Tag: Rant

Where is Jonas Burgos?!

Sometimes I look around the local Internet as I know it and I have to wonder – are any of the things going on around the country of any consequence to these people? Of course it is silly for me to ask anyone to pay attention to anything they don’t want to pay attention to, but I really have to ask anyway.

All around us, our country is drowning in a cesspool of violence, injustice and apathy. I don’t know Mayor Binay from Adam, but I do know harrassment when I see it, and I find myself hoping that he manages to find a way around this inspite of the obviously formidable odds. The Secretary of Justice is an indignant fool whose agenda – to draw attention to himself and away from his boss, is obvious, irritating and effective. He calls a well – loved and well – meaning foreigner careless for taking a walk in the mountains alone, calls a rape victim ‘dreaming’ even as the prosecution had yet to state their case, and allows the Marine responsible for it to escape in the dead of the night, away from the grasp of the country where he committed the crime and which is supposed to prosecute him. In effect, sending the clear message that foreigners are not welcome in the country, and that U.S. Marines are welcome to do anything they want to Filipina women whilst in the Philippines because we owe their country far too much to jeopardize jailing a guilty man.

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No Internet Again

Yesterday AM while I was happily working along, my connection got cut, but since I had to get out of the house asap, I didn’t investigate further. However, I already had that dreaded feeling in my bones, especially when I check the DSL modem’s lights, it indicated it couldn’t login (you’ll get a good idea of what’s going on just from reading modem lights. takes some practice).

I got home around 4-ish, tried to get online but couldn’t. Would have investigated further if it weren’t for the fact I was bone tired from my trip (the heat really sucks out your energy), and decided to take a nap.

Planned 30 minute nap stretched to two hours, and when I woke up, no internet still. Called 172 and my worst dreams were relived – I was greeted by a taped message apologizing for some ‘fiber optic’ idiocy, and would I please understand their situation.

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Balato – The Problem With Filipinos

Ok I know a title like is just begging people to take me down. For one, it can be deemed as generalizing, and any half – wit patriot with nary the time nor patience to read and understand can and probably would bash me in at even its mention. But regardless, this is what I feel, and thus, what I shall write.

I’m talking about the amazing capability of many Pinoys for an unhealthy dose of entitlement. Entitlement in the context of Balato – the absolute perfect word describing wanting more than you deserve.

The incident that moved me to write this happened last night, but I’ve actually felt this way for many many years before that, and there are, to my count, 3 reasons I can clearly point to.

First, is that cab ride I had to take last night because my car’s in the garage. See, I live in a far away section of Cainta. And to take a cab from Ortigas, you’d have to traverse all the way across most of traffic infested Ortigas Extension, and then left and up our mountainous village to the very end. This merits, about 90% of the time, grimaces from cab drivers, and many a groan of disgust. Often I have to go through 3 to 4 different cabs until someone says yes, and most of the time I get requests for up to 25% to 50% more than the metered amount, presumably to ‘pay for their trip back’, since they won’t be picking up anyone going there – an absolutely twisted concept of value for money since, really, although difficult the situation may be, this is NOT my problem. Since the trip can cost from p110 to as much as p160, this is not an unnoticable amount.

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