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Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Obenieta: Who are they kidding?
By Myke U. Obenieta
So to Speak
Even leaders need to bask again in the bliss of being a kid.
See how President Arroyo tried to take time out of her helter-skelter schedule, stopping by for a break at Disneyland in Hong Kong after attending an economic summit in South Korea. With her family, including her grandchildren and their babysitters, she took a cruise at the park’s Jungle River and rode high with Dumbo the Flying Elephant.
Ah, to get reacquainted with one’s inner child. Now that ought to be undertaken with as much vigor by every grown-up grouchy and sapped dry in the wake of one’s wrinkles. But that entails an innocuous streak of freewheeling fancy, true.
Something for public servants to mull over, especially those old geezers stuck in the slough of bureaucratic tedium, burned out by failure of imagination.
Imagine the possibilities if those entrusted with public trust were more childlike in their creativity while coming to terms with their duties and responsibilities.
What heartbreaks and horrors spawned from odds and ends of misdemeanors or dereliction of duty could have been averted if our public officials were less jaded, if not less injured from the impairment of innocence.
Blessed are the children, yes. But what a blast if the Beatitudes could say the same about our local government officials. Last we read, they are “being monitored to check if they are considering the effects of projects and programs on women and children as part of integrating gender and development concerns in planning.”
If children could vote, chances are they would rather pick their noses than elect those who play truant against their mandate or oath of office. Then again, parents ought to be more circumspect next balloting time about candidates who fail to include their kids’ welfare on the election agenda or platform.
How sensitive are our policy-makers to the kids’ basic needs? Are they still in touch with each of their inner child? The answer, sad to sigh, might well be as exciting as groping through blind alleys and dark corners to seek those who hide.
According to Tessie Fernandez, executive director of Lihok Filipina Foundation, Inc., some local government units have failed “to provide centers or playgrounds for children.” This, she avers, has resulted “in mothers’ anxiety because they will worry about the safety of their kids if they are forced to play in the streets.”
God forbid these kids would soon grow up to be as grim like the grumblers who seem to find joy in ventilating the boredom of their vehemence down the streets. Yes, like those protesters who play cat and mouse or, worse, behave like brats against any president they deem in dire need to grow up.
(yomyko@yahoo.com)
(November 22, 2005 issue)
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