Tuesday, May 13, 2008 Obenieta: No climate for comedy By Myke U. Obenieta So to speak
CALLl yourself cool, even if feminists may spit flames at your face, when you say beauty contests are necessary. For our survival, certainly. Dainty does it, the way the ladies always look neat, heaving their bosoms and swearing their heart out for Mother Earth.
What drudgery, indeed, if we just leave world peace and save the environment up to politicians and policy makers alone. If Nature has been playing terrorist lately with such a trail of death and destruction—a spate of tornadoes in the heartland of America, a cyclone in Myanmar—blame it on the stance of authority on ecological issues which has always been haphazard. No more dependable than weather forecasters seriously, if not inadvertently, trying the spiels of stand-up comics. “Weather-weather lang,” as we say.
Who really cares to go the distance beyond talking about and pondering on climate change, no matter the apocalyptic prognosis and the politically correct fad of wearing one’s heart green on the sleeve? An inconvenient truth, indeed. No laughing matter.
Dreary the dearth of comic relief about the environment, gauging from the pageturner titled “Man Walks into a Bar,” ostensibly the biggest joke book in the world wi1th more than 6,000 entries. Although it includes at least 400 dark themes (leprosy, suicides, deaths, etc.), the emergency about climate change is given short shrift.
“The environment is frankly dull, boring and worthy—not always a great source of comedy,” concedes funnyman Marcus Brigstocke.
You’d think the matter about the fragile state of our planet has been taken seriously. As if. And so while it’s supposed to sound flippant, this wisecrack only waxes cynical: “Climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get.”
Prepare, brace yourself against getting blown away this month. So goes the warning of the Cebu Provincial Board (PB) to the local government units (LGUs), calling for “contingency measures in case a calamity oc-curs…tornadoes and hailstorms as a result of climate change.” Reads the resolution of PB Member Victor Maambong, taking his cue from the weatherman in the thrall of the La Niña phenomenon: “It can be very destructive to the life and limb of our people and to their properties and possessions.”
Aside from flash floods, the prospects of rains have also left the Cebu City Health Department (CHD) “worrying over the possible increase in the number of dengue cases.” To everyone in the community, the call goes: Keep draining stagnant water likely to become the gangbang spots for mosquitoes smelling murder.
The heat is on. Gone are the days when clouds, burdened with its color of bruise, were a promise of balsam to the parched farms and gardens, as well as an oasis for innocence to romp around.
And when the rain comes again another day, while the street and its sewer rise beyond one’s knees, what if it will never go away?
Noah’s Ark has never been more necessary than today.
