Don’t analyze St. Dolores says
Am partially blind as I type this, so there’s a perfectly reasonable excuse if there are more than the usual number of typographical errors in this entry. I had to get my glasses fixed because the right nose pad fell out. Everything looks blurry and sludgy around the edges right now, and I’m getting a slight headache, but I don’t have a choice but to forge on ahead because I dislike wasting time when
I’m at work.
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We’re all thinking of not coming here to work tomorrow when the Sandiganbayan lays down its decision on the plunder case against ousted president Joseph Ejercito Estrada. There’ll be at least 6,000 members of the PNP blocking the traffic tomorrow, and this is 
what I’m mostly worried about and not so much the Erap supporters.
I feel more or less indifferent to what the Sandiganbayan will say about Estrada and whether it will decide to acquit or declare him guilty. It’s been six years, and in the interim Macapagal-Arroyo has been president and has driven all thoughts and feelings of anger or
disgust against Estrada out. Is he guilty? You bet he is; but gad, compared to Macapagal-Arroyo, he’s practically a saint — even if you count his many wives, the drinking and gambling habits he used to have, and his less than savory friendships with big-time gamblers and the business mafia.
I care more about Macapagal-Arroyo getting charged and arrested for massive civil, political and human rights violations and for severely compromising the economy, food security and the over-all national welfare by forging lopsided business and econ deals left and right with foreign corporations and promising them the earth, the sky, and what’s over and under both within what constitutes Philippine territory.
I can’t wait for 2010 when her term is over and she can be criminally charged.
Back to Estrada — I remember enjoying the rallies and seeing, feeling how activists were being highly creative, driven to coming out with the most eye and ear-catching gimmicks to express protest against the erstwhile jueteng lord.
It was quite a different feeling from what I have now when I think of Macapagal-Arroyo — rallies against her are angry, and I for one, in all earnestness want her out of Malacanang and thrown behind bars at the soonest possible time for all of the anguish she has caused and continues to cause because of Oplan Bantay Laya I and II.
Now reading about the NBN contract with China’s ZTE Corp. and the 31 other economic/business deals her administration has forged with China and its business sector, I feel almost desperate: will there still be a country called the Philippines 20 years hence? Macapagal-Arroyo is literally leasing or selling millions of hectares of land and sea area to China, and only the stupidly optimistic will be able to say that some good will come out of this for the Philippines in the long run.
It’s a good thing that the Supreme Court laid down a TRO against the NBN deal, but for how long is the effect of this TRO? And as for the 31 other contracts, gad, will the SC lay down a similar decision on them as well?
I’ve been told that included in the 31 RP-China agreements is a business permit allowing China to export to the Philippines tons of relatively affordable dual-SIM phones and inexpensive laptops. At first glance that seems pretty cool; but when analyzed closely, gad, who needs cellphones and laptops when hundreds of thousands of farmers, fisherfolk and minorities will be stripped of their land, livelihood and sources of income, as well as driven out of their homes by Chinese corporations?
Then there’s the war in Mindanao, the plans for the full privatization of the electric and power industry, the increasing costs of living and the alarming rise in criminality.
It would be funny if it weren’t so infuriating. All these things are affecting even our plans of having children. Whenever either of us brings up the topic, we inevitably end up saying it’s not a good time because of the 1) human rights situation, and 2) the economic situation. I really want to get pregnant and have a baby already, but I often I am terrified by the mere thought of raising a child in this country, and lately, Kim agrees.
We have agreed to adopt.
Wouldn’t t be funny but at the same time quite useful and instructive if obstetricians, pediatricians and family doctors in their consultations with patients ever ask them about how the state of the nation affects their decisions for their families? I mean, heck, how do you come up with a healthy, balanced diet for the family when everything is so expensive, including vitamin supplements?
Hmm, it’s not even true that Filipinos consult doctors all the time. It’s too expensive. Most Pinoys just drink lots of water and hope for the best; if they have money to spare, they buy paracetamol.
I feel like Adrian Monk - I worry about everything these days.
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It’s usefulness as a medium for quick information dissemination aside, it’s only now that am really appreciating youtube. For the most part this morning in between writing tasks I’ve been looking at old videos of songs by the Police, They Might Be Giants, China Crisis, 10,000 Maniacs, and the Cranberries. Actually, I wasn’t really watching the videos but just listening to the music while I wrote.
Even before I’d read Nick Horby’s ‘High Fidelity,’ I was already aware of how pop music served as markers distinguishing various chapters or episodes of my life, or as therapeutic instruments. I listen to this song or that over and over and over whenever I feel bad/sad/wounded/troubled or deliriously happy. The lines of certain songs, the melody of some others help to alter my emotions and my frame of mind and take me someplace else — either to the past when I was not in pain or in grief; or to some hoped for future where I would not only be not in pain, but perhaps even doing quite, quite well.
I can’t even count the number of times I’ve survived terrible experiences by playing ‘I’m Free to Decide’ and ‘Don’t Analyze’ again and again. Dolores ‘O Riordan is my personal patron saint.
