Aptitudes & Appetites
Date: Friday, June 17 @ 14:18:00 CDT
Topic: More News
Aptitudes & Appetites
There is a sadness in our land.
That’s how one blogger describes what’s happening in the Philippines
today. The news coming from Manila sounds grim indeed: rampant corruption, allegations
of election fraud and illegal gambling by the First Family, calls for civil disobedience,
rumors of coup, widespread killings of activists and journalists, violent dispersal
of peaceful protesters. Meanwhile, 52 percent of the Filipino population lives
on less than $2 a day, mainly on food.
The Washington Post recently featured a Filipino government official, Simeon Marcelo,
who receives weekly death threats. As a graft buster, the paper says, he is confronting
“an officialdom steeped in the culture of bribes, gifts and extortion.”
Ouch!
Closer to home, we hear about the “profligacy” of the Philippine Dept.
of Foreign Affairs for housing the Consul General in New York at the Trump Towers.
Although the reasons given (i.e. $10,000 a month rent will deliver greater output)
are debatable, the appearance doesn’t look good.
Gone are the days of austerity. As my friend Ado Paglinawan puts it in a recent
Internet post (recalling his Embassy stint back in the late 80’s), “My
days with the late Ambassador Pelaez were spent with extreme thrift. His wife,
Tita Edith, and her kitchen staff had to cook for simple receptions. We did not
splurge public funds in plush restaurants nor rented prestigious sites to promote
our Motherland ... Humility not profligacy is the best messenger when one represents
an impoverished country such as ours.”
In that spirit, it is certainly understandable why Ambassador del Rosario is not
hosting a lavish shindig at a plush hotel this time. Last year’s June 12
celebration at the JW Marriott, though modest compared to other diplomatic soirees
in this town, will probably be the last for a while. Which is fine with us.
As I write this, I’m getting ready to go to the PFC Ball. Am I having second
thoughts? Maybe I’ll just cut down on the high balls. And no tuxedos. Can’t
fit on them anyway. An old black Barong will do. To be sure, a few won’t
take seriously VP Noli de Castro’s call for unity and sobriety, but the
presence of Keynote Speaker Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba - a paragon of humility and
simplicity - just might restrain their party animal instincts, mine included.
Not all the news from home is bad, though. A recent New York Times magazine piece
featured Filipino bands as an export. We already know, of course, that the Philippines
already supplies the world with nurses and doctors, tech workers and teachers,
hotel employees and farmers, childcare providers and cooks. And now, Filipino
musicians. Cool! They are all over the globe - from Riyadh to Las Vegas - well
versed in R&B, retro, techno, modern jazz, ballet, folk dance, fandango, carinosa,
ballroom, paso doble, cha-cha, samba, rumba, tango, fox trot and the quickstep.
These bands, says the Times, represent a Filipino diaspora that’s “responsible
for satisfying an appetite for some 388 million songs a year.” In addition
to original melodies, they can easily belt out tunes by the Beatles, Burt Bacharach
and Beyonce. In Shanghai and Toyko, for instance, a popular request is Sinatra’s
“My Way.” But apparently not in Manila where you can get killed doing
that number. It actually happened in a karaobe bar.
The signs are there. Singing “My Way” can get you shot. So why don’t
politicians get it? Anak ng Jueteng! Maybe it’s time to export these trapos
and let the musicians take over the government instead.
If only our appetites were for songs, not tongs (bribes), we just might rid that
certain sadness in the land.
e-mail your comments to jonmele@aol.com
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