Mirror, mirror, on the wall...

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ­— ­Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the ugliest of them all?

Is it the unknown group of self-proclaimed experts on the Internet who voted the NAIA Terminal 1 as the worst airport in the world? Or is it “Filipinos” who laughed so hard and totally enjoyed themselves as they poked fun at our national embarrassment?

It makes me wonder how some people immediately attach a badge of credibility to “Nobody’s” simply because they have a website and the gall to categorize and pass judgment on a country and its facilities. It is amazing how Philippine media was unable to resist joining the feeding frenzy before studying the validity of the source and the validity of their claim.

Not everyone who has a website is an authority and certainly not everyone is legitimate. Is it because they had the audacity to express the frustrations we feel but have never done anything about?

Even some politicians participated in promoting the social heresy by calling for investigations and affirming the infirmities of NAIA 1. Isn’t that hypocrisy on our part? If we never worked on the solutions, then we were simply part of the problem.

The tragedy however is not that NAIA 1 was voted worst airport in Asia and fifth worst in the world. The tragedy is that a handful of unknown “passerby’s” could make a global decision with no real scientific and objective competence much less accountability.

It is tragic that Filipinos joined the trashing sent from a website that describes itself as: “the demented concoctions of a young Canadian woman, who had too much time on her hand”. It also mentions how the woman effectively mooched, hitched and even lied when “she claimed to be a student even though she was not” just to get a discount when riding the bus.

Contributors calling the NAIA 1 as the worst airport in Asia simply because they could not find any comfortable area to sleep in is absurd because it’s equal to calling an emergency ward horrible for not having free WIFI and free coffee.

If they wanted a place to sleep in, they should stay at a hotel! Calling the place a Bombed out location or a cattle yard evidently comes from someone who can’t even tell the difference or has an extreme bias against the Philippines!

I can list down a number of airports that stink, where bags are pilfered, food prices are total rip offs, and the only real place to stretch out is on the floor. These are airports found in developed and industrialized countries yet you would retch in their toilets and tread carefully around their sour and grumpy personnel! They even have TV shows about them!

What really got my goat the other day was a couple of Filipino radio commentators who totally enjoyed themselves laughing their guts out while regaling the audience on why the NAIA 1 was voted the worst airport in the world.

We all know that the NAIA 1 is nearly 3 decades old, a fast deteriorating facility whose structural integrity is presently under serious study. We don’t need CHEAP tourists who try to get everything free and then dump their shit in our backyard!

Unfortunately the two commentators chose to expose their immaturity by relishing every comment on the NAIA 1 and punctuating these with pure unadulterated laughter.

But who were they laughing at? Were they not laughing at OUR country, at OUR condition, and at US? They certainly were not laughing at themselves and making light of the situation. In fact they were adding insult to injury.

I must confess that I found their laughter so disgusting until it became insulting. How could two Filipinos laugh at our expense? If they had criticized airport officials for not doing their job, I would have sympathized with them. But they did not. They had a good laugh.

Then there are those among us who added their creative genius at insulting “themselves” and the Philippines by changing the name of NINOY AQUINO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT with “ NAIA WORST AIRPORT IN THE WORLD” posting it on Facebook.

It is one thing to complain, but it is a totally different matter to find pleasure in our collective failure. I cannot help thinking how people who mock their nation and their culture resemble monkeys that eat their own fleas.

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There is no doubt in my mind that the MMDA has mastered the art of promoting and initiating campaigns. When they launched their Anti-Smoking campaign, they got a lot of media coverage; people took notice and were aware. When they imposed speed limits on Commonwealth Avenue and Macapagal Boulevard, people complied.

When they launched the “Motorcycle lane” campaign, they once again made a mark and people are complying.

There is however a down side to al this. How long can the MMDA sustain this?

Just recently we have noticed how trucks have been sneaking through C-5 in the middle of the evening truck ban thereby congesting the northbound traffic during rush hour. Is there a silent agreement that trucks and vans can now drive around during the truck ban?

Considering they have an impounding area on Meralco Avenue, I wonder why none of the MMDA enforcers ever notice Jeepneys that are causing noise pollution because of their super loud stereos. This is supposed to be prohibited, but who’s watching or listening. Poor passengers have no choice but to ride the eardrum busters!

Lastly, Can the MMDA and Mayor Herbert Bautista PLEASE post traffic enforcers in front of Citibank/Eastwood Mall and get rid of the double-parking jeepneys that should park AFTER the Eastwood entrance. Somebody is reportedly receiving tong for not shooing away the Jeepneys who block the entrance!

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