Tuesday, November 04, 2008 Covington: B&C By Gary Covington Looking in
BIG news of the week was on Monday; that GMA had -- in blatant contradiction to her 2007 anti-red tape ordinance -- created an additional Bureau of Customs body, a beastie called the Committee of Cargo Surveying Companies.
Doesn't anyone in the administration of this country -- whether at national or local level -- realize that the more individuals and agencies there are involved in ANY process the greater the opportunities for B&C -- bribery and corruption?
Another columnist the other day pointed out that many people - ordinarily honest people -- facing bureaucracy's labyrinthine processes, where every documentary requirement has its own set of documentary requirements, simply give up. Or pass some cash over to hasten things along. Either way the nation's coffers are losing out. Hasn't anyone up there in manic Manila heard of the KISS principle -- keep it simple stupid.
Also on Monday was the news that Alaska had hiked the price of its dairy products by a whacking 15 percent, no doubt taking advantage of the current tainted Chinese milk scare. Isn't that called profiteering? Isn't that against the law? Will the Department of Trade and Industry lift even one wagging admonitory finger? Yes, yes, and NO.
Monday -- two Mondays ago -- was one of those days. For a start I slept in; my usual wake-up alarm -- a 5:30 a.m., 500 decibel blast of Crazy Frog from passing boombox habal-habals -- failing to materialize.
At 7, it was still unnaturally quiet. Where was everybody? Abducted by aliens? Fleeing from some awful calamity? Was I the last man in Buhangin? No, no, and no -- it was the first day of the local high school's summer break.
Bliss. Ten days or so when I can garden outside without being subjected to volleys of verbal abuse from passing students which, to the amazement of their teachers, I find objectionable. Also I can clear up their litter in peace and quiet, litter thrown down onto the grassy verge or into the canal.
One day's haul last week -- 19 iced-water cellophanes, 32 assorted candy wrappers, 5 plastic cups and 45 drinking straws, plastic bags and banana cue sticks.
Whatever else they are taught up there at the high school it certainly doesn't include caring for their environment or respecting other people's efforts to keep the place neat and clean.
Good news was on Saturday as the LTO issued its revisions to the motorcycle ordinance. All good stuff but wait; it's one thing to proclaim a law and quite another to enforce it. Will we now see our streets empty of habal-habals carrying three or four passengers? Of helmet-less and flip-flop wearing drivers? Of habal-habal boomboxes? Of parked motorcycles blocking the access to sidewalks and stores? Don't hold your breath people.
Finally, I loved a trivia item on Friday; that "Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet into the air." You would too if you saw a killer whale coming.
