Friday, December 08, 2006 Seares: Exorcising spirits By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
EXORCISING spirits from a building is not yet obsolete. People go for priest's holy water but when that fails, they tap an exorcist's ritual.
At another paper I used to work for, a Heidelberg machine would suddenly run or stop. Was it manager's mischief to keep the operator awake? Wrong. Some spooks were doing it.
The pranks ended when the boss hired an exorcist who whispered to spirits at a nearby "kolo" tree and asked them to move, preferably, an editor suggested, to the competition's printing plant a block away.
At Sun.Star's old site along Osmeña Blvd., the machines had tantrums. Not only would they refuse to budge, one would inexplicably shoot out ink on printers' faces and clothes. They sent for an exorcist who, with fresh chicken blood and one lechon de leche, tamed the machines.
Journalists and other skeptics distrust exorcism but they know when it works.
Propa gimmick
The exercise staged by activists last Tuesday at CICC wasn't an act of faith in exorcism.
It was trust in the propaganda gimmick, the hole in CICC security, and the fetish of media for the unusual.
Did it work? Not if the spirits they wanted banished were named George, Glo, and Gwen.
Not even if they were after real spirits in CICC's dark nooks. Resident spirits there must hate the way the attempted eviction was trivialized.
Anyway, if Capitol needs spirit-busters, it knows whom to call.
