle out of women’s rights and surveillance.  In a country where newspapers and tabloids are replete with every crime known to threaten the very foundations of civilization are daily fare, the Senate embarrasses itself by turning their august and honorable task of making – and safeguarding – the laws of the land into a showbiz talk show.

And yet, for what?  Publicity?  The interest of the people?  Ladies and gentlemen, there is a difference between the public interest, and an interested public.  The task of governance is towards the former, and not the latter.The scandal taking place in the Senate is an embarrassment of national proportions.  There’s a difference between matters of public interest, and matters for public consumption.  While the wisdom of the Senate’s investigation on a sex scandal is timely, it is not proper, and it certainly is not right.  As the august and honorable Senators of this nation, many other issues hang in the balance.  Poverty, malnutrition, the state of education, health, the laws of the land, the welfare of every single Filipino have now taken a back seat to the technicalities of sex videos, and the stretching and extending of this issue to cover the rights of women.  The women of our nation who, much like a lot of other people, are poor, malnourished, ill-educated, sick, and have not found a refuge and a crying shoulder on the laws of the land.

For that, I take this opportunity to shame.

May 28, 2009 1 comment Read More
Father’s Parkers

Father’s Parkers

When I was in elementary school, Father always gave me a new Parker pen to start the school year.  I wanted the pens my friends had: those big, 24-color retractable pens that looked like spaceships.  They were much cheaper than the Parker pens my dad insisted I use; instead of jewel cases and brushed-metal finishes, the pens I wanted were funky-colored ones that can be worn as necklaces.

I was about the only kid in class without the Big Fat Retractable Multi-Colored Pen.  I was the kid with the Parker pen: it was so uncool, so nerdy, and I only had a single color.  I didn’t have nouns written in orange, adjectives scrawled in green, and punctuation marks in violet or pink.  What I had were notes and quiz papers in neat, even cursive, written in black ink.

I argued with Father over the Parker pens.  The value of the pens weren’t lost on me, but I was always teased for not having the coolest pens around.  Before classes started, Father gave me the pens for the term: the Parker with black ink for writing, a red Pilot sign pen for “exchange quiz papers,” and another Pilot sign pen – this time blue – if I were asked for a signature.  I was not to lose the pen, and I was to ask Father if the pen ran out of ink.  Most of all, I should keep my handwriting perfect.  Father said that pens as good as a Parker are too good for scrawling or shorthand.

“But I want the big pens, Father, the ones my friends use,” I pleaded, trying to appeal to the strict countenance of my father with childlike – if not childish – innocent pleading.

“You can’t write with those,” Father insisted.  The next day, the pens were near my school bag.  The school year just began.

May 28, 2009 3 comments Read More