Ka-Blog!

I willed myself not to post new blogs since Christmas. First, I wanted to take the edge off because I was getting angry with my blogs and it is not really me.  Second, year ends and the first weeks of January are usually spent on assessment and planning sessions.  Besides, I wanted to hit 2007 running with old and new tasks accomplished so I really had no time to waste writing about my angsts.

            But I already can’t help myself.  There simply are things I have to write about to prevent my chest from bursting with pent-up anger.

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Walanghiya talaga itong itong si labor and employment secretary Brion.  Imagine an official in his position totally taking the capitalists’ side saying a legislated wage increase is bad for labor.    His justification is that small and medium scale industries may be forced to close down because they can’t afford to give 125 pesos more to their abominally underpaid and overworked workers.

            First, the workers do not only want the increase, they need it.  In fact, it is not even enough.  They clamored for the bill’s passage for seven years already.  How the hell can Brion say labor does not want the increase?

            Second, when will this government admit that the small and medium scale industries’ bigger problem are the dumping of imports (sanctioned and smuggled) and the arrival of multinational corporations that take away their business?  How can small local businesses compete with foreign corporate giants the government keeps wooing with tax holidays and nefarious deals?

            Whoever believes that globalization is good for the country is dumb.

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Don’t look now but comediennes Pokwang and Tiya Pusit may be given a run for their money by Cebu governor Gwendolyn Garcia.

            I heard on the radio the other night she has given Carmelite nuns trays of eggs and bags of groceries to help her pray for good weather in Cebu during the ASEAN Summit.  This is one of the reasons why I relish being an erehe sometimes.  I always find it funny to hear or see practices like this.

            I know that this is a custom among Filipino catholics but, por Dios por santo, I thought simony has been chucked out the window since the Second Vatican Council.

            Why she is deathly afraid of rains in January, I don’t know.  All of Southeast Asia and their respective heads of state (the players of the Summit) know rains do come at this time of the year all over the region.  Something to do with this thing called Intertropical Convergence Zone.

            I suspect Garcia is afraid the rains would bring on the leaks in the overpriced and hastily constructed Cebu International Convention Center.  But instead of raising the poor nuns’ cholesterol count to stratospheric proportions due to eating way too many eggs, Garcia should instead crack the eggs and use their shells in covering the leaks on CICC’s roof.  And she can cook the eggs and feed Cebu’s poor who are denied services because of the government’s profligate stupidity.

            That’s proactive solution