I AM amazed at our capacity to endure. Build world-class infrastructures of cracked bridges, public markets which stinks, an airport which took more than a decade to finish and a pseudo International Convention Center to crown a city much favored as a convention destination.
Our motorists act like they own the roads, parking at will and not even giving way to pregnant pedestrians with kids in tow as they try to cross downtown streets. Multi-storey buildings with hardly any provision for parking for tenants and patrons. Commercial centers competing for retail spaces, no better than informal settlers, covering and diverting creeks and natural waterways and fencing beyond easement rules.
An inbound tour industry run by colorums. Gambling and drinking outlets way beyond the legally allowed distance to schools, churches and public buildings. Name it, we have it, and we continue to look the other way. After all, we are the city of golden friendship, and come hell or high water, it is all about our relationship and our closeness to the powerful which matters. Who cares about zoning and regulation? The city needs to fund its budget from real estate taxes and business permits.
Forget the poor. Even Jesus said that there will always be poor people. Look at the bright side, the gleaming steel and glass towers, our intoxicated young dancing happily and the city having a building boom that though with widened streets have been turned to storefronts. Barangay Halls and even law offices extending to what are supposed to be parking spaces and some even built on sidewalks and streets.
Amazing how much trash end up in our streets, parks and creeks, and blocks of downtown as a veritable pimp joint till the wee hours in the morning. The wealthy just could not give a hoot. Things happen for them. The poor, numbed and whose votes are paid for could not care less over decades of abuse. Change is all about mobility and never about values. So much dishonor among the honorables.
One either digs in or ships out. One is isolated and labeled as a complainer, a hater or even worse an obstructionist. When leadership all about listening, we are ordered and commanded, even as we are the ones paying for their salaries and perks. Bewildering newly found wealth as evidenced by new homes, Swiss watches and signature bags. A public servant needs to be at par with our businessmen in fashion and cuisine. It pays to be in public service, with the public footing the bill. And when they do their jobs, we are expected to be grateful. Hello?
“As above, so below” as they say. We follow the example of our elders not their rhetoric and long-winding repetitive speeches. “Ang buhat maoy pasultihon...,” as the late Pedro “Oloy” Roa intoned. And rightly so. But the disconnection remains. When one grants a permit for an outdoor concert with intoxicated patrons right smack in the middle of a residential area till the wee hours of the morning, what does that tell us? When retailers of alcohol and cigarettes freely sell to minors, how do we expect our city’s youth to take over our future? When every conceivable public space is turned into retail trade instead of parks and sports facilities, we have been turned into mall rats.
Fine. We have seen how much improved our hospitals and health centers have become. But these are facilities for the sick. And the stress of daily living, getting to work, making ends meet and how below minimum wage earners are forced to buy items at a premium at convenience stores, makes us sicker. And of course the mushrooming massage industry, soothing the body, but hardly calming the soul and spirit.
And yes. This article is about a rat ranting over the quality of life as a Kagay-anon.