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Friday, July 28, 2006
Yap: Sona de Rossi
By Januar Yap
Meanwhile
There he was again, the white-haired inebriate and his soused up oratory. The neighborhood knew; the sari-sari store that allowed him his usual dose had shut its blinders. The soft-spoken gentleman who used to hand out candies to kids had turned into a hideously raging bogey sending the terrified little muffins scampering home.
From “super,” he turned to “mega.” He greeted me once in the street, “Brothers Karamazov!” That amused me. The old captain knows his literature. In his younger days, the guy used to attend med school, said a neighbor. He just couldn’t quit his drinking. Ah, okay.
Well, until last night, he declared he was now the president and earned the right to deliver his own Sona or State of the Neighborhood Address. Although, that was only after a nasty blast of rum had surged up his head.
The guy was a natural with an aspirated English; he went like this: “My credit is now mega. From super, now mega. You understand, eh?”
The guy was definitely showing an obscure talent in being lateral, he perhaps meant the P721 billion the country hauls from its coffers for debt servicing. A wake-up call in President Arroyo’s mega-blockbuster called “What Dreams May Come.” The neighborhood Pilosopo Tasyo said so.
Super, the tomes say, means “of high grade quality,” also a general term denoting approval. To say “mega” one means something is “of the highest level.” “To the highest level!” a student would always exclaim at every hint of excitement.
I’ve had a very exciting week, indeed. Saw this bunch of kids saying their lackluster experience in leadership does not disprove the possibility they’d turn out to be great leaders should the student body hoist them into officialdom.
“I love to serve!” “Vote wisely!”
Except perhaps for one hearing-impaired candidate who redefined political speech making with an impassioned oratory in sign language did the table turn. Now, that was awesome—the hands slapping and waving and twisting in the air. Beats Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream…” speech.
Outside this home appliance center, a swarm froze before the plasma TV showing GMA delivering his Sona. One of them wondered if he could ever buy a plasma TV in his lifetime with the pay he gets.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 28, 2006 issue)
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