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Thursday, May 08, 2003
Famador: Another blessing in disguise
By Joel Famador
When you look at the bright side, you see that the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) has not been bad at all to this b— republic. There may have been a few deaths because of Sars (three?), but that’s minuscule compared to Sars-related deaths in China, Hongkong and Singapore. (No thanks to the ignorant Dr. Manuel Dayrit.)
The biggest “blessing” we got from Sars is its deadly effect on human beings, which consequently made most rich people, including businessmen, so scared they were forced to postpone their trips abroad. They feared Sars because there is no medical cure to it, let alone a vaccine.
Thus, when Holy Week came, almost all hotels in vacation spots like Cebu, Bohol and Boracay were fully booked. The denizens of this b— republic decided to spend their money in their native land.
Wow. It took a deadly disease to convince the rich natives to spend their easy-earned money here. All’s well that ends well. At the very least we were able to keep some millions of dollars from going out of the country.
Paeng Buenaventura of Bangko Sentral (former classmate of Erap) must be grinning from ear to ear – the dwindling international reserves that he’s got (about 16 billion dollars, and almost all is borrowed) are moving up, albeit glacially.
The second biggest blessing from Sars goes to multi-billionaire Lucio Tan and his airline personnel (the Philippine Airlines’ and Air Philippines’). You know why?
Those who are addicted to travel and must fly somewhere canceled their reservations with Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines. They trooped to Tan’s Philippine Airlines, whose jetliners flew direct to Canada and the States – no stopovers on airports with Sars. So instead of laying-off workers as Cathay did, PAL retained everybody because business had never been brisker.
Air Philippines and Cebu Pacific also got a huge chunk of the busier local travel business. The travel addicts who could only afford Hongkong, Singapore and Thailand but afraid to go because of the deadly virus had to be content with the local scenery.
And finally, the last blessing in disguise, but not the least. Sars ultimately taught the less clean denizens of this b— republic how to be hygienic. More people are getting so defensive against Sars they wash their hands more often than usual.
Perhaps we should learn more about the clean habits of the Japanese so that we can diminish the transmission of this deadly virus. Like bowing our heads to greet our acquaintances instead of being too American by shaking hands. Or skipping the very European “beso-beso.” Or be Japanese by leaving our shoes outside when we enter our homes.
Doctor Dayrit of the health department can learn a lot from the Japanese, and teach their clean living habits through television instead of continuing his ridiculous tv ads that only reveal his silly grin.
(May 8, 2003 issue)
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