Walking along the Session Road in Baguio City on the first day of the year 2008 became a little bit less smile-triggering, somehow diminished my already high-level enthusiasm brought by the holiday season.
I bet I am just one of the zillions, who-for some reason, are putting up on their minds about things they wished would be improved. Why not? New year brings hope. The problem is, mine is only hope. What I see around me is the inability of the many to really realized that our country is becoming less and less likely to be better. No, I don’t think so. Then you would go, wow, what a great way to start 2008 with cynicism. Sure. Whatever.
Dang! I earn dollars. What is the value of it? Nah. Isn’t it that by economic dictates (something I learned from my college economics), the appreciation of the peso should alleviate the economic situation and thereby result to increased purchasing power of the people. Then that textbook fact is now officially declared and proven false. In the Philippines, many textbook principles are defied by the reality of “only in the Philippines” circumstances.
I certainly do not wish to start with my own list of complaints, I just find that incredibly surprising. I also think that Filipino, whether they are the business people or those bureaucrats regulating the economic policies of this country, are just simply nasty, greedy and cruel. The day of reckoning shall come too…Now that is my 2008 so called less conventional, non-optimistic way of looking at it. I am not angry, this is not an explosion of angst as well as it usually gets tiring in the long run, it is just a quick observation that in this country, those who are poor are becoming worst while the wealthy are just getting fatter.
