Dateline: Oklahoma

Just found out, all the way from the Oklahoma panhandle that Pampanga Governor Panlilio’s victory is being recounted. And this Lozada fellow is confirming reports that a $64 million overprice was acceptable but not $130 million. No other way around this but our country is going down and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. If anyone succeeds in ejecting Fr. Panlilio or anything happens to Lozada who has been characterized by the dangerous cabal of GMA supporters as a troublemaking Chinese, I am taking the next flight back home and I will actively take part in the overthrow of this corrupt regime.

It’s way past time. Way past time for just prayers and words. We are going to have to demand for the return of our rights in whatever manner that’s possible. Just thinking about this election official haggling over the kickback price that would make him manipulate election results makes me ill. Tama pala ang mga na-una sa atin: Rebolusyon hindi eleksyon.

Nakakahiya tayo. Wala nang pag-asa ang ating Bayan kung pababayaan pa natin itong katarantaduhang ito. Tama na ang mga matatamis na salita. Tama na itong pag-kukunwari. Kung totoo ang sinasabi ni Lozada, ibagsak na nga natin itong karumal-dumal na katiwaliang ito.

Diet Soda Advisory

I have long advised patients to stop drinking diet soda. While a can does not contain hardly any calories, experience has reliably shown that appetite is invariably stimulated by these drinks leading to increased intake of food. The prestigious journal Circulation just published a study that found a correlation between the intake of diet soda and the development of metabolic syndrome — the combination of risk factors for heart disease and diabetes that include hypercholesterolemia, abdominal obesity, hypertension and hyperglycemia.

The study involved more than 9,500 men and women ages 45 to 64 and followed their health for nine years. Those who partook of the developed world’s dietary pattern (red meat, fried foods and refined grain) were 18 percent more at risk for metabolic syndrome, while those who ate healthy (vegetables, fruits, fish and poultry) showed neither an increased nor decreased risk.

The risk of developing metabolic syndrome was 34 percent higher among those who drank one can of diet soda a day compared with those who drank none. The investigators postulated that there might be a chemical ingredient in diet soda that was responsible for this effect.

To those who want to stay slim and healthy, and to those who drink diet soda just for the taste of it, stick to drinking water exclusively.

The Speaker speaks, too late

When he thought his life was in danger and GMA was doing nothing about it, he spilled the beans. He confirms electoral cheating, wanton extrajudicial murders, dependence on Malacanang for pork barrel, corruption in all levels of government, armed forces, judiciary, media, academe--everything we all know that’s holding our country down. Jose De Venecia did not disclose anything new, all he did was bare his selfishness, his sniggering loyalty so far as it benefited him, and above all, his cowardice.

And he has the nerve to call on all of us to join him in a moral revolution!

De Venecia is the consummate survivor in Philippine politics. He made his fortune during the time of Marcos and has successfully ingratiated himself into every ruling dispensation in our country. In the space of an hour, he referred to most everybody as a “friend”, described how many Godchildren he had in the chamber and how many politicians he helped to obtain government positions.

This was De Venecia’s chance for greatness and in keeping with character, totally blew it. He should have hurled that useless position back at all those deceitful colleagues of his, issued a contrite apology , called for genuine revolution and then disembowel himself in full public view.

The Diagnosis of Dr. Rizal

Writing from Europe 120 years ago, Jose Rizal traced the causes of why Filipinos were so unproductive (which is a more refined term compared to the word that Rizal used: indolence). He began with a medical explanation that made it more natural and even healthier to refrain from heavy labor in hot conditions. Besides, he reasoned, tropical soil was more fertile to compensate for the reduction in manual input. He then proceeds to make clear that our ancestors were more motivated before we got colonized by citing ancient texts that celebrated the “activity and honesty” of the earlier inhabitants when they dealt with Chinese traders.

In what he described as a “fatal combination of circumstances” Rizal provided two major classifications: Spain’s fault and our very own fault. He rips the existing corrupt bureaucracy in his age and unsparingly describes the multitude of obstacles that totally wiped out any incentive for hard work. Upon reading this 120 year old essay, you can no doubt easily replace the governing colonial power with our various administrations. The substitution is seamless.

But if Rizal was brutal with the Spaniards, he was also able to call the shots as they appeared to him and he issued a ruthless indictment: we were as much to blame despite our ignorance and lack of education. “In order that he may make progress it is necessary that a revolutionary spirit, so to speak, should boil in his veins since progress necessarily requires change; it implies the overthrow of the sanctified past by the present, the victory of new ideas over the old accepted ones…. The lack of a national consciousness gives rise to another evil, which is the absence of all opposition to measures prejudicial to the people and the absence of any initiative in whatever may rebound to their good. A man in the Philippines is only an individual; he is not a member of a nation.”

In Rizal’s time, it was the Friars who constituted the constant ruling class. In our time, they have become our traditional politicians who have made politics into a thoroughly dishonorable manner of making a living. It was way obvious then, it remains crystal clear today. If we want change, we will have to get together and implement it ourselves. We need to rise above our differences no matter how strongly we might feel about certain convictions because what can be worse than witnessing our youth receive substandard education, practically no healthcare and wallow in subhuman living conditions?

We must all become extraordinarily conscious that we belong to one nation and it is our obligation to assume an active role in the development of our future.