my country right and wrong

I have to title my post this way because there is no escaping the fact that the wrongs in my country, the Philippines, are there no matter how hard we try to escape or solve them. I even think the wrongs are multiplying day by day. No day passes by without a scandal, a scam, an issue cropping up in the papers.

And those people who are guilty of wrongdoing are seen and heard on tv, radio and the print media. So how can we get out of them?

It will take a lifetime or several lifetimes to solve them, that is if we think that way. But my propaganda powers have been clipped very badly by this administration. My last writing slot was in Business World which had moles inside and who made sure that my writings would have wrong grammar, would have wrong tenses. Sometimes chunks of paragraphs would even get lost as I typed my articles for my column, titled Equal Quest.

So now I am reading about self-publishing in a US magazine. And as I am writing this, someone is sweeping in the next house. Would you believe that at 1 am, I could hear that also, to make sure that every movement of mine is being watched. Wow, and who deserves to be relegated to the dustbins of history? Eh?

My country right and wrong: beautiful scenery like the sunset at Manila Bay, never mind that monstrosity, the Ocean Park with atrocious prices. This was built by the former mayor, Atienza, and which covered a good view of the sunset. The promenaders, mostly urban poor, would go there to exercise in the morning or just plainly go there to breathe sea air, which sometimes stinks rather than cleanses your lungs, and wander at the beauty created by the Almighty.

Well, the Almighty is the pen of that local politician who was able to destroy the view.

My country right: Beautiful people. Ride a bus. Once you say stop, and the driver still continues, everyone tells him to stop. You see, there is collective camaraderie inside the bus. Or ride a jeepney and hand over your fare. Everyone catches the coins or paper, and hands them over to the driver, as well as the change which goes back to you.

My country wrong: Along the way to Agrifina Circle, from Sta. Mesa, you can see masses of streetsweepers with dark blue shirts and printed on them, propaganda for the unwanted tenant in Malacanang. I asked one how come they are all there: "Dito ho nagdaraan si Ma'am." Maybe "she" likes seeing them, one of the very few scenery that hails her as a "do-gooder."

My country right: All the senators are into an investigation of a scam.

Endless rights and wrongs.