Friday, July 18, 2008 Seares: Carpetbagger By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
BYRON Garcia, Capitol security consultant, Wednesday spent his birthday by flinging insults at critics of his sister the governor. He called Mayor Tomas Osmeña mediocre and businessman Cris Saavedra a carpetbagger.
Byron didn't mention the mayor's potbelly but he said Cris was bald and old.
Byron, 48, is not yet old but is aging and soon won't be so smug about being young.
Cris must have long given up chasing skirts in favor of cornering contracts and hunting alleged crooks. Being hairless doesn't hurt as much as it once did. They don't require bidders and whistleblowers to have bushy hair.
And Cris doesn't have to watch out for an eagle to smash a tortoise on his head. Unlike in bald poet Aeschylus' Greece, no eagles fly in Cebu skies and if they did, birds don't carry hard objects to drop on shiny heads.
It's the "carpetbagger" label that must sting: a little or a lot, depending upon what it means.
In an election campaign, "carpetbagger" means an outsider, an opportunist who comes to a place to win. In another sense, he's a promoter from outside whose influence is resented.
Opportunist
Is Cris a carpetbagger? He comes from Luzon, speaks pidgin Bisaya, and makes money in Cebu. But does that handicap of being a non-native also qualify as carpetbaggers the hundreds of other outsiders who do business in Cebu?
Ah, but Byron must refer to the element of being an opportunist, one who disregards rules and consequences.
Then, hound Cris for that. Slam the arrogance of his claim that he is Cebu's savior.
Stereotyping Cris is just as awful as judging Byron as good only at making prisoners do the lap dance.
