Waiting For 2010
By Marck Ronald Rimorin
Filipino Voices
Estragon: I can’t go on like this.
Vladimir: That’s what you think.
- Samuel Beckett, "Waiting for Godot"
"Why can’t you guys wait for 2010?"
I was chatting with a friend over some snacks when she asked me that rather interesting question. Apparently, she read what I did a couple of days ago in the papers, and it seems that it was rather imprudent for me to call out GMA to answer the charges leveled against her. To GMA’s credit, it seems that the Philippines is riding out the economic storm rather well. Her claim was that if we continue to demand for GMA’s ouster, much less ask her to answer the charges of May 2004, the ZTE scam, the fertilizer scam, and the BJE MOA-AD, we’re risking political and economic instability. As it seems, GMA is the "answer to our woes."
Personally, I wouldn’t have a problem with GMA if I don’t question her legitimacy, her fitness to rule, if she has the interests of the people in mind, and if she didn’t violate the Constitution and the territorial integrity of the Philippines. The rest of the day, I don’t have a problem with GMA. My problem lies in the fact that legitimacy, fitness to rule, the public good, protecting the Constitution, and protecting Philippine sovereignty and independence are duties and tasks we expect of the President.
Besides, if GMA is the answer to our woes, why are many of us living woeful lives?
I think it’s high time we demand some accountability in our Government. For me, waiting for 2010 is to bury our self-respect as a people. Waiting for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to finish her term before answering questions before the public - questions relevant to her being the President - is like us waiting for Godot: we might as well hang ourselves and get our erections, so to speak.
Waiting for 2010 is to lose our self-respect for ourselves, which is not something we want to happen. We are a dignified people who can only take so much screwing from This Government.
I recommend that bloggers write about their feelings about This Government. People who play DoTA or use Friendster or whatnot to take the time to write one blog post - just one blog post - every now and then. Every week, to say that they have had enough of the scams and irregularities and disregard for accountability in this nation. It’s not the most we can do, but it’s something we can all do.
I can’t promise that this will lead to a change in Government or that this will guarantee that Arroyo will be booted out of office, but because I believe it’s high time we told The Government that they can’t kick us around anymore. We demand answers not after 2010, but while the President is still there, accountable and answerable to all of us. That we have had enough.
In the words of Twisted Sister: we’re not gonna take it. No, we ain’t gonna take it. Just you try and make us: we’re not gonna take it anymore.
Simple? That’s what you think. We’re right. We’re free. We’ll fight. You’ll see.
Click here to read entry reactions.
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“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
“Administration preachers” (and some few alien pundits parachuting into our "docile" minds from their high and glorious ivory towers) would want the people of our nation to just enjoy our everyday lives in the midst of glaring corruption. Instead of constructively criticizing the age-old culture of dishonesty, they point out the people’s “rebellious” attitude as a major cause of the nation’s misery. They wrongly compared the people’s “uprising” against dishonesty to the Israelites’ rebellious and murmuring attitude towards their leader Moses in the Bible.
There are right and wrong ways of doing things. In our earnest desire to reform our nation, may we not veer from the right path and resort to extreme means that usually lead to the wrong roads laden with traps.
Hope, the only thing that can keep a dead national spirit alive, must be kept lit. For when the light of hope is gone, nothing will ever stop the nation from falling into the old same trap again, as what happened before.
[Ezekiel 3:17-21]
Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of My people; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
When I tell the wicked, "You shall surely die"; and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.
Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn't turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
Again, when a righteous man does turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die: because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand.
Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul.
I was chatting with a friend over some snacks when she asked me that rather interesting question. Apparently, she read what I did a couple of days ago in the papers, and it seems that it was rather imprudent for me to call out GMA to answer the charges leveled against her. To GMA’s credit, it seems that the Philippines is riding out the economic storm rather well. Her claim was that if we continue to demand for GMA’s ouster, much less ask her to answer the charges of May 2004, the ZTE scam, the fertilizer scam, and the BJE MOA-AD, we’re risking political and economic instability. As it seems, GMA is the "answer to our woes."
Personally, I wouldn’t have a problem with GMA if I don’t question her legitimacy, her fitness to rule, if she has the interests of the people in mind, and if she didn’t violate the Constitution and the territorial integrity of the Philippines. The rest of the day, I don’t have a problem with GMA. My problem lies in the fact that legitimacy, fitness to rule, the public good, protecting the Constitution, and protecting Philippine sovereignty and independence are duties and tasks we expect of the President.
Besides, if GMA is the answer to our woes, why are many of us living woeful lives?
I think it’s high time we demand some accountability in our Government. For me, waiting for 2010 is to bury our self-respect as a people. Waiting for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to finish her term before answering questions before the public - questions relevant to her being the President - is like us waiting for Godot: we might as well hang ourselves and get our erections, so to speak.
Waiting for 2010 is to lose our self-respect for ourselves, which is not something we want to happen. We are a dignified people who can only take so much screwing from This Government.
I recommend that bloggers write about their feelings about This Government. People who play DoTA or use Friendster or whatnot to take the time to write one blog post - just one blog post - every now and then. Every week, to say that they have had enough of the scams and irregularities and disregard for accountability in this nation. It’s not the most we can do, but it’s something we can all do.
I can’t promise that this will lead to a change in Government or that this will guarantee that Arroyo will be booted out of office, but because I believe it’s high time we told The Government that they can’t kick us around anymore. We demand answers not after 2010, but while the President is still there, accountable and answerable to all of us. That we have had enough.
In the words of Twisted Sister: we’re not gonna take it. No, we ain’t gonna take it. Just you try and make us: we’re not gonna take it anymore.
Simple? That’s what you think. We’re right. We’re free. We’ll fight. You’ll see.
Click here to read entry reactions.
----------
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
“Administration preachers” (and some few alien pundits parachuting into our "docile" minds from their high and glorious ivory towers) would want the people of our nation to just enjoy our everyday lives in the midst of glaring corruption. Instead of constructively criticizing the age-old culture of dishonesty, they point out the people’s “rebellious” attitude as a major cause of the nation’s misery. They wrongly compared the people’s “uprising” against dishonesty to the Israelites’ rebellious and murmuring attitude towards their leader Moses in the Bible.
There are right and wrong ways of doing things. In our earnest desire to reform our nation, may we not veer from the right path and resort to extreme means that usually lead to the wrong roads laden with traps.
Hope, the only thing that can keep a dead national spirit alive, must be kept lit. For when the light of hope is gone, nothing will ever stop the nation from falling into the old same trap again, as what happened before.
[Ezekiel 3:17-21]
Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of My people; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
When I tell the wicked, "You shall surely die"; and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.
Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn't turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
Again, when a righteous man does turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die: because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand.
Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul.
