No place to hide from terrorists

It is still Code Blue for schools in Washington DC and its surrounding counties in Virginia and Maryland. That means, no outdoor activities for school children. No soccer or baseball tournaments. No Halloween trips to pumpkin patches or trick or treating. Even adults are playing it safe by keeping indoors.

Gasoline stations in the city centers are enjoying new brisk sales from motorists who feel safer loading gasoline from the safety of a busy city environment. The sniper, who has shot a dozen people and killed 10 so far, operates from the safety of quiet suburban settings, under the cover of lush greenery. People are simply terrified.

Apparently, a single sniper has taken the capital of the world’s only remaining super power hostage. No one knows if the sniper is some wacko who’d rather buy bullets than his daily dose of Prozac or someone who is part of Osama bin Laden’s band.

So far, there is nothing to do except pray that the next anonymous bullet isn’t going straight to some vital organ of your body. Authorities in America are telling their people to live as normal lives as possible and not let this terrorist win. That, is however, easier said than done.

Across a continent and an ocean away, grenades blast at midnight in a normally busy overpass in Metro Manila’s business district. Less than 24 hours later, a bus takes a number of its riders on their last trip, the first casualties of terrorism as it spreads its tentacles beyond the troubled areas of Mindanao. President GMA goes on television telling us to fight terrorism by living normally, refusing to be cowed. You get the feeling you heard that before.

Perhaps, because we are more fatalistic as a people, we did just what Ate Glo urged us. The malls were full of bargain hunting shoppers last weekend, disregarding terrorism’s knock on Metro Manila’s doors. One woman interviewed by a television reporter said, perhaps it is because we are used to all these troubles... sanay na tayo dyan. We are so unlike the Americans, who are only now learning how it feels to be threatened by a breakdown of law and order in the streets.

In truth and in fact, our governments are as helpless as we are. They have no idea who these terrorists are. And they can’t really protect us or give guarantees of protection. In the end, we have to look out for ourselves. Short of wearing bulletproof clothes, common sense is our best bet. Follow basic security procedures. Avoid crowds and crowded environments. Don’t contribute to the panic already in the air.

Come to think of it, there should be a good market for kevlar underwear. Kevlar t-shirts, sandos, jackets should be practical not just for the rich and famous who probably already use them but for ordinary folks as well. If only the fashion designers step into the picture and make these fashionable. The ones I have seen in pictures look pretty utilitarian. I remember seeing a demonstration on television on how kevlar vests work and amazingly, they do.

But don’t get your kevlar stuff from the supplier of the Philippine Marines. Remember Admiral Wong questioned the price and the quality of the kevlar helmets, among other supplies and lost his job as Navy chief for the effort. Those supposedly kevlar helmets got our soldiers killed because the material used was fake. Get the real stuff, even if more expensive than the fakes. Or why bother?

This really sounds like a good business venture for our troubled times. This is one venture that should prosper even in a down economy.

Pan de sal

I have been told that the world market price for the type of wheat our flour millers use has steadily gone up. That’s because North America, our traditional suppliers, just experienced a terrible crop year due to adverse weather conditions. Australia had similar problems with the weather. World wheat trade would fall to 103 million tons this financial year, down five million tons from 2001-02, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Even as the USDA says the major wheat exporting nations are expected to draw on stocks in order to limit changes in exports, our millers are starting to feel the pinch in terms of higher prices. Soon, higher wheat export prices will translate to a fluffier pan de sal, one that will float with all the air inside or maybe it could shrink to the point of causing political indigestion.

Wheat, obviously, is not as crucial to us as rice but it is important enough as a political issue. The price of pan de sal or its size, are as politically lethal as the price of galunggong. And because instant noodles are made of wheat and are now the staple of peso-pinching housewives, the price and availability of wheat promises to be the next big headache of Ate Glo.

But it is clearly unfair to blame Ate Glo for the shrinking pan de sal or its rising price. Like oil prices, wheat prices are beyond her control. The flour milling industry is also fully market driven with government out of the action. Hopefully, the flour millers quickly respond to this brewing crisis before a full blown pan de sal and instant noodle crisis breaks out.

Such problems! We can’t even admonish bellyachers to go eat cake,’ coz that’s made of flour.

Mareng Winnie

What’s this about Winnie Monsod being denied a visa by the US Embassy? I understand it is not an outright rejection but the local embassy has to seek clearance from Washington because Winnie’s name is in some central computer file, possibly because of some anti-Marcos activities in the past.

The local embassy guys are somewhat embarrassed by the whole thing because they know Winnie’s no terrorist. I realize she had been critical of the World Bank and the IMF and she also advocated serious debt relief. But so did Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

Apparently, because of 9/11 and the resulting national paranoia, they have synchronized the computer files of various agencies into one central computer with files as old as 20 years or more. The local consular officials are given almost no discretion if your name happens to be in one of the watchlists. Still it leaves a bad taste in the mouth and works against American interests abroad. It gives the impression that they don’t know who their friends are.

In other words, it is just a normal bureaucratic snafu, an over reaction to that stupid glitch where they granted a visa to one of the 9/11 hijackers, six months after 9/11.

Democrats and Republicans

In the next couple of weeks, the Americans will go to the polls and the control of the two houses of Congress hang in the balance. So, here’s a very partisan joke to honor the occasion.

A guy is hitchhiking. A Mercedes stops and the driver asks him what his politics are. He replies, "I’m a Democrat". The driver says "I don’t allow Democrats in my car" and drives off.

A few minutes later a BMW stops and exactly the same thing happens. As soon as the driver finds out that he is a Democrat he refuses to let him in the car. So the guy thinks, "Well this is stupid, next car that stops I’ll say that I’m a Republican."

A couple of minutes later a Porsche stops. The driver is a stunning blonde. She asks him his politics and he replies that he is a Republican. She says "Get in".

He climbs in and notices that she is wearing a very short miniskirt. As she drives it climbs further and further up and he starts to get really agitated and well, you know, his resolve stiffens, so to speak. Finally he can stand it no longer so he turns to her and says, "You know I’ve only been a Republican for 10 minutes and already I want to screw somebody!"

(Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected])