She has to deserve a honeymoon

The Palace has some nerve asking for a honeymoon period. As far as I am concerned, she has to deserve it first. While a honeymoon period makes sense if only to get everyone working together, I am worried that if she gets it just because she asked for it, she is liable to take it for granted and go back to her merry trapo ways. Nothing like the threat of media mayhem to get traditional politicians behaving like authentic public servants!

On a personal basis, I wish I could give her that honeymoon period her spokesman requested of media. She may be surprised to read this but, she is one politician I want to be kind to. When my mother died exactly seven years ago today, most of the senators sent flowers to the wake. Ate Glo was the only senator who personally came, to my pleasant surprise. She stayed quite a while too and I guess I will never forget that.

My late mother must have appreciated the gesture too because when Ate Glo stood up to leave, the spirit of my mother must have taken hold of me and made me offer Ate Glo unsolicited advice. My mother is the sort of person who speaks her mind with no thought of being diplomatic at all. Anyway, what I told her was something to the effect that she would go places but must take care of well, you know… someone we all eventually came to know as Jose Pidal.

I smile every time I think about it now, even if I felt embarrassed at that time, after I realized what I just did. Being tough in writing a column is a lot easier than saying all that in person to the person concerned. On my own, I wouldn’t have the nerve to say that to her face. I am convinced that must have been my late mother’s way of saying thank you to Ate Glo for dropping by at her wake. Maybe she likes her and was looking out for her. If only she listened!

That’s why, being Pinoy, it was not easy to be as critical as I had been of Ate Glo. I just thought country supercedes personal feelings and right now, it is obvious that Ate Glo’s not been managing the country as well as she should have been. And I know, she could do a hell of a lot better.

I don’t think she deserves a honeymoon period if she starts appointing people like those two Comelec commissioners and some SC justices and if she starts making those populist decisions again that damage the economy just to satisfy her instincts as a traditional politician. But if she does and says the right things, I have no problems with a honeymoon. Not until then.

Loss Of Faith

My San Francisco-based UP Prep classmate Butch Garcia pointed out to me an article at The New York Times that, in his words, sent a chill down his spine. It was an article about how Latin Americans are losing faith in democracy. For instance, the article observed "people here and throughout the region charge that politicians are corrupted by power and a long tradition in which politics is used as a spoils system for personal enrichment."

Sounds familiar? Too familiar for comfort! Much of what was written there could have described our situation here today. I am not surprised. We are, after all, the only Latin American country in Asia. We have more in common with the Latin Americans than our neighboring tiger economies.

A kind of toxic impatience with the democratic process, the NYTimes reported, has seeped into Latin America’s political discourse, even a thirst for mob rule that has put leaders on notice. Analysts say that the main source of discontent is corruption and the widespread feeling that elected governments have done little or nothing to help the 220 million people in the region who still live in poverty, about 43 percent of the population.

Now, that certainly describes our situation in the Philippines too, doesn’t it? And there is more. A United Nations report noted, the Times article says, that the promise of prosperity offered by democracy has gone unfulfilled. The same UN report, drawn from interviews with current and former presidents, political analysts and cultural and economic figures, showed that 56 percent of those asked said economic progress was more important than democracy.

Economic progress and democracy shouldn’t be incompatible. But our politicians have made it so. Now, here’s the chilling part. That same UN study revealed that in a survey of 19,000 Latin Americans in 18 countries in April, a majority would choose a dictator over an elected leader if that provided economic benefits. As if that’s something that happens together for sure.

You and I know that is not necessarily so. We’ve been there. We’ve done that. And guess what, we’re still a basket case.

But people are desperate. In a mountain village in Peru, villagers were desperate enough to take the situation in their own hands, their version of people power. The Times reports that one morning in April, people in a normally placid spot in Peru’s southeastern highlands burst into a town council meeting, grabbed their mayor, dragged him through the streets and lynched him. The killers were convinced the mayor was on the take and they were angry that he had neglected promises to pave a highway and build a market for vendors. They also badly beat four councilmen.

Curiously, the mayor was an Aymara Indian like the disgruntled citizens who killed him in disgust. All elected officials are the same, the townspeople complained, they do not remember their people or keep their promises. And don’t we know it too, from clear across the Pacific Ocean. I believe that’s the same kind of simmering impatience now felt here.

Ate Glo may have won herself a six-year term of office but I am not sure she has six years to produce results good enough to cool this volcanic impatience waiting to erupt. In Latin America in the last few years, six elected heads of state have been ousted in the face of violent unrest, something nearly unheard of in the previous decade.

Remember, we are part of Latin America too.

Social Psychopath

The Army finally arrested that social psychopath who didn’t just throw spikes in the highways but had actually declared rebellion against the government. And they got him just in time too.

In an interview with ABS-CBN Business News Director Ces Drilon, the psychopath threatened to start burning schoolhouses because in his mind, that’s where Filipinos are taught corruption. The police must have chickened out in arresting this guy because of the opinion expressed by their boss, the DILG Secretary Joey Lina. I can’t believe the police couldn’t find him when Ces Drilon easily did. Luckily, we have the Army.

Let’s see what happens next.

Middle East Crisis

I got this one from one of my e-groups.

An Arab needed a heart transplant, but prior to the surgery the doctors needed to store his blood type in case the need arises. Because the gentleman had a rare type of blood, it couldn’t be found locally. So the call went out to a number of countries.

Finally, a Jew was located who had similar type of the blood who willingly donated his blood to the Arab. After the surgery, the Arab sent the Jew an expensive piece of diamond and a new Rolls Royce car, all in appreciation for giving his blood.

Unfortunately, the Arab had to go through a corrective surgery once again. His doctors phoned the Jew who was more than happy to donate his blood again.

After the second surgery, the Arab sent the Jew a thank you card and a jar of Almond Roca sweets. The Jew was disappointed that the Arab was not as generous in expressing his appreciation as he was before. So he phoned the Arab and asked him why?

The Arab replied "Habibi, remember I have Jewish blood now!!"

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