Batuhan: Oh captain, my captain

NO, this is not Walt Whitman’s poem about the death of US President Abraham Lincoln. It is rather a commentary on some of the major, major events that have cost this nation greatly in terms of loss of reputation, both at home and abroad.

Among all of them, perhaps the bus hostage-taking incident, which resulted in the loss of foreign lives, was the most embarrassing, and potentially the most damaging of them all.

That one dismissed policeman would steal the news headlines by his shameful act of commandeering a tourist bus is one thing; the fact that he would end his deed by executing a good number of them is entirely another. That tragic end is what will likely cause as yet uncalculated losses in terms of tourism revenue, as well as business opportunities for the country.

Updates on President Benigno Aquino III's presidency

No sooner had headlines of the hostage incident hit networks all over the world, than tour operators and travel agencies started cancelling various travel bookings for the Philippines.

From being a destination of choice for beach goers and nature lovers, we have suddenly become an alternative for the extreme adventure seekers, along with such favorite havens as Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. And the market for these is pretty small indeed.

Poor President Noynoy.

His first few days in office have not been smooth sailing to begin with, but to have the perfect storm so soon after assuming the country’s top leadership post brings back memories of the early days of his mother Cory’s presidency. Although a lot of these problems are inherited from the corrupt institutions of the previous dispensation, he cannot escape their tragic consequences. He and he alone must deal with their repercussions, and try to limit their damage to the country and its fortunes.

The ranks of the police need cleaning up, and fast. But this is no easy task. After this incident, the torture allegations in Tondo, the Ivan Padilla summary execution and other instances of police shenanigans that have recently come to light, it will take the concerted effort of dedicated public officials and concerned private individuals to get to the root of the problem.

Less serious, but certainly no less attention-grabbing, was the Miss Universe adventure of our own Venus Raj, whose major, major blunder reportedly cost her the pageant title. In the greater scheme of things, her reply was not really something to be extremely embarrassed over. After all, so many of the contestants do not even speak a word of English.

But therein lies the catch.

Because the Philippines has appropriated as its own the title of the only English-speaking country in Asia, and used this to sell itself as a call-center destination of choice for the world, any blunder like that is a slap in the face for the country. And other lesser countries are only too happy to oblige by laughing in our faces for having one of our own caught in such unfortunate situations.

But there is a lot to be said about the major, major incident than just competent command of the English language.

English proficiency in this country is deteriorating, and fast.

The blurring of borders between formal and colloquial language is something old-school purists like me have bemoaned for a long time. For instance, I am noticing that more and more of my colleagues at work are having difficulty communicating in correct English, preferring to spell you as “u” and saying “my bad” instead of my fault. This is disastrous, in the long run, and can only have laughable incidents such as the major, major fiasco as a likely consequence.

(asbb-foreignexchange .blogspot.com and twitter.com/asbbatuhan)