Thursday, September 28, 2006 Covington: The week that was By Gary Covington Looking In
BAD taste award of the week goes, yet again, to television giant ABS-CBN for screening, on Friday's early evening 6.30 p.m. national news, a crocodile (or alligator, I dunno, scaly with lots of teeth) snacking on a live goat. No, not a nature film out in the wild; a captive croc and a live goat within a fenced enclosure.
I'll admit I didn't stay to watch the main event -- these were just the promo clips, the little tidbits the station screens to whet our appetite or, in this case, gag on. First clip up was two guys holding the goat outside of the enclosure tempting the croc. Waving the animal about. Here; look croc -- supper. Clip two and the goat is now inside the enclosure with the crocodile making a lunge and succeeding in grabbing the goat's hindquarters. I switched off.
This is news? Primetime viewing? And where's the consistency? One night we're shown a dead dolphin with its wounds fuzzed out, mustn't upset the audience, and the next -- unfuzzed -- a croc snaffling a live goat. Next time the croc's hungry lads, toss in the news production manager. The beast will appreciate the change in menu.
On Monday the DILG (The Department of Interior and Local Government) announced plans to search for the nation's best legislative body. The DILG criteria are of course written in government-speak, which no normal human being can understand but they do include words like "effectiveness" and "action" and "performance."
Well -- how do you think our SP and its honorables will do? And how can I put this without asking to be boiled in oil or worse? I see a fire-razed school on Quirino Avenue, which has been derelict for ages and is still a charred ruin. Closer to home -- the honorables' home -- I see a rusty red skeleton of ironwork on the roof of the SP which has been that way seemingly for years. Something, somewhere is not working.
I read of zoning ordinances, which are ineffectual or ignored. Not the Monte Maria poultry farm but new businesses set up in residential areas. I can't remember why but some years ago I looked into what was permissible and what wasn't on a residential subdivision. A bakery is allowed, a dressmaker; concerns, which benefit the community but I'll bet every one of you can point to an operating business on your subdivision which shouldn't be there. How do they get a business permit? How do they sneak past the health and safety people?
I see thousands of habal-habal motorcycles plying their trade, often without crash helmets, often with two or three or four school kids riding the pillion seat. Aren't habal-habal motorcycles illegal?
I see sidewalks impossible to walk on. Not due to temporary stalls or the vendors who set out their wares every morning but permanent stores, which have appropriated the sidewalk as an extension showroom or warehouse.
Changing the subject; spotted on the shelves of a downtown grocery store (no names, no pack drill but it was Gaisano Bajada), amongst the sauces and mustards and condiments, a 6-kilo pack of Epsom salts, which as any MD will tell you, is a laxative. Should we tell them you think?
And lastly, Ram Maxey returned and dusted off the old "if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck" routine and oh dear, it cracked me up. Keep it coming Mr. M.
