A sabbath for Gloria

Why should it be news just because the President lost her temper?

In the case of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo the situation becomes exaggerated when local media depicts the matter as the President throwing a temper tantrum or in beauty parlor jargon “nag taray”.

When your boss at work loses his/her temper it’s ok. He or she is just mad. When your parents lose their temper it’s understandable. They’re just angry.

But when the President who is directly responsible for 80 million plus Filipinos facing a rioting band of Muslim rebels and a runaway inflation throws a fit because of the incompetents around her, she is having a temper tantrum.

I don’t care what they taught you in English class, only children have tantrums. If adults blow their top and lose their temper, they lost their temper. They did not throw a temper tantrum. It is a matter of accuracy.

Quite honestly we all need to get real and grow up.

Depicting the President as a brat does not add any measure of dignity or maturity to those who rightly or wrongly report on her emotional outbursts. In fact it does not in any way improve on their reportorial, journalistic or broadcasting abilities. What it reveals is the inferior quality and color of their language, the lack of depth in their perspective and their inability or laziness to look beyond the obvious and the derogatory.

To begin with, has anybody ever really bothered to observe, study or understand what factors contribute to the various occasions when the President lost her temper? Or is it another case where “we simply can’t be bothered” or don’t care?

Is it a character issue, a leadership issue, or a chemical matter? What is the reality or the inevitability of losing your temper when you are the President of the Philippines? A good writer or reporter can certainly dig up and write up spades of material on the behavioral issue instead of surmising it as a shallow act of making “taray”.

Did you notice that President Arroyo tends to “lose it” whenever she is traveling? Whenever she is removed from the Palace or familiar grounds, there is an increased possibility that the “disconnect” creates unwelcomed stress like when she had to confer with the Cabinet on the Sulpicio crisis while fulfilling her commitments in America.

Her latest “outburst” in Malacañang comes after several sick days, which in itself has a lot of people wondering if the President merely had a bum stomach or what. The issue surrounds the observation that if you just spent the last three days doing 50-meter sprints to the toilet because of diarrhea the last thing you should be doing is a stress test, which is commonly done for people with heart issues.

While job related stress such as dealing with the MILF is nothing new, being sick or surrounded by incompetents adds a new dimension which very few are willing to recognize or allow as a basis for cutting the President some slack. We are after all human and no matter how we pretend, we are all affected by “jet lag”, Intestinal virus, as well as lousy clinging ivys who can’t even manage to prepare a simple taping without the unwelcomed audience.

Which by the way is one area where the President they say has serious difficulties. She may be a politician but she will never make a lot of money being an actress. Smiling on cue is just as difficult for her as to cry on cue. Even her most loyal staff and her most rabid critics will tell you that when the talent for “pretending” was given out from Pandora’s box, Gloria Arroyo must have been too busy daydreaming about becoming President one day. So we can all understand why she was testy on the day she was scheduled to tape yet another TV message. After her “I am sorry” clip that became fodder for the opposition, can you blame Gloria for being stressed?!     

The few times when she is “cool” occurs when she is on “vacation mode” or when her out of town schedule includes some touristy aspects or allows her to enjoy the beach or go for a dive”. I don’t know if President Arroyo has special memories of Baguio City but the summer capital seems to lighten her load and draws out good cheer. So does diving, eating and being a bit out of the way.

So if the President were to realize that being outside her comfort zone creates complications, she and her crew can make the necessary corrections in scheduling, technical facilitation, as well as mixing up work and “play” not just for her but even for her staff who are surely more harassed than the President.

Perhaps the President merely has to discipline herself and abide by the very example that God set as he went about creating everything we know exist. After working hard for six days, God rested on the seventh day and declared it the Sabbath.

The Sabbath like everything else that God did is of serious consequence. It is not merely a day of rest, it is about an entire concept and a discipline. You need to set a Sabbath the same way you set down a rule. For most people, the rule is Sunday is family day, Sunday is worship day, Sunday is a holiday.

For a Sabbath to work you need to draw the parameters and activities allowed on your Sabbath. We only clean the dog mess in the yard and the rest of the day is church, family time or catching up on reading or leisure. No work! There are exceptions such as obligations but the general rule and discipline is to observe the Sabbath.

Anyone who says that’s impossible for a head of state has got to be the most unreasonable, self-centered person on the planet. If you can’t take a break knowing the entire Philippine government is at your beck and call, you seriously need to see a shrink and an efficiency manager.